I have read every productivity book out there. GTD, the Rapid planning method by Tony Robbins, The seven habits of highly successful whatever… all of them, and I have benefitted a lot from each of them. But all of them aim at getting your projects done.

That’s a bad idea. Your projects get done, and now what? As a productive individual, with what are you left? With my recent approach to things that took my first startup Proxies API to profitability, I realized that aiming productivity tools at projects were not helping me.

Instead, I aim to build habits.

Because mastery of productivity tools and methods don’t build your confidence, habits develop your confidence. You are only as confident as your habits. Tweet that!

I, in my psyche, don’t see that I have to build a successful startup in Proxies API. It appears like that to other people. For me, I have built two habits, which, in turn, create a successful startup. The habits are:

a) Make the product better every day

b) Write every day

I have never really missed a day; that’s where my confidence comes. Even if Proxies API fails for some reason, it is not a huge setback, because I got my boys, which is this relentless chugging away at making the product better and writing about it every single day.

I feel this is the proper application of all productivity techniques. If you subscribe to this view, here is a check that you can do at the end of every month to see if you are on the right track.

What habit have you built in the last 30 days? Which you have done every single day?

What pattern are you planning to develop in the next 30 days?

The answers to these questions can be quite telling because they predict the success or failure of your projects or startups. Also, they anticipate your confidence level.

The author is the founder of Proxies API, a proxy rotation API service.