5 ways to Automate Your Small Business Tasks

Automating tasks in your small business can save time, reduce errors, and increase efficiency. Here are five ways to automate your small business tasks:

1. Automate Marketing Efforts

Email Marketing Automation:

  • Tools: Mailchimp, Constant Contact, HubSpot
  • Benefits: Automate email campaigns, segment audiences, and track engagement. You can set up drip campaigns, welcome emails, and follow-ups without manual intervention.

Social Media Scheduling:

  • Tools: Hootsuite, Buffer, Sprout Social
  • Benefits: Schedule posts in advance across multiple social media platforms. Automate responses to common inquiries and analyze engagement metrics to optimize future content.

2. Automate Financial Tasks

Accounting and Invoicing:

  • Tools: QuickBooks, FreshBooks, Xero
  • Benefits: Automate invoicing, track expenses, and manage payroll. These tools can sync with your bank accounts to provide real-time financial insights and automate recurring billing.

Expense Tracking:

  • Tools: Expensify, Zoho Expense, Receipt Bank
  • Benefits: Automatically scan receipts, categorize expenses, and generate expense reports. Integrate with your accounting software to streamline financial management.

3. Automate Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

CRM Systems:

  • Tools: Salesforce, Zoho CRM, Pipedrive
  • Benefits: Automate lead capture, follow-ups, and customer interactions. CRM systems can segment customers, set reminders for follow-ups, and provide insights into customer behavior.

Chatbots:

  • Tools: Drift, Intercom, Chatfuel
  • Benefits: Implement chatbots on your website to handle customer inquiries 24/7. Chatbots can provide instant responses to common questions, collect customer information, and even process orders.

4. Automate Project Management

Project Management Software:

  • Tools: Trello, Asana, Monday.com
  • Benefits: Automate task assignments, set deadlines, and track progress. These tools allow team members to collaborate in real-time, receive automatic updates, and ensure that projects stay on schedule.

Workflow Automation:

  • Tools: Zapier, Integromat, Microsoft Power Automate
  • Benefits: Create automated workflows between different apps and services. For example, automatically save email attachments to cloud storage or send alerts to your project management tool when new tasks are created.

5. Automate Customer Support

Help Desk Software:

  • Tools: Zendesk, Freshdesk, Help Scout
  • Benefits: Automate ticket creation, routing, and responses. Help desk software can categorize and prioritize customer issues, provide automated responses for common queries, and track resolution times.

Knowledge Base:

  • Tools: Confluence, Document360, Guru
  • Benefits: Create a self-service knowledge base for customers to find answers independently. Automate the organization and updating of FAQs, troubleshooting guides, and product manuals.

Conclusion

By automating these aspects of your small business, you can free up valuable time to focus on growth and strategy. Investing in the right tools and software can enhance efficiency, improve customer satisfaction, and ultimately drive your business success.

Focus

Here are 10 More Great Ways to Focus on One Thing at a Time

  1. Treat a task as an opportunity to excel and not as a burden. If you keep complaining about your work, you will not be able to focus, and eventually you will give up and the rest of the work for others to finish.
  2. Meditate! This helps you concentrate on things more and develop a calmer approach when it comes to dealing with a difficult task. This will improve your concentration “muscles” and will replenish your mind with the right attitude and drive to work harder.
  3. Breathe before your start your work. Breathe calmly and properly – this will encourage your mind to relax and take things one stride at a time. If you come to think of it, breathing becomes forceful, shallow and fast if you feel rushed and if you lack concentration.
  4. Create a normal and steady flow of things. This means that you need to plan and follow your plans by the book. This will keep you from stirring away from what you need to do, thus making your work effectively and efficiently.
  5. Get plenty of sleep. If your body is well rested, so will your mind be. A well rested mind and body leads to a better attitude towards work. Lack of sleep can make you impatient and in a hurry to finish things which will lead to poor quality of work.
  6. Learn how to wait. Take your time and understand that not all things can be done in a snap. Results can or may take time to reflect, so you have to make sure that you wait it out as patiently as possible. Anticipating results is can also keep you from concentrating on what you really have to do.
  7. De-clutter your surroundings. It is not just your mind that you need to organize. You also need a more organized work place – imagine trying to get things done but you keep getting held back by the clutter in your office. A clean work area can help you focus on your work more.
  8. Find a buddy who can help you get back into focus every time you get distracted. Distractions are unavoidable at times, and it would be best to have someone to keep you in synch with your goals. Find a member of your team that you can really trust.
  9. Read your emails before you start your work. If you do this right in the middle of your work, you will obviously get distracted. The lack of focus will deter you from completing even a single task.
  10. Do not be scared to handle one task. Do you know the reason why people handle too many things at the same time? Aside from the fact that multi tasking can help show how productive a person is, it’s also because some people are scared of failing altogether. But you know, if you handle and focus on just one task, it will help you do your best and your undivided attention can almost guarantee that your chances of succeeding will be extremely high.

