Habits developed throughout life can have an enormous effect on career success. Procrastinating or snacking on junk food are two examples of undesirable practices which could thwart your efforts at reaching career goals.
While using Comic Sans font in emails or visiting a photocopier during work hours may seem harmless, other employees could question your professionalism and judge you accordingly.
1. Procrastination
Procrastination can be a damaging habit that saps your mood, limits your potential, and hinders your career. By postponing tasks until later, procrastination causes missed deadlines, pileup of work, and could even cost your job!
Studies have demonstrated that those who procrastinate tend to produce lower quality work at the last minute and forget or overlook important details, which in turn impede their sleep, exercise, relaxation, family life, and social lives. This habit also negatively impacts on social lives like family gatherings and parties.
Studies have indicated that procrastinating can have some benefits under certain conditions, but more often it leads to negative repercussions, including:
2. Negativity
Negative thoughts are an often-ignored symptom of depression, but they can also indicate mental health disorders like generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). Breaking this cycle requires effort and support from friends and family alike.
Aaron Beck, a US psychiatrist, identified 10 types of cognitive distortions which contributed to his patients’ negative feelings and perceptions about life.
One form of negativity is mental filtering, where people recall only negative aspects of an experience despite positive feedback – for instance, recalling only comments that can have been made better after giving a presentation. Another type of negativity is catastrophizing; this occurs when we assume the worst possible outcome to situations and assume worst-case scenarios as probable outcomes. Therapists can teach individuals to recognize and replace these thought patterns with more productive ones.
3. Lying
Lying can be an extremely detrimental and time-consuming practice that can have detrimental repercussions in many aspects of your life. People lie for various reasons such as fear, manipulation and self-esteem issues.
If you find yourself lying to others often, seeking professional assistance could be beneficial. Psychologists, therapists and counselors can teach healthy methods to stop lying so you can enjoy more honest relationships.
Compulsive lying can be a telltale sign of mental health conditions like antisocial personality disorder, narcissistic disorder or borderline personality disorder; drug or gambling addiction; stress reactions or just to avoid unpleasant thoughts and emotions. Understanding what triggers your lying behavior may be key in curbing it and finding healthier methods of dealing with emotions and stressors.
4. Being Disorganized
Disorganization can make completing projects and tasks on time difficult, leading to additional stress levels and potentially leading to negative consequences for both work and personal life. If this is an area in which you struggle, being disorganized could be detrimental both professionally and personally.
Disorganization can result from several sources, including your environment and life experiences. Some individuals naturally tend to be disorganized more than others; this could also be related to ADHD as noted by a 2020 BioMed Central study.
Organising yourself can help boost productivity and give you greater control of your tasks. One effective strategy for doing this is setting up a routine that eliminates distractions; additionally, prioritize tasks based on importance and urgency.
5. Being Late
At times, being late can be unavoidable; traffic jams, forgotten meetings or simply sleeping later than expected could all contribute to being late for work on occasion. But persistent tardiness to work is unacceptable and makes others question your professionalism.
Punctuality shows your reliability and respect for others, as well as helping you stay focused on tasks. Setting aside enough time each day to ensure punctuality becomes part of your routine and is easier to maintain over time.
Poor communication habits can become detrimental to both work and life. By sending incomplete emails or miscommunicating with stakeholders, you may be wasting both resources for your company as well as potentially harming your own career prospects.
6. Complaining
Complaining can lead to an unhappy life. People who complain regularly tend to get sick more frequently, perform poorly at work and develop poorer relationships than those who do not complain as frequently; it also has been found to rewire your brain into seeing more problems as normal.
Avoid complaining about things outside your control, such as traffic or weather. Instead, focus on things you can control such as diet, exercise regimen and work environment.
To break this bad habit, begin by keeping a complaint journal for one week to identify your patterns of complaint. Next, commit to lessen your complaining and surround yourself with positive people – remembering that misery loves company is especially true of friends and family who will likely pick up on any bad behaviors you exhibit!
7. Lack of Appreciation
Feeling unappreciated can cause you to question your worth and can create a detrimental outlook, whether at work or within relationships. If someone seems to be taking advantage of you, it is crucial that you communicate your emotions clearly to them and set limits as quickly as possible.
If you want to feel appreciated more often, focus on self-care and engaging in activities that bring joy. Learning to appreciate yourself may also help change how you perceive others – if necessary seek individual or couples therapy as it can assist with creating stronger feelings of self-worth and healthier relationships. Once these bad habits have been managed it should become easier to reach goals and realize success – best of luck!
8. Last-Minute Efforts
One of the worst forms of bad work habits can be those you’re unaware you have — like talking too much, hiding files or taking shortcuts just to complete projects on time. They may stem from limiting beliefs or emotional triggers like boredom, tiredness and stress.
Doing everything at the last minute can annoy colleagues and tarnish your team player reputation. One effective solution to break this pattern is planning your day ahead and creating buffers; check out this guide on prioritizing tasks to stay stress-free and achieve great results!
9. Overworking
Overworking is a risk in any job, particularly if there’s always more work than time to complete it. But when physical symptoms such as insomnia or compromised immunity start appearing as a result of overworking, then it may be time to have a discussion with your boss and make changes in priorities and workload accordingly.
At times of pandemic outbreak, it can be easy to feel overwhelmed and overworked, yet it’s essential to remember that overworking can cause both mental and physical health issues – from anxiety to poor sleep, headaches, fatigue, decreased concentration and feelings of stuckness – in addition to leading to burnout and leading to decreased output; to ensure maximum impact over output while limiting long work hours whenever possible.
10. Being Overly Dependent on Others
Emotionally dependent relationships include those in which we rely on another for happiness; they could include friends, parents, lovers or coworkers. You often become anxious when they don’t respond when texts or calls come through or disagree with what you say or don’t say – something emotional dependence does nothing but increase.
Emotional dependence may arise as a result of childhood trauma, toxic relationships or other circumstances; symptoms include low self-esteem, anxiety, resentment, fear and codependency.
If you rely too heavily on others for support, it can lead to poor treatment of yourself. You might resort to unhealthy practices like snacking on junk food between meals or missing exercise altogether – even sabotaging your work! But cultivating healthy relationships with yourself will help break this bad habit by emphasizing things you have control of rather than those outside your control.