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Let’s look at some common areas where our work habits may need to be reinforced. Good work habits require discipline and commitment, but they produce good work, good reputations, happy managers, career advancement, and good testimonies. So, it’s really important to stay on top of these things.
Working with Excellence
As I was teaching Genesis in my Sunday Bible study some time ago, I was very impressed with Joseph. Well, I’ve always been impressed with Joseph; he is definitely my kind of man. But did you ever think about how Joseph climbed the ladder in Egypt and achieved such outstanding success? It was because he was a very hard-working, very honest, very dependable person.
It reminded me again of the opportunity we have on our jobs to establish strong testimonies for our Lord Jesus Christ simply by our work habits. I’m certain Joseph also talked about his faith in his God, but his words would have been empty had he not established a flawless reputation for excellence and integrity.
What’s it like with you on your job? Have you let some of your good work habits slip? For example, the habit of being dependably on time every day. You may feel like it doesn’t make any difference whether you’re on time or not. Maybe most people aren’t, so you use that as an excuse. And that applies whether you work on site or not. If you are working from home and if there is an established start time, it’s important to honor that start time and be ready to go on time.
It’s easy to let yourself off the hook when you aren’t doing the right thing—finding someone or something to blame it on. But it’s really important to remind yourself that your work habits are sending messages about you every day on your job. And any of us can have a strong testimony for Jesus through our good work habits. There are no good excuses for being careless or sloppy or lazy or uncaring.
Remember this verse from Colossians:
Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, . . . since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving (Colossians 3:23-24).
That “whatever” includes even boring work. It includes work done for a difficult manager. It includes work done in difficult situations. But when we work with all our hearts for the Lord, we will receive a reward. It won’t go unnoticed.
Being Dependable
Dependability is one of the most important assets you can have on your job—or anywhere else. And everybody can be dependable! Are you careless about those little things? Do you make sure you do what you promise, and keep others informed when something goes wrong?
Have you ever scheduled someone to come do some work at your home, and they were either a no-show or arrived very late? No doubt they had some kind of an excuse for their lack of dependability, but how did that make you feel?
Now, obviously there are times when it becomes impossible for us to keep a commitment we’ve made. Something beyond our control has happened. But a dependable person will make sure to communicate as quickly as possible when that does happen. A phone call, a text, an email—it’s not usually difficult to let someone know that we’re going to miss a commitment. People are usually willing to give us a break if we simply keep them informed.
Even though you may be a very good worker, lack of attention to these kinds of details can cause you to have a reputation for being undependable. I’ve seen that happen to many people; they do good work, but they forget things too easily, don’t keep track of commitments, are poorly organized and structured so that things fall between the cracks too often. It’s not an attitude problem, but a problem with their work habits.
I don’t want to step on any toes, so to speak, but I just want to strongly reinforce the importance of good work habits, especially for those of us who are believers. I would hope that your co-workers know about your faith in Jesus Christ; they should. If they do and they observe some sloppy work habits on your part, they will have difficulty correlating your performance with your faith. And sometimes they’re looking for anything they can find to criticize you about, once they know you are a Christ-follower. Poor work habits give them an open door to do that.
Remember Paul’s admonition to the Corinthians:
Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful (1 Corinthians 4:2).
Whatever trust you’ve been given, make sure you are faithful and dependable. It will not only please others, but more importantly, it will please the Lord.
Staying On-Task
I have to confess that one of my work habit weaknesses is not staying on-task. I don’t sit still easily, do you? In the middle of one job, I think of something else that I need to do—or want to do, and if I’m not careful, I can end up flitting from one job to another without finishing anything. I really have to be very intentional about staying on-task. Maybe you do as well but remember that is a very good work habit.
Did you ever notice how you often interrupt yourself when you’re trying to get a job done? Sometimes we’re our worst enemies when it comes to time management. Paul told the Corinthians that ...everything should be done in a fitting and orderly way (1 Corinthians 14:40). I think that would include our work habits. So, check it out and see if you’re wasting time with self-interruptions.
Stick with the job until it’s finished. You know, I play little tricks on myself to avoid those self-interruptions. For example, when I’m writing—which seems like it’s always!—I’ll set up a reward for myself, like this: Okay, Mary, as soon as you get this much written, then you can get something to eat.
Now, that may sound silly to you, but I need gimmicks and self-rewards to keep me at a job, since I tend to jump from one thing to another very easily. That can make for very poor time management, so it’s one of the areas where I have to keep strong controls in place in order to use my time wisely.
Remember, your work habits matter to God. He cares about every area of your life, and he wants you to be a good steward of your time and energy. Make sure you stick with the job until it’s finished. That will make your job easier, and it will be a good testimony to those around you.
Imposing Self-Discipline
Proverbs 5:23 says a person can die for lack of discipline. And I believe that includes emotional, mental and physical death. If discipline is not a part of your work ethic, you’re missing out on some wonderful benefits that come with discipline.
Well, how do we impose discipline on ourselves? Here’s one example. If your job requires you to speak on the phone to people—like customers—regularly, you should realize that the tone of your voice will have a great impact on whether your interaction on the phone has good results. Did you know that if you smile when you speak, it changes the way you sound—it greatly improves it? If you don’t believe me, try it.
So, find a way to remind yourself to smile as you pick up that call. A sign, a mirror, a one-second breath you take before you answer—whatever. That’s what I mean by imposing discipline on yourself. You find ways to remind yourself to do what you need to do! Pretty simple actually.
Can you think of some area in your work habits where you tend to be undisciplined? Let me mention a few possibilities: Tardy too often, waste the last half hour of the workday, spend too much time in personal work, waste time surfing the internet, leaving things to the last minute too often, or maybe lack of needed organization. It may only be one small area where you have refused to be disciplined, but it will come back to bite you and cause you problems.
Proverbs tell us that a person who ignores discipline despises himself and eventually comes to poverty and shame. If you find it hard to be disciplined in some area, ask God to give you a way to impose the discipline on yourself that will help you be successful. Remember, a disciplined life brings glory to the Lord.
Refusing to Quit
When you have more to do than you can get done and when people continue to make unreasonable demands of you, it’s easy to throw up your arms in frustration and say, “Who needs this?!” If that’s where you are today, I want to encourage you to keep up your good work habits.
Talk to yourself; remind yourself that you’re only one person and you can only do one thing at a time. Focus on what you’re doing, not on what you’ve yet got to do. I find that if I’ll just stop thinking and talking about all I’ve got to do and do the thing that is at hand to do, chipping away at the workload, things start to get done. And usually, it’s not nearly as bad as I had imagined it to be.
Well, I strongly encourage you to evaluate your own work habits. If you find you’ve let some of them slide too often lately, make it a matter of daily prayer. Ask God to remind you and motivate you, and then set your will to follow through. People notice when you work hard with good discipline and dependability. It will help your career and people will be able to see Jesus in you more clearly.