Finding your focus is never easy, that is if you do not have the right attitude and mindset. However, if you put your mind to it, you will be able to completely focus on the important things first before jumping on to the next one.

Stay Focused

10 More Ways to Focus on One Thing at a Time

Focusing on one task at a time can help you get more things done, compared to multitasking that can divide your attention and in the end you will be doing less than what you are supposed or expected to produce.

Here are 10 more ways to stay focused:

  1. Accomplish small tasks first. This will give you enough time to do the rest of your tasks without worrying about the minor ones that could disrupt your normal work routine or pattern.
  2. Never ever start a new project for your business, unless you are completely sure that the previous one is done. Remember that you should also not think about the remainder of your tasks or taking additional workload that can affect your concentration and productivity.
  3. Flexibility is key. Do not force yourself to complete one task if you know that you do not have enough resources to do so. Doing a task haphazardly results to poor quality of work. What you need to do is to try doing as much as you can, and leave the remainder of work for tomorrow, until everything gets done.
  4. Stop procrastinating and start working! If you stop making excuses why you were not able to finish your tasks on time, it means that you have the wrong attitude towards work. Instead of making excuses and blaming others, why not focus and start working on one task at a time.
  5. Learn to delegate other tasks. While it is important to be efficient, it is also important that show effective management and work focus through assigning or delegating tasks to other members of your team. Note that handling everything on your will ensure that you won’t get anything done. Now, if you learn how to properly delegate work, you will see that each employee or person will learn how to focus on one thing and be productive at the same time, including you.
  6. Beat laziness. If you are lazy, even if you are doing just one task – to market your business online, you will never get anything done. Stop being a sloth and move quickly but accurately.
  7. Keep yourself from feeling rushed or always in a hurry. If all you can think about is break time, as well as the end of your work day – you will not be able to concentrate on your task. Do not rush, take your time and find a comfortable work pace.
  8. Avoid information overload. If you keep stuffing your brain with too much information that you may not be able to make use of, the chances of confusion and distraction is extremely high. Deal with data or information the same way when you eat at a new restaurant. Trying each dish one at a time to completely savor or taste every flavor for better appreciation.
  9. Do not force things to happen. Face it, if the only thing that you can think of is to get the job done the soonest time possible, you are forcing a result out of your chosen task. Let things fall in to place by focusing on one aspect of your campaign at a time – completion of your task is just within reach.
  10. Be one with your work – this means that both your mind and your body should be really into the project that you need to complete. If you are not grounded, your attention will be divided, your mind and body will not work together.

Finding your focus is never easy, that is if you do not have the right attitude and mindset. However, if you put your mind to it, you will be able to completely focus on the important things first before jumping on to the next one.

Focus

10 Great Ways to Focus on One Thing at a Time

Focusing on one task at a time can help you get more things done, compared to multitasking that can divide your attention and in the end you will be doing less than what you are supposed or expected to produce.
Now, if you want to be more productive, there are at least 30 ways to practice single tasking – that is focusing on one task at a time.

