12 steps to become a startup machine, although #9 is the only one that matters
Maybe you think that successful startup CEOs are born ultra talented, with extremely polished skills for running teams, amazing emotional intelligence, fluent in pitching (even when drunk), superb multitasking and magnificent role changing attitude and so on… Guess what — all of that can be obtained (well, except talent) through small baby steps focused on forming the right habits ☺ The only thing a person need is a growth mindset. Wondering from where to start?
1. Have a morning routine
Your body needs to be pumped up for the amazing day that’s ahead of you. Don’t just eat your breakfast and go to work. Learn and experiment how to prime your body to be a top performer with the right morning activities. Maybe have a quick jog in the park (I know you can get 20min earlier than usual ;)), write one chapter of your book, play chess or some video game, have a quick 7-min workout or just meditate. Almost everything is great as long it’s not part of your daily work activities. Our brain needs different challenges that are context independent from our daily job in order to thrive and form learning chunks[0]
2. Have a comfortable working environment
You cannot expect to become an artisan in your field if you cannot guarantee the needed conditions for your brain to absorb the knowledge you pour in it. Try to imagine a Kung Fu Master training and enhancing his skills someplace with a lot of distractions, limited space and unpleasant aura. If you don’t want to work sitting on a desk, get a stand up one. If you don’t like staying home — go to your local hackerspace/coworking space. In contrast to a normal office job — with a startup you control your working environment. Explore what kind of arrangement gets you into the zone faster.
3. Work smarter and optimize for time
If you’re doing a startup you’re on the clock. Don’t take the longest road to success. Try to see and utilize shortcuts — after all your revenue at the end of the month is based on the value you created, not the time you invested. That’s why act appropriately when thinking about your daily todos — always optimize for time. Don’t go to meetings without agenda and timeframe, don’t procrastinate, experiment with some time management technique (pomodoro anyone?).
4. Define bite size tasks
When dealing with a startup project the tasks that need to be done quickly can become over 9000. That’s why work only on bite size tasks that you can chew on daily basis. This creates momentum and makes you feel not overwhelmed. If you feel that you have little will power today just do the most important things first. After that all small tasks will feel like a breeze.
5. Map out the 3 things that must be completed for today
Bite size tasks cannot be sustainable without proper prioritization. It’s easier to think of this like a wild animal — what are the 3 things that will increase your chances to live up for another day. Generally animals must do 3 things — eat, sleep and drink. If you’re doing a startup consider yourself as a surviving organism — whatever happens along the day you should map out the 3 most important things that you must do for today. Don’t dare to lose the big picture — act like a general — you can afford to lose some battles, but you cannot afford to lose the war.
There are some excellent ideas about prioritization that you should use — like Stephen Covey’s 4 quadrants
6. Create some hooks to get in the zone faster
Have a favorite band that makes you mega productive? Invest some time to make a playlist out of it. It may be handy when you’re not at your top form.
Another way to stay focused is to think of about some mantra or specific attitude. You can start with exploring what other people are doing — for example http://gyshido.com/ — The Art Of Getting Shit Done. Later you can tailor it for your liking but the idea is to minimize the time which your organism needs to become a top performer.
7. Use tools!
Don’t rely on your super powers — have a tool belt that extends your capabilities. Get to know your arsenal and always look out for new additions or replacements. I’m not talking about your IDE, code editor or image/vector processing software (I believe you already know them). I’m talking about apps that can help you operate better, achieve more and conquer other mountains.
In my day to day activities I often rely on using:
- Pomodairo — helps me to see the delta of my estimated tasks. Also it enforces a more strict time management following the pomodoro technique.
- ifttt — automate everything that’s possible. This is giving me breath of fresh air when I’m overcrowded with work. Usually I pay attention to my process forming activities — if I have to repeat the same activity 3 times this week then it needs automation in some sense.
- RescueTime — helps me to gather data about my internet usage. Later I use it for optimization when analyzing my behavior.
- Evernote — I’m writing everything down. After years and years of assuming that I can rely on my memory, I finally come to the point that I was wrong about that.
- PandaApp — Helps me with inspiration and to keep track of news and meaningful discussions from communities I like. If you don’t like the idea of PandaApp you can try momentum ☺
and many more… of course there are alternatives (care to share your tools of choice?). I believe you got the idea ☺
8. Become fanatical about your team’s personal development
Understand that the greater they become the better it is for you all. Take a NLP course or learn other psychology tips & tricks that can help you along the way of establishing a culture of self-improvement. The more you help others the more they can help you. Your surroundings are vital for the overall performance. And here comes the part of being a role model without being pushy to people — you must invest in self-development in order to understand the different paths to being a “super hero” ☺
9. Emotional intelligence
Establish some happy habits — I have a 3 point system which helps me at the end of the day and keeps me from burning out:
- I write a diary so I don’t hold any thoughts inside myself.
- I’m(!) grateful for everything that I’ve experienced today. Usually I’m enumerating the 3 things (sometimes in my diary) that happened to me this day and made me happy.
- Feed my human “animal” — I cannot battle with evolution and if my inner self is tired of staying 8 hours straight in front of the computer I should give him a rest. After all humans evolved talking and meeting with people and my human “animal” is not feeling comfortable by staying in front of monitor for long periods. If he wants to go out and run into the wild I should give him this opportunity once in a while.
Remember that everything is changing. The only constant thing is change. if you feel down today probably tomorrow you will feel good and vice versa. Enjoy your emotions but stay in control. If you feel down remember that this will not be forever. Embrace how you feel — after all this is what makes us different from a rock on the street.These presentations greatly helped me with forming my emotional intelligence.
Not a fan of meditation for keeping you sane?
10. Be fit
Manage stress levels with working out or having an offline walk. Train, stretch and exercise on weekly basis. Exercise in particular is known for making us happy by releasing endorphins.
Also invest time in sleeping to recharge — this is probably your most precious activity at the end of the day. If you don’t keep your body in shape things will turn pretty ugly soon: your body will release more cortisol and epinephrine — the so called stress hormones which can accumulate and lead to more difficult situations to handle.
And believe me — the last thing you need when running a startup is depression…
11. Preserve your willpower
Make quick decisions on things that don’t make a difference. (Pareto principle — invest time on things that give 80% value). You won’t believe how daily choices are exhausting our willpower — even the smallest choices we make can pile up and trump us down when it comes to serious decision making. Even things like what cake should we eat when we have a lot of choices:
Understand that you will make bad choices — the thing is to figure out which ones will hurt you. The others are meaningless and you should not waste your willpower too much on them. That’s why you should work as investing in the future (quadrant 2 of Stephen Covey’s grid) and relax for now. You know the saying “work hard, party harder” ☺
12. Don’t forget about your reality check
You must acknowledge the current reality — probably nobody is giving a **** about your startup, idea, project or whatever. Everybody has some agenda and if you’re not in theirs you should not feel depressed about it. Embrace your weaknesses and move forward by becoming better at the things you do.
Realize that “startups” are a wonderful journey, full with positive and negative emotions — this is what makes them so exciting ☺ Enjoy the ride — after all nobody is pointing a gun at your forehead to make the next billion dollar startup. This is YOU practicing your free will — you should acknowledge the road ahead of you and be happy that you have the opportunity to walk it even when there’s a storm approaching.
learning chunks[0] — https://www.coursera.org/course/learning
