Startup Grind: How to Know When Your Workday Is Done WITHOUT Feeling Guilty

Have you ever felt guilty at the end of the workday?
‍
As a startup founder, you know this - you have an endless list of to-do's, and day after day you work on it, but the list doesn't get shorter, it gets longer. The workdays get longer, the nights shorter. And when you finally call it a day - you feel guilty for not working on your business.

Let me tell you - if you don't change this right now - you know what's going to happen? You will burn out and your startup journey will end.

Let me show you a powerful framework to find out when your workday is done without ever feeling guilty. After working with over 50 startups and building 2 startups myself, this is the strategy that has made the biggest impact for me when it comes to managing my time.

And I'm going to show you step-by-step how to use it to be productive without burning out.

By the end, you'll know exactly when to end your workday without feeling guilty, so you can get the good night's sleep you deserve.
‍
Let's dive in.

The reason you feel guilty when you want to end your workday is because you haven't clearly defined your goals - trust me, I know how you feel.

I've been there, lying awake at night thinking about all the tasks I still had to do, but not sure of what would actually help my business grow. I always felt like I was in this rush - and what happened was that I ended up working on task after task, got a bad night's sleep, and continued the process day after day.

And that's a dangerous and unhealthy path.

But then I discovered this powerful framework - it's a simple framework, but it helps you avoid all of that. And it is super easy to implement. I got it from the book Your Next Five Moves by Patrick Bet-David and Greg Dinkin.

It's such a simple concept, but it can seriously change the way you approach your startup and your day-to-day work.

Here's how it works:

The idea is that you define your big-picture vision and then plan your next five moves that will help you reach your goal. I use this strategy every week - so let me give you an example so you can implement it in your startup right now.

First, you set your main goal. You can just write it down on a piece of paper. Let's say you just started your startup and now you want to get your first 100 customers.

Once you know your main goal, you break it down into smaller steps, your milestones - the next 5 big steps.

For example, to get your first 100 customers, you could ...

• do content marketing and create 5 blog articles
• use your personal network
• create a lead magnet on your website and lead people to your main offer
• create social media content or
• collaborate with influencers.

For each milestone, for each big step, I use a different color.
Make sure these milestones are super clear.

Once you have your five moves, you rank them based on impact and feasibility. For example, are there any low hanging fruits that you can implement right now that will have a big impact?

When I look at these 5 moves, leveraging your personal network immediately jumps out at me. So I would put that at the top. Because people in your personal network already trust you and it's a great way to get your first 100 customers.

Once you have ranked these 5 moves, think about the smaller action steps for each move.

Ask yourself:
What exactly do I need to do to complete each step?

Write it down.

I match the colors to the main steps so I can see which action step I am affecting. For example, to leverage your personal network, you would need to make a list of your contacts, rank them by trust level, and then contact them and ask them if your solution would be valuable to them.

Create that list of action steps for each of your milestones.

And then - and this is how I do it - every Saturday I block some time to review those five moves and think about which of those smaller action steps I can do in the coming week to make progress.

So I would put those action steps on my calendar:

I usually focus on the top 3 big milestones and then move on when I am done with them.

So let's put the rest of the tasks (for the other 2 milestones) on the calendar as well.

And when you’ve completed those tasks for the day, you can call it a day. Because you have a clear plan of how to reach your goal.

No more guilt.

What I love about this approach is that it makes it easier to prioritize and cut through all the noise. You don't just keep running after tasks endlessly. You know exactly what's important to your business, what has real impact, and you can cut out all the stuff that doesn't matter.

So when you know what your next five moves are, it's a lot easier to say, "Okay, this is important, and this...not so much."

Now that you have a clear framework to follow, let me share a couple of pro tips that helped me sharpen my focus even more.

This was a huge lesson for me. When I founded my startup, my calendar was full. I was doing a lot of valuable things-but also some things that weren't really moving the needle.

For example, I set a goal to read one book a month. Quick disclaimer: I'm not saying you should stop reading books! Reading is one of the best ways to grow and improve yourself.
‍
But here's the thing: Reading a book has no direct impact on your business. Nobody notices that. Now think about writing five blog articles instead.

That's something people will see. That's how you get eyeballs. That's how you get customers.

So my point is: focus on the outcome, not just the input.

Instead of spending hours reading a book with no immediate results, think about creating tangible assets like blog articles, social media posts, or videos that immediately move your business forward and bring you customers.

I learned this second pro tip from Dan Martell in his book, Buy Back Your Time. He says, and I'm rephrasing it a little bit to make the point:

"If you don't know what to focus on and how to succeed, ask yourself what would guarantee failure?"

And then do the opposite.

And that's such a powerful lesson. Because I myself often feel stuck and struggle with identifying my next steps. And then I think, what would I have to do to guarantee failure?

For me it would be to not create excellent content. To make mediocre content and just say it's fine. So I make a conscious effort to create something excellent—whether it's a blog post, a video, or a social media post that brings value and gets attention.

So this question helps me to keep pushing and striving for excellent content and to keep providing value.

So ask yourself, what would you have to do in your startup to guarantee failure?

And then do the opposite.

The reason you don't know when to end your workday is because you don't know the exact steps to get to your goal. So use this framework - define your big vision, your next five moves, and put your action steps on your calendar.

Once you have completed all tasks for the day, you can call it a day without feeling guilty.

Speaking of getting new customers (I bet that milestone is in your next 5 Steps too) - I created a powerful 4-step framework to help you find the best marketing channels for your startup WITHOUT wasting your hard-earned money on expensive ads. You can get it in my Marketing Channel Bundle.

So get it now!