  1. Concentrate and turn off everything that can distract you from completing your task. This includes your mobile phones, contact with people as well as locking your doors until you get your project done.
  2. Give yourself a target and a time frame – this will ensure that you are in synch with your schedule. If you are on the right track, you will notice that work gets finished easily and on time.
  3. Stop dilly-dallying and work! More often than not, interruption or lack of concentration doesn’t come from external factors. These distractions come from you. Convince yourself that it is a must that you complete your task and that you should avoid doing or getting into something that can keep you from single tasking.
  4. Post-its are great reminders. If you have a bunch of sticky notes lying around your office, try writing some motivating quotes to keep you focused on one task before moving on to the next. Especially if you are working in front of your computer, stick those notes on your monitor to keep you motivated.
  5. Since multi tasking doesn’t leave you room to relax, single tasking can give you enough opportunity to stop for breaks. So to take advantage of this privilege, take 10 minute breaks once in a while to refresh your mind and relax your body.
  6. Create a vision – of what you would want to accomplish at the end of each task. If you want to succeed in your online marketing business, envision that all your hard work has paid off and that you have gained more online followers and loyal customers and the results will not be far off from what you have planned to achieve.
  7. Prepare yourself emotionally. Psych yourself and focus on the task at hand. Just think about the positive results that working on single task can do for your business and your online marketing campaign.
  8. Use technology and make it work to your advantage. Since you are in the online marketing business, make use of your tech-skills and come up with a single campaign to promote your business, products and services online.
  9. Block out your schedule. Take note of what your project needs and how long it should take you to complete it. Set definite schedules for each part of your task and surely you will find it easier to accomplish.
  10. Start fresh every day. And because you are single tasking – which means that you are focusing and doing one task at a time, you will have more room to take breaks and start fresh come every work day. Since you do not feel tired, you be refreshed and ready to face a new day.

Finding your focus is never easy, that is if you do not have the right attitude and mindset. However, if you put your mind to it, you will be able to completely focus on the important things first before jumping on to the next one.

Time Management

Just What Is Time Management?

Forget all the complicated and sometimes confusing definitions you’ve heard in the past. Time management is actually very simple. It is the way you choose to spend your time.

Whether you realize it or not, you already do engage the process of time management. You simply can’t help it. If you are living and breathing, and make any move to do anything, you are applying a process in time management. In short, you are choosing what to do with your time.

What this means is that there is good time management and bad time management. When you choose to engage in productive or good time management, you are organizing the tasks or actions you want to accomplish into a logical and cohesive progression that will allow you to complete each and every task within an equitable time frame. At its best, this type of time management does not create stress or drive up your blood pressure. Instead, it actually makes the day run smoother, and empowers you a little more each time you can strike one action item off your list.

Good time management is a proactive process. You define what must be done within a given period of time, prioritize those action items and then develop a plan of action that will make it possible to successfully accomplish each one within the time allotted. With your plan laid out, you then take the initiative to start at the beginning and keep going until everything on your list is done.

By contrast, bad time management does not make the day pleasant at all. You are much more likely to feel constantly stressed out, as action items appear as if from nowhere. People are constantly demanding to know what a report was not completed or why there is no food in the cupboard.

Bad time management leaves you feeling powerless to do anything to improve the situation. The hopeless feeling continues to grow until you more or less shut down, deciding that those action items weren’t that important anyway. You put yourself into a state where you basically move through the day, never quite getting a handle on what is going on and only accomplishing something when pressured by outside forces to do so. At the end of the day, there are still many action items left to accomplish, leaving you a general feeling of having failed.

If you are still reading, then there is a good chance that you recognize a bit of yourself in both these scenarios. Most of us do tend to engage in both good and bad time management from time to time. The goal will be to rethink the way we apply time management principles so that we are exercising good time management more of the time and finding ourselves bogged down due to bad time management much less often.

Move forward

Not Moving forward? 10 reasons why!

1.You are focusing on the wrong things or tasks. Sometimes, the thought of success and doing a lot of things for your business can get you to miss on seeing the real picture such as what your business actually needs.

2.Your projects’ aims or goals are not clear. What does your business actually need? What do you want to see it do for your business? Set your goals straight.

3.You think about yourself and what multiple projects can do for you compared to what it can do for your business. Come on, everything is not about you, and although being able to accomplish a lot for your company can make you look good, it would still help if you plan for the good of everyone else.

4.You overload yourself with too much information that you fail to distinguish which ones are relevant to your company. Pick out and use only the pertinent information, otherwise you will end up confused and unable to complete your tasks with accuracy.

5.Distractions can get the best of you. This means that having a lot of things on your mind can keep you from focusing on your goals. And take note, distractions are not just about other tasks that you have in mind, distractions also include friends, partying too hard and too often and those times that you spend lollygagging during office hours.

6.Disorganized and dysfunctional work system. Of course, this is pretty much understandable, considering that fact that having a disorganized system can greatly affect you and your company’s productivity.

