So, millions of people are doing Dry January right now.
They're cutting the one thing they know isn't good for them because they want to feel better, work better, and stop pretending "I'll start Monday" is actually a plan.
Here's the thing — your business has a Dry January list too.
It's just made of tech habits instead of cocktails.
You know the ones. Everyone knows they're risky or inefficient. Everyone still does them because "it's fine" and "we're busy" and "we'll get to it eventually."
Until it's not fine. And then you find out all at once. 😬
Here are six bad tech habits to quit cold turkey this month — and what to do instead.
Habit #1: Clicking "Remind Me Later" on Updates
That innocent little button has done more damage to small businesses than any hacker ever could.
I get it. I really do! Nobody wants a surprise restart in the middle of the workday when you're knee-deep in something important. But here's what people don't realize — those updates aren't just adding shiny new features. They're often patching security holes that hackers are actively exploiting. Like, right now. As you read this.
"Later" turns into weeks. Weeks turn into months. And suddenly you're running software with known vulnerabilities that criminals already have the keys to.
Real example: The WannaCry ransomware attack crippled businesses worldwide. How? It exploited a vulnerability that Microsoft had patched two months earlier. Every single victim had clicked "remind me later" one too many times.
The cost? Companies in more than 150 countries lost billions as business ground to a halt.
All because of that little button.
Quit it: Schedule updates for end of day or let your IT partner push them in the background. No drama. No surprise resets. No open doors for attackers. Problem solved!
Habit #2: The One Password That Works Everywhere
Be honest with me here. You've got a favorite password.
It "meets requirements." It feels strong. It's easy to remember. And you use it everywhere — email, banking, Amazon, your accounting software, that random industry forum you signed up for three years ago and completely forgot about.
Here's the problem: Data breaches happen constantly. That random forum? Its database probably got leaked last year, and your email-password combination is now on a list being sold to hackers for pennies.
They don't have to guess your banking password. They already have it. They just try it everywhere and see what opens.
This is called credential stuffing, and it's responsible for a staggering percentage of account breaches. Your "strong" password is actually a master key — and someone else has a copy.
Yikes, right?
Quit it: Get and use a password manager. Full stop. LastPass, 1Password, Bitwarden — pick one. You remember one master password; it generates and remembers unique, complex passwords for everything else. Setup takes a few minutes. Peace of mind lasts forever.
Seriously, if you do ONE thing from this list, make it this one!
Habit #3: Sharing Passwords Over Text or Email
"Hey, can you send me the login for the shared account?"
"Sure! It's admin@company.com, password is Summer2024!"
Sent via Slack, or text, or email. Problem solved in 30 seconds. High fives all around!
Except now that message lives forever.
In your sent folder. In their inbox. Backed up to the cloud. Searchable. Forwardable. If anyone's email gets compromised — ever — the attacker can just search for "password" and harvest every credential your team has ever shared.
It's like writing your house key on a postcard and mailing it. You wouldn't do that... right?
Quit it: Password managers have secure sharing features — use them! The recipient gets access without ever seeing the actual password. It can be revoked anytime. No permanent record floating around in email archives forever.
If you absolutely must share manually, split credentials across channels (username via email, password via text) and change the password immediately after. But honestly? Just get the password manager. It's so much easier.
Habit #4: Making Everyone an Admin Because "It's Easier"
Oh, this one. Yeah, I see this ALL the time.
Someone needed to install something once. Or change a setting. Rather than figure out the specific permission they needed, you just made them an admin.
Problem solved! ...Except now half your team has full admin rights because it was faster than doing it properly.
Here's what admin access actually means: They can install software, disable security tools, change critical settings, delete important files. And if their credentials get phished? The attacker gets all those powers too.
Ransomware particularly loves admin accounts. More access = more damage, faster.
Giving everyone admin rights is like giving everyone keys to the safe because one person once needed a stapler. 🤦
Quit it: Principle of least privilege — people get access to exactly what they need, nothing more. Yes, it takes a few more minutes to set up proper permissions. That's a tiny investment compared to the cost of a breach, or a well-meaning employee who accidentally deletes a critical folder.
