Confessions from a 4 day week...

 

I have a dirty secret…

Actually, it's not that dirty and it’s not really a secret. I made a switch to a 4-day week! 

The reason for it was, I used to have Thursdays off with my son and really felt a lot more productive when I did. 

So I switched back a few weeks ago and it really seems to be working for me. Here’s what I found worked (this is from a company owners perspective mind you).

The positives

1) It gives me time to really chew over stuff and get more clarity on how I’m moving the business forward. 

I had an epiphany moment last week where I had so much more clarity on what I want from the business. Working on it (kind of) on a Thursday allows my brain to unwind and come up with more creative solutions to problems. I wandered the streets of Hastings last week and I love just letting my feet take me to new places. It almost always allows my brain to switch into that mode too and explore new uncharted avenues and pathways I wouldn’t have found by actively searching for them.

I have much more clarity on who we help, why we do it and how we can best serve them effectively and that all came from taking that one day off. I could of spent months coming up with a solution to it. Taking that one day off allowed me to look at the problem objectively then tackle it in the best way I know how (creatively).

2) It gives me space to test out and create new ideas and more importantly implement them. 

I love experimenting with new ideas (it’s the big kid in me) and trying out new things, having the space during the week where I can do this and be detached from the work environment has allowed me to come up with new offerings, like a subscription model we are building into the business. This came about from pure serendipity and again may never of happened if not for giving myself the space and time to do that.

3) It gives me just enough stress (just enough) to get stuff done. I seem to thrive more in an environment where there is just a little tangible stress at the edges. 

I seem to work better in environments where there is just a little bit of stress a the edges. It allows my magicians brain to kick into gear. I seem to get more done when there is less time to do it. I know exactly where that comes from (trauma anyone) but now I lean into the fear and use it, instead of it using me and it gets stuff done with ease. Taking time away from myself seems counterproductive but it creates space for me to function in a way that suits me best. Identifying how best you work and how you're most productive (work from home or hybrid anyone?) is key to building long term change.

4) it’s improving my mood already and sets me up for my time off. I finally feel like I’m gaining some balance between work and home. 

The last few months have felt like a treadmill and now I really genuinely VALUE the time I spend with myself. Carving out actual time for ourselves as founders is exceptionally hard. But I don't think I could go back now after even these short few weeks. Doing things I want to do and enjoying my own company again is liberating. I feel happier, that has a knock on effect with the people I work with, my clients, my family and the charity work with. And who doesn't want that. 

5) It gives me short term clarity on what is and what isn’t working day to day and week to week so I can tweak our processes. 

I love the agility of being able to test and implement and get real time feedback on what is and isn’t working. Almost tweaking things on the fly. It’s so hard when you’re in the business week in, week out to come up for air and go yep keep this, ditch that. This is probably the biggest take away for me.

So the negatives

1) The obvious one, less time

Sometimes you have to say no to stuff because thee physically are not enough hours in the day. But then I counter that with me being sat on my deathbed thinking yep I wish I’d sent that last DM or email…said no one ever. That’s the punch you have to roll with to get this done!

2) More stress

We have to keep this in check, having great processes and saying NO to what you cannot achieve is super, super important.

It’s part of the reason we now only take on 3 large clients a year and we have built out 2 mixed cohorts which run twice a year, which we compliment with a subscription offering (still to be built).

Being clear and boundaried means it’s easier to identify what you can work on and what doesn’t serve you and building as much process as you can into the parts of the businesses which need it.

3) Less growth

Yep this sucks but again I have submitted to the notion that I don’t want to run a multi million pound agency. I’m a lifestyle entrepreneur and that’s okay. At least I know what I want and how to build that. Getting clarity on what has to give is fine. By serving our clients in the BEST way we possibly can, will enable long term growth we cannot predict now anyway.

All of this only works if you make a dedicated commitment to this and build in the habit. One way I do this is make sure my content is scheduled for a Thursday and then ONLY respond to comments on my post. This keeps my focus on me. My diary is managed and no meetings are held that day and my PA handles my email.

Huge props to the people in my life who help make this happen, my wife who encouraged it, my PA Hayley for building in the processes to enable me to do it and my clients for respecting it.

Best quote of the week on my content comes from Robb Gilbear 

"Your newsletters are kickass" - Robb Gilbear 

You keep reading em, I’ll keep writing em. Give yourself a day off, but earn it first. See you next week for more electric dreams 🤘