So much has been written about the traits and skills one must have to be a successful entrepreneur that it’s easy to forget that sometimes it's the little things in life that lead to the greatest success.
In fact, these habits are not necessarily restricted to entrepreneurs. Whether you are a company founder or team member of the company, adding these positive habits can help put you on the path to progress.
Below, we take a look at several habits listed by top entrepreneurs and innovative practitioners, that can make the work day of the any individual a little easier, faster, and maybe even a little more enjoyable.
Establish a Routine
In an Entrepreneur article titled “5 Things Productive Entrepreneurs Do Each Day”, John Rampton, the founder of Adogy, states how establishing a routine is not only helpful for an entrepreneur, but a requirement.
If an entrepreneur doesn’t set and stick to a daily schedule, how can he or she accomplish anything? It’s a challenge for the average person to juggle his or her personal and professional lives. Without a routine, an entrepreneur won’t complete any work.”
Pro Tip: Set up "themed" work days in which you dedicate each day to a specific task or set of tasks.
Do the Hardest Thing First
Carmen Ciricillo, creator of Construction Comedy, gives us a useful tip in the IdeaMensch article “Habits of Successful Entrepreneurs”:
Do the hardest thing first and get it out of the way. When I first started, I relied on making phone calls to drum up business. That was the toughest part of my business so I would do it early in the day and get it done.”
Start Small
Entrepreneurs are a pretty ambitious bunch, and therefore more likely to take on more than they can handle. While ambition is an admirable, if not required, trait for a founder to have, rushing into complex endeavors is not a recommended habit. Just ask Aly Khalifa, the founder of Gamil Design:
Start small, and wipe those stars right out of your eyes. To do something big you have to start at the ground level yourself so you can appreciate what really needs to be done as things scale up.”
Give Your Brain a Break
Chaotic schedules are part and parcel of the entrepreneurial life, which means that the little things in life are liable to fall on the wayside. However, regardless of how engrossed in your work you become, some time should always be allotted for good old R&R.
In a Lisa Evans-penned Entrepreneur article titled “Why You Should Never Eat Lunch at Your Desk”, John Trougakos, Associate Professor of Organizational Behavior & HR Management at the University of Toronto, delineates the importance of setting aside time to let your mind rest:
We really only have so much psychological energy that we can use on any given day. All efforts to control behavior, to perform, and to focus draw on that pool of psychological energy. Once that energy source is depleted, we become less effective at everything we do.”
Work
This may seem like an obvious tip, but hear us out - Too many entrepreneurs spend too much time worrying about the problems that arise in launching and running a company that they forget that many of these problems can be solved through working through them.
Here is some useful advice from Richard Myers, the founder and CEO of Realty Capital:
Work, don’t worry. The more time you spend obsessing over something, the more likely it is to actually become a problem in your life — it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy. Your productivity and your contentment will be drastically improved by simply putting your head down and working. It will clear your head and help you make decisions based on logic, not fear.”
(Beautiful asian business woman looking confident with six arms image by Shutterstock)
