Why And How I Work A 4-day Week

I've been thinking about moving to a four day week for quite a long time. Too many entrepreneurs go the other way and they work really long hours and they work maybe five, six, seven days a week, 12 hour days. And I've done that in the past and it's not big and clever. So I wanted to move to a four day working week and I've managed to do that in 2021. So in this week's episode of the Agency Accelerator Podcast, I wanted to share with you exactly why I did it and what I did to make it finally work. So let's get on with the Show. I'm Rob DeCosta and this is the Agency Accelerator Podcast. As someone who has stood in your shoes, having started, grown and sold my own agency, I know just how it feels during the ups and the downs of agency life. So this podcast aims to ease your journey just a little by sharing mine and my guests experiences and advice as you navigate your way to growing a profitable, sustainable and enjoyable business. Hey everybody. Welcome to this week's episode episode of the Agency Accelerator Podcast. I hope you find this episode really useful or maybe insightful and perhaps it's something that you are aspiring to do at some point in the future. So I want to share with you how in 2021 I moved to a four day working week and how I finally, after a number of failed attempts, made it to work. So I want to talk about why I did it and then specifically what I did to make it work and why, what are the benefits that I'm seeing as I come out the other side. So as I said in the introduction, too many entrepreneurs work really long hours. They work six or seven days a week to get everything done. Because perhaps they have no other way of working. They don't know any other way. Perhaps they feel like they have no one to delegate to. So they've got to work that long to keep things ticking over. Now this is not sustainable. Ultimately it will lead to burnout. You might have been there. I've certainly been there myself. But we need to remember that as an entrepreneur and a business owner, that we are actually in control of our own destiny and that we make the rules. And the rule I wanted to make this year was to move down to four days a week without seeing a drop in my revenues or a drop in the number of clients I could service, or indeed in the quality of my work and the marketing output. So I set about making that happen. And as I said, I've tried several times in the past to have this Sort of wish of working for four days a week, but it quickly disappeared as clients asked to talk to me on that fifth day or had emails coming in that I thought, oh, I'll just answer them. So in order to make it happen this time, finally, there's a number of things that I had to do and that's what I want to talk about today. I needed to get super efficient and it also needed to be motivated to actually start and stick with that four day working week. So let's kick off with why. Why is it that I decided I wanted to work a four day week? I appreciate you will have very different reasons and you know, like anything, we need to start with the why. So first of all, like many of us, I wanted a better work life balance and I wanted better boundaries of when I'm working and when I'm not working. And at the age of 57, giving my age away, I also wanted to start thinking about succession planning over the next four or five years. I know full well from working with lots of agency owners who want to sell their agency that they need to get super clear on what's next and before they've sold. And for me to have good succession as I head towards some kind of easing down and retirement, I needed to have a plan of what I was going to do. And having this fifth day has really helped me with that. Now, as I said, I've tried this in the past. I've had this sort of New Year's resolution of thinking, oh yeah, I'm going to work four days a week. And then it's really easy just to get sucked back in because you can't help but check your emails on that fifth day. And when that client says, can I do a session with you on that day? You of course say yes, because you never want to say no. And before you know it, that fifth day has gone out the window. So there were a number of things this time that I needed to have in place to make it happen. And I think the number one thing is that I had a project that I wanted to work on on that fifth day. It wasn't just simply a case of me saying I want to put my feet up on a Friday, which happens to be the day that I don't work into Costa coaching now, but I actually had another project. So I've talked a bit about this in the past, but I, I am a camper van owner and I decided that I wanted to document my experiences of owning a campervan. The good, the bad and the Ugly, as well as vlogging some of the journeys that we make, doing some reviews of products and vans and so on. So I launched on the Road Again, which is a website where we sell some stuff and we blog and post our videos. And also a YouTube channel on the road again-uk where we post our weekly videos. Now, I don't know if you do any video editing yourself, but a video typically can take an hour per minute of videoing or maybe 30 minutes per minute of videoing. So if you're editing a 15 minute video, it can certainly take me all day. And that's what I want to have my fifth day for. Because I knew if I was