Everyone in the workplace, despite their status, position, and role, has some bad and good workplace habits. The good ones are those that you want to keep, and the bad habits at work are those that you want to get rid of as soon as possible.
However, first we need to know what good work habits are. The next step is to identify all the positive habits to have at the workplace. Finally, we will cover the essential steps to maintain all the good patterns.
What are Workplace Habits?
Work habits, in short, are repetitive actions that we get used to and follow these patterns subconsciously in the office or during work-from-anywhere. For example:
- Slumping your bag down at the same spot after clocking in.
- Wishing a good morning to your favorite manager.
- Checking off emails first thing in the morning.
- Complaining for 30 minutes about how your designated work is the worst.
However, not all good workplace habits add value to the vision of the organization for which you work. Definitely not the last one. So, which ones do? Those are all the 32 habits that we will discuss in today’s blog.
Read Also: What is Per Diem Work? A Guide to Flexible Staffing & Payments
The Importance of Keeping Good Workplace Habits
It is important to keep good work habits for your own good. These patterns in workplace management help you get recognized and provide opportunities to grow and learn. Plus, it’s also good for your professional reputation as colleagues start relying on you because you say yes to any query, whenever possible.
Overall, keeping and improving these habits also helps you become more efficient and productive at work. All these combined add more value to the ultimate goal of the organization you are working for. However, you must be asking, what’s in it for me? Here are the benefits you get.
- Rewards and recognition
- Recommendations
- Promotions or priority in promotion list
- Salary hikes
32 Must-Have Good Workplace Habits for Your Employees
Make your workday more productive
Time tracking and work management can help you reach your goals
faster.
As we mentioned before, not all the habitual patterns are good for you or the overall vision of the business you are working for. However, the 32 must-have good work habits examples we have here are.
1. Proactiveness & Anticipation
Simply put, be alert and focused. It’s a good practice to be able to foresee the problems ahead and be ready to adapt or have a solution prepared. A good tip here is to quickly jot down all the possible outcomes for the current work you are doing. That way, you will have no issues proactively solving the issue.
2. Punctuality
Being punctual goes beyond clocking in on or before time. That part only shows some of your discipline. However, the complete picture of this workplace habit includes listening to your superior, actively participating in meetings, and overall being physically and mentally present at the workplace.
3. Effective Communication
Talk, talk, and talk. That’s all there is to it. You need to ensure that your idea is understood loud and clear. However, knowing when, what, and with whom to converse is crucial. You don’t want to be tagged a nuisance.
4. Don’t Hesitate to Ask for Help
It’s okay to not understand something at work. Most people don’t ask for help due to the fear of being scolded, belittled, embarrassed, or being told that they don’t even understand such a basic thing. However, asking for help only shows that you are willing to learn and grow. Besides, no one is born perfect. Remember this whenever you hesitate to ask for help.
5. Take Criticism Positively
If your workplace takes its employees seriously, your boss will ensure to point out your mistakes or if there’s something that you can improve (in front of everyone, if they are not human). However, taking this criticism positively and trying your hardest to do better will only help you learn and grow.
6. Maintain Work-Life Balance
If you bring your work home, that is bad as it can cause a clash within your family. On the other hand, if you bring your errands to work, that is also bad because you will not be able to focus on work. So, make a rule for yourself that before clocking in and after clocking out, your organization doesn’t belong to you, and you don’t belong to it. It’s as simple as that.
7. Stay Organized
Staying organized not only clears your desk but also your mind. Also, when you have your priorities straight, it helps you complete your work on time, be flexible enough to adjust, and get you good recognition and reputation. Plus, it also improves work-life balance as there is hardly any need for overtime. However, staying organized is easier said than done. We recommend using the best productivity monitoring software to identify work gaps and streamline workflows.
8. Teamwork
As we mentioned before, or not, you might have personal grudges against some colleagues, or you may have a hatred towards one or two of them for no reason at all. However, work-life balance is important, so put those aside and work together to achieve the common goal. This strengthens the professional bond, which further gives you the will and engagement for teamwork.
9. Respect Deadlines
One of the great work habits for workers to keep is to respect deadlines. These due dates are not there for show and tell. Everyone is busy, and so are your clients and their customers. So, it’s your responsibility and accountability to get quality work done on time. Although deadlines are flexible, misusing this stretchability will only stop your career growth due to the gear in your reputation rapidly downshifting.
10. No Overthinking
Overthinking or procrastination is due to the mindset of doing everything perfectly. However, when you do that, you just keep thinking for too long, and when you are ready to work, you have less time left, which leads to you working under immense pressure, depleting work quality. Here are a few ways to get rid of procrastination.
