If you're a business owner who wants to exit the matrix of the 9-5 Monday to Friday that you find yourself in, or maybe you're even doing more than that, maybe you're doing like 8-6 or 8-10, or even longer hours than that, well, in this video I'm going to share with you the secret of transitioning to a three-day workweek.
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Transcription:
If you're a business owner who wants to exit the matrix of the 9-5 Monday to Friday that you find yourself in, or maybe you're even doing more than that, maybe you're doing like 8-6 or 8-10, or even longer hours than that, well, in this video I'm going to share with you the secret of transitioning to a three day workweek. If you're new to the channel, my name is Pete Moriarty. I founded a company called itGenius as a teenager, scale it, grew it, mostly accidentally. And now we help business owners with technology and making sure that you grow scalable and profitable teams in the intersection of business and technology. And I love helping business owners get more out of tech so they can build more successful businesses. So if you haven't already checked out our channel, check out our playlist. We've got strategies at stages for every different stage of business for you and your team to grow a better business using technology, specifically, the Google Workspace ecosystem, which we love. But in this video, we're not talking about tech, well, a little bit, but we're going to talk about how you as a business owner can get more time on your side. And I said exiting the matrix because I did this about five or six years ago, a mentor suggested to me, “Hey, why don't you switch down to a 3-day work week and just kind of like, change up how you're working?” and I thought at the time, “No, that's crazy. I couldn't possibly do that. I've got all these responsibilities. I've got staff, I've got meetings, I've got team that need me, I need to be switched on for my business.” And my mentor at the time, who was only working one or one and a half days a week would wake up, surf, do a meeting, surf, do one more meeting, and then surf in the afternoon again. And that was basically it. That was pretty much his whole work week. And then I think he had one meeting with his management team. And this mentor was earning over seven figures net per year. And I was like, wow, that's pretty wild. I want that. And what we proceeded to work on over five years of working together was me systemising my business. Me actually building the right teams in place, building the right business structure in place so that I could have the freedom that I wanted. And I'm now I've been out of the matrix for more than five years now, am I out of the matrix? I mean, you know, out of the operational role of my primary business. I have other ventures and other businesses that I'm involved in, that basically, I can disappear for months and months and months at a time, the business still continues to run. And at the end of the day, I'm still earning the revenue from the business because I've got the executive team in place, I got the sales team in place, and everything just kind of works. So for you as a business owner, why might you consider changing your hours? And why might you consider changing the way you work two or three day workweek? Well, the obvious one is you have more freedom time, I don't have anything on Mondays or Fridays workwise and effectively there to three days in the week. So I've got a four day weekend, every week. And for me, you know, I kind of noticed others in the business space. And you know, even in, you know, the rest of the plugged in matrix world, if people have jobs, they tend to work Mondays to Fridays. And so everything else gets jammed in on Saturday and Sunday. So you're probably gonna have one of those days to rest. And then you know, maybe one of those those other days, you want to do some social things or some family things or spend time with the kids if you've got kids. And what I find is the difference is that for most people, and even for myself, when I was working five days, I felt a sense of not having enough time, I just didn't really feel like I had ease in my life. And I found myself wanting to take holidays, right? Because I needed, you know, time to decompress, and time to rest for my life. But when I switched to only working three days and having a four day weekend, every week, I kind of shift to a space of being always on holidays, and never on holidays. And so it's not really a lifestyle, but I ever feel like I need to take a break from because I'm just pretty damn comfortable with how my life flows at the moment. And so having that freedom time every week means that I've got additional time for social time, if I want to spend time with friends and family, I can spend additional time with my partner and have partner time. But also, very importantly, I get an amazing amount of peak time I get time where I can just do things for myself. And I even get bored time. And I love bored time that is time that is so open, and so unscheduled, that I actually get bored. And I really, really cherish that time because for me, it's really important for me to have time where I can allow my creative brain to flow, but also that I can enjoy life without feeling like I'm on a hamster wheel all the time. Now, we've had massive changes in our culture in our society over the last 10 years with social media digitisation of workspaces with mobile phones that now come with us everywhere in our work comes with us everywhere with instant messaging and workplaces. So we're expected to be online and available all the time, which I think is just absolutely nuts. We also have things like the pandemic, where over the last couple of years, has radically changed forever the way that we're actually working. We're no longer going to offices anymore. We now have the option to work from home or the option to work flexibly wherever we are. And so we've had all of these shifts, but what do we do with that right? We find that we are more and more glued to our devices on our phones and we more, you know, everything is becoming more and more instant. If I want to go down the street, I can click one button and get an Uber and someone comes to my door, and I'm going to get angry if they can't find my house because I have to wait an extra 30 seconds, you know, instead of going on a car or riding a bus or riding a train, you know, so much has changed to everything being instant. And so being able to shift back to a place where I actually have the time freedom to have more luxurious and slower and more expansive time is something to me is super nurturing. Okay, so let me share some other cool benefits of the three day workweek. Okay, next is your staff are going to learn to manage yourselves, it's a given that your staff are probably still going to be working five days. And I do recommend that senior managers and senior leaders have the option to have flexible work days