Get your Shit Together! 18 tips for daily Self-Discipline for Entrepreneurs

  If you have finally come to the place of admitting you have problems with self-discipline and you’re determined to finally overcome this, celebrate this step. Put on that new Cardi B, go to track # 6 and start singing “I’m TRYING to live my Best Life” This is a clear indicator that you have reached a significant milestone.

Here are eighteen ways to help you boost your daily productivity and achieve your daily goals.

1. Avoid the Perfectionist Trap

You finally finish that project, but when you start proofing it or testing it, you think of one more way it can be improved. Then you think of another. Then you research another. Before you know it, you’ve practically rewritten or redesigned the beast and you’re scrambling to meet deadlines (your own, or client-driven ones.)

Learn to step back and say “STOP! This is done” by deciding in advance to do so. (It’s easier than you think.)

2. Don’t Punish Yourself for Success

If you finish a project early, resist the urge to immediately fill it with another one. That’s like punishing yourself for being super-efficient and leads to stress and burnout – no matter how keen you are on your business.

Instead, reward yourself with a well-earned dose of self-care. Read a book. Watch a movie. Sit in the garden for the afternoon. Pour a glass of wine (or 2). Get your hair done. 

3. Learn to Switch Off

It’s a proven fact that the most burned-out people are those whose mind is always on their business. That’s a paradox for most entrepreneurs, but talk to any top, seven-figure entrepreneur and you’ll find that ninety-nine per cent of this elite category have no trouble shutting the office door at a certain point every day. 

And running on empty won’t make you more efficient. It will just undermine the quality of your work and increase stress.

4. Don’t Schedule Every Last Minute

Many entrepreneurs plan just enough time to complete a project before starting the next one. I’m especially horrible at this with scheduling calls and meetings, even with an assistant. This is planning for perfection, also known as ‘planning for stress’.  What happens in Real Life is that something always comes up. You get a call from the school to come pick up your sick child. You’re knocked out by a migraine, your meeting runs way over. Even minor distractions, such as Beyonce releasing a surprise new album or a phone call you weren’t expecting can throw off your perfect, to-the-minute schedule. 

Plus. if you’re seeing clients, you know the importance of decompressing even just for ten minutes to properly prepare you for the next client – but in addition to time for making notes, be sure to build in time for going to the washroom or getting a fresh glass of water or just getting out of your seat and stretching.

5. Remember the 80/20 Rule

If you’re not familiar with it, this is commonly known as the Pareto Principle: Namely, that business people spend eighty per cent of their time on trivial tasks and twenty per cent on truly vital ones. 

Keep the truly vital ones, and discard, delegate, automate or outsource the rest. Getting into the habit of doing this will revitalize your business and your life.

6. Watch Out for Downtime Anxiety

The sad fact about entrepreneurs is that the more we do, the more we feel compelled to do. We start to feel anxious or guilty if we find ourselves with downtime … so we fill it in. 

Stop. That’s just another way of punishing yourself for success. 

7. Procrastinator is an Indicator, Not a Sin

If you find yourself always procrastinating before starting a specific task or activity, treat it as a friend. Don’t beat yourself up with a bunch of ‘should’ self-reproaches. Procrastination is a clue that something isn’t working for you. Either it needs to be dropped, delegated, automated or outsourced, or you are feeling intimidated and need to give yourself a pep talk and Just Do It. 

In either case, take the time to identify what’s causing you to procrastinate, and you’ll be able to apply the right solution without shame or blame … or further procrastination.

8. Realize that Self-Discipline Needs Practice

You won’t just suddenly wake up one day, able to be perfectly self-disciplined, any more than a non-musician can wake up one day and be a violin virtuoso. Like any other skill, it needs practice. But keep practicing, and that day will come!

9. If Something Isn’t Working, Check the Time of Day

Here’s a common scenario. The experts tell you to get your most hated task over with first thing in the morning. The result? You end up procrastinating on Facebook. 

If this consistently happens to you, try throwing that rule out, and doing the task at a different time of day. (Maybe you need to get one successful task over with, before tackling the dreary one, as a confidence boost.) Switch up your schedule and make the world accommodate to you. As long as you manage expectations of your clients and staff you should be good to go.

Take the time to find the right time of day to tackle the joy killers … or outsource them!

