Exxponent, the start-up which I have been working for a couple of years now, has come a long way since its very start. I am by no means a believer in taking unnecessary risks. Exxponent is always in stealth mode, and our products are not branded, so it’s tough for our competitors to figure out what is it that we are doing. Our approach has been ultra-conservative to say the least, but there is no question we have gotten a whole lot done in the past couple of years. Those of you who have been lucky to run your start-ups in the past know how much effort it takes to build a business from ground-up and keep it going. There are just too many challenges and obstacles for small-businesses these days. The key to any start-up’s success is how its team goes about getting things done.  To succeed these days, start-ups need to be very agile and always ready to take on new challenges. Your work is not going to get itself done if you spend your days thinking and blaming others for your inaction.

Achieving a higher level of productivity is key for start-ups, bloggers, and small businesses. There are plenty of small little things all of us can do to save time and get more done (like turning that e-mail client off). Finding the right routine for your work can help too. After having tried a ton of techniques and hacks, for me, it all comes down to these 5 steps:

1. Take Short-Breaks Often: how can you get more done if you are taking breaks all the time, right? That’s the mistake I used to make. I wanted to work 24 hours a day, each day. I worked weekends, during Christmas or any other day. You are going to burn yourself out if you push yourself beyond your limit. Everyone has a limit, and once you pass that point, you end up doing less quality work (and get less done). Taking 5 minute breaks have helped me become much more productive.
2. Nap During Afternoon: another controversial tactic. If you have worked one of those 9 – 5 jobs in the past, you have probably felt sleepy during your afternoons. I take a 30 minute nap each and everyday (around 2 – 3 PM). It actually recharges my battery and helps me go at it hard during evenings. We all want to run highly successful blogs/businesses. But you don’t want to destroy your body doing it.
3. Define – Refine – Change (DRC): this is a technique I learned from an innovation course I took for my MBA. Only you can figure out what routine works for you and your business. Once you have found the formula and have gone with it for a while, you are going to realize its short-comings and can change things around to get more done. I personally do get tired of my routines, which is why I make major changes after they become ineffective for me (usually every few months).
4. Motivate Yourself Everyday: unless you are not human, you do get tired and lose your motivation from time to time. It happens to everyone. The key is to keep going at it and not give up. It always helps me to think about what I intend to accomplish with my business. Some prefer listening to Tony Robbins CDs. Whatever works for you!
5. Outsource Everything: many businesses and bloggers feel uncomfortable outsourcing things. In truth, you have got to outsource every non-core activity in your business. That’s the only way you can get more done and produce higher quality works.

There is no ultimate formula to becoming more productive. Everybody is different and will find different tactics to be helpful. It’s not about the number of hours you put in, but how much you get done with your time (and of course the quality of your work). Less could be more here if you play your cards right.

Being able to work on multiple computers and having the ability to sync them all up has always been one of the major challenges for programmers, bloggers, and anyone who constantly works with files. There are plenty of solutions around that let you get your work done on multiple computers. You can always use a remote desktop solution to gain access to your home PC. But why would you want to do that when you can use Microsoft Mesh? Microsoft Mesh is an innovative file sharing system that lets you manage your files from anywhere in the world. You can easily upload your files, manage them across multiple devices, and even sync your folders across all devices using Live Mesh software for PC or Mac.

Here is why I love Microsoft Mesh. It’s probably the most straight forward piece of software I have used in years. Unlike many other software kits around, you don’t have to read hundreds of pages of manual to find out how you can get the best out of Mesh. The system is very intuitive and things are placed where they need to be. The service is flexible as well. So I can create a word file on my Mac and use it on my Windows machine when I am on the go. Creating a folder and adding files to it can’t get any easier. With a couple of clicks, you are well on your way.

The service has a Vista look and feel to it. So even if you are using it on a Windows 98 machine, you are going to get that sleek look and feel when using your Mesh account. Another interesting Mesh feature is the message system. You can post messages and updates to your Mesh account to give yourself reminders or convey other information through your account.

As someone who has not been a big fan of Microsoft products in the past, I have to say Mesh is a great service and can help you become a more productive blogger if you tend to spend time on multiple computers, across multiple platforms. It’s very easy to set up, very intuitive, and free. Best of all, you can access it through the Internet. Can’t get any easier than that.

As someone who writes for multiple blogs on a daily basis, I am always looking for ways to become more productive with my blogging and get more done in less time. Running a blog is a very similar to being in a marriage. You need to work hard to make it all work. If you think running one blog is difficult, wait till you see how much effort it takes to run multiple blogs. If you add in the amount of time that you will have to spend promoting your blogs, preparing content, brainstorming, catching conferences, and reading books, you are going to go over 24 hours of work each day.  So it’s essential for anyone who’s planning to run multiple blogs to plan things ahead of time to keep the momentum going on all of them without slaving yourself 24/7.

Recently, I came across an article on Pro Blogger about how using color-coding on a calendar has helped a blogger become more productive and effective in managing multiple blogs. The approach was certainly interesting, but it’s not something I would recommend to “multi-bloggers.” It’s nice to be able to look at a calendar to figure out where you are with each blog, but there are better tools out there. Calendars may have been effective in the 90s but not these days.

I use To Do List widget on my desktop to manage my daily posting and find out what I need to do on a daily basis to keep the momentum going on my blog. To Do List is a Yahoo! Widgets Engine plugin that makes it so easy to manage daily tasks and become more productive. It uses Yahoo! or Outlook to help you manage your daily tasks.  Since it uses color-coding as well, it’s very similar to the approach suggested in the above mentioned article, but it’s easier to manage.

While we are at it, you can just use Outlook to manage your blogs more effectively without forgetting about them. So as you can see you don’t need a paper calendar to go about managing multiple blogs more effectively.

All in all, you should go with the method that works for you the best. Some folks still prefer tracking things on paper calendars, and there is nothing wrong with that. But at the same time, using the latest technologies out there may give you better results. Running multiple blogs can be challenging for most of us, so I’d take any help I can get.