Startupik

Now, I’m going to teach you a secret, I have some strategic words that they are very simple and help me to plan better on my work. Just try to do fewer things but better. you can make a matter list. These simple words have made my life and work.

Follow these steps to know how I implement my strategic plan:

1. Try to find out what matters the most.
2. Just Say no to other things else.
3. Re-read step two when something falls in the gray area.

In this post, you can read some of my tips learned from years of practice.

1. Start with a low-level of abstraction while making your list.

Try to avoid to make your list really high-level.  As an instance, avoid putting “Be successful” as one of the things on your priority list. Put enough number of things into your list. Probably you will find yourself taking on too much, therefore move to a lower level of abstraction and refine your filters.

2. If you find some things not on your “fewer things” list try to forgive yourself for having to say “no”.

Maybe you know that one of the biggest weaknesses in life of many people is that they too often say yes. They are passionate about their startups. they get excited about new ideas. they like making new friends online. It’s easy to say yes than it is to say no.

You need to learn the lesson that every time that you say yes to something new, you must be saying no to something else.

3. Keep in mind that every time you say “no” to anything you might have said “yes” to, therefore it frees up time to just focus on the things that matter.

The better you will get on the things that matter when the more time you spend on them. Now I want to give you an instance: you can say “no” to some request/idea/project that would have only taken a few hours a month because that didn’t make the list of the few things that matter. And, Remember, that one of the things that matter to you is being able to better communicate your message to all the world by public speaking.

You can spend on getting your message out when you save those few hours. This can lead to more speaking, more people influenced. But That’s not all. Because you’re going to spend more time on it Not only are you able to do some more public speaking, you’re going to get better at it.

And, you’re going to get more frequent speaking invites because you get better at it. by getting better and better at the thing that matters, you’re building leverage.  once you decide on only a few things to get better at, it’s amazing how much better you will get.

The reverse is true to: when you say “yes” to something, you’re saying “no” to another thing else.  Sometimes, you’re saying “no” to something that is more important.

4. Try to Fight the Fear of Missing Out emotion.

As you know, we all have it by different degrees. This fear that we’re going to miss out on some big opportunity if we don’t say “yes” to something, new connection or small joy. Keep in mind, sometimes you will miss out, but it’s not important and that’s ok. Your Life goes on. On average, instead of trying to do too much you will be better off skipping some things.

5. Be careful about recurring commitments.

If you want sometimes say “yes” to things that are not on your list of things that matter most. A monthly hourly commitment is so dangerous than a one-time commitment of 4 hours. Keep in mind, if you are not super-careful about this: When you say “yes” to a recurring commitment, you are effectively saying “yes’ multiple times, for as long as you think you are going to be in that commitment.

6. Prune your prior commitments is so painful.

If Maybe you are like me and you’ve said yes to some things that you now sort of regret. Try to get yourself out of those. Try to be respectful and be fair. but true to yourself and be disciplined. And just if you committed to few something last year with no real expiration date, this doesn’t mean you must keep doing it forever. As you know Things change.  On a related note:  For somethings that don’t have an expiration date, keep in mind that it’s going to be just as painful to prune later as it is now. why don’t give yourself a good gift of some time back sooner?

7. Solve for the outcome, not activity.

Try to find out what you want to happen whether it be a philanthropic one or commercial interest, and understand how to best create impact. Sometimes, outcomes that are optimal not achieved by saying “yes” to a list of “good” activities however well-intentioned.

According to the point of philanthropy, you might be wondering: What about doing good, and giving back?

My opinion for some people may be controversial and feel be self-serving and knighted to others.

First off, you should do so if you have the ability to give back. But the question is, how do you can optimize for the outcome?

Now, we want to explain this point by an example: assume that I am an entrepreneur. I have been for most of my professional job. I like startups. They give me great joy. And assume that I’m one of the co-founders of Hub Spot.  I’m also a fan of Boston and want to see the ecosystem grow of Boston startup.

But for example three years ago, I decided to limit the time I spend to helping entrepreneurs and the Boston ecosystem.

Why would I do that?  Isn’t that selfish?  Yes, maybe it is.

I’m a believer in scale and leverage. I like to spend all of my calories in some techniques that deliver the greatest impact and the best outcomes.  I actually quite agree on that idea.

When I felt the best technique for me is helping to the startup ecosystem, therefore I made this decision. I use my time to help make HubSpot a successful company. The outcome of that success will be greater than what I’d get if I were just trying to help a handful of startups.