Your workday routine
Hi there,
When you hear about good and healthy habits, it’s often about two things: the how of habits (the theory of triggers and rewards) and an emphasis on what I consider fundamental habits. Those are the habits and routines that are directly related to diet, sleep, and health. In other words: organizing your life so you free up enough time to sleep, eat well, and exercise.
Fundamental habits are crucial and affect all areas of your life. So it seems to make sense to start with them. But fundamental habits can be tricky. They’re often so ingrained that change is tough.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not suggesting you should stop investing in fundamental habits—they’re key. But today I’d like to offer another angle: try taking a look at your routines before, during, and after work.
Work habits are no different than all the other things we do. They’re recurring patterns that work for you. They bring an order to your day that seems almost natural. We often don’t even think about them. But there’s a lot to be gained by tweaking our work habits.
Scan this list and see if you can come up with a habit to experiment with this week.
How do you start your workweek?
How do you start your workday?
What do you do when you run into loose ends?
What’s your routine for meetings? How do you prep; how do you ensure you start out fully present and stay engaged; how do you wrap up, how do you see to it that what’s discussed actually gets done?
What do you do when a meeting goes off the rails?
How do you respond when your day doesn’t go as planned?
How do you keep your energy up throughout the day?
What do you do when you get stuck?
How do you deal with complex issues and challenges?
What routines do you have for maintaining or deepening relationships at work?
How do you wrap up your workday so you can relax and enjoy your evening?
How do you wrap up your workweek so you can relax and enjoy your weekend?
As you can see, some of these “habits” involve what you do when the unexpected hits, like a day that goes completely differently than you thought it would. What you tend to do in response is as much a routine as any other. Once you’re aware of that, you can start rewriting those routines. Here, like with so many things, it helps to limit yourself to one or two habits you want to alter. And start small.
Some time back, I asked my followers on Twitter for suggestions of good routines and habits. People shared some gems, like writing out what you find whenever you spend more than 4 hours looking into something, or agreeing on a simple hand gesture to indicate a meeting’s getting too far into the weeds. Little changes like that can make a big difference.
Feel free to share your own favorites and keep the list going!
Summer break
Here at Work in Progress, we’re taking a short summer break. Back in September with more tricks of the trade. If you want to do more with routines in the meantime, Atomic Habits by James Clear can help. Or check out these back issues:
Have a good one and see you in September!
Rick
produced by the language girl