How to Become A Master of Productivity as a Technology Entrepreneur
When you become an entrepreneur — you quickly learn that the boundaries of work-life-balance are often times non-existent.
This tends to be the nature of any business endeavor — particularly when it’s tech related.
But it doesn’t always have to be that way.
The truth of the matter is that you have to become comfortable with long work hours and constant challenges.
In order to not only survive, but thrive, consider these three tips en route to becoming a master of productivity.
1. Prioritize The Right Way
If you want to maximize your energy, it is imperative that you learn to get what needs to get done versus trying to do it all.
Start by creating a template for your day-to-day life and then fill in and update this list throughout the day.
- A. Categorize your to-do list by the theme of each task:
- Start by separating out what you need to get done for your personal life and professional life.
- Create high-level categories such as “to-call”, “to-do”, “to-buy”, etc.
- Add the individual tasks that need to get done for each item.
- Once all of your daily tasks are added — prioritize them from critical to something that needs to get done, eventually.
Helpful tip: This is only a template. Find out what works for you and feel free to get creative.
Use numbers, colors, sticky-notes, and emojis to make your planning more interesting and less of a burden to accomplish.
- B. Once your list is created and ready for your day, focus on the critical and most important items.
As a business owner, there will always be things to get done. Your work literally never ends.
Knowing that it’s easy to get overwhelmingly caught up in the mentality of “I have 1,000 things to do”, seek to stay away from this mindset.
C. Because you’ve prioritized your day in the most effective manner — you know you will finish what needs to get done.
2. Learn To Say “No”
Have you heard of the Richard Branson quote that goes something like:
“If somebody offers you an amazing opportunity, but you’re not sure you can do it, say yes — then learn how to do it later.”
If you have, then you can probably see some sort of value by bringing in everything you can to your business.
However, while this powerful message can be applied to many circumstances — you must learn to say “no”.
As a business owner (especially in technology where you’re often making decisions off limited knowledge), you must understand that each offer coming your way is not necessarily an amazing opportunity.
You have to be able to comprehend the value of what people say and fully translate it into something that is either beneficial, or something you need to pass on.
Far too often technology companies burn their out staff by taking on more than they can handle.
New business is at the top of everyone’s mind (and rightly so, in many cases) — but satisfied customers and returning business is the key to longevity in this industry.
My point here is: Be sure to first analyze what you’re potentially getting yourself into, before overwhelming yourself and your team with something that may have meager returns.
3. Take Walks And Refresh
There’s an old story about two men who were chopping pieces of wood.
The first man labored hard and steadily all day long. The second man also worked hard, but would stop to take a break every so often.
While on these breaks, he would call out to the first man and say “Come and have a rest, I want to show you something that will help you.”
The first man would say “Not now. I’m busy. I don’t want to lose any time.”
By the end of the day the second man had chopped far more wood than the first man.
This was a surprise to the first man because he was sure he had worked harder than the second man. So he asked “How did you do it? I mean, how did you cut more wood than me?”
And the second man replied “Well every time I stopped to take a break, I sharpened my axe!”
Why does this story matter?
Two words: efficiency and effectiveness.
It is imperative that you give your mind rest by taking walks, working out, or relaxing. Taking small breaks from your hyper-active day will increase your ability to finish tasks — saving you time, energy, and frustration.
The story and more about it can be found here.
Follow us on Twitter for more
