My 4 Day Workweek

I recently read a great book called the 4 Hour Work Week by Timothy Ferris. Most of you will recognize the title. It’s an oldy but goodie, first published in 2007. While it’s well known, this is my first time reading it. The author covers a wide variety of topics primarily around optimizing what you do and where you do it so that you can spend more time pursuing hobbies and doing fun things. I read a lot and one of my personal rules is to take away and implement at least one practical action from each book I read. The 4 Hour Workweek was full of helpful suggestions so I had no trouble finding something to take advantage of. Here are two things that I immediately implemented.

#1 Re-visiting my to do list

I started this process by creating a simple spreadsheet with columns for task, primary responsible, back up responsible, remote work possible/not possible. I then listed out literally every task I was doing on a daily basis. I included everything no matter how small. The process took me several days, not because there were an overwhelming number of tasks but because every time I felt like I’d completed the list and took a step back, I’d remember a task that I missed. After several days of these periodic additions, I felt I’d gotten a pretty complete picture.

Once I had a list that I felt included everything I then took a step back and took a critical look at the list and asked myself three questions;

1. Does this task really need to be done? Does it contribute to keeping my business running at its current level or does it do anything to move my business forward. Now is a good time to point out that we tend to equate being busy with being successful. As entrepreneurs we wear the fact that we’re always busy as a badge of honor. We might be extremely busy but we have to stop and ask ourselves if we’re spending our time doing the right things. This is the elimination question.

1. Can this task be automated through the use of technology? Now that you’ve gotten a list that you feel confident is composed of truly value-added tasks, the next step is to figure out what can be automated. I know it’s tempting to push back at this point and believe that you can’t afford the tech needed to automate but I assure you there are a variety of low to no cost options out there for all types of automation. This is the automation question.

1. Do I have to do this the task or can someone else do it more economically? Now that you’ve eliminated what you can and automated what you can let’s deal with the rest of the tasks. We all believe as entrepreneurs that no one can run our business as well as we can. We need to get over that idea. Yes, you are the heart of you company but you are not the only talent in town. Anything can be outsourced and additionally, much of the administrative work associated with running a business can be done remotely. This opens up a world of possibilities for low-cost help either from workers in other states or other countries. This is purely a question of return on investment. For example, if you can hire someone to do your bookkeeping for $100 a day freeing up your own time to focus on marketing efforts that bring in $300 a day in revenue then this is a no brainer. This is the outsource question.

Once I asked those three questions and pared it down to the items that couldn’t be eliminated, automated or outsourced, I was left with a significantly shorter list of the tasks that would populate my own schedule.

#2 Increasing my efficiency and effectiveness

It’s important that you complete step #1 above before you proceed with this step. When thinking about productivity, a lot of people tend to confuse efficiency with effectiveness. Efficiency is getting tasks, any tasks, done quickly. Effectiveness, on the other hand is doing things that make a difference and move your business forward. It’s very possible to be very efficient at doing things that don’t move your business forward. You need to make sure that you’re spending your time on the things that matter and the things that lead to the greatest return on your time investment.

The goal is to increase both your efficiency and your effectiveness. You’ve already worked in step one to insure that you’re doing the right things, i.e., they are effective. Let’s talk about a tool to make those things efficient.

That tool is batching. Email is a great example of an area where batching can drastically improve your efficiency. Many (most) people are in the habit of checking their emails every time their phone beeps. We’ve become so conditioned to this response that we don’t even realize we’re doing it. And each time we do it we divert our attention away from whatever else we were doing, refocus our attention on the email, read it and possibly take some action on it or worse yet do nothing and push it off until later. We then have to return our attention to the task we were diverted from to check the email. This often only takes a few minutes but we do it literally dozens, if not hundreds, of times a day.

Batching is the idea of grouping like activities together to minimize the time spent refocusing and returning when we jump around to unrelated activities. Email does not have to be answered immediately. I know that’s a radical concept but trust me, the world is not going to stop spinning if someone doesn’t get an answer immediately. Anything so urgent that it cannot wait should be handled with a phone call.

I set up my calendar to answer emails two times per day at 12pm and 4pm. These times are intentional. The 12pm slot allows time for the recipients who received my emails at 4pm the previous day to respond. The 4pm slot allows me to send any new messages or questions needing further clarification to recipients for consideration the next morning.

I use email as an example here but batching is an effective tool in any type of activity. The time we waste refocusing our attention when we jump from one unrelated task to another can be drastically reduced.

These were two takeaways from The 4 Hour Workweek that have made a huge difference in my daily plans. My goal is to reduce my 5 or 6 day workweek down to 4 days. It may not be a 4 hour work week but it’s a step in the right direction!

Another great article you might enjoy

Independent Contractor verses Employee

https://www.thepetbusinesscoach.dog/independent-contractor-v-employee-which-one-is-right-for-you/

About Eliza

Eliza is the owner of two successful pet related businesses; Preferred Pet Partners, a pet sitting and dog walking company, and The Pet Business Coach, offering coaching and resources to aspiring or current pet related business entrepreneurs. She maintains two awesome blogs. One for pet parents https://preferredpetpartners.com/blog/ and one for pet business owners https://thepetbusinesscoach.dog/blog-page/.  Eliza also supports various animal rescue and shelter organizations. Eliza and her husband have a growing pet family. Visit her websites: www.preferredpetpartners.com or www.thepetbusinesscoach.dog.