Becoming a successful entrepreneur is not something that happens over night. It’s a daily battle and decision to be the best version of yourself all the time. It takes constant work, personal development, creating a plan, and following through with that plan.
You should have weekly, monthly and yearly goals to hep you plan for the future. Most importantly it takes action to be successful with those goals. Here are seven things you can do every day to become a better entrepreneur and accomplish all of your goals.
1. Don’t Multitask – Work One Task At A Time
At some point, it became cool to multitask and pretend to be working on 50 things at the same time. The reality is that multitasking ruined our attention spans and crushed our productivity. Multitasking is like pushing 10 boxes across a 50-foot floor. It is better to push one box all the way across the floor and then the next rather than pushing one five feet, then the next, and keep repeating until they are all across the floor. The starting and stopping is a loss of productivity and it causes you to take much longer to complete a task than it would if you just focused on that task We are most effective when we are working on one task at a time. Finish a task, check it off the list, move to the next one. This will end your day with the feeling of accomplishment and things will move forward rather than a several half completed tasks at the end of the day.
2. Protect Your Time Like Your Life Depends On It
Because it does! One of the best ways to ruin a productive day is to give into distractions. You look up several hours later with very few, if any, things checked off your to-do list, but you have given in to all of the distractions. Social media, phone calls, surfing the web, text messaging with friends, etc. We all know that distractions come from just about anywhere and they can be very tempting to give into. When we are distracted we lose focus and then lose all control over what were doing. I know that it can be difficult to be the one saying “no” all the time, but it is absolutely necessary for success. I recommend going spurts of time with your phone on airplane mode and restricting the amount of time you can have on the sites that are not adding value. I recommend the Chrome extension Stay Focused. It allows you to set the amount of time that you are allowed on certain sites each day. You will be shocked with how much time you are wasting once you start tracking it. If you want to go deeper and track all of your computer usage, give Rescue Time a try. It will quickly let you know if you are working as hard and as focused as you think you are.
3. Prepare For The Next Day
Before you go to bed each night, you should know what you are wearing the next day, what you will be eating, what are your priorities to handle from your to-do list, and what is on your schedule. These are tasks that are soaking up your energy and decision making power, but add little value. Pre-plan these actions so that they do not waste time and energy the next day.
4. Wake up earlier.
Deciding what time to wake up is a personal choice and a lot of people want to be entrepreneurs so that they can wake up when they choose. It is important to feel well rested to get the most out of your day but make sure your not sleeping more than you need to. Also, it is easier to avoid distractions and get your day off to a good start, the earlier you start. You ever notice that the early risers have worked out, finished a few items on the to-do list, and overall have more energy than everyone else? This is an important formula for many very successful entrepreneurs.
5. Start your day with a positive attitude.
Right when you wake up begin to think of things that you are grateful for. The first being that you woke up that morning. If this is something that you have trouble with you can read affirmations to yourself to assure that you are feeding your mind what it needs. It can be very difficult to have a positive outlook when the first thing you do is checking your Facebook or emails. There’s so much negativity on the internet that it’s very important for us to feed our mind with what it needs the most first thing in the morning. There are tremendous benefits to positive daily affirmations repeated over time. Start today.
6. Define Your Work-Life Balance
This term is odd to me because it is usually focused around working less and chilling more. Work life balance was defined by most around a typical 9-5 job that consists of an evening of watching TV before going to bed and repeating tomorrow. That does not work for most entrepreneurs. Don’t be ashamed when that does not work for you because there are nights when you decide to stay up late to finish a project or work all weekend to achieve your goals. Your life is not the same as everyone else’s. A better way to look at work-life balance is to spend time with people that are important to you and on hobbies that you enjoy, but chasing your goals with extreme focus. And that does not need to happen around the 9-5 parameters. Do what works for you and will make you feel the best.
7. Allow Preparation To Eliminate Surprises
Is there a chance that the ink cartridge on your printer will run out? Absolutely, so order another one now. Could your computer crash and all of your files are lost? Yes, so create a system for regular backups or cloud storage(and back that up too). It is well worth spending time to prevent surprises, than dealing with them when they occur. That quick trip to the store for another ink cartridge will cost you at least an hour, ruin your schedule for the day, and put you behind on your tasks. What can you start doing today to prevent the inevitable surprises in the future?
8. Get Moving – Exercise
There is no substitute for a good sweat. It increases your energy, focus, and your health. It does not need to be two hours per day of uphill running with a weighted backpack, it just needs to be something. The 10,000 steps per day is a good place to start. To achieve that only a daily basis, it requires some conscious thought and scheduled time to focus on exercise. Your business and life will improve when you incorporate a regular exercise routine.
There are more than eight things to put on this list, of course, but these are a good start to get you on your way.
Overall, the main goal of entrepreneurship is to create freedom in your life and make an impact in the lives of those whom your business serves. To do that, you need a plan, focus and pursue constant growth both personally and in your business. Set yourself up for success each day, and strive to get better and the results will come.
What other things do you do on a daily basis to achieve success?
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