As a business founder and mother, I’ve found myself in this position many times, trying to balance my entrepreneurial ventures with my efforts to create a warm and loving environment for my son. I won’t lie, I’ve struggled to find harmony between these two roles and more than once has one part of my life been momentarily overshadowed by the demands of the other.

With practice, however, I’ve learned some lessons that make it easier to create symmetry in my life between these two roles. Whether you are thinking of starting your own company (or becoming a mother!) or you’re already deep in the trenches, these seven tips to balance entrepreneurship and motherhood can help you make the most of both roles — and maintain your own sanity in the process.

Enlist Deputies at Work and at Home

One of the first notions that you have to rid yourself of as an entrepreneur and a mother is the idea that you have to do everything yourself. The belief that you have to have a hand in everything is often seen as embedded in the concept of being an entrepreneur, but attempting to tackle everything on the job and at home guarantees that things will fall through the cracks. I fell victim to this misguided theory when I first launched my business. However, I quickly found that relying on my talented team at work and extended support network at home produced better results across the board.

Create a Routine for Yourself (But Allow for Flexibility)

Between my company and my son, every second of my day is filled. Without an established routine, it’s too easy to lose track of what I’m doing in the middle of doing it, wasting time and leaving me feeling unnecessarily stressed. Even worse, without a plan, one role can easily overwhelm the other. Establishing a weekly routine with time set aside solely for my business and my family alike helps me stay on top of things and be more effective. That said, flexibility is key. Otherwise, that unexpected doctor’s appointment can throw a wrench in your whole week.

Set Goals on a Daily Basis

I’ve found that outlining my life’s big aspirations is easy. I have a clear vision for my company’s long-term growth and I know the important principles and values that I want to instill in my son. The smaller, day-to-day goals that will lead me toward fulfilling these ambitions, however, can be harder to set. Putting aside time each morning for a quick daily goal-setting session has helped me enormously. First, it allows me to see more clearly if I’m forgetting something important. Second, the action of checking off a completed daily goal — no matter how small — gives me a sense of satisfaction that helps nurture my own mental well-being.

Be Able to Roll With Life’s Punches

The key caveat to the practice of daily goal-setting, of course, is that you have to be OK with failing to meet those goals from time to time. Start by making sure that your goals are realistic. I personally found that my intention to go to the gym every day was too ambitious. Even the best-laid plans are going to fall apart every now and then. Every entrepreneurial mother will face baby spit-up on their dry-cleaned suit at some point. Accept that this is going to happen, recalibrate and move on. Dwelling on these setbacks will only mess up your routine even more.

Be Mindful

Multitasking seems like it was designed for those of us balancing a company and a child, but trying to do both roles at once can easily result in doing neither role well. Before I figured this out, I definitely had times when I short-changed my son by attempting to answer a work email while playing with him. And I didn’t do my colleagues any favors, either, by missing an important question while trying to soothe my son. Whether you’re doing something for work or something for your family, dedicate all of your attention to that task. Being mindful can actually end up saving you time.

Make Family Meals a Priority

Carving out time dedicated solely to your family can be tough, and it’s easy to let the lovely idea of a family meal at the dinner table together fall to the side in favor of eating a sandwich in the kitchen while typing on your phone one-handed. If you’re able to fit just one daily activity into your life that revolves around your role as mother, however, family dinner is the way to go. Researchers have found that dinner-time conversations improve literacy and behavior.

Don’t Forget Self-Care

In balancing motherhood and entrepreneurship, forgetting to take care of yourself is easy. But you’re the glue that holds everything together! I learned the hard way that neglecting my own health, physical and mental, can lead to worse performance as a boss and as a caregiver. Between sleep, exercise and unplugging mentally, finding time to fulfill my own needs and recharge makes me more effective in everything I do. Sometimes this requires a little creativity; maybe gym time has to be slotted in at 5:00 a.m. But remember, building harmony between your role as entrepreneur and your role as mother starts by finding balance in yourself.