7.You get affected by too much negativity from yourself and other people around you. Obviously, if you let yourself be taken over by all those negative comments such as: you are not good enough for the job, or that you are too much of a perfectionist that you can’t seem to focus on what you want and what you have to do. And if you procrastinate too much, this attitude will also pull you down. Besides, making up excuses for not being able to accomplish something is totally wrong.

8.Too much multitasking and very little single tasking can seriously affect your productivity. If you are taking in and doing too many things, you will find yourself being pulled away from your actual goals.

9.You are too afraid to fail, that’s why you think of several strategies to succeed. But in reality, instead of being led to one major achievement, you end up being a major collector of failed projects and tasks. Failure should not be taken negatively. Failure should be your fuel to propel you towards success.

10.Lack of strict rules and work ethics. The thing here is that, you should always have to have a strict set of rules to make sure that you and your team would be able to move according to your original plans.

Certainly, you can add more to this list. Just think about your old work practices that didn’t seem to work to your advantage. And now that you know what you have to avoid or what causes you and your work to stagnate, it’s up to you to work on things the right way.

Beat Procrastination

Seven Ways To Beat Procrastination

Even though I am big proponent of Time Management, a big part of time management is actually about beating procrastination. We all procrastinate, even those of us who pride ourselves in having good time management skills.

From my studies, I have come up with seven proven ways to beat procrastination. You will notice that none of the following are actually about “time management” per se, they are about the emotions and psychology behind putting things off.

1. Do the worst task first: I have used this technique for years. I have even created more than one first thing. There is first thing in the morning, there is first thing after lunch, and there is first thing in the evening. I take a look at the items on my To Do List and figure out which one I am dreading the most and spend a limited time on it at least moving it forward. This is known as swallowing the frog first thing; if you begin your day by swallowing a frog, then the rest of the day looks good.

2. Break it down: Often the reason that we procrastinate is because the task ahead of us is too big. Often there are small parts of the task that can be done. How do you climb a mountain? One step at a time.

3. Use a friend: I am not actually referring to delegation (but of course I dont mind that either); what I mean is to tell a friend what you want to do and get them to help you start the task. Often it is the act of starting a task that is enough to get the task done.

4. Do the pleasant part of the task: Often many distasteful and large jobs have some parts to it that are not particular distasteful. Do them so at least you are moving forward on your most important items.

5. Fifteen (15) minutes: Just spend 15 minutes on a task. I have the attitude that I can spend 15 minutes doing virtually anything and I can certainly survive spending 15 minutes on something. Often by spending the 15 minutes on a task, I either complete it or I will get it moved forward enough that it has momentum to finish.

6. Track it: The simple act of tracking a goal is often enough to keep the goal moving forward. It seems odd, but knowing that you are going to write down whether or not you have done something is often enough to make you move forward.

7. Reward or punish: The reason we do something is because it is more painful than not getting it done, so if we can make the completion a task more rewarding or the consequences of not completing it more painful, then we tend to move forward on things. Tying successful completion of a task to a reward is often a successful technique.

Remember that even successful people occasionally procrastinate. Procrastination is not a permanent condition.

Time Management

How Do I Get Started With Good Time Management?

As with many roads, the path to effective time management is paved with all sorts of good intentions. People sometimes have the dream, but lack the drive to take that first step and then keep moving up the path. Often, the lack of progress is for no reason other than a failure to prepare for the trip. Here is what you need to do if you are serious about leaving your slovenly ways behind and becoming the master of your own time.

  1. Adjust Your Attitude

This is the step that many people leave out of the equation when they decide to get on the road to good time management. Unfortunately, not all those self-help books and seminars include any ideas on how to begin to change your outlook on life so that you can embrace the basics of managing your time effectively.

One of the easiest ways to initiate this change of heart is to make a list of the benefits you will immediately receive if you start managing your time to better advantage. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that the list has to be loaded with all sorts of impressive advantages or big events. After all, it is the day to day tasks that usually give people the most satisfaction anyway.

For example, your list could include benefits like:

  • More time to play with the kids
  • The kitchen cupboard has real food in it that can be used to make a decent meal.
  • The utilities will stay on all the time, because the bills will be paid on time.
  • You’ll get to see the opening scenes of the movie, catch the first inning of the baseball game, and get the best pickings at the yard sale, all because from now on you will be on time.
  • Your coworkers will be friendlier, since they are not waiting on you for something they need to get their jobs done.
  • Your boss will take the “Help Wanted” sign out of the store window.
  • You will feel more relaxed at the end of the day, because you know there is not a bunch of old stuff to do when you get to work in the morning.

