StartupCafe

We often wonder about the habits that lead to entrepreneurial success and as it’s Global Entrepreneurship Week, this is probably a very good time indeed to consider adopting new good habits and identifying/disposing of bad ones!

So this week we are asking “Which good habit  do you hope to develop soon in your quest to become a successful entrepreneur?”

Bela:  I’ve learnt to stop multi-tasking; consequently I’m getting more things done as I’m able to concentrate better.  I now want to get into the habit of trusting myself to get things written ‘in neat’ the first time around instead of endlessly drafting and revising.  Which brings me to my final point – in order to develop sound judgements about how long to spend on tasks, I want to adopt the habit of considering the law of diminishing returns each time I tackle an assignment such as research or writing, i.e. how much extra benefit am I likely to obtain by investing more time?

Jess: There are a number of habits I’m focused on at the moment, but most urgently, I need to learn how to say NO. No, I unfortunately don’t have time to take on that extra project just for fun. No, I can’t reasonably manage to get that done by tomorrow. No, I’m not going to attend that event, and it will not kill me to miss out. I am almost completely, entirely programmed to say YES: yes, I can find a way; yes, I can do that too; yes, I want to help… but lately I have found it quite difficult to be maximally effective with my attention and responsibilities all over the place. It pains me greatly to work on saying the word I hate most, but I know I need to turn down opportunities so I can make the most of the ones I’ve taken on.

Kate: Learning to develop a better work-life balance. It’s important to be able to switch off and relax – which would make me more productive in general. But this is much easier said than do When you’re working in a startup, everything seems important and all screaming at you at the same time.  I know that this isn’t just my problem (especially in regards to some of my colleagues), but I recognise working long long hours is not healthy. If anyone has any tips, I’d definitely like to hear!