There will always be an excuse and a reason for you to work 70-80 hours a week. For many business owners, the only thing that will solve that excuse is when they are in the hospital, or when they can no longer work due to exhaustion, or sickness, right? So, let’s be honest here. Unless something drastic happens, you’re probably not going to change it on your own.
But through these past 7 Chapters, we have introduced several principles you can adopt to sustain a 3 or 4 day work week on a long term basis.
It truly is possible to live “The Vacation Effect Lifestyle™” and have the reduced work schedule you have always dreamed of. It’s not just some pie in the sky way of life that can only work for me and my clients, and not for you.
It can work for you too, even during the ups and downs of life and business.
But first, you have to become clear on what you really want. Do you really want a 4 day work week, a 3 day work week, or maybe you just want to have weekends totally free?
Once you have identified your ideal schedule, you then have to be willing to do things differently than you have in the past. You have to be willing to challenge the “grind, grind, grind” mentality that is so prevalent in our society today.
You have to be willing to stand for the principle that working smarter is better than harder, and there is nothing to feel guilty about if you get the same results in 3 or 4 days as you used to do in 6.
There is also nothing to feel guilty about when you delegate to your team and take time off for yourself.
Creating Your Hyper-Efficiency
If you are willing to be bold and experiment with the principles we’ve introduced thus far, I am confident you can find your own hyper-efficient sweet spot that will work best for you.
There is something truly magical that happens when you give yourself more free time and creative space. You’ll bring so much more joy to your work because you’ll always have something fun to look forward to each week.
You’ll also get more done in less time than before due to the forced hyper-efficiency of limiting the time you spend working IN the business.
But here’s the main point. If you actually want to succeed with forcing hyper-efficiency into your life so you grow by subtraction automatically every week, and not just when you go on vacation, then you need to put constraints in place so that you’ll actually do it. Otherwise, you’re just going to fall back into the grind, grind, grind mentality. You know it to be true. And although it’s not your fault that our society has brainwashed us into that grind mentality, it’s a cold harsh reality.
I believe that the best way to deal with this is to put limits on yourself and the amount of time you will spend on something. You will naturally figure it out faster. Set that timer as one strategy we reviewed in Chapter 5. You will be amazed at how hyper-focused you will become to achieve the end goal. It is important to put limits on how much time you will work and start forcing yourself to be more efficient every single week.
For example, what if you only spent 5 hours a week in meetings instead of 8 hours, or if you cut out all of those activities that will take up 80% of the effort but will only get you 20% of the results.
Yes, I am suggesting that you actually delete a shit-ton of unimportant stuff from your to-do list, which is actually the fastest way to accelerate your results. Simply eliminate it because it isn’t important. Then, you can focus on the 20% of the activities that will actually produce 80% of the results.
What happens when you start to operate this way is that you start getting the same amount done in a lot less time simply because of this forced hyper-efficiency – because of the constraints you put in place to make sure you don’t waste time.
Your decisions also become easier to make since there isn’t so much chatter going on in your brain, and since your to-do list is shorter. You start to see results faster because you’re focusing on the activities that really matter – the ones that really move the needle along the most. And, you free up a lot more time in your life that you can replace with more joyful and meaningful activities.
Make It Permanent
Once you make growth by subtraction automatic, the next step is to actually make it permanent in your life. So how do you do that? As we talked about in Chapter 4, you replace the extra time you free up with something more meaningful.
Remember those SomeDay Maybes from Chapter 1? For most entrepreneurs, something that causes them misery are their SomeDay Maybes. You know, all those things you say that SomeDay Maybe you’ll do when you have more time or more money. Like someday when you have more money, you’ll travel more. Someday when you have more time, you’ll learn a new language, spend more time with your friends and family, or get involved in a charity. But the truth is, you never actually get around to them and you probably never will unless something drastic changes.
You’ll always have an excuse for doing it later. You justify putting your SomeDay Maybes off again by saying: “I just need to reach this next goal first” or “I don’t have time for that yet”. You know – all those ridiculous excuses we’ve programmed ourselves to rattle off without even thinking about it.
Let me remind you about our little secret: SOMEDAY IS NOT A DAY OF THE WEEK.
If not now, when are you ever going to get around to those Someday Maybes? Be honest? If left to your own willpower, you might not ever do them.