or work weeks, where maybe they do like four days a week, every week or every couple of weeks, or maybe even three days a week if they're, you know, real senior exec, and you'll find out why in just a second. But for your team, if you're only showing up to the office or only showing up to work in active mode three days a week, and there's two days a week that you're not there. But that's a great way for your team to learn to be a little more self sufficient when you're not around. Now, that may mean that they have to be more diligent with their schedules to be able to ask questions or ask for your leadership at a point in time when you actually are available. So it means there's less chance of things happening last minute, because if you're not available on a Monday, and they have something that's due on a Tuesday, well, they're actually going to have to get it sorted out the Thursday before, right? That's a very good discipline for your team to be taught consciously or unconsciously. And next up, your team actually get to work more on the systems of a business, the business will have to be designed to work without the president, Founder, CEO, whatever your role is there every day, it allows you and attempt to build more resilience in the business by you actually removing yourself. And it seems counterintuitive, right? Take an important person out of the business. And you would think immediately that the business suffers. Actually, this creates a more robust business, which yeah, seems like a bit of a dichotomy or or reverse, but trust me, it actually works. Now, number three is where you're actually going to get a lot more time with your family. And for me, the reason that I got into entrepreneurship was I wanted to chase freedom, I wanted life on my terms, I didn't want to work for someone else. And I wanted to be able to create and express myself through a business that allowed me to live a life on my terms. And so for me, that means I want more time with my family, I want more time doing things that I love, and I want more time for my relationships, I don't really want a business to be something or my occupation to be something that completely consumes my life. And I made that choice very early to put the time into building my business in the early days throughout my 20s. And by the age I was 27, I was able to actually like kind of semi-retire, step back from the business, the business generates enough income that it pays for everything that I need in my life, and pays for my investments and future in retirement, all those kind of things as well. But I have ample time to spend it with friends and family. And so that family piece I think is really important to me. And I know that most entrepreneurs I speak to chose to get into business because they were interested in having life on their terms. And so this is literally the way to getting life on your terms. And you can get it now if you've read “The 4-Hour Workweek” you would know that Tim Ferriss recommends doing things like mini vacations, and mini vacations give you the opportunity to experience what it's like to be on holiday more regularly. Don't wait for a once a year big, you know, vacation to you know, disappear for six weeks and pretend that work doesn't exist. And when you have to come back, you've got 300 million emails in your inbox. That's the wrong way of doing things. Now, I've basically taken the concept of mini vacations and made them every single weekend. And so the three day week and four day week end means that you've actually got time to do what you like, every single week. And then there's less of a desire to go away for six weeks on a big exhibition holiday and switch off my emails and completely disappear. Yeah, sure, from time to time, I might go to an event or a seminar or even a workshop of some sort, which is fully immersive. And I disappear for seven days for absolutely everything turned my phone off and just go completely offline from the world. But for the most part, I don't feel the need to escape from my current reality. So this is a really great way of doing that. Number four, and this one's a little counterintuitive. You actually get more time for more strategic work, when I have all of my meetings and all of my work responsibilities sandwiched into Tuesday to Thursday, that actually leaves Mondays and Fridays for business networking, business opportunities, business conferences, and basically freedom time to work on the business when I'm not in the business. Now the point is obviously here to have more personal time and to not spend more time on the business. But the reality is that there is a lot more time to do a business lunch or catch up with a colleague or go to that networking event. Because you don't have the standard stresses and schedules of working in a business, it really does free you up to run a business more like an investor rather than like a business owner. Now you might be thinking “Well Pete may I feel guilty?” You know, you may feel guilty. “Pete am I actually you know getting enough effort put into my business than I should be?” “Am I making sure that really putting in the effort for this business to be as successful as it can possibly be if I'm only working three days a week?” And my answer to that is, the reality is, as an entrepreneur, if you're a founder of a business, you're probably never going to switch off in the business, you're going to be thinking about it on the weekend, you're going to be thinking about it, you know, on the on the days that you have off. You're thinking about it when you're on holidays, right. So you may as well design a life, which is going to be more on your terms, rather than being stuck working five, or six, or even seven days a week. So the discipline of only working or being switched on to work for three days a week allows you to actually have more time for creative thinking and more time for strategic thinking in your business, it's pretty likely that on a Monday or a Friday, or possibly even on the weekend, you're going to get business ideas, you're going to get strategic ideas, I got this idea for this content on a Monday, these are the kinds of things that are probably going to pop up for you while your brain is relaxed and you're not in business business business mode. Because if you are only working five days a week, and then you get to the weekend, and that's all you got time for is basically decompression over the weekend, we never going to get that time for your brain to actually relax and go into creative mode where it's going to be the best in your business. So by now you're probably thinking “Pete this utopia sounds amazing and you've given me the why well give me some help.” Okay, let me give you a little bit of how. And just keep in mind that all of the videos on this channel are about helping you get to utopia, have a business that works for you and works on your terms. Also, we have an amazing consulting team, who will help you put the right