10 Habits to Ban From Your Workday
Have
you come into the office in the morning and noticed that one of your
coworkers is at it again with his/her annoying habit(s)? Do you have
a habit that others find annoying? What about counterproductive
habits? Do you fall prey to a lack of productivity in your daily
routine?
There
are many habits that people could find to be annoying to others or
counterproductive, but for the sake of this post, I’ve limited it
to 10. Please leave a comment with any other habits you think should
be banned. I’d love to read what others are experiencing.
Habit #1: Checking personal social media and email at work
Consequences:
These
activities are a distraction at best. They can lead to mistakes on
your work tasks, missing deadlines, and losing your focus. They kill
time that you could be spending getting things done.
Suggestion:
Use
a website blocker service to prevent you from accessing your personal
sites both on the computer and any mobile devices you may have with
you. Sometimes, companies block certain websites for you, but you
should block the others yourself if they’re still accessible.
Resources:
Website
blockers
Anti-Social
Concentrate (Mac
only)
Focus
Lock (Android)
Activity
tracker
Checky (iPhone)
Habit #2: Listening to music without headphones
Consequences:
You
really annoy your neighboring coworkers, especially if you don’t
share a similar taste in music. Using an online music player such as
Pandora or Spotify can lead to distractions when they go to
commercials or to a song you don’t want to listen to.
Suggestions:
Invest
in headphones, not ear buds. Ear buds start to hurt your inner ear
after prolonged use, and some headphones can also provide background
noise reduction, which can help immensely with your concentration. It
could also be beneficial to purchase songs or accounts that allow you
to create your own playlists with only songs you want to hear and no
commercials.
Resources:
Bose
Noise-Cancelling Headphones
Headphone
Review sites –
CNET: Best
Noise-Cancelling Headphones of 2014
PC
Mag: The
Best Noise-Cancelling Headphones
Habit #3: Sitting at your desk all day
Consequences:
It’s
not only bad for your physical health, such as making you sore and
tired. It also drains your emotions and can lower your mood, or even
make you irritable.
Suggestions:
Use
a break timer to remind you to stand up and stretch. I use “Stand
Up!”
on my iPhone, and it works wonders for me. Even without the app, it
would help you out a lot if you took breaks between tasks to get up
and walk around the office for a few minutes.
Habit #4: No personal interactions with coworkers
Consequences:
You
can lose touch with your purpose and motivation when you stay
isolated in your own space. It can cause you to feel lonely and even
lower your mood and productivity.
Suggestions:
Get
away from your desk and intentionally seek out coworkers (those who
aren’t busy with something else) to have a brief, personal
conversation with. Visit your coworkers in the lunch room and eat
with them there or wherever you can. Take a moment during your break
(habit 3) to stop at someone else’s desk and check in with them.
Just don’t interrupt them while they are in the middle of
something.
Habit #5: Staying available past your pre-assigned work hours
Consequences:
You
can burn yourself out because you build a reputation for being
available 24/7. Your phone will ring and emails come in at all hours.
They’re really hard to ignore if you don’t set boundaries.
Suggestions:
Mark
your calendar and inform your coworkers and boss as to what your
exact hours are, and unless there’s an emergency, event, or other
exception, stick to those hours. Don’t allow yourself to come to
work extra early or stay at work extra late when it really isn’t
necessary. If you stay focused and committed during work hours, it
should be easier to finish tasks so that you don’t have to stay
late. Otherwise, let it sit till the morning, if you can.
Habit #6: Not eating lunch
Consequences:
Without
food to fuel your mind and body, you can hit heavy exhaustion midday,
and those 5-hour energy drinks can only do so much for so long. They
also aren’t a good solution for every workday of the every week.
Without lunch, you also risk a worsened mood, such as irritability,
which might become noticeable by others if you’re not careful. It
also can affect your productivity because you essentially slow down
as the day progresses.
