These 7 Work Habits Will Help You Get Far in Your Career

We’ve talked about bad work habits to get rid of read all about it here but what about the good habits you need to start working on? Like with everything else in life, good habits help you get ahead – when you read more, you learn more. When you are hardworking, you reap the results.

Same goes for your work life. Good habits are essential if you want to succeed in your job. Not only does it help you stay focused and increase productivity, it is bound to get you on the radar for a promotion or raise. After all, nothing bad can come out of a good habit so why not get started on a few? Like these seven ones work experts say you absolutely must have if you want to move up the ladder.

#1 Avoid Office Drama
Aside from not participating in office politics and gossip, it pays if you’re not the type to make a big drama out of everything. Colleague missed a deadline? Don’t email everyone in the team telling her she’s completely messed up the project; instead go about it with a calm demeanor and ask her personally if she could get it done ASAP or if she needs help. Got a colleague who is rude and completely disrespectful to you? You might be tempted to report her to HR but the professional thing to do is to ignore her attitude and go about your day not letting it affect you (be the bigger person here!)

#2 Learn to Self Manage
Pick this good habit fast and it will serve you well throughout your career. Learn how to manage your own time, meeting schedules and deadlines instead of always going to the boss to ask for help. Essentially, it is about being super productive with your work hours so that you get as much done as efficiently during the day.

#3 Be Humble and Polite
Always remain humble, no matter how far up the career ladder you go. It pays to be courteous to everyone because you’ll never know who might be a boss or an important client in the future. Plus, when you’re polite and everyone knows you as the nice one, you’ll be able to rope in more people for help whenever you need it.

#4 Be Punctual for Everything
Not just to work but everything as well – meetings, appointments with clients, deadlines, coming back from lunch. Tardiness is way up there as one of the worst habits that annoy people. Not only do you waste your time but also the other person’s time. If you can only focus on one good habit this year, make it this!

#5 Take Initiative
Don’t wait for your boss to ask you to help. Don’t sit around until someone points you in the right direction. Learn how to step up and offer your help. Take productive action and go above and beyond.

#6 Plan Your Day
A good habit that all leaders have? They plan their every single day either the night before or early in the morning before work. Get yourself a planner app (or something as simple as a notebook) to write down what it is you want to accomplish for the day. This will help you keep track of everything you need to get done and help you accomplish more than not having a plan set in place.

#7 Attention to Detail
No matter how insignificant it may be, making sure all is in place is important for the bigger picture. This means following instructions, standard operating procedures and being mindful when taking on responsibilities. One way to cultivate this good habit is to be organised and neat. Have a system for documentation and planning. This will help you think of every aspect of a task.

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