6 Common Habits That Are Killing Your Professional Skills

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When most people get home from work, they relax. They put on more comfortable clothing and take off their shoes. They let themselves slouch and kick their feet up on the couch. They are not worried about looking perfectly professional or keeping the boss happy. They can scroll through Facebook without keeping one eye on who is coming into the room, and no one cares if they are texting.

Most people work in professions where it does not seem like their private lives would impact their work. They are not celebrities or public figures, so few to no one notices that they went to the grocery store with their hair a greasy mess or that they posted an admittedly pretty mean joke on their Twitter account. What many people do not seem to realize is that their private life does still impact their work life. The effect is not as obvious as it is for those who live in the public eye, but what you do in your down time can adversely affect your work. In fact, many common habits found both in people’s private and work lives are extremely detrimental. Here are six common habits that are killing your professional skills.

Filling every minute with your phone.

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If you are like most people today, you take your phone with you absolutely everywhere. That way, whenever there is a single spare minute, you can whip out your phone. You no longer have to stand around silently, make awkward conversation or look out the window. You have every time killer you could ever want tucked in your pocket.

Filling every minute with your phone is a habit that often carries over to work and can get in the way of your success. For example, there are usually a few minutes between when people start to gather in the conference room and when the meeting actually starts. What do you spend those few minutes doing? If you are like a lot of people, you spend it staring at your phone. You text a friend, skim the news or scroll through Facebook while you wait for the meeting to start. You could be using that time to talk to a coworker, network with those around you or simply prepare a bit more for your meeting instead of looking at memes.

Communicating solely in writing.

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When was the last time you actually had a conversation on the phone that was not about ordering pizza, making an appointment or for purely work purposes? If you are like most people, the answer is “a long time ago.” Anymore, the majority of people seem to communicate by both email and text whenever possible. There is nothing inherently wrong about preferring to email someone rather than call them, but the fact that people use writing almost exclusively to communicate is problematic for their professional skills. As a professional, it is very important to be able to have good communication skills. When you communicate largely through the short soundbites that make up emails or the fragments and abbreviations of texting, you can forget how to have a normal conversation. Frankly, emailing and texting can hurt your written communication skills as well. This is especially true for texting that involves a great deal of abbreviations, and for those that use emojis to form actual sentences rather than indicate tone, congratulations on regressing past early cuneiform to the days of hieroglyphics.

Removing the language filter.

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Most people are more careful with what they say when they are at work than when they are lounging around on their couch. The majority of people are aware that while it might be acceptable to swear in the privacy of your own home when the referee makes a bad call, cursing at work is a bad idea. Unfortunately, when people use a great deal of unprofessional language on their own time, they can forget to put the filter back in when they return to work. This applies not only to cursing and foul language but also to excessive use of slang and certain regional styles of speaking. Few people will take a person who speaks in the classic Valley Girl style seriously, and someone who actually uses the phrase “OMG” when talking is likely to run into the same issue. This does not mean that your every conversation has to be the epitome of professionalism, but cutting back on the slang and swearing will not hurt your private life.

Oversharing on social media.

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Social media has brought otherwise successful careers to their knees. In today’s day and age, what you post on Facebook is unlikely to help you reach success, but it can certainly keep you from getting there. Plenty of people are under the incorrect impression that what they post on their personal or private social media accounts are just that, personal and private. Once something is on the internet, however, there is no controlling or predicting where it will go. More than one promising career has come to an abrupt halt after a person posted images of themselves drunk as a skunk or posted complaints about their job, boss or customers, and their boss found out about it.

In addition to potentially dropping exactly what they think of their boss in said boss’ lap, oversharing on social media puts a person in the habit of oversharing. This means that a person is going to be less likely to set boundaries at work, keep inappropriate thoughts to themselves and are more likely to rant when something angers them.

Taking poor care of your health.

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How many hours of sleep did you get last night? How about the night before? If you are like most people, the number is far less than is healthy. Unfortunately, skipping sleep has become normal in America. Children as young as 10 earn bragging rights at the lunch table if they were up the latest doing their homework. This attitude only gets stronger in high school, and by the time people enter the workforce, sleep deprivation is solidly equated with a good work ethic. In reality, skipping sleep or eating poorly is killing your productivity. When you are tired or eating poorly, you are less able to focus, you take longer to complete tasks and are far more likely to make mistakes. It may sound impressive and like a sign of great dedication to say that you were up until 2:00 a.m. finishing that report, but when you think about it, what were you doing with the rest of your time that you did not finish until well after midnight?

Constantly multitasking.

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How many things do you normally do at once? The answer is probably “lots.” You check your email while you finish up that report for your boss. You scan Facebook while you are on a conference call. You keep one eye on your phone while you are drafting next quarter’s goals. It certainly makes it seem like you are getting a lot done at once. In reality, all you are doing is splitting your focus. When you multitask, you are more likely to make mistakes, and completing a task usually takes longer. Over time, multitasking can harm your attention span. You become so used to jumping from task to task that your brain forgets how to stay focused on a single thing for longer than a few minutes. This can be disastrous for your chances of success. No one is saying you cannot do the dishes while you make your next doctor’s appointment, but keep the multitasking to a minimum at home. That way, when you are back at work, you have practiced focusing on one thing at a time.