Suggestions:
Eat
lunch, but avoid anything unhealthy or heavy. Bring lunch with you or
buy a lunch. However, make sure it isn’t fast food or a feast. A
well-supplied salad or light sandwich might do the trick. If you eat
too much or choose anything too unhealthy, you risk experiencing the
opposite effect where you become more tired.
Habit #7: Trusting yourself to remember your tasks list by memory alone/not taking notes or creating to-do lists
Consequences:
This
may seem obvious, but a person’s memory is flawed. Most people
can’t remember everything, and even with a really good memory, you
still might have trouble maintaining proper prioritization. You might
miss tasks or fail to do the more important ones before the less
important ones. Overall, you could simply lose track.
Suggestions:
Print
or handwrite prioritized to-do lists in whatever way that works best
for you. Place these lists in multiple places where you can see and
refer to them. Don’t keep the lists exclusively on your work
computer. While you don’t want to be reminded of them during
non-work hours, you might find it helpful to use a mobile to-do app
for its extra features, such as alarms.
Resources:
Task
list of choice: Todoist
It
works on every device you can think of practically, and it’s very
useful. It has a free version, but I highly recommend investing
in premium.
Habit #8: Making personal phone calls during non-break times
Consequences:
You’re
letting all your close-proximity coworkers hear information that may
be very private and personal to you, which they ultimately shouldn’t
know about. You also can distract your coworkers with the noise of
the call. Not only that, you allow yourself to be distracted when you
take any non-work calls.
Suggestions:
If
you think it’s an emergency, you have to take the call, but the
best way to do so is by relocating to a private room. However, my
guess is a lot of the personal calls you make and answer are not
urgent and can wait until you’re on a break. Even then, find a
private place to have that call.
Habit #9: Not asking for help when you need it
Consequences:
There
will be times when you’ll hit a roadblock in one or more
assignments. You shouldn’t just guess or leave it undone because
that can lead to errors, ranging from minor to severe.
Suggestions:
Ask
a coworker for help, or schedule a meeting with your boss. Don’t
try to solve it all on your own. Ask your boss for clarification and
even assistance if he/she has the time.
Habit #10a: Always assuming that your needs are less important than your coworkers
Consequences:
This
attitude towards yourself can damage your productivity, but it also
can affect your own feelings of self-worth. You can lose your sense
of motivation and purpose, leading to a much lower work output.
Suggestions:
Consult
your to-do list (habit #7) for deadlines and priorities to determine
if your needs truly are pressing and must be addressed immediately.
Don’t be afraid to speak up when you need to because that’s the
only way you’ll be heard.
Habit #10b: Always assuming that your needs are more important than your coworkers
Consequences:
Having
this attitude gives you a bad reputation in the office for being
selfish and needy. You don’t want your coworkers to think of you
that way, and you especially don’t want your boss to feel the same
way.
Suggestions:
Be
realistic by looking at your own timeline and tasks to see if your
needs truly are that urgent each time. Observe your coworkers to see
if they have anything pressing that they need help with too, and ask
them what kind of deadlines they face. Do they need the help faster
than you do?
In summary:
- Stop checking your personal social media and other online sites when you’re supposed to be working.
- Invest in a pair of headphones to increase your productivity and stop annoying your coworkers.
- Get up and away from your desk at least once an hour to stretch and walk around for a few minutes to clear your head and keep you healthy.
- Don’t forget to be social with your coworkers from time to time so that you don’t feel isolated and your relationships stay strong.
- Keep a strict schedule where there are only a handful of exceptions so that you are able to essentially go offline or unplug for part of the day.
- Eat. Eat a lunch that doesn’t slow you down, such as salads and other light meals.
- Don’t trust your mind to remember the important stuff, and make physical, visible to-do lists in priority order.
- Leave your cell phone on silent while working unless you use it for business calls.
- Don’t feel like you shouldn’t ask for help when you need it because sometimes, you really do.
- Always make sure that you give your own needs more or less credit, depending on their urgency.
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