But here’s the good news. Remember how I suggested that to make growth by subtraction permanent, you have to replace the extra time you free up with something more meaningful.
Well, what you can do is bring those someday maybes into today with the extra free time you gain with forced hyper-efficiency. You then have the extra time to finally get around to spending more time with friends, golfing regularly, playing piano, traveling more often, or whatever you keep saying you’ll do some day.
That then allows you to make forced hyper-efficiency a permanent part of your life because now you have something more meaningful to do than before – and you certainly don’t want to lose that free time now that you enjoy having it.
Why do you want to grow your business?
Why do you want to have more disposable income and keep growing your business? Isn’t it so you can have business freedom?
If business freedom is the real goal, then why not build your business around the very freedom you seek?
When you put everything all together from Chapters 1-8, you get the compound effect of these 3 things:
Less Work + Forced Hyper-Efficiency + More Joy = Faster Business Growth
That is really just another way of saying grow by subtraction, automatically and permanently. And isn’t that going to feel amazing?
Following The Roadmap
When you begin to apply the growth and time hacks covered in Chapters 3-7, you’ll become more effective than you ever imagined.
You’ll focus on the critical few projects that produce the greatest results and cut out all the wasted time on things that don’t really matter. Remember the Pareto Principle from Chapter 4? You need to train yourself to focus 20% of your efforts to produce 80% of your results.
And, as a result, you will also learn to stop feeling obligated to comply with the demands of other people that you never actually agreed to take on. This is HUGE.
As you become happier and more effective, your employees will too. It is truly contagious.
In Chapter 1 we talked about creating business freedom through embracing the freedom mindset. We are here to tell you that when you live the Vacation Effect Lifestyle, life has so much joy built-in that each week feels like a vacation. You get to have fun integrating those “Someday Maybes” into your life that you never got around to before. You get to start making your epic life plan a part of your new reality.
You get to experience true freedom that comes from being a business owner who has worked smarter instead of harder, while your business continues to grow. You no longer have to wait for vacation to experience true joy. It becomes a normal way of life.
You truly can have it all: continued business growth and plenty of free time. But you have to be willing to experiment with these principles and step out of your comfort zone when others may not understand why.
There will never be a better time than RIGHT NOW to spend time with the people, causes, and activities that really matter to you.
So here’s a quick recap of what we’ve covered.
- Grow by subtraction by removing lots of items from your to-do list, versus adding to it
- Do this in an automatic way so it just happens without you having to rely on your willpower
- Make it permanent by replacing the time you freed up with more meaningful activities that you never want to give up
It all starts with Chapter 1 and embracing the knowledge that freedom is a mindset, not a destination. You DECIDE to have freedom. It’s a choice.
As we talked about earlier, isn’t freedom the main reason you became an entrepreneur to begin with?
All you have to do right now is simply DECIDE to step into true freedom, and then claim it for yourself. Check out Chapter 9 to discover the next steps you need to take to start living The Vacation Effect lifestyle.
In Chapter 1, you will explore the true meaning of business freedom and how to create it in your own life for what really matters.
In Chapter 2, you will learn the principle of work smarter not harder. You have been lied to about business growth in the past and will be shocked once you discover the truth.
In Chapter 3, you will discover 12 different growth hacks that lifestyle entrepreneurs use daily. You can use these growth hacks yourself for faster growth and a better life.
In Chapter 4, your will learn how to achieve business growth by removing from your “to-do” list, not adding to it. This principle is called “Growth by Subtraction”, and when done correctly, it leads to “multiplication”.
In Chapter 5, you will discover several ways to use time hacking to double your productivity. Are you ready to “Get Shit Done” faster than you ever imagined?
In Chapter 6, you will unlock the closely held secrets to leveraging entrepreneur groups for fast business growth. This strategy can skyrocket your growth.
In Chapter 7, you will learn all about delegating tasks effectively. Hint: Most business owners do this totally wrong.
In Chapter 8, discover how you can create a 4 day work week for yourself that is sustainable long term. It’s easier to accomplish than you might think.
In Chapter 9, you’ll learn the recommended next steps for creating the freedom lifestyle that you deserve. You’ll also learn the best resources (including a business growth coach) to support you in this process.
