So, 2017 is here and it’s time to look to the new year. Hey look, that rhymes — poetry and startup business nous in one sweet article, aren’t you lucky?
Anyway, here is some top-notch startup advice from three startup founders about how to stay productive for the next 12 months.
Tune out
Sediarus Perrotta, the founder of Shelf, an information curation platform that allows businesses to capture, find, and share content, says:
“In our fast paced, always on society, it is all too easy to get lost in the digital noise of our multi tasking lives. There is a cognitive cost to task switching that consists of losing focus and increasing stress levels that has been proven by renowned MIT neuroscientist, Eric Miller.
“My biggest productivity boosts comes from creating two hour blocks of time in which I log out of all my online accounts, turn off my cell phone, disconnect the Wifi, and put on noise canceling head phones so I can just focus on the one most important thing that must get done.
“It’s absolutely incredible how much better your work can be when all the distractions are eliminated and you know you have the time to work uninterrupted.”
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Less is more
Chris Smith, the co-founder of Curaytor — a digital marketing platform provides software — says less is more and can be made possible by doing a digital cleanse:
“Every year on Black Friday I do a digital cleanse that includes using Unroll.me to unsubscribe from all the unnecessary email lists I am on. I also unlike and unfollow all Facebook Pages and Profiles I no longer care to see updates from which includes removing myself and block the ability to be added back to as many Facebook Groups as I can.
“After I delete every app from my phone that I can, then turn off every notification on my phone that I can — this includes 100 percent of the red badge app icons.
“Normally, I prune my Twitter List by several 100 accounts but this year I actually uninstalled Twitter from my phone all the way. I only find myself checking trending topics these days which are nearly always a distraction. This actually takes several hours to complete, if you are meticulous, but the ROI is infinite. Your spouse, kids, co-workers, and even pets, will all notice and appreciate it.”
Sort that inbox
Ethan Beute , founder of Bombbomb, an app that records and sends video by email, urges entrepreneurs to de-clutter their inboxes:
“Save time in your inbox and get better replies and results by talking instead of typing – by using simple webcam videos in some of your emails.
“On average, we speak four times faster than we type. And in video, we’re communicating more clearly and connecting more effectively than through plain, typed-out text. When your email has extensive detail, subtlety, nuance, emotional tone, or other things that take a long time to write, consider just hitting record and explaining it by speaking. I use BombBomb’s Gmail plug in to do this every day.”
