Productivity tips from successful entrepreneurs

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

In this article, we share the secrets of success for well-known entrepreneurs and look forward to your personal advice on the topic.

In the recent past, boys wanted to become travelers and generals, and now, sorry, startups. And there is nothing bad or surprising here. In our time, when all geographical discoveries have already been made, and war has ceased to be an honorable thing, it is much better to create new things and ideas. Especially if they also bring good income.

Therefore, we want to acquaint all future and already established startups with the secrets of the most successful people in this field. This article is based on the answers of famous people of Internet entrepreneurship to: “ What is your productivity secret? »

Rule of "no meetings on Wednesdays"

Dustin Moskovitz, co-founder of Facebook and one of the developers of the popular project management service Asana, says that his team has a rule to leave one day a week free of all meetings, meetings and discussions.

The result is uninterrupted work space throughout the day, which ends up being the most productive day of the week. Dustin Moskovitz

Use smart cards

Although the first schemes of associative connections appeared almost in Ancient Greece, nevertheless, in their modern form, smart cards became popular thanks to the British writer and psychologist Tony Buzan. Now this method of presenting information and finding solutions is widely used in all areas. For example, Paul Klipp, the creator of Lunar Logic, draws a new map every Monday with tasks for the week, and then takes a few minutes every day to update it. To do this, he uses the service mindmeister.com, the result is something like this.

Try the tomato technique

In the wake of the huge popularity of interval training in sports, a similar method of organizing time is coming to offices. The essence of the "tomato" technique is that you divide your working day into 25-minute segments, during which you do your direct duties without distraction. These work intervals are separated by 5 minute rest intervals during which you can relax. Paul Klipp uses this technique and it really works for him.

You might assume that a person is able to do up to 16 of these cycles a day. In fact, this is not the case. I am lucky when I get to work two intervals without distractions. But in those 50 minutes I get more done than in the remaining seven hours of my workday, at least in terms of advancing my most important tasks. Paul A. Klipp

Use Kanban to manage tasks

A Kanban board is a simple visualization tool for your current challenges and your progress. We wrote about this technique in this review and here. Paul Klipp mentioned above uses this method not only to manage his time, but also to organize teamwork. This is what his worksheet looks like on kanbanflow.com.

Outsource small and time-consuming tasks

When working on any project, there are tasks for which it is impractical to hire a special employee. Perhaps you have to solve these tasks only once, or they are so small that they only distract you from the main thing. In this case, feel free to contact freelancers and freelancers. Matt DeCelles, founder and CEO of William Painter, recommends sites like Elance and Fiverr for finding experts in literally everything from programming to design.

Highlight your main affairs

When planning your daily routine, highlight the three most important things to do and write them down on a sticky note. DeCelles recommends sticking this sticker directly in front of you to remind you of your priorities.

Use RescueTime to see where your time is going

DeCelles also recommends that you install RescueTime on your computer or an appropriate browser extension. They can be used to track how much time you spend visiting certain websites and using applications. You can see both daily statistics and analysis of your weekly activities. Based on this analysis, an overall assessment of your productivity is derived and tips for improving it are given.

Come to the office earlier than others

Remco Van Mook, one of the founders of Virtu, recommends showing up at work an hour or two before everyone else.

You may not like it too much at first. But then you will see that you can do even more in this short time than in the rest of the day, when all the employees gather and begin to distract you over trifles. Remco van mook

Use Pocket to save interesting articles for later

Gokul Nath Sridhar, founder and CEO of Likewyss, is a big fan of Pocket. This application will allow you to spend less time studying the interesting materials you find on the web. Just save them for reading and you can safely return to them later: on the way from work, in the evening or on the weekend. Pocket downloads articles to your computer or mobile device, so you don't even need the Internet.

Remember the two minute rule

David Allen, in his popular book Getting Things Done, described this technique, which says: If a task can be completed in less than two minutes, then do it now. Christian Sutardi, founder of the startup Lolabox, has successfully applied this rule to work.

I like this approach because it is completely natural. You don't need any software or special gadgets for this. You do not need to learn and master this skill, you can start doing it right from today. Christian sutardi

Do you have your own tricks that help you in your work? Tell us about them (we won't tell anyone, honestly).