Skills Building And Instilling A Motivation To Succeed

Unlike having a traditional job where your kids won’t see you, you can typically run a startup or small business from a home environment. This provides a great example for your kids about how a business runs and what goes into making it a success. I have friends who even include their kids in work — from stamping envelopes and making copies to filing.

It’s a great way to spend time with your kids and make them feel a part of what you are doing. It also ignites their own entrepreneurial ability and starts them off on a right foot. They can also build work skills at an earlier age, by typing, video editing, using social media, coding and more.

In fact, a study from Harvard concluded that mothers who work can increase their daughters’ future career prospects. The study also found that women who grew up with working and entrepreneurial moms earned approximately 23% more than women whose mothers didn’t work. They were also more likely to hold down a supervisory or leadership role.

In this way, you are not only helping your kids become more successful, but you are also pushing the momentum forward on female entrepreneurship and leadership that is so necessary for future generations.

Teaching And Learning Life Lessons

You can also choose to use your time as an entrepreneur as a way to teach children about life, including how to handle challenges. Most people grow up ill-prepared to take on the real world. The natural inclination is to shield kids and family members from what’s impacting us. We don’t want to seem like we can’t handle what’s been put in front of us.

Choose to take a different perspective by embracing these situations as a way to explain to your family how you addressed the problem. Use the experience to teach your kids a lesson in ethics and values, problem-solving, or emotional intelligence development. Again, they are getting to experience something that other children may not, so you are putting them at a competitive advantage for later in life. You are also doing your job as a parent by teaching them something.

A friend of mine asks her kids what they would do in a certain situation, listens to their ideas, and discusses how they may or may not work. She said it not only gives her quality time with her kids, but it also calms her down when she has been stressed about that problem and often offers some interesting perspectives on the situation.

Scheduling Everything

What makes the constant juggling act that many women do in all their roles work is a well-oiled machine of organization built around a schedule. Mostly working like clockwork, this schedule is based on everyone’s activities. Running the business often comes early in the morning and the evening to accommodate family events and lessons when others are around.

Many things will not go as planned. Your clients, children and family members have other ideas about how you should spend your time. These ideas typically pull you away from a productive work day. Be flexible and patient to allow some of that happen while taking control of other situations to ensure you still have the time to help clients and keep the business going. You’ll make more money on some days than others with your regimen. If you take care of everything you can, there’s no reason to feel guilty.

Delegating And Investing In Support

My friends often reach out to family and friends to do some babysitting or assist with other errands so they can get their work done faster, which leads to more family time. It’s OK to delegate some of your work by getting a virtual or in-house assistant who can take the load off of you.

As you grow your business, maybe you want to reach out to other mothers looking to put their writing, coding, graphic design or other skills to work from home. This is a mutually beneficial way to address any concerns you have about running your business.

You can even reach out to a mentor who can show you how to get rid of the guilt that could be blocking additional business growth as well as assist in creating a schedule and strategy that better divides your time up between responsibilities. Whatever it takes, pat yourself on the back in order to truly achieve the success you are capable of and deserve.

It’s easy to start feeling left out and panicked that your friendships may diverge because you are not rushing to get a bun in the oven. Whether it is friends or family, there’s no need to feel guilty about choosing your career over kids. Here’s why.

There’s No Need to Conform to Social Norms 

While I’ve heard about a biological clock ticking away, the problem is that, for me, I don’t hear anything. Having children is not something I feel passionate about. In the past, it might have been taboo to say that out loud for fear you would be labeled as selfish or mean. The reality is that those people who do not feel strongly about having children should not have them.

Otherwise, they are just doing it because it is the social norm or they have too much pressure from family and friends. In reality, some people are not cut out to be parents and are actually doing the right thing in not taking on something that they will come to resent later. Every child deserves loving parents who love what they do.

