April 10, 2008

Creating New Business Habits?

Photo by jciv

So what happens when college nights in Boone, NC royally suck? Well hell, write a blog.

So I came across Zen Habit’s “13 Things to Avoid When Changing Habits ” Then I said, well what difference would it make if these habits were established from a business stand point. Could avoiding these Habits make managing a business better? What about increasing productivity?

I’m going to use the same habits Zen Habit uses, just from a different point of view to get thinking on a different path.

Taking on two or more habits at once. – Habits, or tasks. We’ve all been there. We try to take on new things when we think of them so we go about trying to get them all done at once. Instead, try to single out the new habits. The more you single them out and tackle them one by one, the more likely you are to become successful and getting your new objective in. Even better, getting poor objectives out. So take them one by one, in the end you’ll see your goals are much easier to accomplish.
Not committing a plan to paper. – Zen Habit does a great job explaining this. However, think of trying your new productivity plan written out. Write it over, use graphs. The more visual representation you have for your goals the better. Also when you establish your goals by setting an end date, our own competitive nature makes us more ambitious to achieve our goal or habit. So, in this case write what you want done down, commit it to paper, and figure out a plan, write out a graph if need be.
Being half-committed. – Goes Hand-in-hand with committing to paper. Don’t half-ass your project. If you really have a goal, set it up, figure it out day by day and stick to it. There is no real solution to this but our own natural ambition. If you want your new productivity plan, or revenue program set it up and stick to it!
Not having support. – Encourage fellow employees to promote the habits at hand and to have them think positively. If you do not have the right frame of mind, and are denouncing the new habits, the less likely it will be implemented to its full potential.
Not thinking through your motivation. – I Have no choice but to directly quote Zen Habits they said it best. “In my experience, what people call discipline, I call motivation. Why are you disciplined enough to do something? Because you have the right motivation. When you lose the motivation, you lose the discipline. Before you start your habit change, think through your motivations. Why are you doing this? What will keep you going when you forget your reasons? Public commitment is a big motivator, of course, but you should have internal ones too. Write these down in your plan.”
Not realizing the obstacles. – There will always be simple and complex obstacles when you decide to implement a plan. Do your best to consider these when creating the plan. If not, you must make amends along the way to keep yourself plugging along. The obstacles will help make your plan much more infallible and allows for improvements to be made, and more effort to shine.
Not logging your progress. – Noting progress is important for any change. Change in habit, plan, diet… anything. Keep a notebook, or blog, anything that will allow you to track daily progress. Whether it is productivity increase, sales increase, so on and so forth, keep an up to date log. This encourages everyone involved in the plan to know they are changing, they are making a progressive difference.
Having no accountability. – Think of it as Insurance. Make sure there is someone, or a group that is there, to back you up and to keep you consistent on your plan should you stray.
Not knowing your triggers. – What’s going to make you go back to old habits, old plans? Know those! The more you foresee these errors coming through your plan, the better off you are avoiding them. These triggers will be the one thing to make you take 2 steps back and 1 step forward, thats bad!
Not doing your reading. – Understand your progress. Likelihood is someone has already tried doing some changes along the same line. If you do your research, you can see their triggers, their accountability et al. When you begin to understand how your progress correlates in the grand scheme within your market, or within other people doing the same, you will be much much more productive.
Changing focus too soon. – This goes great with point #3. When you begin your new plan, keep focus on the plan. Do not start your plan and then immediately begin seeing other things that need work. Stick to the plan, finish it, THEN go back and make new plans for the rest.
Not being consistent. – Wow, I feel repetitive. But really, recognize your triggers, acknowledge them, and fix it. The more consistent you are the better. Just think, you do it once every three days, then dwindle to 1/5, then 1/7… the better the progress, the better the productivity.
Quitting after failure. – Please for Pete’s sake, don’t get to the end and go back to the old way’s. Keep the past 12 points in mind, and enact them throughout the entire plan, and the whole time this new plan is in action.