12 Productivity Tips for Founders

Some ideas on how to get more done for your startup

As a founder, the most limited of all resources is your time. You can always hire more people and raise more money, but your time every day is strictly the same. So here are some tips on how to make the most of it. 

This is not an exhaustive list, and you do not need to do all of it at once. See it as inspiration on how to get more done.

Work on the most important thing, then on the second most important thing

If I could choose one piece of advice to increase productivity it is this. Your output can be as high as you want. If you do not work on the right tasks, it will ultimately not matter. Always be mindful of what your current most important task is. That is where you will find your starting line. Next, focus on the second most important task. Rinse and repeat this for the entire duration of your company and I promise that the returns will be astonishing. In the early stages, your most important tasks are usually related to talking to users, selling, building product, or raising money. Occasionally you might have to hire people. If it is not related to any of these, your alarm bells should ring and you should investigate to see if the tasks you are working on are important enough. 

Eliminate working on bullshit tasks

While it's crucial to prioritize your most important tasks, some tasks are simply unavoidable, even if they don't add significant value to your company's progress. These tasks might include doing the accounting or setting up your cap table tool—necessary but not immediately helpful. Beyond the necessary and the crucial tasks, there is a third set of tasks that I call bullshit tasks. Bullshit tasks are neither important nor required. Working on them can be very tempting because completing them will make you feel productive. However, in doing so you are often preventing the company from progressing. One common example is going to conferences . While conferences might be crucial if they are a core part of your sales strategy, they are often a waste of time. Some tasks can appear helpful but are, in reality, not. For example, re-designing the landing page when you have not reached out to a single customer all week. Especially if you have no real indication that the landing page is the problem. Different people tend to focus on different bullshit tasks. So try to identify these tasks for you and your co-founders and avoid them. 

Have prepared meetings

Meetings can either be a great way to make progress or a great way to waste time. My co-founder is a real stickler for running effective meetings. He will remind us regularly that every meeting should have an objective, and not be for pure information sharing. Basic information should be shared in advance so the participants can prepare and make decisions in the meeting. There is so much content about running effective meetings, so I have linked one great piece here.

Batch your meetings

Few things can interrupt your focus more than having too many interspersed meetings throughout the day. It is best to batch your meetings into one continuous stream. It's better to have 8 30-minute meetings in a row and then focus on deep work than to interrupt your workflow with meetings at 30-minute intervals. This includes customer meetings and does not refer to internal meetings only. If you have 8 internal meetings every day in your early-stage company, you should rather rethink the quantity and not the timing of the meetings. 

While not always possible, trying to batch meetings together will significantly improve your overall productivity. 

Batch similar tasks 

Just like batching meetings together, it makes sense to batch similar tasks together too. For example, I have a weekly admin blocker on my calendar during which I pay bills, fill out corporate or tax paperwork, and check off accounting tasks. Once you're out of the very early stages you may not want to do these tasks anymore. But in the beginning, someone has to get them done. So, in one blocker every week, I focus on the necessary tasks, which makes a big impact and helps me not accrue any admin debt. 

Say “no” more often

Many people want a piece of your time, especially once you’ve become more successful. Be very careful about who you give that time to. Try to pay it forward, but ensure that other people are not stealing too much of your time for things that are ultimately not that important. I enjoy helping other people, so it has been a long journey for me to learn how to help more efficiently. More on this in a future article. 

If you are in a slump, just start

Everyone has days where getting shit done feels more difficult than usual. My biggest piece of advice for bad days is to just start a task. This might sound weird at first, but usually, the energy you need to initiate the task is the most significant part. Once you start working, things will feel much easier.

If slumps happen too often, take a look and see if you can change your habits or improve your physical and mental health. 

Sleep enough!! 

Running on little sleep is one of the worst things you can do if you want to get shit done. Sometimes, nights might be a bit shorter. You can’t always help it. However, consistently sleeping too little will backfire immensely. Sleep deprivation leads to a significantly lower output per hour and your decision quality will deteriorate. Worst of all, it might have a serious impact on your health if you keep it up for too long.

If something takes less than two minutes, do it immediately

This might sound contrary to my first piece of advice, but I mostly apply this idea to emails. Answering emails is one of the tasks I have to do daily. Whenever an email takes less than two minutes, I just do it immediately. If it takes longer, I archive the email and add the related task to my to-do list. Once I get to that task, I answer the email and cross if off my list. You will be surprised how much faster you will get to inbox zero if you apply this strategy. 

Mute notifications if you are in focus mode

If you are in focus mode, stay in focus mode. Turn off all notifications on your phone and laptop. You can make exceptions for important Slack channels or specific contacts on your phone. It sucks to lose your train of thought because of a robocall or a non-urgent email.

Use the right tools

Using the right tools saves time. Ask other founders what their favorite tools are, or do some research online. You should have a good system for your emails, calendar, internal communication, and code setup (if you are technical).

If you work in a remote setting do virtual co-working, or work from a different startup’s office

In the pre-investor days, working from home is often the norm. It can add great flexibility, reduce commute time, and be cost-efficient. However, sometimes it feels good to have other hard-working people beside you. If you think being around others improves your productivity, find some friends to meet on Discord or Gather. Alternatively, see if you can find a startup that will let you work from their office for free. This is especially relevant for solo founders.

There are many more tips I could give. But for now, we close with this: everyone needs to find a system that works for them. My own system is a collection of strategies I picked up over the years. For every strategy that worked there were two that did not. So don’t shy away from trying something new. A fresh approach might just help you get the important tasks done.