A bad habit here and there isn’t going to hurt your career. But put a number of them together, repeat them on a daily basis, and you’ll find yourself wasting precious time and energy for no good reason at all.
Now I’m not addressing those more traditionally discussed habits like smoking in the below — you don’t need me to tell you to get that sorted — but rather the day to day things we do that could be limiting our productivity, confidence or career opportunities.
- Saying ‘yes’, all the time.
In an effort to please everyone, we can all be a little quick to say ‘yes’: Yes I’ll pick up the kids from school, again; Yes I can take on the work you should have completed last week; Yes put me down for that committee I know I do not have time for. All these ‘yeses’ see us attempting to do as much as possible without doing anything particularly well. Pick the times you say ‘yes’ well, delegate, and make sure your other half is doing his or her share of the ‘life stuff’. Don’t let your colleague dump their leftover tasks on you that’ll do nothing for demonstrating your true capacity at work. Learn the power of the word ‘no’.
- Wasting brain power thinking, ‘I’m not qualified for this’.
Feeling like a fraud at work and thinking everyone around you knows you’re not really supposed to be where you are can be extremely exhausting. You second guess every decision you make, perfect the simplest of tasks out of fear a tiny mistake could see you figured out, you say ‘yes’ to additional projects to help satisfy the salary you don’t believe you deserve. It’s time to get over it and accept you got to where you are for a reason.
- Late night television.
Vegging out on the couch in front of the box is a nice way to wind down before bed, but late night TV will only hurt you the following day. It can be addictive and keep us watching longer than we anticipate. It’s also usually junk: a waste of time, energy and much needed sleep. Read a book instead or use the time to get to bed and wake an hour earlier in the morning.
- A commute that involves no exercise.
You need to see life beyond the office and your own car windshield. The commute to and from work offers a convenient time to breathe in some fresh air, see people you don’t work or live with and achieve some much-needed thinking time. It’s also an opportunity to capture some ‘incidental exercise’ that simply occurs without you even noticing while walking to or from the bus or train station. If you really can’t get some outdoor time during your commute, schedule a daily ‘out in the world’ moment before or after work with a run or walk, trip to the gym, even just a lazy dawdle through the supermarket.
- Lunch at your desk.
The lunch break is offered by employers to give us just that, a lunch break. So why do so many of us still refuse to acknowledge its purpose? Lunch is too often thought of as the short period of the day when its acceptable to sit around mindlessly shoving food in our mouths and spilling crumbs on the keyboard. Bring the love back into lunch and the break back into the lunch break. Enjoy and saviour the food, allow the brain to switch off from work and reboot itself, socialise with colleagues and take some time to actually leave the office.
- Mindless Facebook browsing
There’s no greater weapon than Facebook for killing productivity and making you feel awful about life. All those photos of friends (allegedly) doing amazing things and having a wonderfully fulfilling day don’t help when you’re trying to make the most of another day at work. It’ll leave you daydreaming, life-comparing and murdering the hours you have to get what you need done.