171- Hints for creating a successful Entrepreneur routine

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

In this episode of The Struggling Biz show, we discuss one of the important habits for a startup or small business or entrepreneur — and that is the creation and nurturing of a good ROUTINE for your day and week.

This idea stems from a podcast episode called “My Morning Routine (and why you should have one”) delivered by Todd Henry in his show called The Accidental Creative.

Now, I have promoted Todd in this podcast series, as he delivers good topics and hints for the entrepreneur who is mainly a creative in the world of new media and professionalism. He has had his podcast show since 2005, and I have personally purchased not only podcast premium content, but also books, in the past.

In this episode from Todd, he describes his daily morning routine and he highlights this in his new book and podcast show called The Daily Creative. As I mentioned in an earlier episode, this new book and podcast reminds me of the format used by John Jantsch in his book called The Self-Reliant Entrepreneur. This is one in which each day of the year has a page or two of a key theme for the small business owner, with philosophy, wisdom and food for thought.

As I mentioned before, I feel that this new podcast series and book by Todd Henry will do the same thing. In fact, it appeared that his earlier premium podcast episodes (more than 15o of them in 2007) did the same thing under the name of “AC Engage.”

But now, Todd is describing an important theme for productivity and mental health for the entrepreneur. It is that of having a DAILY ROUTINE (which can then be extrapolated into a weekly routine and a monthly routine). This can provide a healthy environment for the entrepreneur, in which not only creativity, but productivity, can be maximized. And this can lead to successful paths for the entrepreneur in the small business.

For the entrepreneur, the daily routine for what Todd refers to as a “normal” day sets the landscape for his success:

to serve as a transition from rest to productive engagement in the business;
to avoid cramming everything into a short space in the morning (which can lead to emotional and mental burnout);
to find the sweet spot of activities that help your business and your health (e.g., daily exercise);
to have a great framework that can prepare you for occasional travel or absence from the business;
to walk through important rituals on a daily basis (e.g., reviews and roles and goals of your business or projects, which can then prepare you for upcoming items);
to avoid burnout — Todd equates his routine like being a “dashboard” on a vehicle which you are driving and helps you to avoid upcoming problems with the operation of yourself as an “engine.”
to perform your PLANNING with not only goals, but upcoming and past TASKS and COMMUNICATIONS with your key contacts;
to do whatever reading or study you may have, in order to improve your mind, your business and your ongoing education;
and other reasons.

So, as Todd states, his daily routine can be a help for your mindset to help you get better at what you do and avoid burnout and become more productive and successful.

He gives the benefits of his routine:

to clear his mind and prepare to focus to spend the time during the day (with whatever productivity system you may use);
to challenge his mind and focus on CREATING the key elements for his job as a creative;
to rid important items that are high priority out of the way, so that you can have more time for other important tasks and programs for your day.

Thus, we hope that these few ideas from Todd (and a reference to the tools that he uses in order to accomplish his tasks during his daily routine) can give you some suggestions that may help you to become prolific, healthy and productive as an entrepreneur — and that this can be a great ladder to your success as a business.

Thank you for your attention.