For entrepreneurs, starting your day on a strong foot is considered essential, but once you get through the morning, the need for structure and discipline doesn’t end. There is a significant connection between effectiveness on the job and having a structured and disciplined day. When you have an established routine, you always know what to do next and avoid wasting time choosing the next task. Instead, you accomplish it.
While having a strong routine through the whole day makes you more effective, there is also the issue of attaining work-life balance and cueing your mind in on the fact that it’s time to no longer be at work. When you do the same thing at the end of each day, you train your mind to recognize the boundary between work and life. Successful entrepreneurs end the day in a way that makes it possible for them to go home, truly rest, and be positive about the next day of work as opposed to dreading the start of the next day.
Leave Your Thoughts About Work At Work
Open a blank document or take out a piece of paper. Then write everything you want to remember for tomorrow.
Too many people go home from work with thoughts about work still running through their mind. They remind themselves of all the things they want to remember for the next day, and because they’re worried they’ll forget, they keep this playing on a loop for the rest of the evening. Eventually, they dread the upcoming tasks and feel stressed at the idea of going to work the next day. That’s how many entrepreneurs spend their evenings at home: thinking and stressing about work.
This isn’t a healthy work-life balance. You need to not only leave work at work but mentally check out as well.
This is a lot easier if, before you leave work, you jot down all the things you want to remember for tomorrow. Your mind can now trust that you will be ready for the next day and you can let it go. If later, a thought pops up again that won’t leave you alone, quickly set a reminder or send yourself an email for the next day and continue with your life.
Empty Your Inbox
Entrepreneurs can end the day strong by emptying their inbox down to zero just before they leave work. There is something satisfying about finishing a task at the end of the day, and knowing you don’t have an inbox of unanswered emails hanging over you. This task allows you to leave work with a literal clean slate, and even if you get a few emails over the course of the night, it will be more manageable to see a few new messages by themselves.
Decide on One to Three Tasks That Are Most Important For Tomorrow
You’ve already jotted down all the things you want to remember for tomorrow. These are likely small tasks. They are usually reminders to email someone back, check on a certain task, or make a call. These are undeniably important reminders. Some of them you’ll get to the next day, and some of these reminders will just be things you need to accomplish in the future. There will be other tasks that have more precedence.
While many individuals want to have a to-do list that prompts them to accomplish dozens of tasks in one day, this is often unrealistic and an untrue measure of how productive you really are. In any day, there should be one to three tasks that are most important to accomplish that day, and once done, mean the day was productive. Once these tasks have been completed, you can consider your day to be productive and fulfilling.
Establishing a productive, healthy routine for your days can help make the tasks associated with entrepreneurship more manageable.