IntroductionWelcome to the wonderful world of meditation. I’m glad you’re here.You’ve probably heard all about the amazing things meditation can help you with: relax your mind, calm your body, bring inner peace. But where do you start?  If you’re interested in learning more about meditation and mindfulness, or if you’re wondering where to start, you’ve come […]

With this calculator, you can see how the hourly rate of your (future) freelancer/assistant translates to your bottom line. The first results “outsourcing cost” calculate how much your freelancer will cost you per day, week, month, and year. If you want, you can also enter how much you, as an entrepreneur, earn yourself to see […]

An anecdote about Warren buffet is often told about Warren Buffett asking his long-time pilot to list his top 25 goals. According to the story, Buffett told him to circle 5 goals that are of highest priority to him. His pilot struggled to choose the top 5, as the other 20 were also important to […]

Whenever the topic of outsourcing comes up, one of the most asked questions I get is: how much does it cost to hire a freelancer?To be frank, the correct answer would be: it depends.But everyone hates that answer, right? I know I do. So I decided to dive deep into this and I decided to […]

Do you sometimes feel overwhelmed by tasks and projects that keep on coming and you feel like the job’s never done? Perhaps you’ve even tried many different kinds of systems to help you be on top of your tasks and therefore feel less overwhelmed.  The thing is, no matter what system you use, you still […]

Curating the right plan is crucial to the success of any business owner. However, it’s particularly important if you’re a solopreneur. Without anyone else to hold you accountable, you need to ensure you’re prepared to reach your goals more efficiently. That becomes easier when you adopt a Management by Objectives (MBO) approach. Developed by Peter […]

I come into contact with many solopreneurs who find it hard to meet the business goals they set out at the beginning of the year. No matter how great our best intentions or how clear our objectives are, it is very easy to lose momentum as we strive towards our end goals.  But there is […]

As solopreneurs, we often experience downtimes as we wait for clients, customers or freelancers to get back to us. Instead of twiddling your thumbs, bored, and idle you can make this time count! Here is a list of productive things to do when bored which will not only pass the time but will enrich your […]

Every entrepreneur wants to be more productive without burning out. The good news is, there are a lot of great apps you can use to organize your ideas, coordinate with your team, and help you integrate your business schedule with your personal life. Below are 13 of the best time management tools I use on […]

When it comes to motivation, it can be a little tough as a solopreneur. We don’t have a team of colleagues behind us pushing us forward, or a manager we need to impress. What tends to happen is that our focus wanders, leaving our goals unmet and our to-do list untouched.  What’s a solopreneur to […]

Are you easily distracted when you’re supposed to be working? Do your finger and thumbs constantly crave to scroll through Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram when you hit any sort of obstacle? Or perhaps the incessant pings and notifications are demanding your attention when you desperately need to concentrate? Then you’re in the right place because […]

For some, time management means squeezing every minute to get as many things done as is humanly possible before we collapse in exhaustion. In other words, “How can I do more in less time?” Let’s consider a more humane definition. The process of deciding on the order in which you will do tasks, and making […]

The Hawthorne Effect has been used as a means to bolster productivity in the workplace for more than 80 years. But the professional landscape has drastically changed since it’s conception. The rise of remote teams means that the workplace and its behaviors have shifted, which begs the question, Is the Hawthorne Effect relevant to today’s […]

Thanks to the rise of freelancer platforms such as FreeeUp, solopreneurs have unprecedented access to a worldwide pool of talented experts ready, willing, and able to help them reach their business goals. You can be working from your home office in a small town in mid-America and employ a VA located thousands of miles away […]

Introduction You can’t change what you’re not aware of. The same thing goes with shifting habits: Understanding how habits are formed allows us to work with our biology to create positive routines. As you read Charles Duhigg’s The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business, you’ll realize that you […]

This is a list of the 20 most read articles on the Habitgrowth blog. These articles have clearly been helpful for others looking for time management tips and strategies, so I hope they will be helpful for you as well.

Many equate remote work with living a dream life–working anytime and anywhere, on projects and with clients you’ve chosen yourself. But as a popular quote goes: “With great power comes great responsibility.” In the case of remote work, well, that power to run our own show also implies that we are solely responsible for our […]

Have you ever found yourself finishing a project, but you just can’t stop thinking about your email, your phone, or your latest social media post? Many of us can relate to feeling agitated when we don’t check our phones or go online. The only way we can stop feeling anxious is by caving in. So […]

When it comes to background music, there is an unlimited number of tracks we can choose from (last time I checked, Spotify had 35 million songs in their library, it would take you 200 years to play them all). Some songs help me to boost my mood when I’m doing repetitive tasks. But I needed […]

Procrastination was once thought to be a basic time-management problem, but recent studies have proven it to be a highly complex phenomenon and one which is largely individual. While the behavior is universal, the HOW and the WHY we experience procrastination are very personal. In Part I, we looked at the larger picture of procrastination, […]

