You just launched a business. It’s exciting, exhilarating, and nerve-racking all-at-once. I would even go so far as to say that it’s one of the most exceptional experiences in your life. Can you maintain those feeling day-in-and-out? Well, no, but here’s how the smartest entrepreneurs keep from losing momentum.

Entrepreneurs Keep From Losing Momentum

Between setbacks and doing the same tasks over-and-over again, you can eventually lose that momentum. The good news? It’s not gone forever if you do the following to keep that momentum going.

“Why?”

Your alarm goes off at 5:15 am. Maybe the weather isn’t pleasant. You’re not feeling 100 percent. Your startup has had better weeks. What’s driving you to get-out-of-bed and tackle the day head-on? If you answered “money,” then it may be time to reevaluate whether or not you have it in you to continue the entrepreneurial journey.

There are many reasons why we start our own businesses, like being your own boss. Yes, money does a play role. However, successful entrepreneurs should always ask “why?” Try to be clear on your why — it helps.

Why did you start your business? Why do you wake up before everyone else every morning? Why do you keep forging ahead when everything seems to be going wrong? The answer? You know your purpose.

Take a moment and discover your own “why” whenever you feel like you’ve gone off track. If you need help getting back on track, ask the following questions:

• What makes you feel alive?
• What are your natural strengths?
• Where can you add the most value?
• What are your core values?

The answers help entrepreneurs keep from losing momentum.

In the words of the German philosopher Frederick Nietzsche, “He who has a why can endure any, ‘how.’”

Some say, “set the bar low.”

Think about all of the advice you’ve been given or have read. I bet one of the most common has been that you dream big and shoot for the stars. While there’s some truth to that, sometimes you have to set the bar lower, or at least think in different terms. The goal is to get there — not demoralize yourself.

If you say that you’re going to lose 50 pounds, there’s an excellent chance that you won’t achieve that goal because the ambition is stated in those terms. Instead, you’ll follow-through if you commit to doing five minutes of cardio and five pushups a day.

According to Stanford University researcher B.J. Fogg, that’s because if you want to develop a lifelong habit, it’s more effective to start with small and simple adjustments. As we begin successfully making progress, we’re more driven and confident of keeping going.

As Steve Jobs once said, “That’s been one of my mantras — focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.”

Celebrate success.

At the same time, making progress in small ways don’t always make it appear like we’ve established that much of a difference. It may not seem entrepreneurs keep from losing momentum by using this technique. There are times when it looks like we’ve hardly made a dent. But research from Harvard University shows that recognizing these small wins is the key to productivity and happiness.

To get started, first identify the wins you want to celebrate. Typically, this is by identifying measurable “wins” that are aligned by your core values — for example, earning a specific amount of five-star reviews on Yelp because of your outstanding customer service. If so, then reward your team with a pizza party or night-out-on-the-town.

I like to review positive customer feedback and share it with my team. It’s a simple but powerful way to show that our hard work is recognized and appreciated.

Keep the body going.

You’ve probably heard this a million times. You need to make your health a priority. But, there are several excellent reasons why you should exercise every morning:

• Gives you more energy, stamina, and endurance to power through the day.
• Boosts your immune system.
• Puts you in a better mood.
• Relieves stress.
• Sharpens your cognition.

Besides exercising, don’t forget to eat a well-balanced diet. It’s pretty challenging to be productive when you’ve just consumed a triple-bacon cheeseburger with fries and shake for lunch. Instead, eat foods that boost your energy and focus, such as almonds, salmon, kale, and eggs.

And, make sure that you get six to eight hours of quality of sleep each night. You can’t keep the momentum going when you’re yawning all day.

Keep a “did it list.”

Calendaring you to-do-lists come in-handy. But, research has found that seeing your progress and how much you’ve accomplished will inspire you to keep pushing forward. That’s why you should start creating a “did it list,” or at least have a place you can check tasks off.

With a “did list” you’re not only able to view your accomplishments, but they can also be used to review and reflect on your year when you are establishing your new goals.

Build a great team.

