Self development and mental health

The Role of Habits in Life and Work

James Clear’s book “Atomic Habits” focuses on the role of small habits in creating positive changes in our lives. Small practices are hugely significant. According to the author, small, consistent patterns substantially impact our lives more than single, grand efforts. What we do every day defines our outcomes.

If you spend most of your day in meetings at work, snacking on sweets during breaks and drinking 6 cups of coffee daily, can you expect to be in good shape in the long run? Many of us try to change something by radically changing our lives.

Example:

• Starting tomorrow, I won’t smoke

• I will run 5km every day.

• I will eat salads instead of chocolates.

Unfortunately, this doesn’t work. The author describes that change is a gradual process: The key to lasting change is focusing on small steps and regularly improving habits. Slow and steady progress is more effective than abrupt but short-lived efforts.

Small victories lead to more outstanding successes: Each performance of a positive habit is a step towards greater success. Consistent action and celebrating small wins lead to long-term achievements.

How do habits influence the development of technical leaders?

Regularly performing routine activities can make you stand still. When you’re pushing forward strongly, habits control your life and work. In many situations, this is good because you can concentrate the potential of your brain on more strategic and innovative aspects of your role. In any case, it’s good to find time to reflect on what and why you’re doing something.​

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On the other hand, practicing learning new technologies, tracking trends, and experimenting with new tools allows you to stay at the forefront of changes in the technology field. Once this becomes a habit for you, daily learning will be routine, while others will repeat that they don’t have time for it.

It is essential to develop the habit of seeking new solutions, creating an environment conducive to experiments and inspiration, and encouraging the team to share ideas, creating a culture of innovation and creativity.

Habits Worth Practicing

In the further part of the article, I would like to show you habits that will help you be a good person and, thus, an effective leader. In some cases, it may be more about stopping doing something. Will these habits lead you to success?

Sometimes, it’s not the goal that counts but the process. The fact that you’re reading this and thinking about what you can do differently is already a big step forward for you as a leader and the people with whom you maintain relationships!

Slow down

The slow life movement promotes slowing down the pace of life, enjoying the moment, and greater awareness. Slow life is not about laziness or sitting on the couch all day. Sometimes, less means more. As a technical leader, you don’t have to do everything and agree to everything. Develop habits that will help you enjoy life.

Limiting technology

As a technical leader, you probably like technology. That’s fine! What’s not okay is the fact that these technologies steal our lives. You sit for at least 8 hours a day at work. Do you need to add another few hours for television, smartphone, or computer? Instead, focus on directly experiencing reality and relationships with the people around you.

How to practice limiting technology:

• Don’t use your phone during meals with your family.

• Delete social media apps, email and Slack from your phone.

• Don’t bring your phone into the bedroom when you go to sleep.

• Go for a walk, ride a bike, just get outside.

Focus on what is here and now

Lack of focus and detachment from reality, performing actions on autopilot without engagement. All this can stem from many factors, such as stress, haste, and excessive duties. Break away from this and notice what’s happening around you now. This will help you relax, de-stress, and enjoy the moment.

How to be more present:

• After every meeting, spend 2 minutes on breathing exercises.

• When you eat a meal, focus only on that. Savor the taste.

• When talking to someone, focus on what that person is saying to you.

• Focus on the present moment while performing daily activities, such as washing dishes, cleaning, showering, or ironing clothes.

Spending time in nature

Whether you live in a big city or a small town — working in front of a computer leads to mental and physical strain, mental fatigue, and decreased concentration.

Rachel and Kaplan researched the “Theory of Cognitive Restorative Resources” (1989), in which they suggested that interacting with nature can restore and regenerate our attention and concentration.

The Kaplans found that prolonged concentration can lead to mental fatigue, and contact with nature has a relaxing effect. It is best when the place has a high fascination value. Studies have shown that office workers with a view of nature were happier and healthier at work. Contact with nature improves mood and increases concentration.

How to practice spending time in nature:

• In the morning, go for a walk and listen to the birds singing.

• If you have access to a garden or a plot of land, spend time caring for plants and planting flowers or vegetables.

• Go on a bike ride out of town.