Many people ask me how to overcome procrastination, hoping that there is a quick fix that they can implement and suddenly stop it. Sorry guys! That’s not how it works. Procrastination is a highly complex thing and ‘curing’ it is a long hard process and one that won’t happen overnight. Sure, you’ll find a huge […]

We all hit those unexpected days, weeks, or months when we have more on our plate than usual. How do you tackle them? Do you just ‘buckle down’ and get on with it? Do you go into ‘crunch time’ of working longer and harder? That is what most people do. But a 2014 study by […]

If you’re just about to hire your first freelancer you may be a little worried about delegating tasks. Or, perhaps you already work with freelancers but the process isn’t going as smoothly as you’d hoped. Either way, delegating is a valuable skill to have if you want to grow your business. Many solopreneurs struggle to […]

As solopreneurs, much of our success hinges on how well we can manage our time. Below I’m sharing 10 of my favorite time management tips, techniques, and strategies. I also share how you can combine some of these tips to craft a schedule that matches your priorities. 1.80/20 Rule or Pareto Principle According to the […]

Sometimes, as a solopreneur it can seem like you need a split personality just to fulfil all the roles required to run your business. In a traditional 9-5 business you’d have whole departments managing the different tasks that you are now solely responsible for. You have many hats to wear— the CEO hat, the accountant […]

You’ve chased and won the biggest and best client of your solopreneur career so far; a real big fish and it’s going to put you on the map. You should be elated, buzzing with excitement and giving yourself a well-earned pat on the back… But no. Instead, you have cold sweats as you lie awake […]

Introduction Have you ever caught yourself feeling compelled to check your email or social media accounts every five minutes? Have you ever been so engrossed in a game (say, Candy Crush, Temple Run, or any other game) that you would play it for hours even if you know you have tons to do? If your […]

Let’s do a little visualization. Close your eyes and imagine your head as office and in the office is a desk- this is your brain. Is that desk all in order, neat and tidy with no outstanding tasks? Or is it a cluttered mess with a million and one post-it notes all over it, so […]

Hiring remote workers can be an effective option for solopreneurs looking for support in their business ventures. But if certain things aren’t agreed beforehand, the solution can easily become a problem. Remotes workers can be all kinds of wonderful but they aren’t mind-readers! This is why setting clear expectations from the very beginning is key. […]

Introduction Effective communication Pre-vetted freelancers Fast hiring process A team that understands my concerns and has streamlined hiring processes These are some of the reasons why I’ve ditched Fiverr and Upwork and exclusively hire remote freelancers through FreeeUp. FreeeUp is a freelancing platform that connects over 4,000 businesses to the “top 1%” of remote workers. […]

Do you find yourself lying awake at night thinking about all the things you didn’t get done that day and all the things you have to do the next day? Yeah, we’ve all been there. It’s like a suspense movie playing on a loop inside your head, but it never gets to the end. Instead, […]

You may have been working hard on your business and your efforts are finally paying off. But now your tasks are piling up as well. You may be dreaming of generating more sales, offering new services, or launching new products. But you’re already up to your eyeballs in work. In this scenario, outsourcing can help […]

Some people are born into greatness, while others have it thrust upon them.  Still others, like me, stumble over it in the dark, breaking some furniture as they fall and bumping their heads into the coffee table. When I was starting my business, I thought that if I was going to be a great entrepreneur, […]

Being an entrepreneur is a risky business. By definition, entrepreneurs take on financial risk in the hope of profit. Success or failure is dependent on decisions made, decisions which should be based on facts, figures, intelligence, and intuition. But so many entrepreneurs base their decisions on sunk costs, believing that past costs matter to future […]

Many people feel trapped on the office treadmill because they think they don’t have what it takes to grab a virtual job. But here’s the thing: you don’t have to be a slick graphic designer or a whizz-kid programmer to work online. There are countless ‘work from anywhere’ jobs that require basic skills, skills that […]

Has your to-do list ever been empty? If your answer is “Never,” you’re not alone. Sometimes our to-do lists are even longer than our grocery lists. And each time we check off something on our list, several tasks get added. Frustrating, isn’t it? As you grow your business or expand your career, that list will […]

If you were to ask a room full of entrepreneurs, “What’s the key trait of successful entrepreneurs?” Among the common responses of passion, creativity, and competitiveness, you’ll also hear a number of variations of determination and resilience. That ability to just ‘keep going’ no matter what, is seen as a positive, must-have quality for success. […]

On my Instagram and Twitter account, I regularly share time management, productivity quotes, and sayings about time (besides lots of other useful information as well of course). Personally, I love quotes. But I had a hard time to collect all of them. So I decided to share all the quotes I have collected so far, […]

You’ve probably felt it too: that strong urge to sign up for another online course or podcast, or to check out another new app because you don’t want to miss out on the latest trend. Or maybe you’ve been feeling good about where your life’s at. You’ve been building your business slowly over the years. […]

