This post is all about the 7 most effective productivity habits every entrepreneur should have.

Did you know that the attention span of a human is 8 seconds? That is even less than a goldfish (a goldfish!) which has an attention span of 9 seconds.

In this tech-fueled society of instant gratification we live in, being productive is harder than ever.

We are incredibly good at being busy but have no idea how to be productive.

We start our days with an interminable to-do list and finish the day wishing we had more hours.

However the secret about productivity is not to have more hours, it is to make the most out of the hours we have by working smarter.

So, are you ready to discover 7 highly effective productivity habits to help you work smarter and not die trying to complete your to-do list?!

Let’s start…

Plan ahead. productivity habits for Entrepreneurs

The first productivity habit I want to share with you is to plan your days ahead.

Or rather intentionally crafting your day so that you can accomplish all the must’s and as many should’s as possible in a smart and intelligent way.

We’ll talk about how to plan your day to maximize your work hours in a minute. But first I want to explain the difference between a must and a should.

When we write our to-do list and plan our days, we normally start writing without sense or rhythm all the things we want to get done.

The problem with this is that we don’t prioritize and believe that everything is a must.

So we end up giving our time to activities and tasks that are less important and trying to do everything at once.

But as we said earlier, the time we have in a day is limited, we cannot have more hours in a day. That is why making the most of them in the smartest way possible is so important.

And to do this we have to learn how to prioritize.

If you find it hard to prioritize and believe that every little task is essential to complete, here is a little productivity tip for you.

You might have probably heard about this tool before, but basically is a chart where you categorize each thing on your to-do list based on how important and urgent they are.

By diving into your to-do list in this way you´ll be able to differentiate and properly prioritize the tasks that are actually important, rather than trying to do everything at once.

Another simple tip to learn how to prioritize is to ask yourself how important is the task and if is it the absolute best way to spend your time.

Most of the time we jump straight into the next task without reflecting on its importance and consequences.

Remember to always keep your final objective in mind.

Don’t focus on getting everything done, but on getting the right things done

I know I’m sounding like a broken record, but productive people work smart. and this is an essential idea you need to understand in order to maximize your productivity.

But you know what else productive people know?

The difference between something important and something urgent.

One of the most common mistakes people make when working is spending their precious time on unuseful and unimportant things.

One way we can fix this is by learning to prioritize (using the chart above) and the second is by learning the difference between an unforeseen event and an emergency.

Here goes a hard truth- don’t let yourself be confused by the satisfaction of having solved an urgency because as far as your project is concerned, you have not made any progress.

Putting out fires does not mean that you have had a productive day.

A lot of us get carried away by the satisfaction of putting out a fire, to the point where we don’t even differentiate anymore between emergencies from unforeseen events.

We rush to take care of these emergencies and unforeseen events, forgetting about our tasks and our priorities.

So what is the difference between an urgency and an unforeseen event?

An emergency is something that requires your immediate attention, that you leave everything in the moment and attend to it 100%.

An unforeseen event is something you can always postpone.

How to deal with an unforeseen event?

The best way to solve an unforeseen event is, as we said before, to postpone it and look for a moment to complete it without affecting the time we dedicate to our rock tasks.

Another way to find time for these unforeseen events is by shortening other minor or mechanical tasks.

Plan your day the night before

For this productivity habit, I want to share with you the best and most effective way to plan your day in order to be incredibly productive.

Learn how to plan your day

In order to be able to plan your day efficiently you need to know two things: first of all the difference between the different types of tasks you complete in a day.

And secondly your productivity levels.

Types of tasks in our daily life

There are different kinds of activities or tasks depending on the level of concentration they require, their importance, and how often we do them.

There are mainly 3 types of tasks:

• Rock tasks. Rock tasks are the core activities of your job and the projects in which you participate. They are the tasks that really make you move toward your objectives and get tangible results.

• Complementary tasks. Complementary tasks are the kind of activities you have to do as part of your job, but they don’t really get you tangible results.

• Mechanical, repetitive, and minor tasks. As their name suggests they are the kind of tasks that you perform often, that don’t require a lot of focus or concentration.

Once you know the difference between these 3 types of tasks and have identified yours, you just need to plan your day around your productivity levels.

In other words, plan your rock tasks during your most productive hours of the day, and leave the mechanical and repetitive tasks for your least productive moments.

But how do I know when I am most productive?

About productivity levels

Believe it or not, we have times during the day when our productivity levels spike up.

That is because of two main reasons.

The first is because we all have a circadian rhythm that controls our sleeping and waking cycles. Inside these circadian rhythms, we can find different types called chronotypes.

These types of rhythms are the ones responsible for dictating when we naturally wake up and fall asleep, which end up affecting when we feel most alert and productive.

The second reason is that we have genetic markers in our DNA that make us predisposed to feeling more alert at certain times of the day.

The thing is that we all have different chronotypes and genetic markers.

Meaning that, because of our genetics and sleeping patterns, there are people who are more productive during the morning and others during the evening.

That is why this step is so important. Because once you discover when you are most productive, you can plan your day around those hours.

You can learn this by playing around with your schedule.

Try performing high-concentration activities at different times of the day as well as reflecting on your routine and your energy levels throughout the day.

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Here are some additional tips to help you successfully plan your day:

• Try to plan your day and tasks in smaller chunks than usual.