Your Company Is Your Child

On the other hand, running my own business and the career I’m developing is what I feel passionate about and where I feel I can truly succeed. It’s where I want to put my energy and where I feel I can actually help people more than bringing a child into the world. I know that I am good when I focus on one large thing at a time. My personal experiences of trying to multitask have not gone well. And, when I see women trying to be Wonder Women, I also don’t see them succeeding at raising both types of children. Or, if they do appear successful, these women looked run down and burned out. Neither of those options is appealing.

It’s Best to Be on the Same Page

My partner and I agree that having a family isn’t something we want to do now, and quite possibly never. At this point in our lives, we don’t own a pet either. That’s because we both have careers in mind that involve traveling and long hours. If you have a partner, it’s important to make sure they are on the same page as you in terms of family and career goals.

If one is secretly pining for kids, then it’s not going to work and will end badly. Having someone who thinks like me and is focused on their career also means we understand the long hours or other career responsibilities that take us away from handling other tasks at home. If we were both to focus on our careers but also had pets and kids, there would be additional stress surrounding who would take on what responsibilities.

Money Only Goes so Far

I believe it is hard enough to get by financially in certain areas of the country like Silicon Valley (where I live) with just a career on my plate. Add children, pets, and all their needs to the budget and it seems next to impossible. That again breeds more stress than necessary in my opinion. Also, in starting a business to fulfill certain dreams, there are costs and risks involved where it would make me more nervous and hesitant should I have kids who need that money that I’m now putting into a business. Choosing my career over children means that I’m going to absorb all the results of the risk rather than put some little person in a position where they don’t have all the things they need while growing up. In my mind, trying to do both on a shoestring budget is more selfish than just focusing on a startup.

It’s OK to Change Your Mind, Too

Maybe later on, my partner and I will change our minds and hear the tick tock of the biological clock, letting us know that children are something we want to have in our lives. If that urge and passion rise to the surface, then it is just as OK to change your mind and start a family. You could also discover an interest in adopting and helping out those children in great need. Whatever you decide to do, think it through, consider the pros and cons, discuss it with your partner and reach an agreement together.

Most importantly, don’t let anyone make you feel guilty about the decisions you make in your own life. Only you and your partner know what’s best for your lives, including what you are capable of doing and what you want to achieve. You also don’t need to explain or prove yourself to others for making these large life decisions in a responsible way. No one else is going to understand except perhaps other female entrepreneurs who have reached the same conclusion.

What started me on this journey was the non-stop grind of running a company, stressful mood swings and a general dissatisfaction with the speed at which I was growing personally and professionally. I felt like I was losing optimism and control of my life and I didn’t have the time to do anything drastic to turn things around. Ten minutes was all I could spare and meditation was the activity that I felt could put my mind in the right place. Here is what transpired.

My Creativity Increased

In many of the guided meditation tapes I listened to, I practiced a type of meditation that instantly allowed me to take my running mind off of a myriad of ideas and only let the worthwhile ones sink in. Open monitoring meditation is a form of meditation that allows you to open up your mind by being observant of internal and external stimulations. This has been proven to increase creativity.

I became more creative in how I dealt with high-stress situations and how I served my clients and staff without changing the resources or time I was allocated with them. It’s easy to get stuck in the inertia of doing something a certain way just because that’s the way it has always been. When your mind is open, you let new ideas sink in as you flush out the countless ideas, facts and to-do’s that clutter your brain.

My Gratitude Blossomed

Daily gratitude is difficult to practice when we’re fighting off negativity bias and letting a negative event outweigh various positive events that might have occurred on the same day.

A lot of the guided meditations I go through on various apps ask you to be present and grateful for the great things you have happening in your life. Once I get into my groove meditating about four minutes in, my mind completely opens and declutters, which allows me to do a simple visualization of life highlights that make me happy. This ranges anywhere from yesterday’s best moments to my best life memories. No matter how bad of a day you had yesterday or how bad your mood is today, acknowledging what you have been blessed with will always trump negative events, as the good things that happen to you will always outweigh the bad ones.

