Action Plan to Habit - MAC080

Last year, I covered the Individual Development Plan or IDP in a series of episodes.

In Episode 036 (https://www.managingacareer.com/36), I introduce the IDP and cover why it should be an important part of your career growth.

In Episode 037 (https://www.managingacareer.com/37) I describe the Vision and Roadmap sections of the IDP and how they represent the foundation for understanding where your career is headed.

Episode 038 (https://www.managingacareer.com/38) covers the Assessment and Next Role sections.  These sections break down which skills you will need in order to advance and how you rank against them.

Episode 039 (https://www.managingacareer.com/39) shows you how to build an Action Plan for reaching your goals and to document your Successes as you build the skills you need.

And I wrapped up the series in Episode 040 (https://www.managingacareer.com/40) where I explained the process of how you can integrate your IDP into your career discussions with your leader.

If you're like most people, the last time you thought about career goals was last year during your annual planning sessions.  But the purpose of the IDP is to help you take a high level career vision and break it down systematically ultimately into an action plan that you can make measurable progress against.  Career advancement isn't something that happens instantaneously, but instead is the culmination of a series of purposeful steps.  This week, I'd like to talk about how, by turning your Action Plan into daily habits, your career growth becomes almost automatic.

If you read books such as Atomic Habits by James Clear or The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg, they break habits down into three main components.

• A cue or trigger - something that sets the habit in motion.  An example might be the habit of brushing your teeth as part of your regular morning or nighttime routines -- the trigger being the time of day.
• A routine - this is the action that you want to become a habit.
• A reward - this is some sort of positive response that reinforces the routine action.

Your Action Plan should follow some sort of Goal framework.  Episode 047 (https://www.managingacareer.com/47) lists several common frameworks such as OKR - Objectives and Key Results, Backwards Goals, and SMART goals.

If you take the example from Episode 039 of "Improve my presentation skills" which I turned into a SMART goal of "give a 30-minute presentation in front of an audience of at least 30 people", you can turn this into a series of daily habits that help you build the skill and confidence to deliver the presentation.  With a goal of giving a 30-minute presentation, you could form a daily habit of creating a summary of every article that you read.  The cue or trigger would be reading an article.  The routine would be to write the summary.  The reward could be anything that encourages you to perform the routine.

As you work to create these habits, there are some things that you can do to increase your likelihood of the behavior becoming a true habit.  The first is that you can attach them to some of your existing habits.  For example, as you drink your first cup of coffee, you could attach a habit of reading an article -- that you later summarize.  If an existing habit is the trigger for the new habit, you are practicing "Habit Stacking".

The next thing you can do to increase the likelihood of forming a habit is to use some sort of system for tracking progress.  This could be as simple as the process made popular by Jerry Seinfeld.  Every time you complete the habit, mark the date on the calendar.  See how long you can build the chain of consecutive days performing the routine.  If you aren't a fan of that one, there are several habit tracking programs you can find in your phone's app store.

The third thing you can do to increase the chances of success is to keep the activity simple.  If it takes more than just a few minutes to perform the routine, you're more likely to skip it when time is tight.  Remove as many barriers as possible so that it's almost more convenient to perform the habit than it is to skip it.

As you start the process of breaking your Action Plan into daily habits, start with one.  It can be overwhelming to try to start multiple habits, so focus on one habit at a time.  Take advantage of some sort of reminder, whether that is built in to a tracking tool or posting sticky notes around your house.  And if possible, find an accountability partner who will check in on your habit-forming progress.

The key is to find small, repeatable steps that build towards the defined goal in your Action Plan.  By building these as daily habits you'll find that completing the goals gets easier.  If you would like a copy of my free IDP template, reach out to me via the Contact Form (https://www.managingacareer.com/contact/) on the ManagingACareer.com website and I will send you one. 

Are you looking for a career coach? If you reach out to me via the contact form, I will arrange an introductory session where we can talk about your career goals and how I can help. If we're a good fit, we can schedule regular coaching sessions.