You know those super early meetings where each worker takes turns in standing up and reciting things they did yesterday – But no one really pays attention, it turns into a giant snorefest, and feels kinda pointless? Sounds familiar?
And you already know who’s behind on what because they Slacked you about it last night at 11. How is this still called collaboration?
Some of these workplace habits survived remote work because no one could be bothered to replace them. But the fact is that they don’t work anymore. What’s the point of infinite check-ins, 5-min team meetings that end up being half an hour long but could’ve been an email. Or daily lists/reports we need to sit down, fill/write, and then send to your manager or boss.
It’s 2025, it’s time to leave the outdated tasks behind. It’s slowing you down, it isn’t THAT effective (if at all) and to be frank – it’s annoying.
This is why, in this article, we’ll go over some super common work habits that YOU still probably do, but they make no sense.
There are SO many tools today readily available, easy-to-use – especially for businesses. Before, such tools were scarce and they were expensive. Today? There is something for everything, and a lot of them have free plans (limited, but still super useful).
A great example is AI for video generation which you can use, beyond the obvious, for team-level collaboration and communication. By adding just one tool to your workflow, you’re making a significant portion of your work easier, plus it also opens the door to other opportunities previously unavailable.
And the main villain of this story is habit. Just before you’re in your comfort zone, you’re refusing to make your life easier.
This used to be a way to get everyone aligned. Ten minutes, one update each, then on with the day. But somewhere along the line, daily stand-ups became a routine for the sake of the routine even for those that didn’t actually need them.
Not every role needs daily check-ins. And for distributed or async teams, forcing everyone into the same time slot just stresses them out and eats into deep work. Instead of defaulting to a daily call, it would be much better to introduce weekly summaries or async updates in a shared document or channel.
Slack is great! Until it isn’t. What starts as just a quick communication sometimes (often) tends to turn into constant pings, overlapping threads, a memefest, and no clear action items.
In other words, noise. When everything from decisions to lunch plans goes through the same channel, how can anybody differentiate between what’s important and what isn’t?
How about being intentional/precise about what goes where? Use task-specific tools for project work, create clear handoff processes, and when things can wait – let them.
Reading or replying to Slack messages doesn’t always have to be instant. If something is REALLY important, you’ll get a call or an email.
Slide decks feel safe. They look clean, they’ve been around forever, and it’s weirdly comforting to put updates into boxes. But they take time to build, nobody reads them in full, and they don’t always communicate what matters. Teams often spend more time formatting than thinking and static slides don’t reflect real-time progress.
Instead of this, try living dashboards or brief video summaries where people can explain work in their own words. You’ll save time and keep the focus on actual progress.
Too many meetings happen because someone thinks they should talk about certain things. No agenda, no goal, just a block on the calendar. Everyone shows up, half-listens, and leaves wondering what was decided and if there was anything decided.
Isn’t this a massive time waste? But even if it wasn’t, it leaves people feeling confused and demotivated.
But it's an easy fix. Just ask yourself, “Is the meeting really necessary? Could it be a simple message/email?”.
But if it turns out that the meeting is required, then share a short agenda in advance, assign someone to take notes, and do a concise recap at the end.
Somehow, we’re all available all the time and everyone expects an instant response. Slack, Teams, email… It seems like you’re just responding to messages half the time, even if you’re off the clock. This pressures you into staying glued to the screen and makes it hard to get any work done. Constant interruptions make you switch between tasks all the time, and that kills focus. It’s not sustainable to jump between solving problems one minute to replying to emojis the next.
This is not sustainable. You need some kind of response buffers to protect your work time and mental health. Block notifications if you have to, set team expectations, and try to remember that not everything has to happen right now.
The main reason why these unnecessary and inefficient habits stuck around is that nobody thought to question them. All of us know that they aren’t that great at what they’re intended for, but we just grunt/complain to the closest colleague and go on with the day. Someone has to say it, right? So, it might as well be you. Take the initiative. BE proactive.
Otherwise, you’ll have a fully booked calendar that keeps pinging all the time, even during your private hours, your Slack (or whichever collab tool you’re using) will become your new doom-scrolling attention taker.
Old habits die hard, sure. But they don’t have to take you down with them. Start small, mute Slack for an hour, and you’ll see that the world didn’t end.
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