Hello and welcome back to the Skills 360 podcast. I’m your host, Tim Simmons, and today we’re going to look at developing good habits for success at work.
The start of a new year feels like the right time to make big resolutions, or promises to yourself. You’re going to call people back promptly. You’re going to keep a tidy desktop. You’re going to stop reading new emails as soon as they come in. You’re going to manage your time better. It sure feels great to make these resolutions. But what doesn’t feel great is the realization in February that you haven’t made good on any of your promises.
In most cases, the problem is that people intuitively believe that setting a goal or making a resolution is enough. But it’s not. Setting a goal without looking at the systems that support specific habits or behaviors is useless. Intention isn’t enough. You need to break down what happens around habits, both good and bad, and create the right conditions for the right behaviors.
As I said, habits can be either good or bad. Both good and bad habits follow a three-step pattern identified by psychologists: first the cue, then the action, and finally a reward. The cue is a kind of “trigger.” When the cue occurs, then the actual habit behavior follows. And once that behavior is complete, there’s a reward of some sort. No, it doesn’t have to be money or ice cream. It could be as simple as a sense of relief.
Understanding this habit loop can help you develop new good habits and break lousy old ones. Want to be better prepared for meetings? Set an alarm 15 minutes before every meeting that tells you to review what you need to know. Want to call people back promptly? Set a specific time every day when you return calls. In these ways, you’re creating cues to support the new habit.
And if forming a new habit seems hard, then create stronger rewards. Want to arrive to a tidy desk every morning instead of the haphazard pile that seems to naturally develop? Treat yourself to chocolate at the end of the day once you’ve organized your space. Want to make sure you’ve done that paperwork you find so annoying? Allow yourself 15 minutes of mindless social media if you take care of it.
Psychologists recommend a few tricks for new habit formation. For one thing, they recommend starting small. For example, if you want to set aside more time regularly for focused project work, try carving out 30 minutes a day, rather than a three-hour block of time. “Habit-stacking” is another popular trick. Basically, you piggyback a new habit onto an existing one. Want to give more praise to your employees? Build it into the opening of every team meeting. By stacking habits, you’re making it easier on yourself.
When it comes to breaking bad habits, identifying the cues or triggers is critical. Once you know what they are, you can eliminate them, or replace the bad habit with a better one. Maybe you’re easily distracted, and you tend to read new email as soon as it comes in. Then why haven’t you turned off the notifications? Or why not close the email program completely when you’re working on tasks that require focus?
Whatever habit you want to make or break, ask yourself what system or set-up will support that change. In this way, you’re either reducing friction for new habits or creating friction to work against bad habits. Want to drink more water at work? Make sure you have a water bottle at your desk. Don’t want to send snarky emails to your colleagues? Make a rule that you must wait at least 15 minutes before responding to non-urgent internal communications.
One final suggestion for maintaining motivation: tie your habits to your identity. Decide what type of person you want to be, then think of the habits that will support it, and the ones that could undermine it. For example: I’m a kind manager who coaches his team members for success. So I have habits like providing praise, and I avoid habits like micromanaging specific tasks. These habits confirm the identity I want.
And you too can develop habits that support your identity now that you understand the full habit pattern and know some useful tricks. In our next lesson, we’ll look more closely at habit formation and talk about how you can support your employees or direct reports in developing good habits.
That’s all for today. So long. And see you again soon!
