Whether you’re rocking a side hustle or running a business full time, it’s important to hack your habits so that they work for you (and your company). By cutting the crap and adding in healthy boundaries and working tricks, you’ll elevate your work game and be one of those rare entrepreneurs that actually works smarter instead of harder. 

The world is uncertain, one day you go to bed feeling normal, and the next morning you wake up to find out that your favorite celebrity is maybe a cannibal (we’re looking at you Armie). So with everything that is out of your control, it’s important to focus on the things you can control. Like your habits. 

The Dos:

Budget Your Time: Be as tight with your time as you are with your money when it comes to tipping the food was meh and the service was subpar. When you give value to your time, you start to see it for the powerful commodity it really is. Time is a limited resource so you need to find a method of blocking out the time that works great for you and your business.

Gone are the days when everyone worked a typical 9-to-5, and while that’s awesome, it means we sometimes suck at budgeting time. Our tried-and-true time hack? Jam Sessions. A Jam session is a 90-minute time block you set aside to power through your work. You turn off ALL distractions and you focus all of your attention on your tasks for 90 minutes. After your time is up, take a break, turn back on your email notifications, and actually mark another jam sesh on your calendar. 

And as an added bonus “do”: We know we made a waiter joke but don’t be a jerk. Tip the server. 

Set Boundaries: 

Burnout is real and it happens faster if you leave your notifications on from the time you wake up to the minute your eyes shut. You need a little distance after a day at work and if you’re constantly thinking about work, you’ve got no time to let your brain relax and reset. Which is really important. We get it, you want to hustle hard. You want to put in lots of work (which we support). We also just happen to support knowing when you need a break. 

No one wants to be a 32-year-old entrepreneur whose got a coke habit and is going bald — because of all of the stress. Which is pretty much what we’re saying is bound to happen if you don’t set a few healthy boundaries for yourself.

Tackle the Tough Stuff: 

When you’ve got a tough task, tackle it as soon as you can. If not, that task is just going to loom in the back of your mind all day. Whether you’ve got to have a sit down with an angry investor, or you simply need to run to the post office to mail packages, avoiding a task that you hate completing is just going to make the rest of your day bad. 

If you don’t believe us, we invite you to rewatch season 2, episode 5 of The Office and watch how Michael pretty much ruins Halloween because he didn’t take our advice. 

Manage the E-Monster:

When you’ve got 7,549 unread emails in your inbox, everyday feels a little more overwhelming than it should. Whether you realize it or not, a massive pileup in your inbox looms in the back of your mind and is a constant nagging distraction. So here’s how to tame the beast.

If you’ve already got a cluster of an inbox, give yourself some time today to clear your inbox out. Don’t do anything but read, respond to, and delete emails. Once you’ve got a clean slate to work with, put a system in place. Check your email first thing every morning and give yourself 15-30 minutes to read and respond to everything. Then check your email periodically throughout the day and end your day by checking it again. 

And The Really Please Do Not Dos: 

Don’t Multitask: 

Multi-tasking literally just means you do a lot of things poorly, all at once. It’s a bad habit and it’s time for you to break it. You are not the exception to the rule. You suck at multitasking. The solution? See ‘Jam Session’ in a previous paragraph. 

Study after study has proven multitasking wildly ineffective. Along with jam sessions, we recommend beating the multitasking bug by setting a schedule or developing a routine, listening to music with no words, and for the love — you are not fooling anyone with the whole I just like Netflix on in the background for the noise, thing — turn it off!

Stop The One Man Band:

We get why so many businesses need to run like a one-man-band. Especially at the beginning, money can be tough. But when used wisely, you can spend money on employees or services that will grow your business and lighten your workload. Whether you need a personal assistant or a really punchy, on-trend company with a ton of legitimate branding experience (yes we mean us) to help you out, it’s okay to invest and hire smart. You can’t (and shouldn’t) run a business by yourself, even when you’re the owner. 

And after you hire the right people to help your business boom, remember to delegate. No one likes a micromanager. Let people do the job you need them to do.

Refrain from Over-Promising: 

Nothing feels worse than the classic, ‘Over promise, under-deliver’. As a business owner, it’s easy to understand how one could fall into the trap of pleasing people. You want your employees and customers to be happy and to like you and your products — but over-promising is a dangerous game. 

Be realistic with yourself and with the people you work with. Recognize that you’re not always going to live out the best-case scenario and that sometimes you are going to fall short. When you set realistic expectations from the get-go, it’s better for everyone involved.

A little honest self-evaluation never hurts, so take a little time to find your weak points as a business owner and build them up. See where you need to change and be better, and change and be better.

Amen and Awoman.