In the ever-changing world of modern business, it comes as no surprise that more and more entrepreneurs – especially solopreneurs – fall into the trap of becoming reactive instead of proactive leaders. This results in lost focus and failure to keep track of your goals. Before you know it, you’re forgetting important appointments or showing […]

We’ve all heard the phrase, “the early bird catches the worm”. This is a common belief that in order to get what you want out of your day, or indeed, out of life, then you have to be an early riser. This goes hand in hand with the idea that office hours are 9 to […]

Brian Tracy, the author of the productivity-boosting book “Eat That Frog,” teaches his lesson points from a saying that is frequently credited to Mark Twain: “Eat a Live Frog Every Morning, and Nothing Worse Will Happen to You the Rest of the Day.” Luckily for entrepreneurs everywhere, this advice is a metaphor; you don’t really […]

Anyone who says “time is money” has never tried to pay an electric bill with minutes.  The truth is, time and money are as separated from each other in concept as they are in practice.  Banking money can be as simple as tossing a few coins into a jar, but you can’t bank time at […]

If you think you don’t have enough time for a side business or a hobby, this article is for you. In this article, I’ll cover one of the main strategies I used when I started Habitgrowth as a side business. When I first read about this strategy in The 4-hour Work Week, the mega-best-seller written by […]

Working from home presents its own unique set of problems.  For us entrepreneurs, productivity is usually measured at the end of the day by how much we still need to do rather than what we’ve already accomplished.  This is a backwards thought process that can only end in frustration and a complete lack of motivation.  […]

Struggling with writer’s block? Want to update your blog with fresh content but you’re out of ideas? Believe it or not, inspiration is everywhere. It’s enough to take a look around you. Think about the millions of questions that pop into your head every single day. Go online and see what other people are interested […]

Burnout is not typically a word people would associate with work-from-home entrepreneurs.  From the outside looking in, entrepreneurs have it all together; they have risen above all the stressors of working for a large, impersonal company that looks at them as a replaceable resource rather than a valued employee.  The truth is a little bleaker; […]

Earlier this morning, you were a powerhouse of effective decision making, amazing productivity, boundless energy, and motivation.  It’s after four in the afternoon now, and you just had a small, but still quite impressive, nervous breakdown when someone asked you what you wanted in your coffee.  You have reached decision fatigue; without consciously being aware […]

Making big, critical decisions is part of running and growing a business.  There are times when you have to take the more uncomfortable and difficult route for you to see progress. One of these times is when you start delegating work to other people.   Let’s face it, entrusting tasks to virtual assistants, for example, […]

Do you tend to postpone tasks until the last minute? Do you have a hard time meeting deadlines? If your to-do list never seems to get any shorter, consider making some changes to your routine. A good start would be to set new limits, constraints, and deadlines into your life. It might seem counterintuitive, but […]

When you first started your online business, you had visions of sailing through your day, sipping coffee in your favorite sweatpants.  Your children, if you have them, would remain blissfully quiet in the next room, working out solutions for world peace.  Birds would be chirping outside of your office window, and your cat would be […]

Mindfulness meditation has emerged as one of the best ways to relax and keep stress at bay. This ancient practice has made its way in our western culture, gaining followers from all over the world. In fact, over 18 million Americans use meditation to unwind after a long day, connect with their inner selves, or […]

What if there was a proven way to boost your productivity and revenue? Imagine getting better results in less time and no more wasted time and useless activities that lead nowhere. If that’s what you want, you should definitely start implementing the 80/20 rule. This concept is fundamental to every entrepreneur – and every other […]

Need to write on your blog but you’re feeling stuck? Have you run out of ideas? Do you keep writing your intro and starting over and over again? Well, it seems like you’re dealing with writer’s block. Entire books have been written about it, so it’s not all in your head. Anyone who puts pen […]

Do you have an all-or-nothing approach to your work or life in general? Are your standards too high for most people? Perhaps you tend to procrastinate out of fear for producing sub-par work? If your answer is Yes to any these questions, you might be a perfectionist. While that’s not necessarily a bad thing, it […]

We all know someone who’s never happy and fails at everything they do. Yet surprisingly, some of them are super smart. They’re good at math, have a rich vocabulary, or can do things most people are not capable of. So why do these people fail? Why are they unable to find and keep a job, […]

Do you sometimes feel lonely? Do you struggle with a hectic schedule, despite having the freedom to set your own work hours? Or maybe you’ve lost your motivation? These things are second nature for those who work from home. Even though most people would do anything to be in your shoes, the benefit of working […]

In order to get better at time management and productivity myself, I consume a lot of personal development content in the form of articles, books, podcasts, courses, and training. One of the books that had a big impact on me is The Slight Edge by Jeff Olson. Whenever I read a book I take notes […]