My Empathy for Others Increased

Some guided meditation packets on apps like Headspace have themes that focus on things like relationships and empathy. These themes usually have you visualize someone important in your life simply smiling or reacting to a good deed you did for them in the past. The effect of this exercise is that you catch yourself smiling and becoming more compassionate for those people, even if in real life they irritate you or have underperformed at work. As a founder, it’s easy to hold a grudge against a customer who dragged out a decision or an employee who missed a deadline. Forcing yourself to be more compassionate simply by imagining them in their happy place can make you more empathetic.

My Willpower to Endure Extreme Physical Exertion Strengthened

A healthy body is a healthy mind. And if you’re like me, challenging yourself to conquer a triathlon or a hike the equivalent height of Mount Everest can be the ammunition to dissolving any stress or frustrations holding you down at work. Meditation teaches some amazing breathing techniques, which allow you to visualize the breath in different parts of your body to make you present and free your mind of distraction. When you feel like your lungs are about to explode on the last leg of your race, the best way to disguise the pain is to start counting your breath in different parts of the body. I quickly found that I had the willpower to endure pain much easier and even find ways to enjoy extreme physical exercise.

My Decision-Making Improved

Meditation forces you to slow down and constantly check in with your feelings and impulses that do not serve you. Going at a million miles an hour from meeting to meeting and email to email is not conducive to making important decisions. It can be difficult to adjust your rate of making decisions in a high-paced environment and cause you not to think something all the way through. Further, in a world of constant self-comparison and competition, you might be tempted to choose a scenario that’s wrong for both parties if you feel like the other side is gaining an advantage. For example, rejecting a partnership opportunity that improves both sides, albeit unproportionately, is an irrational decision that meditation has been proven to mitigate.

Meditating only 10 minutes a day has been a pivotal practice to stay creative, have other people’s best interests at heart and keep my mind in a positive and rational state despite the constant setbacks that the entrepreneurial journey throws your way.

It takes years to build a company that can outlast the competition and attract the right talent. But in less than a year, you can ensure that you are in the best possible position for future success by taking time to slow down and train your brain to focus on what really matters.

Through my experience as a startup founder, I’ve realized that mental health issues are especially prominent among founders and people who play major roles in entrepreneurial endeavors. After addressing my own mental health and witnessing many of my close founder friends sink into depression, I have taken steps to ensure my company sustains a healthy work environment in order for everyone to thrive.

Let Go of Negative Influences

I founded Humm.ly six months ago with several others. I trusted one particular team member wholeheartedly, overlooking some questionable behaviors because I thought his skills and talent would be valuable to the team. They delivered impeccable work whenever needed. I let him lead an entire project because I trusted his high standard of work. However, trying to get a startup going can be perilous. They were highly critical of other employees in circumstances that called for patience. Gradually, this person’s temper discouraged almost everyone in the company. I was afraid to start frank conversations with him because of unreasonable criticisms and arguments. It was a difficult realization for me. I had to convince myself that having him as a leader in the company would significantly slow down work performance and impact others’ job satisfaction. After a lot of consideration and consultation with more experienced startup founders, I made the difficult decision to let them go. Even though I had sympathy for him, his departure ultimately prevented negativity from spreading to other team members.

Encourage Physical Wellness

Years of research shows that physical activity can reduce anxiety and depression for healthy adults. Yet, exercising regularly can be difficult, especially when starting a new company and experiencing high levels of stress. During the beginning of my startup life, I experienced tremendous weight gain, living on spicy ramen and late-night delivery options. One of my founding members ate Big Macs for a month straight! This was not the image we wanted to present, especially with a mission to promote healthy lifestyles for our users. I encouraged the team to sign up for boxing and yoga classes with me. I reminded them to eat healthfully and sleep well every day.

