Routine will set you free

Manic entrepreneurs have a hard time focusing. When we do focus, it’s like a laser beam, until our ADD kicks in and pulls us to something else.

How do I work with my ADD and actually get thing accomplished? It’s all about routine baby. If I have a schedule and a list of things to do, it helps tremendously with focus and productivity.

Here are some tips I’ve learned through experience:

Schedule everything. If it’s important, schedule it. I actually even schedule time with my kids in the morning. If I didn’t, it might not happen in the am. My morning schedule looks like this:

5am – 6am: Read, write, improve my Italian with Rosetta Stone and catch up on some work/e-mails. I usually get to two out of these four.

6am – 7am: Exercise (I eat way too much, so if I didn’t do this, my fingers would be too fat to type this blog entry). Plus it helps with mental focus throughout the day.

7am – 7:30: Have breakfast with wife and kids.

By 8:15-8:30, I am at The Next Step Magazine offices.

This morning schedule really works for me, partly because I don’t leave it to fate; I schedule it!

Other tips include meetings. Have them! Have a weekly meeting with your management staff, reports, sales staff, etc… But make them as quick as possible. One hour max… That’s the meeting attention span of any manic entrepreneur anyway. I find more frequent, but shorter meetings to be very effective.

Another one: Check email only 2-3 times a day. It keeps you away from the email-quicksand. Also, the less you respond, the less emails you’ll get back!

Last but not least, be a list taskmaster. I am actually a list freak. I prioritize the things that I need to do, and I don’t start #2 until I finish #1. Otherwise, I’d be working on 10 things at once and nothing would get done.