[This is a 47hats Tip.]

Tim Ferriss continues to amaze me. For those of you who’ve not heard of Ferriss, definitely put his bestselling book, “The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich” on your summer reading list.

Ferriss challenges a lot of the established truths and conventional wisdoms people in (or escaped from) the corporate world take for granted - and beats them. And his book has some very interesting bits re building your own micro company.

His latest bit of writing today over at Web Worker World - The Not-To-Do List - are 9 good suggestions of things not to do for anyone who works in the modern, too much to do, world. but I got to thinking, what should be on my “Not-To-Do” list as a microISV? Here’s my list, and my advice: Start a Not-To-Do List:

1. Do not sacrifice family time - especially events - to work longer hours at my microISV job. Did that for 20+ years of contract programming - what a stupid waste! I remember what I missed, not one of those contracts I missed for.
2. Do not try to do it all myself. This one is hard - I am not, and never have been a team player. But to succeed as a microISV (or as a consultant to microISVs :)), my biggest lesson (thanks Seth Godin!) has been you’ve got to pick and choose the battles and projects you can win (do well and generate revenue from) and let others who are good at what they do tackle the tasks and projects you are not good at (like building a web site from scratch).
3. Do not be discouraged by stories of startups and microISVs being sold for incredible amounts of money. Let me admit it, when I read about deals like Club Penguin sold to Disney for $700 million - a tot’s site created by three guys in a town 4 hours from anywhere in Canada - my first reaction is not something particularly noble, positive or good. That’s something I need to work on.
4. Do not forgo workouts and sticking to eating good foods because you have too much work and too much stress. It is so easy when it comes time to go work out to blow it off - you just continue sitting in your chair, typing, and month by month, year by year, decision by decision you end you stuck in a body you don’t like. Exercise makes you more productive. Eating right - not crap like caffaine laced soda and junk food - make you more productive. Being the right weight for your height and body type - make you more productive. Spending time having to deal with the whole range of physical manifestations of chronic stress - not productive.

So what sorts of things should be on your Not-To-Do list?

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