5 Terrible Habits You Need to Stop Immediately

1. Do Not Answer Calls from Unrecognized Numbers

First, the interruption will throw your concentration, costing you far more in time and brain power than just the conversation itself, and second, if it’s important, you’ll find yourself in a poor negotiating position, scrambling to formulate your thoughts when the caller is already well prepared. Instead, use Google Voice to check your messages or a service like PhoneTag to have them sent to you as email.


2. Do Not Email First Thing in the Morning or Last Thing at Night

The former scrambles your priorities and all your plans for the day and the latter just gives you insomnia. Email can wait until 10am or after you check off at least one substantive to-do list item.

3. Do Not Agree to Meetings or Calls With No Clear Agenda or End Time

If the desired outcome is defined clearly… and there’s an agenda listing topics–questions to cover–no meeting or call should last more than 30 minutes, so request them in advance so you can ‘best prepare and make good use of our time together.

4. Do Not Let People Ramble

Sounds harsh, but it’s necessary. Small talk takes up big time. So when people start to tell you about their weekends, cut them off politely with something like “I’m in the middle of something, but what’s up?

But be aware, not everyone agrees with this one (and certainly not in every situation), and you may want to pay particularly close attention to norms around chit chat when traveling internationally.

5. Do Not Check Email Constantly

Batch it and check it only periodically at set times. Your inbox is analogous to a cocaine pellet dispenser. Don’t be an addict. Tools like strategic use of the auto responder and Boomerang can help.

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