These Success Habits Will Ensure You Thrive At A New Job

It’s been proven that the success habits included in your morning routine at work — or the lack thereof — can greatly impact your mood, productivity, and overall success on the job. And while having a great pre-arrival self-care ritual is great, you’ll need to determine an in-office routine for starting your day, too, especially if you’re new to the gig.

“The first few weeks of a new job can really set the tone for the next chapter of your career,” Lori Castillo Martinez, executive vice president of talent, growth and development at Salesforce told CNBC Make It.

Here’s how to literally put your best foot forward so that you can confidently step into your new role and sustain success while there:

This can include chair stretches, reciting quick affirmations or meditations, grazing over emails, or catching up on any information that might be helpful in getting tasks done.

“It’s not always easy, but thinking one day at a time and setting small goals for each day really helps me to get to the big picture stress-free,” stylist Sarah Slutsky told Coveteur. “The morning is a great time to peek at your to-do list and remind yourself what’s a must-do for today that you can accomplish solo and what other obstacles might still be in place for big-picture ideas.”

For that first month, try to follow whatever routine you’ve chosen as closely as possible so it can set a tone of organization first. Then adjust accordingly once you get into a comfortable groove at work. If each week (or day) becomes different, that’s OK, but there should be at least one standard activity each day that doesn’t change, no matter what time you end up doing it in the morning.

“Coffee is the only constant in my morning routine,” author Gina Martin told Refinery 29 in an interview. “I’ll deal with my emails, there’s always a bunch in the morning that I bat back and forth with my lawyer, then I’ll make a list and prioritize three or four things I need to do that day. It really helps me focus and feel more in control of my day.

You can do this by reviewing the job duties and writing down what you hope to accomplish for the week based on that. You should also get inquisitive with your manager. Lori recommended that newbies ask about the timing of team meetings and what internal systems you should be prioritizing mastering.

Be sure to observe and listen, especially when it comes to figuring out the people to associate with and the office culture. Make kind connections and smile, but get to know the vibes before diving deep into talking about your life and goals.

“It’s not time to have a strong opinion. Be friendly, meet people, smile, and listen,” Mark Strong, a life, career, and executive coach told Business Insider.

Mark added that your first few weeks are great for getting to know your manager’s or department’s overall goals and to learn more about top projects to get big-picture perspective.

You might be new to the job but not knew to what to takes to do the job well, so put that knowledge to use and create a few desk and communications systems that save you time and stress. 

For example, if you know you’ll constantly have to respond to inquiries or industry-standard emails that will consistently dominate your inbox, create email templates for responses. Let’s say you work in HR and you’re often tasked with onboarding new talent. Build an email template that welcomes new hires, includes appropriate information for log-ins, signing up for benefits or important deadlines, as well as attachments for relevant files they should keep. Figure out the emails that you get tired of typing from scratch and create templates that you can simply tailor for the recipient via small tweaks when needed. 

If you’re dealing with project management, compliance, or other tasks, use relevant tech tools that will make the administrative aspects of those processes easier (and be sure they’re within company policy in terms of their use.) If you’re not using project management platforms like Trello or Asana, look into how you can incorporate them in order to make transitioning into your role that much easier.