going to make this work and focus on growing my YouTube channel properly, then I needed to have some decent quality videos. And if I didn't have that fifth day to do it, it would end up being my weekends or working into the evening. And when you're tired, you're never going to do your best work. So I think one of the really clear things that got me to this four day working week is knowing that on the fifth day I was going to work on this project. So I'm actually working five days a week. It's just on that fifth day I'm doing something else now. So I think that has been the key driver for this being successful. And just to give you some context, I've been working four day weeks for the past six months. So I think that's the first thing. And the second thing was being absolutely determined to have really clear boundaries with my Da Costa coaching work and my clients and saying no, I'm not available on the Friday. I've had to move a few clients who would typically see me on a Friday and move them to another day and just say that day is no longer available. And I really had to change my mindset around this moving from oh my God, if I say no and they won't like me and they'll leave me to simply saying no. I respect myself and that Friday isn't available. But these are the other times that are available. So I think having good boundaries and keeping that Friday clear has also really helped. And of course I've communicated this with my clients and I've explained why I'm doing it so that they understand and hopefully respect that boundary as well. So that's, that's kind of like the why I've done it and some of the things that I started to do to make sure it happens. So let's dig a little bit more into more of the what that is actually getting me to the four day week. So it goes without saying really that in order to achieve a four day working week, you have to become super organized. And so because there's a danger that when you say you're working a four day week, all you end up doing is working four 10 hour days instead of five eight hour days. I'm not quite sure whether the maths adds up there, but you know what I mean. So it's not a case of just working longer days, it's in fact I'm determined to keep my days to eight hours as they normally are, but to actually get super efficient, efficient. And one of the things that I do religiously now, I want you to do this, because I've talked about this before, is I really use the 4Ds in all of the decision making. So when I've got a task, can I ditch it, can I defer it to a later date, can I delegate it to my VA team or do I have to do it now? And I try to use that 4D methodology against everything that I do so I can quickly assess whether I really need to do this now, whether I need to do it at all, or whether I can schedule it for a later date. So I think being super organized is really important and focusing on the things that are going to move me forward and letting go of some of the things that perhaps I've done in the past just because I've done them, but actually when you look at the numbers, they're not really delivering enough value so I need to stop doing them. So that becomes the D for digit. The other thing that I'm trying to do is keep meetings shorter. Not my client coaching sessions because obviously they need to be as long as they are, but certainly other meetings that I do, I try to keep them to half an hour rather than an hour. And I think it's really interesting that when you have a shorter time to do something, whether it be half an hour for a meeting or four days in your working week, you get really focused and really organized and you get to the point quicker and you focus on the things that matter. I think it's a bit like if you're going on holiday that week leading up to your holiday, you're super frantic, but you're also super focused and super efficient because you know you have to get these things off your plate before you can go on vacation. And kind of working a four day week is a bit similar to that. So it can feel quite kind of Knackering, if I'm honest, because I am being efficient and I know I've still got the same volume of work to do. I'm just trying to be more efficient about how and when I do that work. So that, so that is another tip, which is keep meetings to half an hour if you possibly can, rather than hour. Now, another thing that I've had to do is say no a lot more to things. And I really love this adage that I've shared with you guys before, which is when you say yes to something, you're saying no to something else. So I now really think carefully, do I really want to say yes to this or can I say no more often? Because if this thing that I'm saying yes to doesn't benefit me or my clients or my partners, then why would I be doing it? So I'm trying to be a bit smarter about that and say no more often. Now the next thing that you need to do if you want to make this work is you need to communicate with your team and your clients, as I said. So I let all my clients know that that's what I was doing. I didn't paint it as like, okay guys, I'm putting my feet up and all the rest of it. I just said that this is when I'm available to work with you from now on. And I have a VA team that I work with, so I make sure that they understood that I don't work on a Friday, they still work on a Friday. So that's two benefits to