Paul Allen wrote in an article titled Microsoft’s Odd Couple that, “Bill never wanted to lose talented people. ‘If this guy leaves,’ he’d say to me, ‘we’ll lose all our momentum.’”

Put your ego aside for a moment and realize that you can not succeed alone — no matter how intelligent or talents you are. You need to surround yourself with others who can help enhance your skills and compensate for your weaknesses.

Don’t forget to have fun.

“Fun is one of the most important — and underrated — ingredients in any successful venture,” Richard Branson wrote in “The Virgin Way: Everything I Know About Leadership.” “If you’re not having fun, then it’s probably time to call it quits and try something else.”

Final Thoughts on How Entrepreneurs Keep From Losing Momentum

Of course, there are days when that doesn’t seem like the case. But, instead of harping on these setbacks, make being an entrepreneur as enjoyable as possible by trying out the following:

• Make the activities used to achieve your goals more fun, like using gamification, writing an “eff yeah” list, or creating a vision board.
• Change how you think by thinking more positively and developing a growth mindset. Gratification, reflection, and being in the present are great places to start.
• Give yourself a small reward after you’ve achieved a small goal.
• Delegate tasks that you either don’t enjoy or are not skilled at.

By doing so, you’ll be able to illustrate how entpreneurs keep from losing momentum.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but you may not be the best at calendaring your day. Technology is moving at breakneck speed, and we’ll have tool advances to enhance our time usage along with new and advanced advice. For now, schedule your day this way to increase calendar productivity.

Create your daily plan the night before.

The first place to start when scheduling your day to increase calendar productivity is by actually planning your ideal day. Best, for me, is to prepare the night before. This way when you wake-up, you know exactly what your day is going to look like and where you’re going. You’ll be less sidetracked by minor emergencies or indecisiveness.

There’s no right or wrong way to map-out your day, but here’s what you may want to include:

• All of your appointments, phone calls, and meetings for the day.
• The top three priorities that you want to complete, or make progress-on, by the end of the day.
• Take time for self-care, such as exercise, meditation, or learning something new.

When planning your day, make sure that you’re realistic. You may have ten items you consider as “priorities,” but you most likely will not accomplish all of them. Some people feel disappointed because they didn’t accomplish everything on the to-do-list.

Once you’ve narrowed down your top three priorities, jot down the practical action steps that will help you cross these items off on your to-do-list. The list can help you remain focused and ensures that you have everything you need for the day.

With your daily plan in order, you can go ahead and schedule it into your calendar.

On a final note about your evening routine: You may want to consider the timesaver of preparing your meals and clothes for the next day. Laying everything out the night before can be done at the same time. Ideally, you can do all this on a Sunday night or a couple of days in advance. The forethought saves you time and decision-making energy.

Jumpstart your day with a morning ritual.

A morning routine encourages you to get into the right flow as soon as you wake-up. It sets up your mind and energy so that you’ll have a productive day. Best of all, you’re not wasting energy thinking about what you need to do. It’s automatic.

While everyone has their own ideal morning routine, here’s what you should add to your morning routine if you want to have a productive day:

• Wake-up before everyone else so that you have time to yourself without being disrupted.
• Drink a 16 oz glass of water (I drink a bottle) upon awaking. Then after your morning routine, grab one more of these drinks, so that you remain hydrated throughout the day. Don’t lounge through this drink — just chug it down — and be done.
• Avoid your phone and use this time for deep thinking and reflection.
• Exercise so that you have the mental and physical energy to power through the day.
• Consume a healthy breakfast. Like exercise, this will keep you mentally and physically sharp.
• Read for around 15 minutes so that you learn something new or keep up-to-date about your industry.
• Meditate for around 10 minutes. It can help improve your ability to focus.

Eat your frog first thing in the morning.

Mark Twain once famously said, “Eat a live frog first thing in the morning, and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.”

Since then, time management experts have embraced this idea. The idea simply means that you should tackle the most important or challenging task first thing in the morning. Believe it or not, science backs this up.

According to Dan Ariely, a Duke University professor of psychology and behavioral economics, people are usually most productive within the first two hours after becoming fully awake.

