The 4 Ways Your Smartphone Is Hurting You in Startup Tech Companies

Smartphones are designed to make your life easier and more productive, but they might be doing more harm than good.

It’s hard to be a modern entrepreneur without a smartphone; these gadgets connect you to the internet, to your clients, to your email, and to your most frequently used apps. And if you’re like me, yours is always within grabbing distance (and charged to at least 30 percent).

Unfortunately, these technological miracles have some downsides that can hurt your productivity (not to mention your morale). So as you navigate the waters of high-tech entrepreneurship, watch out for these negative consequences:

No matter how much you think you’re above it, your smartphone is a distraction. It might be a social media app that pulls you in or the constant run of push notifications. It might just be your smartphone, in general, that distracts you. In any case, once it breaks your focus, your productivity goes out the window, and you’ll have to rebuild that attention from scratch.
Communication is a good thing—mostly. If you answer every phone call you get as you get it, and respond to emails within a few minutes, you’ll eventually burn yourself out. Make sure you schedule at least some off times when you’re intentionally unavailable.
How often do you pick up your phone and start fiddling with it during a meeting? Or try to juggle two or three tasks at once while you’re sitting at your desk? Smartphones make it tempting to multitask, but your brain is horribly inefficient at it. Ultimately, you’ll end up doing shoddy work on both tasks.
Rest and vacation. Because smartphones keep you connected at practically all times, it’s much harder to take breaks or “true” vacations. For example, how many quiet evenings at home have been interrupted because of a work email that came through, or because you were tempted to look into a problem with a recent project?

If you’re interested in learning more about how to become (and stay) productive as an entrepreneur, contact me today. I’ve mentored countless entrepreneurs and have seen dozens of startups grow to become successful small- to mid-cap companies.

About the Author

Jose Vasquez is a serial entrepreneur and tech specialist dedicated to helping startup tech companies grow and succeed. As the founder of Build. Brand. Blast., Jose has worked with dozens of enterprises to find direction, gain momentum, and achieve results.