that. One is that I can still continue putting output on a Friday, but it's just not me doing it. But second of all, they need to understand that actually I'm not available on the Friday. So on the rare occasions they really do need to contact me, I will be contactable. But they know, as a rule of thumb, make sure you've asked me everything you need on Thursday or can it be safe to the Monday. So you need to make sure you communicate with your wider team, whether that be team that work with you or a virtual assistant team or remote working team, whatever it is, make sure that they understand. Now, of course, they may be working a four day week with you if they're part of your team, but if they're not, if they're like my VA team and they're still working five days a week, make sure that they understand that and they respect your boundaries. Now, as I said, you need to be mindful that working a four day week can be stressful because fundamentally You've got the same volume of work to do in less time. So not everybody in your team is necessarily going to be delighted about a four, four day week. So you need to make sure that you give them the tools and the training to make sure that they can work a four day week and they don't just end up working that fifth day in secret or longer working days in day one, two, three and four. So I think the other really key thing to this is, as I've already explained for myself, is that you need to fill your fifth day with things that you're going to do. So they could be another project like I work on, or it could simply be that you have a set of chores and that you want to do on your fifth day and that you make them do. Because if you come to your fifth day and you have nothing to do, I guarantee you that you will sit at your desk and you'll just check your emails and before you know it you'll be back working your fourth, your fifth day. So make sure you're filling your fifth day with stuff that will keep you occupied that will enable you to do your four day working week. So just to kind of sum this really short podcast up, if you're thinking about the idea of a four day working week, and I already know that a number of my clients work in a four day week, I want you to ask yourself these three questions. What I want you to do is write these down and put them somewhere that you can refer back to regularly. So question number one is to consider, how will you professionally benefit from a four day working week? Write down the reasons. It might be the fact that you can use your fifth day for other training. It might be that it's going to give you some breathing space and it's going to help you recuperate and give your best on those four days. But whatever the reasons, write down how you will professionally benefit from working four day week. So that's question number one. Question number two is to write down, how will it personally benefit you from working a four day week? And again, write this down and it might be that you have another interest that you want to pursue, or you want to take a yoga class on that fifth day, or go to the gym or walk or whatever you going to do. How will it personally benefit you to work a four day week? And the last question I want you to write down is what does it mean if you don't make a four day working week happen? So what would the consequence be if you try this and it fails. What does that mean to you? And if that emotionally is strong enough, it's going to be part of the focus that will help you hit your four day working week target. So write those three questions down, put them somewhere that you can regularly review and use them to help you stay in the right mindset and physically do a four day working week. Okay, so that's a really short episode of the Agency Accelerator for me, but I just wanted to share with you how I've managed to make a four day working week happen, why I've done it and how I can keep doing it. And maybe there's some nuggets in there that will help you even if you don't want to work a four day week, there things in there that will help you get more efficient with the time that you are working. And don't be that typical entrepreneur who just works really long hours because you can and because you think you have to. Because trust me that you don't. I think I am more efficient. I think I provide a great level of quality. I don't think my quality has dropped since I've gone to a four day working week and I certainly feel re energized on a Monday when I come back in having had three days away from the business. So I think there's lots and lots of benefits to doing this. I'm not telling you that everyone should do it, but there are some ideas and concepts that you can apply to your week to make you super efficient and basically get more done in less time. So I hope you found that useful as ever. Please make sure that you've hit the subscribe button. I would love you to leave a review if you're listening to this on Apple Podcasts. And of course please do share the episode with your colleagues. The more people who listen or subscribe to the YouTube channel, the more people the podcast or the video will be shown to, which helps me help more people just like you. But other than that, I hope you have a fantastic rest of your week and I will see you next week on the next episode of the Agency Accelerator Podcast.