As a small business owner, do you ever feel that there are not just enough hours in a day to get all your work done? This year one of your success mantras should be to be more productive – to accomplish set tasks and to make each day count!

For entrepreneurs, Monday is a day for a fresh start after having recharged one’s batteries over the weekend. It is the day when you can get a head-start on the work-week and look forward to achieving your goals. In this edition of #EntrepreneurMonday, we bring you four tips to enhance your productivity on Mondays and establish a positive momentum for the week ahead.

1. Pareto’s Principle: Pareto’s Principle is commonly referred to as the 80/20 rule. It means that 80% of the results come from 20% of the total effort.  This 80/20 rule works in all areas of life. Identify your most productive time of the day and do important work during that time period. And when your productivity is low, get down to doing all the other lesser-important tasks.

Richard Koch, best-selling author of “The 80/20 Principle” opines, “The 80/20 Principle can and should be used by every intelligent person in their daily life, by every organisation, and by every social grouping and form of society. It can help individuals and groups achieve much more, with much less effort. The 80/20 Principle can raise personal effectiveness and happiness. It can multiply the profitability of corporations and the effectiveness of any organisation.”

2. Prioritise Your Work: Make a to-do list of 3-4 most important tasks that you need to work on for the day. All you need is one simple rule - take out five minutes every morning to think about the important tasks for that day. Prioritise and write these down on a paper or laptop, then focus on the implementation of this list.

Samir Parekh, Founder & Director, People Tree Knowledge Services, shares how he starts the week on the right note. “After a lazy Sunday, I start my Monday with exercise. I go to the gym to energise myself for the day. While exercising and getting ready for office, I chalk out which tasks are to be done on priority basis. I write them down on a piece of paper before heading for office.” He adds, “While in office, as we get to meet the team after a two-day break, we usually hang around and ask each other about their weekend before planning out the targets to be achieved that week. My motto for Monday is - Every week we have to get ahead!”

3. Focus On One Thing At A Time – No Multitasking: It’s a myth that multitasking generates better results when the fact is that it reduces productivity. In order to be more productive, focus on one task at a time.

For Rajesh Bharagava, Chairman, Convenient Hospitals, Monday is a day to stay on high alert and focus on his patients. “People think Monday is a boring day - that they don’t like to work on this day. But for us in the medical field, we believe it is a day to really focus on patients after a 2-day break. Everyone at our hospital is on alert as Mondays are very hectic and we receive a lot of patients on this day. There is no time for anything else but patients on Monday.”

4. Give Priority To A Healthy Diet & Exercise: Your productivity is directly impacted by what you eat. A ‘Productivity Diet’ ensures that you get good nutrition and that both your mind and body perform at optimal levels. If you’re serious about performing your best at work, then making intelligent decisions about the food you eat is critical.

Dr Vandana Sethi, a well-known physical therapist & founder of PhyWorld believes that busy entrepreneurs should adopt some simple health & wellness tips to enhance their productivity, such as taking short breaks to do simple stretches, focusing on one’s breathing and making the right food choices.

These are some of our tips for you to hit the ground running on a Monday. How do you start your Monday? Share with us your productivity tips in the comments section below.