We have been able to maintain medium- to high-intensity exercise routines ever since then. If you are worried about how to keep your team motivated to accomplish fitness goals, lead by example. You can initiate a great sense of well-being within your company by creating opportunities for regular exercise and fitness partnerships within your team. I’ve seen that with a proper routine, memory recall and creativity can increase and team members can feel more relaxed and positive about themselves and their lives, potentially increasing their performance and attitude at work.

Develop Meaningful One-to-One Communication

The most challenging thing in my startup experience so far has been managing the emotional highs and lows over the past several months. Although the ups and downs are a natural part of building a new company, it’s crucial to keep track of all team members’ well being, especially during the initial development of the business. I have found that regular one-to-one meetings are valuable for building rapport between you and the individuals you work with every day. Get coffee, go for lunch, hike and even take spontaneous trips with the team member you want to check in with. One-to-one communication can develop trust, increase productivity, and support the team’s alignment and development of a shared mental model.

Foster a Supportive and Positive Culture

Creating a supportive and positive culture became the most important priority for my company after stress and burnout caused internal discord and issues with team members. Although startups are always pushing to meet crucial deadlines, it is ultimately more important to reinforce your team and support them in going the extra mile. You want to help your team feel welcome, secure in their position and valued within the company. Lead by example and set a positive tone through supportive behaviors. As you build relationships with team members and grow your company’s culture, over time you will create a supportive and positive place that people love working at.

Competition in the startup world can be brutal. If founding team members are constantly overwhelmed and not receiving support for mental or physical wellness, the company could crumble. Every founder should consider working on their own skills, including mindfulness, listening, clear communication and empathy. The team and the company will benefit from their founder leading by example, resulting in longevity, prosperity and happiness for all involved.

I’m a founder of a fast-growing contract management software company that more than triples its revenue each year. When founding the business, I thought, “I’m going to work 14-hour shifts for two to three years.” Like many startup founders, I planned to give myself more time once I “got things off the ground.” Well, three years later, things were well off the ground, and I realized I actually had less time than before. Something had to change.

While we learn from our mistakes, sometimes the most efficient solution to the problem is following the footsteps of somebody who has been there, done that. I learned some of the best productivity hacks from books, blogs and friends. Below you’ll find five solutions that I’ve found extremely helpful in increasing my productivity and happiness over the last two years.

Exercise

In his book, Brain Rules, molecular biologist John Medina explains that our brain functions more effectively in the long-term and short-term if we exercise. Running every morning prevents me from “dying off” after lunch, giving me enough energy to work from 7:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

Take 20 minutes to do enough running to “charge” you. You can even combine running with your commute. If showering at work is a no-go, try getting a gym membership near the office.

Combine Activities

Another productivity hack I successfully implement in my daily routine is combining activities. There are many different tasks you can combine to save you a tremendous amount of time without distracting you from other tasks.

Because reading and learning are perhaps two of the most important jobs of any CEO, I accompany every run and every long drive with an audiobook. But I don’t stop there: I even listen to audiobooks while taking a lift on the ski slopes and watching my 3-year-old have fun on the playground.

Stick to Your Calendar

Allocate time in your calendar ahead of time to exercise, spend time with the kids, or go out with your significant other. You don’t have to be specific about what you’re going to do, just set time aside for non-business related tasks. Trust me, it won’t just make you more productive at work, it’ll give you a more well-rounded life, and you’ll be happier for it.

Make Time for Silence

If you find yourself rushing around doing this or that for work and can’t help but notice a barrage of emails or Facebook notifications, you’re just like a good portion of the business world. Some psychologists have even gone as far saying the internet might be causing a rise in ADHD. While the jury is still out on the cause of this rise, constant access to anything and everything certainly doesn’t help our attention spans.

Make time for silence. Turn off Facebook, email, SMS, and don’t respond to incoming messages. Be a leader instead of a follower. Focus on what’s more important and get it done.

