7 Ways To Alter Your Poor Business Habits

Bad habits were once a choice and then they became a habit. When it comes to changing our bad habits, different tactics work for different people. In this post, I shared with you 7 ways to alter your poor business habits.

Identifying other people’s bad habits is easy. Maybe your coworker always rushes at the last minute to complete their part of the project, your boss shoots down ideas without even listening and your partner may be disorganized. Recognizing these traits in ourselves isn’t always as easy though.

All of us develop bad habits over time. Isn’t it time to get rid of the ones that limit your potential? When you’ve been doing a particular job or you’ve been working on a particular company for a while, complacency can set in. When it does, you’re likely to discover some bad work habits. Now is the time to get rid of them and develop better ones to help you become more successful.

Here are 7 ways to alter your poor business habits:

1. Identify The Habits That Are Preventing You From Reaching Maximum Productivity

Often times, we get so accustomed to doing things in a certain way that we don’t monitor our productivity on day to day tasks. Instead, take some time to figure out where your time and attention is spent on a weekly basis. See if there are any recurrent tasks that are taking up a lot of your time and if there is anything you can do to make things more efficient.

2. Substitute For Positive Habits

Habits become our default reaction to stimuli. To rewire bad behaviors, you need to replace negative habits with a positive one. For instance, instead of checking your emails every 90 seconds, stand up and do some stretches or quick yoga moves in your office.

Physical activities are an excellent substituting behavior because it gets your blood flowing and energizes you to do what you’ve been avoiding. However, feel free to use any positive habit that works for you such as sipping water or tea, doing a quick meditation and putting on energizing music are just a few ideas.

3. Choose To Make A Change 

Once you have identified your bad habits, this comes down to one thing: an act of the will. Choose to do it. Say to yourself throughout the day, “I am choosing to…” The history of free men is written not by chance but by choice, their choice. It is your choice. You can write your history.

4. Lose Your Inability To Set Priorities

If you find yourself struggling with being able to prioritize things, you will soon get overwhelmed by all the demands put on you at work. Try to accomplish the larger or more difficult assignments in the morning when you are fresh and save the more repetitive ones for later in the day. If you receive assignments as the day is winding down, use the last five to 10 minutes to prioritize for the next day. Lists are beneficial, and checking items off as you complete them is a real ego booster.

5. Reward Yourself

Set up a reward system for each period in which you successfully avoid the bad habit in question. For example, at the end of one week of successful improvement, you could reward yourself with a nice meal, going to the movies, getting a manicure or whatever floats your boat.

Rewarding yourself reasonably frequently helps. If you have to wait a whole month to be rewarded, you’ll probably be less motivated. Having a particularly hard day avoiding your habit? Thinking of a reward you can give yourself at the end of the day or even at the end of the hour can help you accomplish it.

6. Anticipate Challenges And Plan For Them

One way to deal with setbacks is to create a plan for handling the “triggers” that could lure you back to your old habits. Plan and figure out an alternate, more positive habit such as taking a 10-minute walk around the block to recharge.

7. Believe In Yourself

Confidence attracts positive people, fosters a collaborative environment and promotes progress. For you to be able to overcome bad habits, you have to believe in yourself. If you don’t believe that you can overcome a bad habit, you will have zero chance of accomplishing it.

Conclusion

Bad habits were once a choice and then they became a habit. When it comes to changing our bad habits, different tactics work for different people. In this post, I shared with you 7 ways to alter your poor business habits.