When we try to do things in a hurry at work, it often leads to mistakes and do-overs. Today, I teammed up with Lia from A Girl in Her Thirties for some tips on How to Change Bad Work Habits. If you practice these four tips and give it enough time, you’ll be able to see a change in your work habits.
You’ve heard that it takes 21 days for a new routine to become a habit? Just like when you are starting to go to the gym, they say to give it around 2 weeks for the routine of getting up early in the morning to hit the gym is no longer a dread but a habit you WANT to do everyday. Well, I’m not sure if thats true or just a myth but I do believe that practice makes almost perfect and that if you are consistent, results will come sooo the moral of the story is: Don’t give up, push through the hard days and commit to your goals. 
1. Identify the work habits that are slowing you down. Keep track of how you spend your time for two weeks. Don’t let any working time go unaccounted for. Write it down in a notebook! At the end of two weeks, review what you’ve tracked, and figure out which habits you want to wish to change.
2. Identify replacement habits. It’s a lot easier to change one behavior if you replace it with a different one. For instance, if you’re trying to stop the habit of checking your email every time something comes in because you are wasting 2 hours a day just in checking emails, create a new schedule and check it once an hour.
3. Reward yourself. Just like puppies, reward yourself with small treats every time you reach a milestone. Once you identify your replacement habits and you find yourself actually doing them, treat yourself to an ice cream or a manicure. Rewards make our happy hormones come to life; keep them alive and you’ll see faster change in your habits.
6. Anticipate challenges and plan for them. Ok, everything seems perfect in paper but what happens when you are hit with bad news at work? Your client canceled the contract you had settled or your boss isn’t happy with one of the reports you created… this does the opposite of bringing to life the happy hormones and usually BAD habits are triggered by this. Make sure to keep a list of ALL the things that can go wrong and how to solve them, that way you skip going back to your old bad habits you’ve worked so hard to get rid of.
And there you have it. Put these 4 steps to work and be sure to see change! How do you keep track of your habits? Check out Lia’s tips, here!