Take care of yourself

Plan time for yourself

Dr. Neil Fiore, in his book “The Now Habit,” describes the problem of procrastination, which consists of the fact that, for various reasons, we deliberately postpone or delay working on a task. The author points out that one of the reasons for such behavior is being overloaded with work and convincing oneself that “I must” do something or “I should” do it.

We convince ourselves that we have to do something at all costs, and the price is a lack of time for ourselves, our family, and our friends. Work is associated with something that has to be difficult and time-consuming. As a result, we work long hours but ineffectively, spending 10 hours on a task and sweating it out.

And what if you spent only five hours on that task and the rest of the time on other activities — those you enjoy the most? Dr. Neil Fiore suggests that if we take care of entertainment in our lives and stop thinking of work as something we “must” do (or do for X amount of time), we will improve our concentration and the quality of our work.

Limit Commitments

The worst thing you can do as a technical leader is to be a “yes man,” that is, someone who agrees to everything. Many people have a problem with saying no for fear of how others perceive them. However, saying “no” in appropriate situations shows strong leadership.

You’re already swamped with commitments, but the director comes in with another great initiative that will change your organization or save the world? Say “No”. Do it assertively and reasonably. Explain the reasons for your decision and suggest alternative solutions if possible.

Once you’ve taken care not to take on additional duties and projects, you can focus on how to reduce your current commitments.

Reducing the number of commitments in two steps:

1. Only attend meetings that lead to something. Appointments can take up all the possible space in your calendar. I’ve noticed a tendency to add a meeting to the calendar and make it recurring, but it’s hard to remove later. As a result, people sit in meetings that don’t even know why they are there. Uncle Bob already wrote about leaving a boring arrangement that gives nothing. It’s a great approach.

2. Delegate tasks to your team. As a technical leader, you don’t have to handle everything yourself. Trust your team and give them responsibility for specific tasks. For you, it’s time to focus on the most important thing and, for others, an opportunity to develop and learn under your guidance.

Take care of physical activity

I weighed 80kg before I became a programmer or, more generally speaking, a “white-collar worker,” which for me means sitting on my butt at a desk for 8 hours or more. After a few years in IT, I weighed 106kg. My health declined, but what won’t I do to learn programming in Java(Script)?

Being overweight automatically made me feel worse, put me in a bad mood, and became very gloomy. This lethargy lasted a very long time until, at some point, the cup of bitterness overflowed. I started running. At first, I would instead call it walking through the forest. I wasn’t able to run a kilometer. I was devastated by my condition and at the same time, I hated my job and my life as well.

Fortunately, I have the stubbornness of Grzegorz Krychowiak, who, at all costs, wanted to play 100 matches for the Polish national team. Despite the pain and suffering, I started to run quite regularly. After two years, I ran my first half marathon. After three years, I managed to complete the Polish Half Marathon Crown (running five half marathons in one calendar year) and finish a marathon. When writing this text, I weigh 90kg and feel excellent. I have a massive zest for life and work, all because I moved my butt away from the computer!

I have developed the habit of daily physical activity (not every day is running), and thanks to this I have more energy. As the name suggests, the human movement system was created for movement. In jobs such as roofing, when I had to move roof tiles, I had free movement. In sedentary work, you have to take care of this movement yourself. Even if you are not overweight, sitting in front of a computer all day can feel bad.

How to introduce physical activity into your life:

• Don’t operate in 0/1 mode, i.e., I don’t move at all/I’m a marathon runner

• Start slowly: with one push-up, with a walk, with a jog

• Focus on regularity: after a few years, a daily morning walk will give better results than irregular exercises at the gym

Maintain healthy relationships

Relationships with other people usually either work for us well or poorly. Whether at work or in your personal life, it is crucial to maintain healthy relationships with others. Let’s focus on work. Have you worked with someone with whom you got along, had a great conversation, and worked great? Or maybe you were in a band with someone constantly irritating and driving you crazy?

I bet you’ve experienced both types of collaboration. We don’t like everyone and not everyone will work well with everyone, but what does that have to do with healthy relationships?