Narrow Down Your Focus

If you’re not familiar with it, read (or listen to) the book Scrum by Jeff Sutherland. While the methodology behind Scrum was created to help teams build software, I believe the main principles can apply to our everyday lives. The key is narrowing your focus down to a few items for a set period of time. At any given two weeks, I try to focus on only one or two things in my professional life and one or two things in my personal life. That’s a maximum of four things you should be thinking of at any given time, which provides a fantastic relief for your brain. The functioning of the ‘central computer’ of our brain takes up a lot of our energy. Limiting the number of things for it to process helps tremendously in increasing our efficiency and output.

Set Expectations

Right off the bat, it’s important to address the language surrounding company retreats. The word “retreat” makes it sound like a spa vacation. If that’s what you’re buying for your team, that’s awesome. But if, like me, you’re planning a work retreat, you need to set the right expectations. If your team thinks it’s a vacation and you think it’s a work session, there’s going to be disconnect. Share your plans with a small representative group at your company to get feedback and draft an agenda. When your agenda is ready, circulate it company-wide a couple weeks before the retreat.

At our first retreat in Nashville two years ago, we made the mistake of announcing the meeting time for the next morning the night before. By the time we made the announcement, folks were already ramping up for a big night on the town. The next year in Atlanta, we did a much better job of communicating our schedule. Everyone was aware that we’d be meeting at 8:30 a.m. for breakfast and starting our program at 9:00 a.m. sharp. That way, everybody could plan their evening activities to match up with the next morning’s expectations.

Plan Ahead

The retreat is likely to be the most remembered event of the year for your company, but make sure it’s for the right reasons by planning ahead. What will make the retreat a great experience? What will make it productive? You want people talking about how much they accomplished and how much fun they had when they return to work. If they only had fun, they’ll talk about it, but it won’t have a lasting impact on your company. And if they only did work, they’ll think the retreat was a waste of a trip. It’s combining work and fun that makes a retreat remarkable for your team and your company.

When planning ahead for our Atlanta retreat, we sent out a pre-retreat anonymous survey. We asked every employee:

• What do you like most about working here?
• What could be improved about working here?
• What does our company do particularly well?
• What does our company need to improve?
• What would you predict for our future one year from now?

People said the company’s biggest strengths were executing on our product roadmap, launching creative go-to-market campaigns, delivering great sales demonstrations and providing personal support. Intra-company communication, especially between our two primary teams and locations – engineering in California and marketing/sales/support in Tennessee – overwhelmingly needed the most work. These answers helped us plan our agenda by identifying important trends that we needed to address when we were all together.

Have Fun

Your company retreat could be the only time all year that your employees will all be together in person. There will be a lot of handshakes, hugs and laughs. This unstructured social time is important so that your employees can get to know each other as people outside of work.

For our retreat, we have people coming from Irvine, Calif., Knoxville, Tenn., Atlanta, Ga., Chattanooga, Tenn., Brooklyn, N.Y., Brookfield, Conn. and Portland, Ore. We learned in our pre-retreat survey that everybody’s favorite thing about working at our company was their colleagues – their creativity, ideas, intelligence and energy. We want to provide ample time for all of our employees from across the country to get to know each other.

Two social activities that will always be on our retreat agenda are a big family-style meal and a pingpong tournament. People talk about the pingpong tourney all year, so it’s become a cornerstone of our shared company culture. This year, we’ll be enjoying a deep dish pizza banquet at Giordano’s. The following afternoon, we’re going to see the Cubs play at Wrigley Field.

Work Hard

All play and no work turns a retreat into a mere vacation. It won’t have the long-lasting value that you want. Bringing your whole company together is a unique opportunity to get everybody on the same page. You want your employees to head back home feeling like they accomplished something significant, and re-energized regarding the direction of the company and the value of their personal contribution.