• Keep your tasks and to-do list specified and small. For example: instead of writing “laundry day” try scheduling a specific amount of laundry to do- something small, specified and that seems easier to achieve than ” laundry day”.

• Plan from 2-6 tasks a day. This way you are making sure you are being productive without burning yourself out.
• Write your tasks starting with a verb. This will help your mind enter a “terminator” state (starting is inevitable, but finishing is an option).

Focus and minimize distractions

As we said at the beginning of this article our environment nowadays is incredibly demanding making the task to be productive seem almost impossible.

Most of this is due to the increased number of distractions we have nowadays, especially our phones.

So, to solve this problem comes the fourth productivity habit: minimize the things that distract you while working.

In order to do this you first have to identify and discover what kind of things distract you the most when working.

So think back to your daily routine and workflow, are those distractions coming from the people around you when working, from your phone, social media …?

Once you have identified the main distractions during your working hours, it’s time to eliminate them.

So get creative and think of all the different ways you could eliminate those distractions that are damaging your productivity levels so much.

For example, if one of your main distractions is your phone and social media you could keep your phone in another room or use one of those apps that temporarily block your phone for a certain amount of time.

If, on the other hand, one of your main distractions is the interruptions of the people around you (coworkers or family members who work at home), have a chat with them to explain how their interruptions affect your productivity and different ways of solving this.

Another possible solution could be looking for a more isolated workplace.

Best productivity habits. Learn to time batch

Has it ever happened to you that you are working and you start jumping from one thing to another or opening tabs in your computer like there is no tomorrow?

Well, there actually is something called context switching which is when our mind starts jumping from one thing to the other.

Context switching causes a loss of productivity because of the energy your mind uses to switch from one thing to another and the amount of time it then uses to focus on the new task.

But that is where batch processing comes in.

Batch processing is an incredibly powerful tool that will make your productivity levels go off the roof. And this tool consists of grouping together similar activities throughout your week.

So for example if you have to write two articles for next week, write them on the same day, if you have to edit some pictures do it on the same day instead of planning them throughout the week.

This way you are eliminating the need to switch from one thing to another and increase your productivity levels.

How can you incorporate batch processing in your planification process?

You can incorporate batch processing into your routine by establishing “themed days”.

By having themed days you are basically grouping similar tasks that you have to do for the week in one entire day.

So for example let’s say you are a blogger. If you had a theme day week structure, your week could look something like this:

To create theme days the only thing you have to do is to write down on a piece of paper at the start of each week the things you’d ideally like to get done.

Once you have this list try grouping all these activities into different categories depending on their nature.

Now the only left to do is to assign each day of the week a different category.

Get into the flow state

Moving down the list of these must have productivity habits, we have getting into the flow state.

You might think I’m talking about some metaphorical flow. But I’m talking about a real mental state called flow. Yes, flow is an actual phycological state.

When you are in the flow, you have the impression that time seems to stand still and fly by at the same time

When you are in this state, literally nothing can get you out of it. You feel amazing and work efficiently and productivity just flows.

The question is, how can I get in the flow?

Sadly the truth is that there is no universal answer, each person has a different way of getting in it.

Personally, music is the thing that gets me into the ultimate productivity state, but yours could be something completely different. It’d is a matter of trial and error.

So tap in with your creativity and think of all the different factors that could help you get into this state until you find yours.

Surround yourself with all the right resources

And finally, the last item on our list of productivity habits is surrounding yourself with all the right resources.

Sometimes planning our days in the most efficient way, getting rid of distractions, and prioritizing our tasks are not enough. Sometimes we need extra help.

And this is where productivity tools come in.

As for tools, there are thousands out there all different and unique, some digital, some old school…

But how can I know which tools are the best for me?

When looking for and trying new productivity tools is very important to always have in mind 2 things:

• The first is to know what you need in order to help you be productive and what your goals are.

• And the second thing is to know what you need out of that tool. In other words, what does that tool need to do in order to solve the problem you have? For example, personally, I struggle with getting in the flow and staying focused when working. That is why I use music (specifically brown noise) to help me concentrate and be productive.

So what do YOU need to be productive? Something that will help you keep track of your tasks? Something to help you stay organized?Or maybe something that will help you stay focused and get things done?

Want to discover new productivity tools to help you maximize your productivity levels and kill your to-do list?!

Final thoughts on these must-have productivity habits

Even though we live in a rapidly moving and constantly attention-demanding environment, being productive is still possible.

Here are 7 productivity habits we saw throughout the article to help you increase your productivity levels:

The first productivity habit we saw is to plan ahead and learn to prioritize.

Then we say how important getting the right things done is, including the difference between an emergency and an unforeseen event.

For the third productivity habit, I showed you the exact method with which you can efficiently plan your days based on two things: the different types of tasks you have in a day and your productivity levels.

When wanting to be productive it’s important to know how to focus and minimize distractions as well as surround yourself with the best productivity tools depending on your needs.

And lastly, the 6th and 7th productivity habits we talked about were the importance of getting in the flow, the ultimate productivity mental state to kill your to-do list, and the many benefits of incorporating time batching into your daily life.

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Thank you so much for investing your time in reading this article on the best productivity habits for entrepreneurs. Now you have no excuse to go out there and eat the world without drowning in your to-do list.

Remember that you are worthy of even your deepest and wildest desires.

Before we say goodbye until next week, I have one more question for you. Which are your 3 biggest takes from the article?