4 BAD WORK HABITS YOU NEED TO CHANGE

Check out the transcription:

Hey, guys. I'm Annie of WholeAssistant.com and today we are tackling the second half of the two-part series on habits. Last week we discussed how to create good healthy habits in our lives and today we're going to be talking about four things, four negative things. But I really want us to think about these things in terms of within the framework of habits. The first habit that I would like to talk about is the habit of apologizing. For me, the tendency to apologize comes from one of two places. A place of perfectionism. I make a mistake and I get over-exuberant in apologizing with the intention of somebody validating me and telling me, "Oh, no, no, no, it's okay, it's okay." That is not a good place to apologize from. You want to apologize with the intention of humility and not about validating us, right?

Then the second place is coming from a desire to be polite before exerting ourselves or our opinions. We tend to approach things from a place of apologizing all the time for just our opinion and we shouldn't do that. It's our opinion, and it is what it is, and there's no need to apologize for that. Now, here's how to break the habit. I really want us to think about what it is we mean to say. Instead of saying, "I'm sorry for taking up space, or for bumping into somebody in a doorway," we can say, "Excuse me." Really be intentional. Bring some intention to what it is you really mean to say and then say that instead. Then instead of putting that negativity out there by apologizing, you can always just be grateful. For me, this looks like, especially in email I do this a lot. I will say, instead of saying, "Sorry it took me so long to respond to you," I'll say, "Thank you so much for your patience with regards to my response."

That just kind of uplifts everybody, instead of bringing everybody down, instead of making it a negative thing that you didn't reply when you thought you should, or when they thought you should, you can just say, "Thank you for your patience." Now, the second negative habit that I want us to look at is the habit of negativity or complaining. Now, I'm a positive person and I'm an external processor, and yet, I find that on a bad day when I'm working out a problem or a dilemma with a friend or my husband that I can tend to cross over into full-on complaining mode. I know that I cross over into that place because I no longer want to hear anybody's feedback and I am wallowing and I expect others to wallow with me. Just be mindful of what your intention is and always be geared towards a solution, always be mindful of a solution. That is one great way of breaking the habit is to just be mindful that there is a solution and trying to figure out and work out what that is.

Then also, remind yourself of the good things in your life. Often times, the negative thing will be this black dot and there will be all these amazing things around this black dot, but we can only focus on this black dot and that's a problem because we're missing all these other great amazing things in our life. We definitely want to remind yourself of the good things in your life and to bring some awareness to those things, even if you are dealing with something hard. The third habit that I want to discuss today is the habit of procrastination. Procrastination is a habit that administrative professionals and assistants, we cannot afford to have. And procrastination is sneaky. Have you guys ever ... I know, for me, if there's a task that comes up that I really don't want to do, I can ... I'll noodle around on Facebook, I'll do anything I can to avoid that task.

But instead, we actually need to come up with a plan for a day and then stick with that plan. Often times, my plan includes tackling those awful things that I don't want to do first, straight out of the get-go, and going into it knowing that I'm going to want to procrastinate, knowing that I'm going to want to look on Facebook or LinkedIn, and knowing that I won't allow myself to until I get this task done. That's a great way of handling procrastination and to just bring some awareness to it. Really think about those tasks that you don't like doing and then bring awareness to the situation so that you can remedy it. The fourth habit is the habit of gossip. This one is really, really detrimental, guys. But you know what? I think we can all be leaders here and we can all decide that we are going to set an example for others. We all know when we're gossiping.

We all know because it's not producing anything, it's not fruitful, it's not helpful to anybody, and there's ... Actually, I had a colleague once tell me a great solution to this, that is really good at redirecting the conversation and you can just ... You can simply ask, "How may I help you?" Or, "Is there anything I can do for you?" That will pretty much nip it in the bud. It'll send the right message that you're not willing to engage with it, without making anybody feel over-exposed or terrible about it. These are the four things that I really want us to bring some mindfulness to and be intentional about dealing with in our professional lives and even our personal lives. I hope you guys have a great rest of your week. If you're curious to learn more about me, you can go to WholeAssistant.com and I will be here next Tuesday to discuss the next topics. I hope you guys have a great rest of your week.