“One of the saddest mistakes in time management is the propensity of people to spend the two most productive hours of their day on things that don’t require high cognitive capacity (like social media),” Ariely wrote during a Reddit AMA. “If we could salvage those precious hours, most of us would be much more successful in accomplishing what we truly want.”

So let’s say that you wake up at 6 am. You should identify your frog and schedule it into your calendar at eight or nine am at the latest. No exceptions — okay unless you get off-track. If you get off track; use your trusty “I’m getting back on track mojo.”

After you’ve eaten that frog, you’ll have a sense of relief. I think of it as “logging in on life,” and “powering-up.” These mental images give a great start to the day — then you can devote your remaining energy to soft tasks like answering emails for an hour. OR, if you’re having a great day — decide, “today I’m going to dive into my productivity-hacks.”

Schedule your days in blocks.

When planning your daily tasks, use time blocking. Block out specific times to accomplish specific tasks in your calendar. For example, you could block out nine to 11 am to eat your frog. The calendaring and the blocks allow you to know precisely how you’re going to use your time and the time frame to complete each task.

According to guru Cal Newport:

“Sometimes people ask why I bother with such a detailed level of planning. My answer is simple: it generates a massive amount of productivity. A 40-hour time-blocked work week, I estimate, produces the same amount of output as a 60+ hour work week pursued without structure.”

To get the most out of time blocking you should schedule 90-minute chunks of undistributed work. You’ll turn off notifications on your phone or computer and possibly placing a “Do Not Disturb” sign on your door.

Since our office is open — we have specific cues for code. No earphones mean. “okay to bother, I’m on a soft task.” The white earphones mean “approach with caution.” The noise-canceling headphones mean, “stay the hell away; I’m busy.”

Why 90-minute intervals? The human brain can only focus on a task for 90-120 minutes. A 20-30 minute break is needed afterward for the brain to recharge so that it can focus on the next job.

Batch same-type tasks together.

When filling-out your calendar, start batching tasks together. As explained by Amanda Abella in another calendar article, “Batching refers to a productivity hack where you only focus on similar tasks. For example, if I have to take meetings, I’ll take them all the same day. If I have several articles to write for clients, I will do that all the same day as well.”

“The idea is simple. If you’re not jumping around doing different tasks, your brain doesn’t need to take the extra time to adjust.” It helps to remain focused on the task at hand and make your time blocks as productive as possible.

Don’t forget to schedule breaks.

It’s just not possible to be at peak productivity 24/7. You need to schedule breaks throughout the day so that your brain has time to rest and recharge. This way, when you jump back to work, you’ll be refreshed and refocused.

As Tim Ferriss wrote in The 4-Hour Workweek, “Alternating periods of activity and rest is necessary to survive, let alone thrive. Capacity, interest, and mental endurance, all wax and wane. Plan accordingly.”

No matter the size of the company — meetings are a necessary evil. Meetings are where you and your team set a strategy, brainstorm ideas, gather team insights, and check the status of a project. But, founders should consider a companywide, “no meetings day.”

You already have a handle on the fact that your talent isn’t too keen on meetings either. Meetings often feel like a waste of time to your team when they are so busy. Particularly difficult on your team are, the status meetings, check-ins, regular team meetings and of course, those pesky update meetings.

Would your team rather watch paint dry than have a company meeting?

According to one poll, 46 percent of respondents stated that they would prefer to do anything else besides sitting in a meeting. What’s more, 17 percent said they would choose to watch paint dry, while eight percent reported that they would rather have a root canal.

But, it’s not just the employees who aren’t fond of meetings. A report published by Harvard Business Review found that over 70 percent of the 182 senior managers surveyed agreed that meetings are unproductive and inefficient. Respondents added that meetings prevent them from completing their own work (65 percent), partaking in deep thinking (64 percent), and missing out on other opportunities to bond with their team (62 percent).

As a result, more and more organizations are choosing to set a “No Meeting Days.”

Why you should consider a companywide, “No Meeting Day.”

To be fair, this isn’t a groundbreaking idea. The idea of having a companywide “no meeting day” has been implemented by many businesses over the years.

