5 tips for real habit change in your business…

Changing habits is not easy and requires repeated experiments and failures over time.

Let’s look at how you and your team manage the emails received in a working day.

If your team are used to answering emails as soon as they arrive in their inbox, then changing this to designated time slots throughout the day will be hard.

BUT… they will find the work they do in between will be more beneficial (the reward) as they are not being constantly interrupted.

They will also realise that most emails can, in fact, wait...

1. Choose a new habit – choose just one to start your journey. For example have your team schedule time in the diary for responding to emails.

2. Identify the old habit you want to replace with the new habit. Do you and your team check your emails or your phone too often? What do you want to change?

3. Identify the reward you get from your old routine.

You know you are on top of your emails when you are checking them all of the time and not missing anything. This is rewarding…

but checking them all the time is not productive. Look for new rewards in the new habit – for example the time between scheduled email checking will be more focused and productive. This helps you manage the change and the reward is still there.

4. Identify the cue for your existing routine.

Ask yourself questions to identify the cues for your existing habit – realising the cue will allow you to know what to change. For example, turn off your email notifications if they make a sound – that way you are not aware that the email has arrived and are therefore not tempted to break from the new routine and look at it.

5. Kick start your new habit with a plan, set aside diary time to look at your emails and make sure you stick to it – don’t schedule meetings or other appointments over it – this will keep you from looking at your emails in non-diary time...

And finally – good luck!