Habit Forming

Time Saving Tips: Which Work Habits Are Important In Managing Time?

By Jim Hingst @hingst_jim 

Are you a creature of habit? Whether you want to admit it or not, everyone is.  According to behavioral scientists, we run our lives the majority of the time on autopilot. We all get into a routine of doing the same things, the same way, day in and day out.

Most of us associate habits with those bad behaviors that we all (unless you’re a saint) need to change. Not all habits, though, are bad. We make our lives more productive and prosperous, when we develop a few good habits.

Developing good habits, or breaking the bad ones, takes commitment and consistent effort. The process also requires that you do some soul-searching. In doing this self-evaluation, you need to evaluate your behavior and decide which old habits you want to keep, which you want to break, along with which new habits that you want to form.

If you take the time to go through this exercise, make a written list of these habits. Then get to work on making these changes in your behavior.

Changing habits may not be as hard as you may think, if you take on the task one day at a time. Repetition is the key. In sports, athletes repetitively perform an activity, such as a golf swing, over and over again until it becomes second nature. If the actively is performed perfectly in practice, game-time performance is quite often perfect.  Of course, if you perform an activity incorrectly repeatedly, the result is a bad habit.

The difference between winning and losing is often a matter of which player devoted more time in developing good behavioral habits. The same holds true in business.

Recovering alcoholics use repetition to break their addiction to alcohol.  Their key to recovery is staying sober and developing good habits as a substitute for drinking for a 28 day period.

Why repeating an activity for 28 or 30 days in a row is critical in forming a habit is beyond me. I just know that it works. If you don’t believe me give it a try.  Daily repetition of an activity for thirty days is an easy and surefire way to make good business behavior habit forming.  And it’s a sure way to improve your odds at being successful.

Good Work Habits to Develop

In the late 1970s, I worked for a general contractor as a construction manager.  At any one time, I scheduled the work for 10 to 20 commercial and residential building projects. Working in a job that involved planning and scheduling a myriad of activities and having to deal daily with dozens of distractions forced me to adopt work habits that are still part of daily ritual.  These habits include:

•        Get started early.  Getting to work before anyone else does will give you the quite time to organize your day and make progress on those special projects that require concentration.
•       Plan your day.  Before the distracting phone calls start, review your daily things to do list and prioritize your activities.  The operative word is “prioritize”. At the top of your list should be those activities that will help you achieve your most important professional goals. In business you should ask yourself: what can I turn into cash? At the bottom of your list should be busy work. These are the activities that are not critical to the success of your business, and are not urgent.
•     Act on your list of priorities. After you prioritize your list and determine what’s most important, do the toughest task first. That way, you won’t be distracted wasting time doing the unimportant tasks.

Establishing good work habits is important in managing your time. In a matter of a couple of hours, you can learn the principles of any time management system.  That’s the easy part.  The difficult part is to take action and put all of those techniques into practice.

The key words are “take action” and “practice”.  It does you no good to read a great idea and not do anything about. So if you learn something new, do something about it. And if you want to make these behaviors a regular part of your life, practice these behaviors daily. To turn these behaviors into habits, you have to practice them every single day, without fail, for at least a month. After that, the behavior will be part of your routine. 

Vinyl Application Videos

Squeegee Technique. Nothing is more basic in vinyl application than the squeegee. But some squeegees work better than others. And there are right ways and wrong ways to use this simple tool. This video clip reviews squeegee selection, squeegee care and squeegee technique. Click to Link

Wet Applications. Dry applications are typically recommended for most vinyl applications. For those exceptions to the rule, this instructional video explains the right way to perform a wet application. Click to Link

Application of Window Graphics. Installing vinyl graphics on glass can be challenging, because the adhesive aggressively grabs onto this high energy surface. Repositioning graphics on window is generally difficult, if not impossible. This instructional video explains how to dry apply window graphics right the first time. It also describes the necessary steps required for surface preparation. Click to Link

Transferring Frosted Window Graphics Films.  Because frosted window films are highly textured, transferring cut vinyl graphics can be problematic. This video provides direction in selection of the right application tape and how to apply these films quickly, easily and without problems. Click to Link

3-Step Surface Prep. This instructional video describes how to properly clean the surface of a vehicle before applying pressure sensitive vinyl graphics to a trailer or doing a full wrap of a car or van. This three step surface prep involves detergent washing, solvent cleaning and a final wipe down with IPA. Click to Link

Vinyl Application Over Rivets. Applying vinyl graphics on vehicle surfaces with rivets is challenging for most sign makers. Vinyl failures to these surfaces are all too common. This video demonstrates some tips and procedures, used by professional decal installers, which will make these demanding applications easier and more trouble-free.  Click to Link

Vinyl Application to Corrugations. Learn how to apply vinyl graphics to corrugations in a relaxed state. Forcing films into the valleys of corrugations puts too much mechanical stress on the film. Sooner or later, the vinyl will lift or tent in valleys. Click to Link

Applying Air Egress Vinyls. Vinyl films with air egress release liners have almost eliminated bubbles and wrinkles from applied graphics. Air egress release liners with their highly textured surface structure are problematic. Not much will stick to these liners other than the vinyl film. At RTape our best premask solution for air egress liners is a special Conform® tape called 4761RLA. Click to Link

About Jim Hingst: After fourteen years as Business Development Manager at RTape, Jim Hingst retired. He was involved in many facets of the company’s business, including marketing, sales, product development and technical service.

Hingst began his career 42 years ago in the graphic arts field creating and producing advertising and promotional materials for a large test equipment manufacturer.  Working for offset printers, large format screen printers, vinyl film manufacturers, and application tape companies, his experience included estimating, production planning, purchasing and production art, as well as sales and marketing. In his capacity as a salesman, Hingst was recognized with numerous sales achievement awards.

Drawing on his experience in production and as graphics installation subcontractor, Hingst provided the industry with practical advice, publishing more than 150 articles for  publications, such as  Signs Canada, SignCraft,  Signs of the Times, Screen Printing, Sign and Digital Graphics and  Sign Builder Illustrated. He also posted more than 325 stories on his blog (hingstssignpost.blogspot.com). In 2007 Hingst’s book, Vinyl Sign Techniques, was published.  Vinyl Sign Techniques is available at sign supply distributors and at Amazon. 

Slides of Jim's Artwork

© 2016 Jim Hingst