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13 Worst Work Habits to Cut in 2021

Sep 18, 2021
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Life is getting back to normal for most people worldwide, thanks to a successful vaccine rollout that has ensured the COVID-19 pandemic has pretty much been brought under control for the most part. What this means for the working sector is that people are about to resume working from the office, and this is going to take some readjustments. However, one thing that’s for sure is that there are some work habits from the past that people will have to drop. These habits include the following.

Mismanaging Time

Mismanaging Time

This will be a big issue between employers and employees as people move back to the office. One of the perks of working from home has been the freedom to manage time around convenience. This has created a system where people work when it suits them, and as much as that still delivers results, then switching back to the office will take time for readjustments to be made. If you are an employee, you will have to instill some strict time management discipline in yourself as fast as you can to avoid running into problems with your boss.

Working Late

Another habit that stems from the inability to manage time and workload well. Granted, there are times that workers are simply overworked, and this shouldn’t be the case. If someone has to work late, then they should be compensated. However, working late shouldn’t be a daily habit. Sitting down behind a fixed day the entire day can create problems for your body. You have to get proper rest at the end of the day for the body to recharge itself in readiness for the next day. That extra work or assignment will have to wait for another day.

Mixing Work with Social Media

Mixing Work with Social Media

The temptation to take a peek at your social media pages through your phone could be tough to resist. We live in a world that’s home to over 3.5 billion active smartphones. This means the number of people who have access to social media pages is very high. Interrupting your work even for a few seconds every 5 minutes to browse your social media profiles could impact your productivity in a bad way, and if you keep that up, you could find yourself in deep trouble with your employer. Keep the phone away when it is time to work.

Losing the Work-Life-Balance

After months of working remotely, it is easy to make a comparison between working from home and the office. What people haven’t realized yet is that working from home has blurred the lines between work and life. Working in pajamas as you feed the baby has led to people believing they can merge the two worlds at the flick of a hand. There has to be a distinction between work and life, and finding that balance is what you have to prioritize, or you may risk suffering burnout that could affect both.

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Using the Wrong Furniture

Employers have had a rough time keeping track of their employees working from home, and the return to normalcy is something they are looking forward to. However, the working conditions have to be better than before, and this extends to the quality and nature of office furniture. This is the time to upgrade everything to chairs and desks that are comfortable and kind to the body. Consider going for an ergonomic chair like the Soutien Ergonomic Office Chair or switch things up a little by introducing a standing desk like the Comhar All-in-One Standing Desk. Your employees will truly appreciate that change.

Working On Your Lunch Break

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with taking breaks. Work is not all that matters; you have to think about your productivity, something that is directly tied to your body’s ability to keep up with the work. Skipping your lunch and tea breaks may look like a good idea at first since you will be completing more tasks, but your body will start taking the beating in the long run. Skipping lunch breaks especially is highly discouraged as denying your body a breather will impact your creativity, and you will be more prone to making mistakes, which is self-defeating in the first place.

Setting Up Too Many Meetings

Setting Up Too Many Meetings

Months of constant zoom meetings have created a form of meeting fatigue in many people, and this is not likely to change even when they switch back to physical ones. Meetings are at the core of a company’s progress as they are the best mediums for diagnosing progress, among other things. However, there has to be a limit to how many can be held—cases of having meetings every day need to be cut down significantly. Scheduling them for a specific number of times in a week should help reduce the dread people feel every time a meeting is called.

Chasing Perfectionism

Setting unrealistic standards has never ended well for anyone who ever tried that. There’s a very thick line between productivity and perfectionism. The former is you using your abilities the best way you know how to deliver results. The latter is you trying to achieve superhuman feats with the resources of a mere human being. Chasing perfectionism is the number one killer of creativity as you are actively setting yourself up for depression if what you are aiming for gets out of reach. Don’t kill yourself for work that can replace you within a heartbeat.

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Ignoring Your Fitness

The work-life balance we mentioned earlier also encompasses your fitness and wellness. It is easy to get caught up with work and forget that the body also needs some attention as far as exercising is concerned. If finding time for a quick check-in at your local gym is impossible, you have to improvise and find time to do some workouts while still in the office. You could use part of your lunch breaks to do simple exercises or go a step further and invest in a Smart Bike Trainer Stand that you can set up at the office to do some serious leg workouts without interrupting your assignments.

Procrastination

Everybody suffers from procrastination at some point in their working lives, but it is a chronic condition for some. Having too many distractions could contribute to procrastination as you increasingly fund yourself spending time doing things unrelated to work at hand, like watching videos or staying for too long on social media. Make it a habit to always deal with work from the moment you walk into the office and block everything that may cause any form of distraction. Another easier way of dealing with procrastination is remembering that you could lose your job due to it. 

Blurring Boundaries

Blurring Boundaries

You can’t avoid having personal relationships at the workplace. They are necessary for teamwork, and the interaction is also good for the overall harmony of the office. However, there have to be clear boundaries set to avoid upsetting the balance. Dating a coworker is not illegal, but it never ends well, as mixing such high emotions with work will always undermine the job all the time. As an employee, it is up to you to set clear boundaries between you and the people you work with, so they know what they are not supposed to cross. Keeping things professional is essential. 

Trying Too Hard to Multitask

Multitasking is a talent, and if you can do it all the time without any errors coming up, then no problem. However, it would be reaching too far to assume that anyone can handle multiple tasks at the office simultaneously without leading to errors. It is advisable to deal with individual tasks to the end before moving on to the next one to ensure that everything is handled in an orderly manner. People who multitask usually do that to save time so they can rush to something else. It is better to put off the work for another time rather than mix up everything by trying to multitask.

Neglecting your Mental Health

Neglecting your Mental Health

Just because it cannot be seen doesn’t mean that it doesn’t exist. Mental health affects businesses and companies around the world directly in ways that people are yet to grasp fully. There is very little that a worker battling depression and anxiety can do to be productive, and if nothing is done, the story could turn tragic at any moment. As an employee, you have to seek help when you feel low in spirits rather than bulldozing through work, hoping it would end on its own. Every employer on their part must be sharp enough to notice when something is not right with those that work under them.

Conclusion

Bad habits take time to establish themselves, but they always start as simple traits that become normalized with time. You will only notice them when you are far too gone. But that’s not the end of the line; anything that can be learned can be unlearned. All you need is to have a positive attitude and the willingness to get rid of all the habits holding you back at work and replace them with things that will help you grow.