How to Clear the Way for New and Better Business Habits

by Jon Allo

You are your business. And just doing what you’ve been doing before will only make you less productive, less fit, less healthy and you’ll lose your entrepreneurial momentum.

So, what’s the solution? It’s to create new, great, and positive business habits.

Make Things Clean and Clear

This is a problem for many entrepreneurs. Many companies don’t know how to develop healthy policies and practices.

Take the first step and identify the problem. Then implement good policies. Look over your policies. How many of them are out of date? How many need improvement? And how many need to be wiped away? Make a list of what’s important at the moment. Get rid of everything that’s not important.

Start Small

Focus on building new habits instead of worrying about their impact. For example, you may want to start the habit of flossing your teeth every night. To build a new successful habit, start small: flossing just one tooth. This sounds crazy, but it works. If you build the habit of flossing just one tooth each night, three things will happen:

1. You’ll feel silly if you don’t do it because flossing a single tooth is easy.
2. You’ll likely floss more than one tooth. Starting anything is the biggest hurdle. And once you get started, it becomes easier to keep going.
3. You’ll create a habit. Flossing one tooth every night probably won’t make your dentist happier. But after a few weeks, the action will become a habit – something you’ll do automatically without thinking.

Once you build the habit, then you can slowly add to it. In your business, develop the habit of single-tasking. Do you struggle to stay focused? If you want to beat distractions, build the habit of working on one task at a time.

Start by doing that for ten minutes at a time. After ten minutes, take a break and allow distractions. Later, try another ten minutes of pure focus. When ten minutes become easy, work on twenty minutes at a time, and then half an hour. And, soon you’ll be able to spend an hour on a task without struggling to stay focused.

Reward Yourself

Every time you perform a new positive habit, celebrate. Reward yourself for putting in the energy. After building up enough great and positive habits, your brain goes on autopilot. It craves the reward it expects to come at the end.

Clearing the way for new and better habits means focusing on doing something small every day. And rewarding yourself every time you complete a habit reinforces the importance of doing that small thing over and over, instead of reaching for a far-off goal. For instance, if you’re trying to lose weight, daily weigh-ins can be demotivating. But celebrating every time you go to the gym will help you create a lasting habit of exercising regularly – regardless of the long-term goal.

Celebrate in a way that makes you feel good about sticking with your new habit.

About the author

So how do some people seem to thrive and achieve their goals and dreams while others struggle? The answer is mindset. To start taking steps today to embrace a success mindset get a copy of my free checklist, Cultivating A Growth Mindset at https://jonallo.com/mindset