For our upcoming retreat, we reserved a meeting space at the University of Chicago to do work between our fun activities. We’re going to spend Friday divided up into small groups. Each group will be made up of team members from engineering, design, marketing, sales, support and success. Everybody will get a sense of how each department and individual contributes to making the company function as a cohesive unit. The idea is to build understanding and empathy. The following day, we’ll spend time focused on our next big product release to energize everybody about the present and future direction of the company. Finally, we’re going to ask each person to start working on a project of their choice that they can present by the end of the retreat on Sunday. We’ll each be able to show off something amazing to the group and celebrate each other’s personal efforts before we head back home.

Whatever you do for your company retreat, as long as you set expectations, plan ahead, have fun and work hard, it’ll be well worth the time, energy and expense. It’s almost impossible to overestimate the return on investment for a retreat that gets everybody smiling and working together.

I’m a founder of a fast-growing contract management software company that more than triples its revenue each year. When founding the business, I thought, “I’m going to work 14-hour shifts for two to three years.” Like many startup founders, I planned to give myself more time once I “got things off the ground.” Well, three years later, things were well off the ground, and I realized I actually had less time than before. Something had to change.

While we learn from our mistakes, sometimes the most efficient solution to the problem is following the footsteps of somebody who has been there, done that. I learned some of the best productivity hacks from books, blogs and friends. Below you’ll find five solutions that I’ve found extremely helpful in increasing my productivity and happiness over the last two years.

Exercise

In his book, Brain Rules, molecular biologist John Medina explains that our brain functions more effectively in the long-term and short-term if we exercise. Running every morning prevents me from “dying off” after lunch, giving me enough energy to work from 7:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

Take 20 minutes to do enough running to “charge” you. You can even combine running with your commute. If showering at work is a no-go, try getting a gym membership near the office.

Combine Activities

Another productivity hack I successfully implement in my daily routine is combining activities. There are many different tasks you can combine to save you a tremendous amount of time without distracting you from other tasks.

Because reading and learning are perhaps two of the most important jobs of any CEO, I accompany every run and every long drive with an audiobook. But I don’t stop there: I even listen to audiobooks while taking a lift on the ski slopes and watching my 3-year-old have fun on the playground.

Stick to Your Calendar

Allocate time in your calendar ahead of time to exercise, spend time with the kids, or go out with your significant other. You don’t have to be specific about what you’re going to do, just set time aside for non-business related tasks. Trust me, it won’t just make you more productive at work, it’ll give you a more well-rounded life, and you’ll be happier for it.

Make Time for Silence

If you find yourself rushing around doing this or that for work and can’t help but notice a barrage of emails or Facebook notifications, you’re just like a good portion of the business world. Some psychologists have even gone as far saying the internet might be causing a rise in ADHD. While the jury is still out on the cause of this rise, constant access to anything and everything certainly doesn’t help our attention spans.

Make time for silence. Turn off Facebook, email, SMS, and don’t respond to incoming messages. Be a leader instead of a follower. Focus on what’s more important and get it done.

Narrow Down Your Focus

If you’re not familiar with it, read (or listen to) the book Scrum by Jeff Sutherland. While the methodology behind Scrum was created to help teams build software, I believe the main principles can apply to our everyday lives. The key is narrowing your focus down to a few items for a set period of time. At any given two weeks, I try to focus on only one or two things in my professional life and one or two things in my personal life. That’s a maximum of four things you should be thinking of at any given time, which provides a fantastic relief for your brain. The functioning of the ‘central computer’ of our brain takes up a lot of our energy. Limiting the number of things for it to process helps tremendously in increasing our efficiency and output.

Over the course of my career, I have often turned to colleagues and leading business experts and coaches in the world for advice. Here are five of my favorite daily rituals I learned from some of these leaders: These tips and habits are simple enough that you can incorporate them into your routine as well.

