We all want to have good habits, right? Whether it’s something like working on a healthier lifestyle or adding in a new task at work, behavior and habits are tough things to change.
What does it take to build a new habit? Let’s take a look at some ways to get started.
Building New Habits
Think about it like this… a habit is hard to change because it’s something you do a certain way over and over. It is at the point where it has become automatic, and you are completely unconscious of repeating it. For example, let’s say you’d like to be better at creating knowledge articles in the moment when you close or SP an INT. Sometimes you forget, sometimes you are so busy to get to the next INT that you just think “I’ll do it later.” But later never comes. Then what?
To get over that hump, try looking at it this way. Rather than focusing on the new behavior (creating a KB article) you are trying to achieve, try looking for the trigger that sets off the old behavior. (It’s usually time, right? After all, there are only so many hours in a workday.) You return to old patterns because you are constantly triggered by old behaviors. (I have no time to create KB articles, I’ll do it later.) When you are aware of what sets off the old behavior (no time), you can become mindful of replacing it with the habit you want. (creating a KB article).
We all have one minute, right?
So now that you know why you do what you do, and how to prevent it, let’s work on making the new habit something you can complete in 60 seconds or less. This is simple and easy to do, right?
For example, let’s just continue with the above example. Once your incident is SP or Closed, create a new article, copy and paste the info from your SP and any other quick details you want to add and don’t want to forget. Save it as a Draft. At this point since the article content is essentially created, you could always take just a minute or two more to scrub it for ease of legibility, and make sure it’s publish ready. Or if your SP is written in the same format as an article, you might just be out the original 60 seconds.
Thinking about it in this way makes it less time consuming than thinking that you have to create a large scale knowledge article. Let’s take it a step further.
Focus
Do you ever wonder why you can get so much more done if you just focus on one thing for 5/10/15 minutes? This means no interruptions like email, slack, etc. I am always amazed what I can get done in a few minutes when that is the only thing I am working on as opposed to multi-tasking.
Give them a try and let us know how they work out for you. Have other suggestions? Let us know in the comments!
Want more stuff like this? Check out the three Coaching Habit videos this information came from.
Check out part 2 of this series: 3 ways for new knowledge workers to build KCS into their existing workflow
