Successful entrepreneurs aren’t an overnight success. It is their daily habits that determine what they are able to achieve over time. They do not do anything too hard for all of us to follow, but certainly these habits are things too hard to continue practicing, and that is what makes them “ultra-successful”.

Branson’s business weapon: Note taking

Founder of Virgin group which comprises over 400 companies, Sir Richard Branson had a habit of taking notes and carrying a notebook everywhere he went. As a dyslexic child, he only had the option to remember things by writing things down. He says this habit has helped him put down everything into perspective and take actionable goals, which has made him a business wizard today. His notes have even come handy as a proof for different lawsuits! “Note taking is one of my favourite past times. I can’t tell you where I’d be if I hadn’t had a pen on hand to write down my ideas, or more importantly other people’s, as soon as they came to me. Some of Virgin’s most successful companies have been born from random moments - if we hadn’t opened our notebooks, they would never have happened,” says Branson.  

(Source: www.theplaidzebra.com)

World’s most successful investor = An avid reader

Warren Buffet, world’s most successful investor, spends 80% of his daily time reading. Early in his investment career, he would read over 600 pages each day. Warren Buffett when asked about his key to success said, “Read 500 pages like this every day. That’s how knowledge works. It builds up, like compound interest. All of you can do it, but I guarantee not many of you will do it.” Warren Buffet was 19 when he picked ‘Intelligent Investor’ by Benjamin Graham which he considers to be one of the luckiest moment of his life. “Chapters 8 and 20 of Intelligent Investor have been the bedrock of my investing activities for more than 60 years,” says Buffet. “I suggest that all investors read those chapters and reread them every time the market has been especially strong or weak.”

It is not just about work-life balance; it's about mind-body-soul balance

Two things are clear from the words of Jack Dorsey, the co-founder and CEO of Twitter and Square: keeping a healthy body improves your productivity, along with physical and mental health, and you are never too busy to focus on yourself and your health. At one point, Dorsey was working in two companies simultaneously every day, giving eight hours to each. Yes, math tells its 16 hours of work every day! Interestingly, one of the major reasons he could keep up to this is not a business formula, but his fitness regime. And it is such that, even reading it, you might lose a few calories. From being a vegan, he went on to following the Paleo diet (advocates avoiding gluten, alcohol, dairy and sugar). His workout regimen involves regular gym, three miles run and six sets of 20 squats and push-ups every day. It doesn’t end there, he only drinks lemon water and red wine, and avoids hard liquor on week days. You still think you don’t have time?

Wearing the same t-shirt everyday

Mark Zuckerberg is seen wearing the same grey t-shirt in most of the public event and his explanation to why he does that will give you a hint of his productive behaviour. A lot of times, we spend so much of our time thinking about what to wear, tracking how many times we have worn each cloth and applying our judgement if wearing it again will best suit the situation or not. It's tiring at times. Mark Zuckerberg is one person who doesn’t want his energy to be consumed in these decisions. "I really want to clear my life to make it so that I have to make as few decisions as possible about anything except how to best serve this community," said Zuckerberg. "I'm in this really lucky position where I get to wake up every day and help serve more than a billion people. And I feel like I'm not doing my job if I spend any of my energy on things that are silly or frivolous about my life.” And it's not just Zuckerberg, leaders like Barack Obama, Steve Jobs, use this theory to channelize their energy to more important things in life.

(Source: c.tribune.com.pk)

It is interesting how it is small and humble habits that gets compounded into making people ultra-successful. They are not doing anything larger than life, habits like wearing the same outfit every day is helping them remain ultra-productive over a larger span of their life.