We often think of habits as small, insignificant actions. But, have you ever wondered if your unconscious habits might be the very things holding you back? As a recruiter or professional in sales, your daily routine is driven by habits, both good and bad. And whether you realise it or not, they have a profound impact on your results.
Let’s dive into how unconscious habits can shape your performance, and more importantly, how to take control of them for better outcomes.
What Are Habits?
Habits are repetitive actions that become second nature due to the neural pathways our brains form. These pathways make it easy for our brain to perform tasks with minimal effort, but not all habits are beneficial. Your brain doesn’t distinguish between good and bad habits—it simply opts for the most energy-efficient route.
Why Changing Habits is Hard
Changing habits is tough because it requires rewiring those well-worn neural pathways. Learning something new forces the brain to create new pathways, which takes energy and effort. This is why forming new habits or breaking old ones feels so hard—you’re fighting against the brain’s desire to be lazy.
The 3 Phases of Changing Habits:
- Conscious Struggle: This is the most challenging phase. You have to consciously force yourself to do things differently. It’s tiring and often where most people give up.
- Becoming Easier: New pathways begin to form, and the action starts to feel more natural. However, it’s still conscious and requires focus.
- Automatic: The habit becomes ingrained, and you do it without thinking, like brushing your teeth or tying your shoes.
Common Unconscious Habits
To better understand how habits run your day, consider these:
- How you put on your shoes: Left sock first, then right? It’s probably the same every day.
- Drying off after a shower: The method is likely unique to you but done the same way every day.
- Brushing your teeth: Do you start in the same spot every time? Most people do.
These are simple tasks, but they highlight the autopilot mode your brain switches to. Imagine how this plays out in your professional life.
How Unconscious Habits Impact Your Work
In recruitment, habits play a significant role in how you perform daily tasks. For example:
- Interviewing: You likely have a set process that you follow without much thought.
- Closing candidates: There’s probably a routine method you use for each deal.
- Reaching out to candidates: Do you have a consistent approach, or are you winging it?
You may not realise it, but there are likely habits driving these tasks, whether they’re optimised or not.
How to Optimise Your Professional Habits
Now, let’s take a look at how you can assess and improve the habits that drive your day-to-day work. To do this, apply these four lenses to any routine task.
1. Can This Be Done Better?
Look at your process. Could your scripts be improved? Could the sequence of your messaging be more effective? Are there attachments or hooks that could be added to increase engagement?
2. Can This Be Done Faster or More Efficiently?
Could you automate part of the process, or delegate it to a team member? Efficiency is key to streamlining your workflow.
3. Is This the Best Time to Do It?
Timing matters. Are you sending messages at the best time for engagement? Should you adjust when certain tasks are done based on when you get the best responses?
4. Should I Do More, Less, or the Same?
Is this habit truly valuable, or is it just something you’ve always done? If it’s effective, consider doing more. If not, it might be time to scale back or stop altogether.
The Easy Path to Success: Building Better Habits
When you build good habits, you make your brain’s “lazy” tendencies work for you. The key to hacking your productivity lies in turning beneficial behaviours into automatic habits. This frees up mental energy and brainpower for more strategic thinking.
A Simple Challenge: Pick One Habit to Improve
To start optimising your habits, pick one small task that you do regularly. If you’re a recruiter, consider your candidate reach-out process. If you’re in sales, pick a task you perform frequently, such as sending emails or follow-ups.
Assess the task through the four lenses above and make any necessary adjustments. Whether it’s tweaking your scripts, improving your timing, or increasing efficiency, small changes to your habits can have a big impact on your results.
Final Thoughts
Your habits are the foundation of your success. If you want to improve your results, you need to start by identifying the unconscious habits that are holding you back and make deliberate changes. By pushing through the discomfort of forming new habits, you’ll unlock a more productive and successful version of yourself.
It’s all about building habits that work for you, not against you! So, what habit will you change today?
