Ask any successful person the secret behind their status, and you’ll get the same answer each
time: positive habits and a positive attitude.
You can argue that these people already had an inborn talent or affinity for their work.
But talent alone is not enough. Talent tempered in the forges of hard work, good habits, and
discipline produces steely success. Sure, you may have already come across people who have
become successful solely because of their talent, but the numbers are few.
Specific habits, if practiced regularly, lead to success. These important work habits will make
you more focused and help you have a successful career.
It’s great to tell you that you can begin inculcating these habits from any day and even today!
In this article, we’ll talk about:
● Work habits – what are they?
● Why are they important?
● Ten habits of highly successful people
● good workplace habits to help you succeed in your career
● How to start developing your habits?
We have a lot of juicy tips and information for you in this article. So make sure you read till the
end.
Let’s begin!
Work habits
The activities you do at your workplace to get your work done regularly have become an integral
part of your regular life. They are your work habits. If the output bothers you, you can tweak
these habits to create a difference. That’s the primary goal of this blog.
What are they?
Work habits are anything you use to fulfill your daily work. They can be either positive or
negative.
Surprised?
We will explain this.
Positive work habits make you more productive, like being organized and punctual.
Negative work habits make you less effective, such as procrastinating and gossiping.
You seek to know what these positive work habits are, and that’s a good sign!
We will get to that in a moment, but first, it is essential to know more about work habits.
There are three main types of work habits:
● Practical work habits: These include staying organized, being punctual, and not looking
for excuses to delay work and related habits.
● Behavioral work habits: These include waking up early, sticking to deadlines, using
authentic sources and accepting constructive criticisms.
● Ethical work habits: These include practices which help you maintain your integrity,
such as saying no to gossip, and allowing juniors to take their deserving credits .
Now that you’ve seen positive work habits, it’s time to know why they are essential.
Why are they important?
Positive work habits are essential, not just for your career but also for your organization.
They are essential for you because they bring you
1. More respect
2. Higher paychecks
3. More responsibilities
4. A faster career growth
5. A better work-life balance
They are important for your organization because they ensure
1. On-time project deliveries
2. Happy and recurring clients
3. Higher turnovers and profits
4. Accelerated and sustained company growth.
As you can see, everyone’s a winner!
But does it work in practice?
Let’s find out!
Ten work habits of successful entrepreneurs
Business leaders, CEOs and successful people worldwide have achieved their goals due to their
work habits and being consistent about it.
It never fails.
Here’s a list of the ten positive work habits of successful people.
● Tim Cook: Wakes up at 4 AM to read his emails
● Richard Branson: Wakes up early every day for exercise
● Warren Buffet: Reads newspapers and books every day
● Oprah Winfrey: Sets time off every evening to recharge
● Ariana Huffington: Practices morning yoga after a good night’s sleep
● Barbara Corcoran: Prioritizes work by organizing a to-do list
● Jeff Bezos: Does his most important task when he’s most productive
● Anna Wintour: Has a strict daily routine to save energy for essential tasks
● Elon Musk: Utilizes work batching to complete related work at the same time
● Mark Cuban: Saves time by transforming meetings into phone calls and emails
A single positive habit performed consistently over time is bound to create a positive change
and what you saw above testifies that.
Inculcating positive work habits can turn you into a productive powerhouse, skyrocketing your
career to a level you’ve never thought of.
You are free to copy the habits of these greats if you want to solve a specific problem. However,
if you want a list of effective work habits which work for anyone, that’s up next!
10 Work Habits that Drive Success
Let’s come to the meat of the matter now: 10 good workplace habits to help you succeed in
your career.
Time management
Employers consider time management to be the top in-demand still. It’s a good habit at work
which amplifies efficiency, productivity, and the company’s performance.
Time management is essential, regardless of whether you’re working for someone or you are
the boss. You still have to perform every day. To develop time management skills, you can do a
couple of things.
First, do the most critical and complex work when you’re most alert and charged up and simple
work when you’re winding down. That way, you can deliver your work on time.
Some people are most productive in the morning, while others in the evening and both are fine.
Just plan your schedule, and you’re good to go!
To help you on your journey, consider using time management tools. They don’t have to be
complex, and using paid tools is unnecessary. You can begin setting alerts on your phone for
individual tasks, which would be enough.
Take feedback gracefully
Your boss and your team members aren’t your enemies. Do understand that, and when they
provide you with negative feedback, don’t take it personally. Don’t feel bad or think they are
trying to insult you and your efforts. They would never do that; you are a part of the team that
organization and your team members value and expect the best from you.
The next time they criticize your work, think about this:
They’re not criticizing you as a person, only your work. That’s why you mustn’t wrap your ego
around your deliverables.
You won’t know if you’re performing well without the feedback. In case you’re doing something
wrong unconsciously, it’s better to get feedback on it before it spirals into something terrible,
right? And if you’re doing something right, you would still want to know how to improve on it
further.
Ask questions on how you can perform better after getting feedback. Trust us; they’ll see you as
someone who takes self-development seriously, a sign of a valuable employee.
Be a good listener
Are you a company’s CEO or an intern?