- Work first, think later.
- Use time management techniques such as time blocking to work with full concentration.
- Listen to soft focus music.
- Overestimate timing
11. Be Detail-Oriented
You must have heard people tell you to pay attention to details. However, what does that mean? This is one of those good work habits for employees that tells you to focus on the important, specific information related to any work or task. For instance, some clients will want a specific format in their blog, so paying attention to this detail will ensure that there is less back and forth before the work gets approved.
12. No Gossiping
Gossiping is rude. That’s true even if you are gossiping about someone who is not present. Plus, you have no idea who is loyal to whom. Simply put, office politics. Besides, it is time-wasting and also decreases your focus on work.
13. Don’t Say No
Saying yes to everything opens new opportunities to grow your career. If you are already good at something, you will get better at it. However, if your manager asks you to do something that you are not good at, rephrase your answer as “I can do this task if you help me learn.”
14. Dress to Impress
This good workplace habit doesn’t mean that you have to dress to work like you are the president of your country. However, a little elegance will go a long way. Dress formally for office jobs, groom yourself, and wear according to the environment. It’s all about having a good first impression.
15. Plan Your Day
Although you need to expect and prepare for the unexpected every workday, planning your day helps you organize your time and set a workflow. This way, you are more flexible and any unexpected workloads don’t come as a shock, as you are easily able to adjust them into your work bracket.
16. Align with Business Goals
Remember that you are working for your organization and not the other way around. So, when you are within your work slot, doing all the tasks according to how they add value to the business gets you recognized. Besides, who said you have a choice?
17. Never Stop Learning
This is essential in the modern work world, where technology is rapidly advancing. Everything gets upgraded and updated unexpectedly to meet the ever-changing market needs. So, to keep advancing in your career, you must stay updated and adaptable.
18. Use Habit Tracking Apps
Habit tracking apps are proven tools that help keep good work habits in the workplace. These tools have features for you to get rewarded for a good habit streak and get penalized for a bad habit streak. Plus, they are also good for tracking your progress towards getting habitual to good patterns.
19. Conflict Resolution
Just like all fingers of your hand are not the same size, every member of the team has a different personality and perspective. This can result in conflict. However, we know that you will come up with a permanent solution to this as a team player.
20. Work Integrity
Consistency in work is as important as anything else. It helps you maintain work integrity and improves quality over time, too. That’s all there is to it.
21. Improve Emotional Intelligence
Emotional intelligence, or EQ, helps you understand others, how they work, and their perspectives. Improving your EQ also helps you identify pain points and resolve issues.
22. Respect Others’ Time
As we mentioned before, time is valuable. Everyone only has fixed hours to get things done and head home. So, if you have something you need help with, ask for help when others have time for it. If you respect others’ time, it adds another plus to your reputation, time management skills, and career growth opportunities.
23. Have a Meeting Agenda
Meetings are there to get something fruitful out of everyone. However, instead, what happens is that HR, mostly employees, use this time as a personal get-together. Even if they don’t, meetings always go off track due to work-related discussions that are not worth it, or the start and end of meetings being completely unrelated. So, having an agenda will ensure that no time is wasted.
24. Save Your Presentations
Not everyone is present in all meetings. This can be due to not clocking in or some urgent work. This is true, especially for your work-from-anywhere employees. Thus, it’s a good idea to take screenshots and record your presentations so that you don’t get bamboozled with questions. Besides, this is also good for learning purposes.
25. Problem Solving
This shows how willing you are to help your organization reach its goals. So, if you have a bright idea, tell it practically to the person who can implement it. For example, if you think that you can save 30 minutes by removing a few steps in the workflow, converse how it works as soon as possible.
26. Make Extra Efforts
Another way to get recognized and grow in your career is to put in extra effort wherever you can. Go the extra mile to advance and stabilize your career security. Having this good workplace habit also shows you as a hard-working person. However, remember not to overburden yourself because of it.
27. Challenge Yourself
There is no limit to what you can learn these days. Challenging yourself will let you know where you stand and how big the room for improvement is. Continuously doing so will make the room shorter and shorter over time, until you feel the need to apply for a better role.
28. Be a Leader
This is relevant mostly for managers, team leaders, and executives. Be a leader that everyone is comfortable with and can rely on. To define, a good leader is a part of the team and never shifts the blame. To read more about the difference between a leader and a boss, click below to read our blog.
29. Know Your Accomplishments
Know what you have accomplished over the years in your career. For freshers, educational qualifications and extracurriculars count. This helps you identify your strengths and weaknesses. All you need to do now is improve your strengths and convert your weaknesses into strengths.