Here are a couple of examples:

• Since 2013, Asana has a company-wide rule “No Meeting Wednesdays.”
• After becoming CEO Aria Healthcare Kate Kinslow instituted “No Meeting Fridays.”
• Kelly Eidson, the cofounder of Moveline, has swamped meetings on Tuesdays or “Maker Days.”
• Tristan Walker, founder, and CEO of Walker & Company only schedule meetings on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

Why have these organizations, and many other organizations, decided to take a stand against meetings?

Dustin Moskovitz, the cofounder of Asana, writes, “The gist is that the “makers” suffer greatly from interrupting meetings in their flow time. Managers are generally used to having a schedule-driven day — so it seems easier for them to throw a disruption into somebody else’s calendar,” the memo reads. “Makers also do this to each other.”

Kelly Edison tells Fast Company that the Tuesday, “‘Maker Day’ is a day where the goal is for people to be productive with a big problem they are trying to solve.” Edison adds, “People in the [product] team can work wherever they want and don’t have to be accessible to anyone but themselves.”

Tristan Walker says that on Mondays, Thursdays, and Fridays “I try to take zero meetings so I can get work done. Tuesdays and Wednesdays it’s usually back-to-back-to-back meetings.”

Between project management software, automation, and the fact that meetings waste both her personal and professional time, Amanda Abella writes in a previous Calendar article that she’s ditched team meetings altogether.

If you’re still not convinced, then consider that businesses lose $37 billion in unnecessary meetings every year, as well as:

• Between preparation, traveling, and attending a five-person meeting eats-up 53 hours and 24 minutes.
• 91 percent of meeting attendees admit that they daydream during meetings.
• Meetings also can add stress to employees. 73 percent are stressed because the meeting takes time away from their family. 64 percent mentioned that they are concerned about work piling up.
• According to Public Health England CEO, Duncan Selbie, “sitting in too many meetings can slow down metabolism and reduce the body’s ability to regulate sugar and blood pressure. This can lead to serious health concerns like obesity, diabetes, and cancer.”
• Your organization can boost productivity by 20 percent by eliminating meetings.

How to establish a meeting-free day every week.

It’s one thing to say that you’re going to implement a “No Meeting Day,” but how can you follow through?

The first step is to make a commitment.

Time coach and author of How to Invest Your Time Like Money, Elizabeth Grace Saunders, suggests, “To start, I blocked off every Wednesday on a recurring basis on my calendar. That way, when people used my online scheduling system, Wednesday simply wasn’t an option.”

Set boundaries.

Saunders adds, “Making a meeting-free day a recurring event instead of picking the day week by week increased my chances of setting boundaries and following through.”

Once you’ve decided to make the commitment, Saunders recommends that the next step is to, “Discuss your strategy with close colleagues and your boss. That conversation can include why you see this as an important part of your schedule. It also says what people can expect from you — not only in terms of meetings — but also in terms of communication. This clearly shows when you will (or won’t) be available on email. The goal is uninterrupted focus.”

With those first two steps out of the way, you should also consider scraping status meetings entirely. Instead, use project management software. Use communication channels like Slack, companywide newsletters, or even just a spreadsheet mounted to the wall work well. This way everyone remains in the loop and are aware of the status of projects without having to attend a pointless meeting.

There are still some meeting you must have.

Yes, there are still some meetings you must have. However, think about replacing meetings with something fun, such as a public outing. This way you and your team can still exchange ideas and information and bond with each other without being stuck in a conference room.

Conclusion

Finally, realize that there will be times when you still need to have meetings. This will include times such as when meeting with a potential client or kicking-off a new project. To ensure that meetings are highly productive, use the following tips:

• Send out an agenda at least 24-hours in advance so that everyone is prepared.
• Follow Jeff Bezos’ “two-pizza rule” — and keep meetings as small as possible.
• Clearly define the role of every attendee.
• Keep meetings short — ideally no more than 18 minutes.
• Enforce a “no cell phones” rule.
• Instead of sitting in a conference room or office, have a standing or walking meeting.
• Consider lunch meetings.
• Assign tasks at the end of the meeting.
• Send out a follow-up email.

If worse comes to worse, here is the best advice we can on how to run a meeting that doesn’t suck.