technology systems in place to help you grow a more scalable, more repeatable business that allows you to actually take time away and step away. So if you need help from our team, well, there's a link below to get in touch. Let me give you five things you can start with to get yourself on the way to a 3-day workweek. Number one is solid business systems, making sure your business is systemised, making sure you've got the right technology in place. So your business can be repeatable and scalable. And that means your team will actually help you to deliver really well. So you have the opportunity to step back from the business. Now, there's 10,000 ways that you can do that either working with our team, or learning from the rest of our channel. But check out our other videos on how to systemize your business and how to make sure you can build a business that works on your terms with great technology systems that allow you to build a more scalable business. Secondly, make sure you've got a solid PA. Now a great investment for any business owner who's reached some level of success is a personal assistant who can help you manage your schedule and actually be a triage between you and the rest of your team. Now, this is probably appropriate for businesses that are in the growth stage where you've got at least five or 10 employees. And you're starting to step back just a tiny bit from the business. And you want to cut down on the radio noise of everybody asking you questions all the time. Now my PA is really great because I can actually send them a message straight from my phone on WhatsApp if I'm out and about. And basically my team know if they want something done from me on a Monday or a Friday, they go through my PA and my PA is the only person who's allowed to contact me on a Monday or a Friday. Now what that does is my PA is able to triage things. And I might check in with them maybe once a day, and they'll let me know “Hey, Pete is all the questions that I've got for you right now.” Or they may say, “Hey, you know what, Pete, I've got some questions, but they're not super urgent. They can wait till Tuesday, and we'll get back to them then.” And so that allows me complete hands off freedom from the business. If I need to be contacted, they can contact me all my other notifications are switched off on my phone, I don't have email, I don't have chat or anything else like that switched on. It's just my PA who can contact me on my freedom days, Monday and Friday. Number three, arranging your meetings, any recurring meetings that you have in your business, whether it's a stand up, whether it's a huddle, whether it's a you know, weekly report, whether it's a monthly report, whether it's a strategic review, make sure they are Tuesday to Thursday, hard rule Tuesday to Thursday, no meetings Mondays, no meetings Fridays. Literally bunch them all up, you may have busier days on those days. But literally bunch of those meetings on those days and ensure there are no standard meetings, ideally company wide. But effectively any meetings that involve you should not be on any other days. And what that allows you to do is not have anything kind of like creep into your business or creep into your world, which may tempt you to work on a Monday or a Friday. And you can actually do this you can create the whole cadence of your business from Tuesday to Thursday, when it involves you and have the rest of the team have other meetings as needed. Number four, setting your out of office. Now we use Google Calendar for this because obviously we use Google Workspace. Setting an out of office on those days when you're not available. Lets anyone know who's interested in inviting you to a meeting or scheduling a meeting with you that you're actually just not even in the office those days. And you can even schedule these on your Google Calendar to repeat if you wish. My recommendation is that you have these on each day that you're not going to be in the office so they automatically show up for you and your team anytime you're out of the office. And number four is making sure that you've got a chat system set up for the days that you're out. Now, if your team do want to get in touch or you do need to get in touch with your team, you want to make sure that you've got a good chat system to be able to connect with them, or even preferably a task system for you to pop off tasks to your team anytime you think of something. Now I often find myself out and about on the road. And I've either got a quick question for a team member, because I'm thinking about something in my head as I'm going about my business. Or sometimes I want to delegate a task that I want someone to work on. And I want to monitor when I'm back inside the business. And so for chat, we use Google Chat and for tasks we use Asana. Now we've got different videos on both of those products, helping you get started with them and teach you all the ways that they are fantastic for businesses to get systemized. But if you're interested in that, you can check out our other videos to learn more. Otherwise, make sure you've got your team on board. So thanks for listening to my tips on the 3-day workweek. If you're interested in learning more, well jump on the links below and subscribe to our channel. Give me a thumbs up if you'd like this content. And if you're interested in learning more, we'll make sure you check out the playlists on our channel, we've got heaps of info, no matter what stage of business you're at, right now. If you're a leader, entrepreneur, business owner, investor, we've got plenty of content for you on making sure that your technology is right and your business systems are right as well. Now, if you're already a subscriber to Google Workspace, well, we've got an amazing offer, which is called transfer in just for transferring your billing into us and not paying any extra for your Google subscription, where you get a bunch of features and help from our team, you get an account check and automatic DNS check of your account. And our team will even do an audit of how you've got things set up. But the most important thing is you get access to our Google Classroom, which has an amazing library of training videos for you and your team to help you get the most out of your investment in Google Workspace. Now, not only are we experts in Workspace, but we're experts in all of the ecosystem that plugs into Google Workspace and Google for Business. And so if you're interested in learning more about how you can use the right tech tools to scale a successful business, hopefully retire early and have a business that works for you on your terms create a bit more of that freedom in your life, we are all about that. So check out the other videos on the channel. If you'd like to chat to our team, jump on one of the links below. I'll catch you in the next video. Cheers!
To learn more about our Cloud Support Service, or schedule an IT Systems Check, contact itGenius - the Google Workspace Experts
