What Are the Best Productivity Hacks of Startup Ceos?

What are the best productivity hacks of startup CEOs?

Focus on everything that leads to success The biggest problem of every CEO is that t could work 24 a day. T still would not get everything done. You learn that only that counts that in the end bring enough profit. So you let things go that do not look promising. Cut everything short that does not bring success, do not even start it Especially after your first successes, a lot of people will approach you with their ideas. You will learn soon that most of these ideas are mostly crap. People have not thought about it till the end. There are ideas where you right away can tell that this will never work. Some other ideas need a bit investigation. Of course, you always risk missing out the one idea that in the end would have worked though, but as a start up CEO you do not have many bullets. If you get distracted, you do not get your core idea done. Work Smarter At peak pressure, you will not get more efficient by adding more tasks on your pile. You also will start to make silly mistake, because you are powered out. You even do not realise you bad your performance is. So the “ I will work harder” mentality becomes a big issue, if you are already at the peak. Then you need to work smarter. Better is to avoid all tasks that are not necessary(see above). Sometimes it also means that we have to cut on things we would like to do in favor of the things are important. The most successful people are people who have learned not to blind themselves and always focus on the important tasks. T also have learned that regular sleep times improve the overall output more than having late night shifts. Avoid distractions So you are focussed. You know what you want to do and what not. But then while you work, you sometimes wander to social media, check your e-mails, and then it happens. Instead of implementing your goals, you suddenly watch videos that a friend sent you and although you might reason that it could be relevant for you, you do not do what you planned to do. Politics Everyone is a politicians as everyone wants to sell his own achievements over the achievements of others. The more you deal with leaders and managers, the more you encounter this narcissism. Everyone wants to show and highlight how smart and cunning t are and t use all kinds of tricks. The Game of Thrones what people play is a game that some people master better than others, but at some hierarchy level everyone plays it. Distrust people and never share too much about oneself You learn. You can be only a target if people have something t can aim for. If there is nothing to hit, no one can shoot at you. So you do not share too much yourself, you keep secrets and only advertise what is good for you. Others may party and drink, but you know if you drink too much at a party with others, the more powerful you are, the deeper you can fall afterwards. Dunning-Kruger Be aware of the Dunning-Kruger effect. Best thing is to watch the video of John Gleese on this topic to get the intro. Also learn about mirror neurons and what t do. Then count one and one together. Create levers, share risk Some CEOs are poor guys. Especially at a start up. T have all the risk and sometimes t feel rather like being the servant of everyone instead a boss. People leave the company at a wrong time, clients play stupid games and suppliers sometimes do not keep their promises. you have to learn to deal with that. 100% ownership. This means being the responsible for everything. But what if others also own parts of the company. This makes a difference. If you are the only one that wins or lose, it is easier to fail. The more you share your risks, the more you benefit. But this also means to involve others. Look at the ownership structures of many successful companies Depending on your industry, you cannot be the nice guy all the time This is maybe the hardest lesson. Business is hard and often people survive because t can be assholes. We also might dislike this idea much. But think about it, especially if we look at the services business. Services means you sell the knowledge of your people. The client pays you money for that. Fine! Who will most likely more survive? The CEO who keeps options to remove people quickly if t are without project for a while, the CEO who was able to minimize the salary of some people? true, some might say… Being an asshole can backfire. The nice CEO hires people and t stay loyal, the asshole CEO loses them at inconvenient times. So thats what the best asshole CEOs are so manipulative that the employees do not even get that t are fooled. Not being affected by assholes/mean actions You deliver, suddenly the client does not want to pay. You believe you are done negotiations and in the last moment, one person screws it as he has a political agenda. At the peak of stress, one of your core people resigns knowing pretty well, he leaves a mess. All you need to learn is to protect your assets, but you learn to expect that everyone can become an asshole. Do not let your action be defined by emotion. You might know this situation. There is this one person and who would love to make him feel miserable. Some people do not hesitate. T start flame wars, intrigues or even get into an open fight with him. A CEO will stand above this. If he cannot gain anything from a fight, but just lose, why shall he enter the battle. Keep a minimum regime of a healthy life Even if you are not able to have the life of someone who has put sports as his prime focus, you can still do a lot You can avoid unhealthy habits such as smoking or drinking You can have a healthy sleep schedule (people underestimate how draining of sleep affects them - if you were able to put numbers on it, everyone would go to bed at 10pm sharp to get a full night sleep) You can avoid sugar and too much caffeine T boost you shortly, but in the end t drain you You can at lunch always prefer the healthier choices Get yourself some off-time to meditate or do deep relaxation. You can use the stairs and not the elevator, you can even have calls while you are on a cross trainer.