The anti-goals list: 5 work habits to stop chasing in 2026

I know—new year resolutions are so 2010s, and we have societally evolved way past the “new year new me” concept, which is why our team decided to tackle the idea of anti-goals instead of setting productivity ambitions. Sometimes, to truly move forward, you have to start by identifying and eliminating the things and habits that hold you back. You know, less is more.

In 2026, we’ve hit a paradox: we have more efficiency hacks and AI agents at our fingertips than ever before, yet we feel more behind. We’ve become so obsessed with the mechanics of productivity—the perfect prompt, the right automation, the latest time-blocking trick—that we’ve lost sight of the actual work. It’s time to stop letting the pursuit of peak performance become the very thing that burns us out. 

If this resonates with you, this anti-goals list is just the article you need to kickstart your year differently. Perhaps, slower but with more intention, that pays off in the long term. Without further ado, let’s dive into your five anti-goals for work in 2026!

But first, what is the anti-goals method?

The anti-goals method is the art of defining what you want your workday not to look like. While traditional goals focus on achievements, anti-goals focus on avoidance. By identifying the habits, systems, and success metrics that actually make you miserable or exhausted, you create a stop-doing list that protects your time and sanity. 

The core logic behind it is that it’s often easier to define a bad day than a perfect one, meaning that if you eliminate the things you don’t want, you kind of make success the default setting. Or, in other words, you define what your failures look like so you can avoid them. 

Here’s an example of an anti-goal to help you better understand the idea:

Traditional goal: I want to be a more collaborative and responsive team player.

An anti-goal: I will stop being a meeting filler. If a meeting doesn’t require my active input for a specific decision, I’m reclaiming that time for deep work.

As you can see, the traditional goal creates a sense of urgency to do more to achieve the target, while the anti-goal works toward hitting the target by eliminating unnecessary actions.

An important note about the anti-goal method is that, while it may seem to promote laziness, it’s actually about protecting your headspace and inner resources. For example, instead of aiming to manage your time better, set an anti-goal never to accept a meeting before 11:00 AM. Suddenly, you’ve guaranteed yourself an X-hour block of peak productivity every single morning by default. 

Anti-goals examples—five work habits to throw out the window in 2026

Now that we’ve set the record straight on what anti-goals are, let’s dive into exploring five very concrete work-related anti-goals examples that you’re welcome to consider for 2026. 

1. The “always-on” reflex

The anti-goal: I will not respond to every notification right away. 

In 2026, responsiveness is actively being replaced by deep work. With AI agents now handling routine scheduling and status updates, humans are expected to provide the high-level output. According to Gartner’s 2026 Future of Work Trends, we are entering the human-machine era. Their research suggests that the most successful organizations this year are moving away from measuring busyness and prioritizing mental fitness instead. The real high-performers aren’t those who reply to every Slack message in seconds, but those who protect their cognitive energy to solve the complex problems that AI can’t.

Why adopt this anti-goal? When notifications disrupt your focus mode, your brain switches the context, and when it happens constantly, so does the switching. Research shows that constant context switching takes the exact mental toll as losing a night’s sleep. Want to stay mentally sharp longer in your workday? Manage how and when you receive work-related notifications.

2. The status-update trap

The anti-goal: I will not attend any meeting whose primary purpose is to share information that can be communicated in writing.

“This meeting could’ve been an email” meme is probably one of my all-time favorite workplace jokes. But there’s a grain of truth in every joke, and in this one, there’s a rock. While Zoom fatigue was generally associated with the pandemic, video conferencing is now a self-evident part of our workdays, and the fatigue of having a day full of back-to-back online meetings remains very real. While many of them are very much needed, many workers hold daily standup calls with the team or ad hoc “let’s chat about this” online meetings. And that’s where the meme comes in.

Why adopt this anti-goal? Knowledge workers spend roughly 23% of their time just looking for information, according to a recent survey. Why would you add to that by sitting in a meeting to hear what you could have read in 30 seconds? Moreover, many tools provide a written meeting summary you can skim through in minutes. 

3. The calendar-creep lunch

The anti-goal: I will not accept meetings or quick sync calls between 12:30 PM and 1 PM.

At this point, we all understand that one should draw boundaries between work and life, take regular breaks during the workday, and avoid overtime. However, tracking all healthy habits and practices throughout the day can be daunting. Which is why, instead of setting a goal to get up for a 2-minute walk around the office every 30 minutes, you can just start by anti-goaling of not doing something–in this case, not surrendering a specific window of your day to others. What you do with this time is your call (though I’d highly recommend eating), but the key is that it’s yours.

Why adopt this anti-goal? Well-being should be non-negotiable, but we often negotiate it. Instead of BIG health goals for 2026, get rid of a workday blocker that makes those goals impossible to reach. 

4. The off-hours ping

The anti-goal: I will not send a non-urgent email or Slack message outside of core business hours, even if I’m working late.

Sending a midnight Slack message creates shadow work for your team—stressing them out during their off time and pressuring them to reply. Even if they don’t get back to you, they are now subconsciously processing the task or mentally drafting a response, keeping their brain in work mode. 

Why adopt this anti-goal? For the sake of collective focus. If you’re working late because that’s when you’re inspired, great—but schedule-send is your best friend. By not being the person who pings at 11 PM, you cultivate a culture where off actually means off. This protects the team’s cognitive recovery, ensuring that when they do show up in the morning, they have the mental bandwidth to actually solve problems rather than just reacting to “digital pollution” from the night before.

5. The fixer mentality

The anti-goal: I will not solve a problem for a team member without first asking: What would you do if I weren’t available?

This one goes out to managers. It’s often faster to just fix it yourself than it is to coach someone through it. However, being the universal answer person makes one a permanent bottleneck. Every time you jump in to save the day, you are inadvertently teaching your team that they don’t need to think for themselves because you’ll do the heavy lifting for them. 

Why adopt this anti-goal? To kill learned helplessness. By refusing to be the immediate fixer, you shift your role from a micromanager to a skillful manager. In the long run, it clears your schedule of interruptions and heavy lifting, because you’ve empowered your team to find their own solutions before they ever reach your desk.

Anti-goals for a more mindful 2026

We’ve learnt that the road to becoming better is to do more and be more. But real productivity and mindfulness often result from subtraction. By setting anti-goals for 2026, you not only clear your calendar but also clear your mind. And when there’s more space, there’s better focus and more clarity on what matters and what does not matter that much.

Start by setting one “to don’t” for each week. Set a recurrent “busy” block on your calendar for lunch and turn off Slack notifications by 6 PM. When you make bad habits harder to perform, the good life becomes your new default much more easily.

Article written by

Aiva Strelca

Aiva is a Riga-based writer, engaged in the vibrant tech and startup landscape of the Baltic states and beyond. In addition to covering startup stories, she loves exploring all things productivity and the workplace. If you stumble across personal productivity stories on the DeskTime blog, chances are they were written by Aiva.