How to Develop an Excellent Work Ethic

5 Things You Can Do to Continually Progress Towards Your Objectives

5 min readJan 31, 2020

The ability to develop an excellent work ethic will make a big difference as you strive to achieve important goals.

The term “work ethic” is used to define a quality a person must have to produce something consistently. Someone with a strong work ethic will attract more opportunities and create better outcomes than someone who does not.

What is Work Ethic?

Work ethic is a person’s belief that the effort they put towards something will lead to a benefit and cause them to strengthen their character and abilities.

It is an internal drive that influences their actions and how much of themselves they will give something, to reach an objective.

Having a high work ethic is often part of a person’s identity. It’s not surprising that employers assess employee performance based on work ethic.

A strong work ethic is considered favourably than a weak one.

Factors That Can Influence a Person’s Work Ethic

Everyone has different traits, qualities or factors, which can influence their work ethic. These can include:

Their motivation levels.
How committed they are to reaching an objective.
Their purpose for doing a task and their internal drive.
How confident they are in what they are doing or what they want to do.
Their outlook on life.
Their ambitions or goals.
Their self-image or identity.

Learning to develop an excellent work ethic will impact your life in a positive way.

Benefits of Developing an Excellent Work Ethic

Having a strong work ethic has many advantages. These can include:

Faster progress towards objectives.
Recognition from others, such as considered a role model or someone to emulate.
New opportunities such as promotions or partnerships.
Greater self-belief in achieving goals.
Quicker development of skills and abilities.

5 Things You Can Do to Develop an Excellent Work Ethic

Most people want to have a good work ethic. To develop an excellent work ethic, you have to go above and beyond what’s commonly accepted.

Here are five things you can do to develop an excellent work ethic so you can further develop yourself and become the person you want to be.

Have a clear intent for everything you do. Before starting an activity or task, questions you should ask include, “What’s my outcome?” or “What is my intention?” A follow-up question is, “How will I know if my intention or outcome has been met?”
Do one thing at a time. You will progress faster if you concentrate on one task at a time. This is because your energy will not be diluted and all your attention will be on one thing.
Focus on quality, not on quantity. Having an excellent work ethic is not about outworking everyone. It’s about using your clarity of intention to produce high-quality work. This means only working on your high-value activities and delegating low-value activities.
Establish empowering routines or rituals. Having a daily routine or daily rituals will converse your mental energy. Examples of routines can include work start-up and shut-down activities. This means before you start work, you do specific things to get yourself ready. Similarly, after you have finished working, you can do things to prepare for the next day.
Review, improve and repeat. You will improve if you track and review your performance. Having data that shows how you are working will provide opportunities for improvement, which you can implement next time. The cycle of reviewing, improving and repeating will lead to better-quality results.

Final Thoughts

Being known as a person with an excellent work ethic is something to aspire to. Everyone is always working towards something. As you progress towards your goals, your work ethic will impact whether you accomplish them when you want.

If you don’t develop an excellent work ethic, you won’t differentiate yourself from others, which means you will not have an advantage. That will cause you to remain at the level you are and create the same results you are getting now.

Action Step: Do an honest assessment of your work ethic. If you know it is not at the level you know it can be at, use the ideas suggested here to improve.

Question: What are other things you can do to develop an excellent work ethic?