30. Active Listening
One of the productive work habits is active listening. Communication must always be two-way, especially with those who know more than you in your field. Listen, pay attention to details, and note them down when someone is talking to you. This shows respect and again helps with career growth.
31. Admit Mistakes
Similar to taking criticism positively, it’s also crucial for you to admit your mistakes. It’s the first step to improving yourself at work and in life. Be accountable and responsible for everything that you do. Trust us, it benefits you more in the long run. For example, doing this lets you know the possible mistakes that your teams may make when you are promoted, so you will be ready to help them whenever it’s needed.
32. Distraction Management
Distraction and focus never go hand in hand. So, you need to get rid of one of them. It’s definitely not the latter. So to reduce or eliminate distractions, you can try doing these few things as workplace habits.
- Wear noise-cancellation headphones.
- Stay away from gossip.
- Say no to colleagues who try to talk nonsense to you during your urgent work.
- Avoid noisy snacking.
Read Also: 10 Best Payroll Software in India for 2025
Steps to Keep Your Good Workplace Habits
So, now we know all about the 32 must-have work habits. However, is there anything we can do to build them over time? Fortunately, you are in luck, as we designed this 5-step formula that is suitable for everyone.
1. Identify Your Work Habits
First, you need to spot your work patterns. For example, the tasks you do in the morning. We recommend noting them down somewhere safe.
2. Filter Them Into Good & Bad
Now, you need to categorize all these habits as good and bad. Your goal now should be to get rid of all the bad patterns.
3. Start Putting a Habit Tracker to Use
As we mentioned before, use one of the habit tracker apps to track how often you repeat positive and negative habits. This way, you will be able to gradually get rid of bad habits and keep all the great work habits.
4. Don’t Overburden Yourself
If you forget to check off your habit list or use the habit monitoring application for a day or two, it’s fine. You don’t want to get addicted to it and experience frustration and burnout.
5. Track Your Progress
Finally, it’s important to track your progress and know how much you have improved. At this stage, you have to adjust the methods if you are not getting the desired results.
Master Your Workflow with DeskTrack
Now that we have all 32 good workplace habits down, we also need to start working while keeping these around. However, how will you know if you are getting desirable results? DeskTrack has been designed to do just that. With the tool’s advanced project management features, you can track workflows and progress in real-time to get real results that drive productivity. To back you up, it also provides intuitive employee monitoring features, such as screenshot monitoring, to streamline workflows with automatic time tracking to maximize focus and efficiency. Try now, and realize why 8000+ organizations are using it already to master their workflows to success.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Q. What are Workplace Habits?
Ans. Work habits, in short, are repetitive actions that we get used to and follow these patterns subconsciously in the office or during work-from-anywhere.
Q. What is a Positive Work Habit?
Ans. Positive work habits are all the good things you do in and around your work to ensure success for yourself and your teams. These usually add value to common goals in the organization.
Q. What is the Importance of Keeping Good Workplace Habits?
Ans. It is important to keep good work habits for your own good. These patterns in workplace management help you get recognized and provide opportunities to grow and learn. Plus, it’s also good for your professional reputation as colleagues start relying on you because you say yes to any query, whenever possible. Overall, keeping and improving these habits also helps you become more efficient and productive at work.
Q. How Do You Explain the 7 Habits of a Highly Effective Employee?
Ans. Every employee must have these 32 great work habits to be highly effective.
- Proactiveness & Anticipation
- Punctuality
- Effective Communication
- Don’t Hesitate to Ask for Help
- Take Criticism Positively
- Maintain Work-Life Balance
- Stay Organized
- Teamwork
- Respect Deadlines
- No Overthinking
- Be Detail-Oriented
- No Gossiping
- Don’t Say No
- Dress to Impress
- Plan Your Day
- Align with Business Goals
- Never Stop Learning
- Use Habit Tracking Apps
- Conflict Resolution
- Work Integrity
- Improve Emotional Intelligence
- Respect Others’ Time
- Have a Meeting Agenda
- Save Your Presentations
- Problem Solving
- Make Extra Efforts
- Challenge Yourself
- Be a Leader
- Know Your Accomplishments
- Active Listening
- Admit Mistakes
- Distraction Management
Q. How to Keep Your Good Workplace Habits?
Ans. You will need these proven steps.
- Identify Your Work Habits
- Filter Them Into Good & Bad
- Start Putting a Habit Tracker to Use
- Don’t Overburden Yourself
- Track Your Progress