Zero in on what poor time management has taken away from you over time, and how much fun it will be to have all those things back. If that’s not enough incentive to make some changes in the way you look at things, then you are probably dooming yourself to failure once again.

2. Start Small

It’s hard to break old habits. That’s what poor time management is, nothing more than a bad habit. As with many habits, you have to start with small changes if you want to succeed over the long term.

There are a couple of good reasons to begin with the little things and gradually incorporate more of the bigger things in your new time management scheme:

  • You’ll gain confidence. Nothing motivates people like a sense of accomplishment. It doesn’t matter that it is only one small change. The important thing is you did it. And if you did it today, you can do it tomorrow, and the day after that. Each day you manage to repeat that one small time management process, you will feel more empowered to make another change for the better.
  • People will notice. Loved ones and coworkers will see you are serious about learning how to practice effective time management, and begin to rally around you. True, their support may be tentative at first, especially if you’ve tried to become more organized in the past, but given up the effort after a day or two. But as you become consistently more dedicated to setting the little things in order, they will come around and compliment you on your efforts.
  • You’ll discover strategies and ideas that might work with some of the bigger things. As you master the little tasks that come during the day, you will probably begin to notice that some of the larger tasks can be addressed with the same approaches. This can be a good thing, as it helps you to brainstorm on ways to deal with different situations by using a tool you already have on hand and know how to use effectively.
  • You’ll become better at prioritizing your action items. It won’t take long for you to notice that the day went much smoother when you performed Task B before Task A. Finding just the right order for those small daily tasks will allow you to move through them quicker and with more proficiency. As a result, you will begin to develop little pockets of time that can be devoted to other endeavors.
  • Your stress level will begin to decrease. The more in control you are of your time and tasks, the less you will feel overwhelmed and unable to cope. This ties directly back into building a sense of empowerment and confidence in your ability to manage your time effectively. One feeds off the other two, giving you a strength and focus you may have never experienced before.

3. Reward Yourself

Think of it this way: if you won a prize, wouldn’t you celebrate at least a little? Making forward strides with learning how to manage your time is something worth acknowledging and celebrating. Sure, the fact that you go to work on time every day for a whole week now might not seem like much to anybody else, but that is not the point. The point is you made a positive step that put you back in charge of a part of your life and you are now managing it properly.

Of course, it is important to make sure your reward does not create yet another time management disaster that has to be straightened out. But assuming you have some spare time on the way home Friday evening, why not reward yourself with some little something you will enjoy, like a cup of your favorite coffee or picking up a copy of a magazine you really enjoy?

Keep in mind that a reward does not have to be big, splashy, or expensive. As you are learning by taking control of the little tasks in your life, a lot of satisfaction can come from little things. So go right ahead and allow yourself a small reward and enjoy it to the fullest. And if you want to have more rewards, continue to incrementally expand the control you have over your time.

4. Expect The Occasional Setback

Even the most proficient of time managers don’t always hit the mark. As you begin the process of learning how to do a better job with your time, there will be situations where you overlook something or encounter circumstances that temporarily derail your newfound ability to get things done.

It is as this point that many people choose to decide they simply can’t change and slip back into their old habits. While you certainly don’t want to brush off a setback as being nothing of consequence, you also don’t want to allow it to undermine all the progress you’ve made.

Instead of burying the setback or allowing it to lose confidence, try this third approach. Take a long look at all the circumstances surrounding the setback. Were there extenuating circumstances that you did not notice on the front end? Did something completely unforeseen arise as you were attempting to complete the task?

Knowing what happened and why it happened can be turned into a learning experience. By stepping back and examining the situation as dispassionately as you can, there is a good chance you can learn a few things from what appears to be a failure in managing your time effectively.

You may learn such valuable lessons as:

  • Points to clarify or data to double-check before you attempt the same or similar tasks again.
  • Additional tools or resources to assemble before tacking a task of this type.
  • A more effective process to deal with the situation.
  • Ways to defuse factors that led to the problem in the first place.

Never allow a setback to stop you in your tracks. Acknowledge it, learn from it, and then move on. Remember that you have other things that should be occupying your time.

