We all have habits. Coffee to wake up, brushing our teeth and that thing we do on our commute are all activities most of us do with little effort or thought. These habits help us move through our day more effectively and because they are, by definition, automatic, this frees up decision making energy to dedicate towards choices that require real scrutiny (this New York Times article reports on the decision making fatigue we all experience in a day, sometimes to terrible detriment).
Below are 5 habits startup business owners need to develop in order to be more effective in their day to day lives, freeing them up to handle the countless decisions that entrepreneurs must make.
- Make a daily to-do list. If you do just this one thing as a startup business owner, you will have mastered a habit that will change the course of your life and business. As an entrepreneur, there’s no job description telling you what you have to do. Yes, this is one of the reasons you wanted to start your own business but know that you are now in charge of figuring out how to get things done. There are usually hundreds of projects to work on and a constant stream of “emergencies”. Without a to-do list, you will be unfocused, bouncing from one project to the next, sacrificing both quality and efficiency. And by the end of the day, you will probably have the experience of running in place, busily working with little to show for it. With an organized to-do list, you can focus your full attention on particular tasks, know that you are handling the most important thing to be done at the moment, and finish the day with a sense of progress when your to-do list is complete.
- Set long-term goals. Daily to-do lists are crucial for managing yourself and your business day-to-day. But if you don’t get in the habit of setting long-term goals for your business, you will unconsciously be forming the habit of dealing only with what’s right in front of you. You can build a habit of creating yearly goals (at the start of your business fiscal year) and monthly goals on the 1stof each month when you will also review how you did on the previous month’s goals. This habit will tap into your imagination to envision the future and help you to create a course to get there.
- Be healthy. Startup owners can bank on working long hours, being pulled in many directions, and living a life that is generally very demanding and often stressful. And if you are not tending to your body several days a week, it won’t provide the energy you need to handle the challenges of entrepreneurship. For some this may be the gym, for others it’s jogging in the neighborhood or a yoga class, but whatever the method, make taking care of your body (and consequently, your mind) a deeply ingrained, non-negotiable habit.
- Do something else. Asking the startup owner to do something other than work on the business, eat and sleep (and exercise – habit 3) seems absurd. But if you spend a few hours a week on another pursuit, you will change your brain (neuroplasticity) which will create a change in your perspective that can lead to new ideas and creative solutions to problems. If you take up kickboxing, you will not only get some fierce fighting skills but also add new neural pathways around the art of offense and defense which will make their way into your business thinking. And just like sleep, all the kicking will provide a mental break from your business which means rest in the moment and clarity in the future.
- Know thyself. Now that you’re the boss, you are in charge of managing you. In order to manage anything effectively, you have to know what you are dealing with so get familiar with yourself. When is your energy high? That’s the time you do the high intensity/hard work (calling prospects, creating that proposal). When do you slump? This is the time to do lower energy tasks (think paying bills, doing data entry). What about when you hit a wall? Do you need a walk, certain music, a 10-minute nap? Get in the habit of identifying your state at any given time and be ready with the right activity to suit the mood. Yes, sometimes the hard work will need to be done when you have low energy, but more often than not, you can use this system to provide more overall productivity while reducing your stress.
Just like you are setting up systems in your business, take some time to set up systems or habits for yourself. And remember, when you fail to develop good habits, you are defaulting to bad ones so take the time to practice good habits and make them the foundation for the business of you.