The life of an entrepreneur is never easy. If you want to be a successful entrepreneur, you have to be very productive. There are a million things to do and only 24 hours to do it. That’s why productivity is incredibly important. Within these 24 hours, the entrepreneur must sleep at least 7 hours, exercise and have healthy meals. This leaves very little time to handle the day to day running of their business. The following are the top 10 productivity hacks for an entrepreneur:

1. Plan the Day the Night Before

They say failing to plan is planning for failure, so entrepreneurs should take some time before going to bed to plan out what they are going to do the following day. This should be in form of a to-do list together with the time they intend to take to complete each of the tasks.

2. Avoid Distractions

It may be tempting to check social media accounts, bank accounts, emails and text messages all the time, but these distractions usually waste a lot of time and can make an entrepreneur less productive. Therefore, entrepreneurs should put their phones on silent mode and avoid checking their email or bank accounts when working.

3. Call at Least One Person

When you work from home, you’re also working by yourself.
You don’t have colleagues to chit chat with. You can’t get up and talk about your weekend to your neighbor.
And if you have a job in which you can do a lot of your work without a team (such as blogging and programming), then you run the risk of isolating yourself.

A lot of what I do is content marketing. I spend time creating content, promoting it, answering emails, Tweets, and other digital tasks. But none of which actually requires me to speak to another individual.
There are days in which I won’t speak to anyone until my wife gets home at 5:00. I always make sure to call at least one person each day. That way it’ll eliminate the loneliness feeling that sometimes creeps up on an entrepreneur.

4. Make Reasonable but Ambitious Goals

To make any type of progress, entrepreneurs need to have goals or targets, which must be attainable and time-bound. There should be short-term, medium-term and long-term goals. After every couple of days or weeks, the progress made should be compared to the set deadlines to ensure things are progressing as planned.

5. Keep Business Meetings Short

Business meetings are usually held on a regular basis, so there is no need to spend hours holding a business meeting. Research studies have found that only 15 minutes is needed to conclude a business meeting, which should be done while standing.

6. Stop Multitasking

Most people think they can multitask, but it’s a complete waste of time. In fact, the results produced through multitasking are usually low quality. Do one thing at a time to improve productivity.

7. Stock Healthy Snacks

Unlike an office setting, when you’re working from home, you work right next to the refrigerator and pantry.
Both of which are stocked with delicious food and maybe even the occasional bottle of wine.

I’m not suggesting that you’ll habitually turn lunch time into happy hour, but it is easy to start consuming unhealthy foods.
Not only are they bad for your waist line, they’re also bad for your bottom line. Not only will junk food affect your blood pressure, your heart, and other aspects of your health, it will also reduce your productivity.

As entrepreneurs and small business owners, we’re already pressed for time. We’re always looking for more hours in the day, trying to get that last task complete.
Why waste any of that time because you’re eating junk food?

8. Make the Office Lively

Working in an office with four plain-colored walls can create monotony and reduce productivity. To maximize productivity, add a potted indoor plant, an aquarium, art piece, pictures and flowers in the office.

9. Work in 90 Minute Intervals

Working from 8 or 9 in the morning to 12pm without taking a break can lower productivity. Ideally, work should be done in 90-minute intervals, with short breaks in-between.

10. Get Quality Sleep

“Sleep is for the weak!”
It’s a common refrain for small business owners and entrepreneurs.
I used to lead that band wagon.
But to say it’s not a smart idea is an understatement. According to the Harvard Medical School:
“In the short term, a lack of adequate sleep can affect judgment, mood, ability to learn and retain information, and may increase the risk of serious accidents and injury.
In the long term, chronic sleep deprivation may lead to a host of health problems including obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and even early mortality.”

See, when we don’t sleep, and try to push through to get everything done, we actually have an adverse effect on our businesses. We increase our chance of making bad decisions, and we’re unable to comprehend information.
Both of which will decrease your overall productivity.

I do my best to make sure that I get to sleep the same time every night and wake up at the same time every morning. This ensures that I get my full eight hours of sleep.
I’d be lying if I said I was able to do this every day, because I’m not. Deadlines and fire drills get in the way.

But the more I’m able to stick to my sleep schedule, the better I feel and the more I get accomplished.