For many of us, our routines set the tone for each day, from how we feel to how well our work goes. Adopting smart daily habits can be especially helpful for tech professionals, who are often faced with lengthy to-do lists and complex work. In the course of their careers, tech leaders learn and develop the kinds of practices that lead to success in a challenging profession.
Part of the role of a tech leader is to model and encourage habits that foster productivity, innovation and professional growth among their team members. Below, 20 members of Forbes Technology Council share the daily routines and strategies they encourage their teams to build and the positive impact they’ve seen these practices achieve.
1. Prioritizing Self Development
Every morning, before you open your email inbox, spend some time reading and learning. Once you’ve opened your inbox, you’ll be dealing with the urgent things you need to deal with, rather than spending time on what is important and valuable. – Noam Mizrahi, Marvell
2. Taking Notes Before Closing Tickets
Don’t just close tickets; take good notes on what was wrong, what you tried and what eventually worked. This simple practice boosts self-awareness; promotes shared, continuous learning; and encourages proactive problem solving. Over time, it leads to more efficient troubleshooting and faster resolutions for the entire team. – Rob Tillman, Copy Chief©
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3. Taking Time Today To Prep For Tomorrow
One daily habit I always encourage is the “20-minute wind-down.” Before wrapping up the day, I ask my team to spend 20 minutes reviewing what they’ve done and planning for tomorrow. It sounds simple, but this reflection and foresight help iron out potential issues and set a clear path for the next day. – Arun Kumar, Revature
4. Building Intentional Relationships With Colleagues
People don’t care what you know until they know that you care. It’s easy to become inundated in information overload and get stuck behind a series of words on a screen. Being deliberate about taking time out to foster relationships with your team and colleagues stimulates real connections, and those connections drive buy-in to the common goal. – Ajay Khari, Meltwater
5. ‘Eating The Frog’
“Eat the frog” first thing in the morning. Make sure you take care of your most important task or priority before the day (emails, meetings and so on) starts. You’ll be amazed at how effective you are when you’re not worrying the entire day about finishing what you really need to finish. It’s already done! – Lewie Dunsworth, Nuspire
6. Exercising
Exercise every day—not just your mind, but your body. Exercise clears the mind, refreshes the spirit and gives your brain the space it needs away from work. Our team is more productive because we give ourselves the time and space to focus on being active. – Rohana Meade, Synergy Technical
7. Taking Risks
Take risks, and dare to fail. We like to say, “We can fix what you do; we cannot fix what you don’t.” Encourage your team to embrace failure as an opportunity to learn and explore better ideas and solutions. If you are always successful, did you push hard enough to find the answer no one else was looking for? Just solving the problem is boring; find the real answers by learning. – Jim Parkinson, North American Bancard
8. Remembering The Team’s Mission
Being a team implies that each member agrees to pursue an aspirational goal. The goal is bigger than what any single member can achieve individually. One daily habit I encourage with my team members is to remember our mission. The mission is a lifestyle. Regular reminders help us to achieve that. It allows us to weather the ups and downs of tech challenges, people conflicts, health issues and so on. – Altaz Valani, DevSecOpsMentor.com
9. Cultivating Curiosity
The tech space is always changing, so I encourage my team to cultivate their curiosity to promote an ongoing culture of learning. Within this environment, team members are motivated to stay informed about ever-evolving technologies and keep their skills up to date. Exposure to new ideas can positively impact team members and the business by inspiring creative thinking and driving innovation. – Todd Fisher, CallTrackingMetrics
10. Participating In Hackathons
Technology changes rapidly, and it is important for the team to stay abreast of the changes. However, being “in-the-know” is not enough. Unless new information is put to use, it will be “out of sight, out of mind.” I encourage team members to get into hackathon sessions and produce tangible results that can be showcased to customers. The approach creates a sense of ownership and accomplishment in the team. – Nagaraj Sastry, Trianz Digital Consulting Inc
11. Taking Time To Consider Your Users
Take time to consider your users every day. We get caught up in personal, team and corporate objectives and our day-to-day tasks, and those are certainly important. But at least once per day, you should give some time and consideration to your users. How are internal and external forces changing their experiences? Is there something you could do today that would drive positive change for them? – Patti Mikula, Hackworks Inc.
12. Reading About The Industry (A Lot)
The current speed of change and advancements in the technology arena is unprecedented. To survive, you really must read a lot (“bedtime reading”) and expose yourself to various new papers and articles that cover new trends. This has become a key learning habit these days. Beyond that, get into the habit of talking with your peers and attending various tech events around you. Things move fast! – Nir Kaldero, NEORIS / CEMEX
13. Honing Tech Skills
Tech leaders must push their teams to hone their tech skills every day. Today, tech skills are becoming obsolete quicker than ever. Staying abreast of emerging technologies is fundamental to everyone, not just those in tech roles. By engendering a learner’s mindset, tech leaders and their teams can begin closing the skills gaps that stifle innovation within their organizations. – Aaron Skonnard, Pluralsight
14. Pursuing Fresh Knowledge And Insights
As a tech leader, integrating continuous learning into your daily routine is key to staying up-to-date with rapid tech advancements. By setting aside time for reading, subscribing to industry-specific newsletters, participating in online forums or even engaging in short daily tech podcasts, you can help ensure that you’re consistently exposed to fresh insights and evolving best practices. – Rachel Lyubovitzky, Setuply, Inc.
15. Carefully Managing Time
Effective time management is one everyday habit I encourage my IT team members to practice. This habit boosts productivity, decreases stress, improves focus, ensures deadlines are met, improves work-life balance and promotes professional development. It enables colleagues to make the most of their working hours while also contributing to the success of the team and the business. – Neelima Mangal, Spectrum North
16. Automating One Repetitive Task
Automate one task away every day. Too often, our staff gets annoyed by performing simple, repetitive tasks, such as double data entry, resetting a user password twice or clicking on duplicated confirmation emails. Reducing this busy work often seems like too much of a hassle; however, it can significantly improve the quality of life for an employee. – Kevin Korte, Univention
17. Reviewing Code And Doing QA Checks
Conducting daily code reviews and quality assurance checks can help uphold high coding standards and guarantee the delivery of error-free software. This habit has a positive impact on the team’s productivity and the quality of the product. It prevents issues from piling up and becoming major roadblocks later in the development cycle. – Cristian Randieri, Intellisystem Technologies
18. Creating Concise Agendas For Every Meeting
As a tech leader, I emphasize the importance of concise, agenda-driven meetings—meetings that are only held when necessary, not habitually. This habit ensures we use our time judiciously, preventing meeting fatigue and allowing for more uninterrupted deep work, which is vital in the tech landscape. – Amitkumar Shrivastava, Fujitsu
19. Experimenting With Generative AI
I encourage my team to use ChatGPT or other generative AI tools. The possibilities of this technology are truly remarkable. The more individuals are able to familiarize themselves with these tools, the more efficient and prepared they will be as generative AI continues to become further ingrained into our daily lives and workflows. – Gleb Polyakov, Nylas
20. Checking In With The Team
I know these aren’t exactly “popular,” but we have daily 5-minute check-ins that work well. We make it a hard 5 minutes, and team members talk about what they’ve accomplished, what they’re currently working on and what help they might need. This has been especially helpful for our developers, who can get stuck in the weeds. – Jordan Yallen, MetaTope
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