Trust me on this one.
Habit #5: "Temporary" Fixes That Became Permanent
Something broke. You found a workaround. "We'll fix it properly later."
That was 2019.
The workaround is now just "how we do things." Sound familiar? Yeah... I thought so. 😅
Sure, it takes three extra steps. Sure, everyone has to remember the trick. But the job gets done. Why fix what's not broken?
Here's why: Those three extra steps, multiplied by everyone who does them, multiplied by every day, equals a staggering amount of lost productivity. We're talking hours and hours every week.
But worse — workarounds create fragility. They depend on specific conditions, specific software versions, specific people who remember the trick. When something changes (and something always changes), the whole thing collapses. And nobody remembers how to fix it properly because you never did.
I've seen entire businesses grind to a halt because the one person who knew "the trick" went on vacation. Not fun!
Quit it: Make a list of workarounds your team uses. Just the list. Don't try to fix them yourself — because honestly, if you could have, you would have already. Instead, take the easy route and let us help you fix them once and for all. Eliminate the frustration. Save you and your team time. Get those hours back!
Habit #6: The Spreadsheet That Runs Your Entire Business
You know the one.
One Excel file. Twelve tabs. A ridiculous formula chain that nobody fully understands. Three people know how it works. One of them created it and no longer works here.
If that file corrupts, what's the backup plan? If the person who understands it quits, who maintains it?
That spreadsheet is a single point of failure wearing a green hat. 📊
Here's the reality: Spreadsheets have no easy audit trail. If someone accidentally deletes a row, you'll never know what was lost. They don't scale. They don't integrate with other tools. They're almost never backed up properly.
You've built a critical business system on digital duct tape. And duct tape is great... until it isn't.
Quit it: Document what that spreadsheet actually does. Not the file itself — the business processes it supports. Then look for actual tools built for those purposes. CRM for customer tracking. Inventory software for inventory. Scheduling tools for schedules.
These have backups, audit trails, user permissions, and don't depend on one person's arcane knowledge.
Spreadsheets are great tools. They're awful platforms.
Why These Habits Are So Hard to Break
Here's the thing — you already knew most of these were bad ideas.
You're not uninformed. You're busy. That's the real issue!
Bad tech habits persist because:
- The consequences are invisible until they're catastrophic. Reusing passwords works perfectly until the day it doesn't. Then you find out all at once. Painfully.
- The "right way" feels slower in the moment. Setting up a password manager takes a few hours. Typing the password you've memorized takes three seconds. The math seems obvious... until you factor in the cost of a breach and destroying your reputation.
- Everyone else does it too. When the whole team shares passwords via Slack, it doesn't feel like a risk. It feels normal. And normalizing bad behavior makes it invisible.
This is exactly why Dry January works for some people. It forces awareness. It breaks the autopilot. It makes the invisible visible.
How to Actually Quit (Without Relying on Willpower)
Spoiler alert: Willpower doesn't work for Dry January. Environment does.
Same with business tech!
The businesses that actually break these habits don't do it through discipline. They do it by changing their environment so the right behavior becomes the easy behavior:
- Password managers get deployed companywide — so sharing credentials insecurely isn't even an option
- Updates get pushed automatically — so there's no "remind me later" button to click
- Permissions get managed centrally — so nobody's handing out admin rights as a shortcut
- Workarounds get replaced with real solutions — that don't require tribal knowledge
- Critical spreadsheets get migrated to proper systems — with backups and access controls
The right way becomes the easy way. The bad habits become harder than the good ones.
That's what a good IT partner does. Not lecture you about what you should be doing — actually change the systems so the right behavior is the default.
I love this approach because it actually works. No willpower required! 💪
Ready to Quit the Habits That Are Quietly Hurting Your Business?
Book a Bad Habit Audit.
In just 15 minutes, we'll learn about your business, the problems you have, and give you a roadmap to fix them forever.
No judgment. No jargon. Just a cleaner, safer, faster, more profitable 2026.
[Schedule your 15-minute discovery call here]
Because some habits are worth quitting cold turkey.
And January's a good time to start. 🎯