10. Don’t Schedule Your Most Hated Task for the End of the Day

If you’ve ever done this, you probably already know what happens. That’s right: You end up putting it off for “first thing in the morning”. Then, the next day, it’s hanging over your head all day, because that day’s tasks eat up all your time and, having put it off once, it’s easier to put it off again.

Also, if you habitually put off your most hated task for the end of the day, consider that you might be addicted to the guilty pleasure of assigning it to “first thing in the morning”. (This can feel like a real luxury, if you’ve completed everything else.)

Simply rescheduling it to another point in your day should put a stop to that self-destructive tendency. 

11. Realize That Perpetual Busy-ness is Another Type of Procrastination

Are you doing this? A simple way to tell: Does the task you fear most not get done, or get done late, because you’re busy being busy? 

If so, stop telling yourself that you’re the opposite of a procrastinator. You’re not.

12. Don’t Skip Meals

I hate eating breakfast, except when I was pregnant I wanted grits and eggs every day. When you’re busy, the temptation is to skip breakfast or lunch and just barrel through. Not only is this bad for you emotionally, it’s also a strain on your system and brain cells. Not eating causes blood sugar fluctuations and that can lead to anything from feeling tired to making mistakes.

Taking time for a scheduled meal is another way to boost your self-esteem. You’re telling your body and brain that you matter; that you are as important as your clients. Keeping dried fruit and nuts in your car or bag really helps when you are in a time crunch.

13. Find the Hidden Time

Ever wish you could maximize your 24 hours like Oprah? Well, she has Aton of people working for her. so she’s easily getting 240 hours a day to our 24.  So how do you sprinkle the Oprah effect, outside of delegating? Get up an hour earlier in the morning and fit in those things you usually never have time for. Work for an hour on writing the book you keep telling everyone you’re working on. Actually say good morning to your significant other, listen to the podcast you’ve been meaning to listen to. Go for a jog. Take time for a really healthy, relaxed breakfast. Meditate. Get the Hated Task done before you ever start work.

Gaining that priceless extra hour can make a real difference to your business … and your life.

14. Cultivate Self-Honesty

The next time you tell yourself or someone else that you’re “too busy” to do something, try changing that message to yourself or to others. Try saying “I don’t want to…” or, “It’s not important”, instead of “I’m too busy”.  (“It’s not important for me to meet with my top client” will give you quite different feeling than “it’s not important for me to organize George’s sock drawer”.)

Speaking your truth helps strip away excuses or evasions: You can instantly see when you need a dose of self-discipline, when you need to delegate or hand someone their own task back to them … or when you’re just plain shirking something you really do need to do. 

15. Take the Time to Prepare

So, you’ve developed the habit of making your To-Do list at the end of the day. Don’t just pick it up in the morning and run with it, however. Take the time to look over it. Is there anything you missed? Have you scheduled enough time for Activity A? Are there any other important tasks you failed to include?

Don’t use this as another way to procrastinate, however: Five minutes reflection is all it should take. But taking that five minutes to check your goals for the day can often boost productivity to new heights. If you are looking for a way to get real serious about getting organized and focused check out my new planner FOCUSED.

16. Take Feelings Out of the Equation

This one is especially hard for me, my emotions rule everything, and my husband has given me plenty of pep talks on how to take my emotions out of my business decisions. If you are one of those who habitually waits until you feel like doing a task, understand that you don’t have to be enslaved by that habit any more. (Plus, if you wait for your feelings to change about a task you don’t like or find hard, you’ll wait till the cows come home.)

If you find yourself saying things like, “I’m too depressed to work” or “I’m too tired to tackle this”, don’t be a slave to those emotions and thoughts. Do it anyway.

17. Find Your Motivation

Getting your shit together should never be about forcing yourself to do unpleasant things or denying yourself pleasure. If that’s how you see it, you’re doomed before you start.

Self-discipline should be all about finding your motivation. With the right motivation, you will find yourself able to tackle just about anything.  

18. Getting your shit together creates Epic Confidence

Those who successfully transform bad habits to proactive ones quickly find out that their confidence increases exponentially.

That confidence will reflect in your interactions with clients and other members of your business community. It will sharpen your focus and teach others they can trust you, because you always do what you promise and get things done.

Self-discipline is only hard if you keep telling yourself it is. Find your motivations, remove distraction and see how much joy that adds to life. 

In the end, self-discipline brings its own, priceless rewards.