Never mind, it doesn’t matter.
You’ll be surprised to know that most people only love talking about themselves but don’t listen
well. If you can master this simple thing, you’ll score above them. That’s why more people need
to become active listeners.
What does active listening mean?
Active listening is when you’re focused on listening to others speak, notice the details, their
mannerisms, and behavior and respond to them relevantly. When you do this, you can provide
reasonable solutions to solve problems.
To be good at active listening, you have to:
● Make eye contact
● Give feedback through verbal and non-verbal cues
● Give a gist of what they said.
Sounds simple? Now try it! It’s easier than it seems.
Ask questions
When in doubt, always ask questions.
Pose questions whenever you want to know more, clarify something, or wish to add to it to
improve it.
When you do this, your supervisors and colleagues will see you as a charming person who
wants to know more. You won’t be annoying anyone. On the contrary, they’ll see you as a good
conversationalist who listens well and asks pertinent questions. You can only ask good
questions when you have listened well. If you do not listen well, you’ll miss out on essential
points and be unable to pose good questions.
Take the initiative at work
60% of companies worldwide say that self-management is an essential skill.
Taking the initiative can mean multiple things, like:
● Doing work without waiting for others to tell you
● Looking and asking for projects when you have free time
● Taking professional development training to grow your skill sets
● Asking for more responsibilities.
Batch your work
Remember what we said about Elon Musk above about how he stays productive?
He batches his work to maximize productivity.
Here’s how you can do it!
Try to set specific days of the week for particular tasks. For instance, you can do the most
urgent work on Monday and Tuesday, focus on answering official emails on Wednesday, and make
a podcast on Thursday and a webinar on Friday.
This strategy may not work for all situations and positions, but it can multiply productivity like
magic.
Focus on one thing at a time
Multitasking may seem the way to go in one’s day-to-day job. After all, it helps you to finish
work faster and do more things at the same time. Right?
No!
It only seems that you’re doing more work in less time, but what happens is that you take more
time. That’s because the human brain takes time to transition from one task to another. At such
a time, even the most minor distraction can derail you for a significant time.
Instead, try to take one task at a time, even if you feel you’re not in charge of your schedule.
This will augment your productivity.
Protect your free time, fiercely
Work-life balance may feel like a distant luxury, but it’s essential for success. All the greats we
have mentioned above take time off to unwind. Did you know Elon Musk takes time off to play
video games with kids and watch movies?
The human brain isn’t wired to run 24/7 and needs relaxation to work optimally. In doing so, a
person returns to work fully refreshed and cheerful, which causes a ripple effect throughout
your team. Employees don’t spread negativity with gossip and personal problems when in good
spirits.
Spend time on activities that you find solace in doing: hobbies, games, community work,
spending time with family, etc.
Get a good night’s sleep
Behind every successful entrepreneur are hours of guarded sleep.
Some people may seem to sleep less when they sleep for about four to six hours, but that’s
solid and undisturbed deep sleep.
According to a 2018 study, sleep helps one in being more productive. The study says those
getting five to six hours of sleep experienced 19% more productivity loss than those who got up
to eight hours to sleep. Those earning less than five hours of sleep experience had 29% more
loss in productivity.
So always remember to get a good night’s sleep.
Don’t stop learning
One of the best work habits you can implement is to keep on learning!
Whenever you have the opportunity, learn new skills or update your existing ones.
74% of CEOs say they’re concerned about the lack of availability of soft skills in their
organizations, and 32% of them say they’re highly concerned.
It means that if you learn new skills and update your existing ones, you can have higher raises,
promotions and benefits.
For your company, upskilling leads to higher productivity and business growth.
Now you’ve seen which work habits you should inculcate. But how to do that?
We’ll see that next!
How to inculcate new habits?
Inculcating new habits takes time. But don’t worry; all you need is 21 days!
Why 21 days?
It is a well-known fact that if you’re trying to develop a new habit, you must do it for 21 days
straight. After that, your mind does it on auto-pilot. In other words, during these 21 days,
you’re training your mind to do something at a particular time. This is one of the thumb rules of
developing a new habit, which can also be a fresh workplace habit.
Here are some helpful tips:
● Use a planner or calendar
● Have a start and end date
● Write the reason why you want to change your habit
● Don’t burn yourself out; instead, take baby steps
● Be ruthless with procrastination and distractions
● Reward yourself for small victories
● Have an accountability buddy
● After 21 days evaluate your performance, and
● Repeat if necessary.
If you can do this, it’s great, but what when you want to break an old habit?
Take 21 days to change any habit that’s affecting your performance. The importance of having
an accountability buddy and eliminating distractions is crucial here.
So, you have seen:
● What are good work habits?
● Why are they important?
● Effective work habits of the ten most successful entrepreneurs
● 10 effective work habits
● How to inculcate positive work habits and banish negative ones.
To sum up, inculcating any habit takes time. Still, if you keep at it, the results are worth all your
efforts: more respect at work, more responsibilities, more benefits, higher paychecks and
frequent bonuses, and faster career growth!
All of this is waiting for you, only if you inculcate positive work habits. Give it a try, buddy!