Zdrowy związek oznacza, że nawet jeśli kogoś nie lubisz, akceptujesz go i szanujesz. Dzięki temu możesz pracować i nie zwracać się przeciwko osobie. Dzięki temu nie będziesz się wypalać. Zdrowe relacje i pozytywne nastawienie. Ludzie są różni i dziwni, ale co by było, gdyby wszyscy byli identyczni z tobą lub, o zgrozo, jak ja?

What to do to avoid annoying others at work and be a nicer person:

• Stick a note on your monitor that says, “If you don’t have anything nice to say, keep quiet”

• Before you say something, count five in your head and think about what you want to say

• listen more and talk less

Find time for a break

Your body is your servant and your brain is your employee. Be a good boss and don’t drive them over like a Young boy did to his BMW e36 by sawing the engine recklessly. Such sawing ends with the tires bursting, the coolant temperature reaching the red zone and you having to call your brother-in-law to take it home.

Your brain and body will also signal that you are putting too much strain on them. The problem is that you need more time once you see these signals. If you ignore them, it’s even worse. It would be better if you regularly took breaks from work, stepped away from the computer, and went for a walk. Or he ate dinner in quiet.

Ways to take breaks at work:

• try the Pomodoro technique and take breaks from the computer every 25 minutes

• during a long Pomodoro break, give yourself some rest and occupy your brain with something else

• reserve time for a break in your calendar

Concentrate

Do you think multitasking works?

Leaders have a lot of responsibilities and such a job could be compared to a clown juggling balls. One ball is planning, another is birthing POC, and another is mentoring. Don’t laugh at the clown - he’s just faking standing still, and you, as the leader, still have to go to meetings in the meantime.

Days interspersed with various duties and meetings make you distracted. I have an exercise for you: remember what you did yesterday. Describe specifically what you did. If you can’t remember much, you’re immersed in multitasking.

Plan your day - make a list of things to do the day before

Have you heard of the Ivy Lee method? In short:

1. At the end of each day, you create a list of six tasks for the next day

2. The most critical task is at the top of the list, and the least important is at the bottom

3. You start a new day with the most important task

I started using this method a few months ago and it has helped me deal with the chaos that is attacking me from all sides. Once you have this list and you are working with it, it is essential that you focus on this list and more specifically, on the task you are currently implementing.

Eliminate distractions

Once you have your to-do list and are working on a specific item, focus only on that. Don’t look at email, don’t look at Slack. Just do what you have to do.

I’ll tell you something, a secret, just don’t tell anyone. E-mails will wait a few hours, as will Slack messages. You don’t have to answer everything immediately. As a rule, a work environment where everyone requires an immediate response from you is not conducive to… work.

Therefore, create an environment conducive to focus and, together with your team, find a way of working where everyone can work independently.

What can you do as a leader to create a work environment that promotes focus:

1. Set goals and priorities

2. Communicate them to the team

3. Suggest that your team set aside time for focused work

4. If possible, enter days without meetings

Summary

We discussed the role of habits in life and work. Minimal changes and improvements provide better long-term results than huge and exhausting changes. On the other hand, habits that have been with us for a long time make us go through our lives on autopilot without thinking about what we are doing.

The key to success is to gradually replace habits that hurt us with ones that will help us get more from life, be happier, and be more effective leaders.

I showed you some fundamental issues and habits that are worth taking care of, such as slowing down and reducing the number of responsibilities, taking care of physical activity, contact with nature and good relationships with other people.

Perhaps when you see texts about contact with nature, you feel discouraged and embarrassed and do not believe it changes anything. I get it because I didn’t believe in it either, just like I was a major hater of breathing exercises.

I came to believe such things because I got so worked up and burned out that I couldn’t look at my computer. Then something went wrong and the “new map of my life” loaded flawlessly and I believed in contact with nature, and I saw that it helped me.

It may be similar for you. You know, wise people are those who learn from their mistakes, and the most intelligent are those who can learn from the mistakes of others.

Finally, here are some books that are worth reading to delve deeper into the topic of changing habits:

• Kim Scott: Radical Candor

• Liz Wieseman: Multipliers How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter

• Clear James: Atomic Habits

• Nei Fiore: The Now Habit: A Strategic Program for Overcoming Procrastination and Enjoying Guilt-Free Play

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