Learning to implement solid time management practices and attitudes is an incremental process that involves the acquisition of knowledge, the application of what you learn, and the accumulation of personal experience. As you continue to move forward, your supply of all three components will increase, and your ability to manage your time will increase right along with them.

Focus

Importance of Working on A Single Task

This is not about completely discouraging you to stop working on several things at once, if that’s what you feel and believe would keep you focused and closer to achieving your goals. This is about giving you another option if you want to keep yourself from burning out and drying out of ideas and concepts without even getting somewhere.

There are many reasons why working on a single task is important advantageous for an internet businessman like you.

  • You can actually focus on the most important aspect of your business. If you set your sights on one thing, distraction will and cannot be entertained. Another thing, some tasks cannot be done while doing other things, and it doesn’t matter how good you are at multitasking, if the task calls for your complete or undivided attention, pairing it with other stuff just won’t do.
  • You can ensure quality. Who doesn’t want to be proud of their work? And having too much on your plate can sacrifice the quality and effectivity of your project. Remember that the success of your online business is in your hands, so putting all your effort and attention to one task can definitely do wonders for you and your business.
  • You get to enjoy your work more. Have you ever experienced feeling too swamped with work and because you had so many things to do, you have completely forgotten what it’s like to enjoy and love the work that you are doing? Well, if you focus on doing one thing, you can, not only savor every bit of success that you gain out of your task, but also appreciate your work and your talents more.
  • Relaxation is just around the corner. Yes, you may achieve m any things out of multi-tasking, but at the end of the day you will feel really tired and burned out. You will also feel that with everything that you have to do; and that there is no end to all of this. Whilst when you work on one thing, every time you finish a task, you will feel rewarded and will have room for relaxation as well.

Working on one task at a time will help you weigh out and prioritize the important things. Compared to multitasking which treats everything important and urgent even if the tasks can be left in the other room and can wait another day.

What's holding you back?

10 Reasons Why You Are Not Moving Forward

Anyone can attest that moving forward means getting things done on time while ensuring that your output is of the highest quality. But what if you have somehow found yourself at the crossroads of not getting things done and not being satisfied with your work? Have you ever thought of what could cause this lack of productivity?

Here are some reasons why you feel that you are not moving forward with your work:

  1. You are focusing on the wrong things or tasks. Sometimes, the thought of success and doing a lot of things for your business can get you to miss on seeing the real picture such as what your business actually needs.
  2. Your projects’ aims or goals are not clear.  What does your business actually need? What do you want to see it do for your business? Set your goals straight.
  3. You think about yourself and what multiple projects can do for you compared to what it can do for your business. Come on, everything is not about you, and although being able to accomplish a lot for your company can make you look good, it would still help if you plan for the good of everyone else.
  4. You overload yourself with too much information that you fail to distinguish which ones are relevant to your company. Pick out and use only the pertinent information, otherwise you will end up confused and unable to complete your tasks with accuracy.
  5. Distractions can get the best of you. This means that having a lot of things on your mind can keep you from focusing on your goals. And take note, distractions are not just about other tasks that you have in mind, distractions also include friends, partying too hard and too often and those times that you spend lollygagging during office hours.
  6. Disorganized and dysfunctional work system. Of course, this is pretty much understandable, considering that fact that having a disorganized system can greatly affect you and your company’s productivity.
  7. You get affected by too much negativity from yourself and other people around you. Obviously, if you let yourself be taken over by all those negative comments such as: you are not good enough for the job, or that you are too much of a perfectionist that you can’t seem to focus on what you want and what you have to do. And if you procrastinate too much, this attitude will also pull you down. Besides, making up excuses for not being able to accomplish something is totally wrong.
  8. Too much multitasking and very little single tasking can seriously affect your productivity. If you are taking in and doing too many things, you will find yourself being pulled away from your actual goals.
  9.  You are too afraid to fail, that’s why you think of several strategies to succeed. But in reality, instead of being led to one major achievement, you end up being a major collector of failed projects and tasks. Failure should not be taken negatively. Failure should be your fuel to propel you towards success.
  10. Lack of strict rules and work ethics. The thing here is that, you should always have to have a strict set of rules to make sure that you and your team would be able to move according to your original plans.

Certainly, you can add more to this list. Just think about your old work practices that didn’t seem to work to your advantage. And now that you know what you have to avoid or what causes you and your work to stagnate, it’s up to you to work on things the right way.