Breathe Differently

Even the most extraordinarily busy entrepreneurs can find a few minutes each day to take care of their physical well-being. Leaders who are said to practice breathing techniques and meditation include Oprah Winfrey, Paul McCartney, Sheryl Sandberg, Elon Musk and more.

One tactic I learned this year comes recommended by an expert who works with many of our clients, Walker Clark. Clark is a sought-after performance coach known as a leader creator for his unique style of coaching. Clark told me about the Buteyko method of reduced breathing he uses with his clients. “All of us tend to breathe incorrectly, which can wash too much carbon dioxide from our blood and starve our tissues of oxygen. This can contribute to a host of ailments, including chronic exhaustion, depression and anxiety,” says Clark.

The breathing exercise he recommends is simple. With your tongue resting on the roof of your mouth, repeat these steps:

1. Take a small, calm breath in through your nose.
2. Gently allow your breath out.
3. Hold your nose for a slow count of five.
4. Breathe quietly and normally for 10 seconds, then repeat the sequence.

Learn Story Structure

One key to success in business is knowing how to tell any story in a powerful way. Good stories can connect us to our customers, increase sales, inspire our teams and even start movements. My friend and author, Craig Leener, gives a great tip for learning this priceless skill: He suggests reading Napoleon Hill’s personal development classic, Think and Grow Rich, where you can review the book’s organized planning chapter as a guide to understanding an eight-point story arc.

Knowing how an eight-point arc works and practicing the method allow you to craft your own powerful story from start to finish. I use this method constantly to help grow my companies and help my clients grow theirs, too.

Write Morning Pages

Originated by Julia Cameron from her book, The Artist’s Way, the concept of morning pages is simple: As soon as you wake up, you need to write three journal pages with any and all thoughts that come into your mind. I first heard about it last year and was reminded of the power of this practice by Robyn Ward, an advisor and coach for some of the world’s largest tech companies and founders.

Robyn recommends all the startups and founders she works with to partake in the practice of morning pages. She swears that capturing our messy and random stream of consciousness on paper helps to quiet mental chatter and free the mind, which allows us to move more consciously and creatively into our day. Robyn says, “Adding this morning ritual to my day was a game-changer for me and, though my clients are often wary of the concept initially, I have watched countless entrepreneurs benefit from this practice.”

Take Walking Meetings

Walking meetings are incredible for the mind, as we can be more effective and creative when we’re moving.

My friend, author and investor Amy Jo Martin says that walking meetings actually help her brain stay stimulated, and when she can’t get outdoors, she takes meetings via Google Hangouts and Skype calls from her treadmill desk. Yes, a treadmill desk is a real thing. Amy says, “Over the past year, I’ve also started setting aside a certain amount of time each week where I hop on my treadmill desk and then ask friends and followers on social media if there’s anything I can do to help them while I’m getting my steps in.”

Prioritize Your To-Do List

As entrepreneurs, we’re often faced with an overwhelming mountain of to-do’s every day. And most of us are tempted to jump right into the tasks that we can finish quickly (you know, the easy work that we can check off our list to feel accomplished). But the truth is, those easy tasks are also typically the most trivial.

Recently, I heard Sasha Kill, founder of Outlaw Creative, share on a call how she manages creative projects for the world’s top brands and their founders every day. We have worked with Sasha over the years and she uses a trick that many leading CEOs swear by. Sasha says, “If you want to stay on top of your game, it’s important to focus on your most important daily projects first. It only takes a few minutes at the beginning of each day to prioritize and outline your top three projects, then commit to completing those tasks before tackling any other to-do on your list.”

The tips above will not only address your personal wellness and mindfulness, but can also help you build a better team, experience less stress and reach your business goals. The trick is that you have to make these tips habits. You can’t just glance at story structure; you have to memorize it. You can’t just try the breathing exercise once; you have to make it a part of your daily routine. Habits also statistically take at least 30 days to stick (though some say only 21 days), so challenge yourself to try one of the above for a minimum of 30 days and see what happens as a result.