Challenge: The 10 Hour Work Week
October 27, 2007
If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
Last week was a difficult. There was no more ‘faking it’, I was dead-tired, the inevitable sickness hit, and complete burn-out. For months I had been preparing and strategizing to take Startup Princess to the next level and while trying to keep everything balanced, a few things suffered, primarily: sleep, well-prepared meals, exercise, and organization (it’s been clean thanks to a trade with a cleaning service, just not organized) there’s only so long you can go on little sleep before you need to take care of yourself! Time to take my own medicine…I preached the value of balance at our recent conference, it’s time to start re-applying it myself!!
I considered (1) How do I grow Startup Princess on a very part-time schedule/limited time commitment and (2) How do I keep my family and I happy and healthy while doing it? I’ve decided to modify Tim Ferriss’ 4 Hour Work Week and give myself 10 Hours a week to grow Startup Princess into a thriving, profitable company and make every moment I’m working on it valuable–resourceful, strategic, and smart! It might sound ridiculously short, but I’m absolutely convinced that with the systems in place and the team that we’re building here that it will be possible for me and others to build this company with not a lot of time. Yes, some weeks we’ll gladly put in more hours if the job requires it, but if we’re planning ahead and delegating right and finding ways to outsource and get help, I’m hopeful and believe it will be effective and run well and we’ll all be happier and healthier in the process.
Here’s a few things I have already done to save time:
- I gave my laptop to my husband and am now using a desktop because it will force me to work at my designated location in my office and not all over the house (I’ve actually watched my kids play in the bath while sitting on the toilet seat checking emails…you know that I was addicted!)
- I am writing down the tasks and how many minutes I’m working so I’m aware of my time and asking myself if the activity is valuable enough, will it lead to profitability??
- I’m going to force myself to only check emails once a day
- I’m going to work closely with the Startup Princess team to plan the next several months and create our business plan so we can break down our goals strategically
- I’m looking for more Fairy Godmothers/writers for our blog–interested??
- I’m considering starting podcasts more seriously because I can talk/interview faster than I can write and then send off to someone else to edit.
- I want to encourage more of our 1100 RSS subscribers to be involved and build more of a community…what do you want to do to contribute to Build the Kingdom of women entrepreneurs? Edit podcasts? Find new members? Help us expand to new markets? Email us!
- I took several naps, spent a lot of time with family, friends, cleaned my kitchen, playroom, did loads and loads of laundry, worked in my new yard, went on a girls’ retreat with Babies and Moms Radio, and drank lots of green smoothies…and didn’t check emails for 2 days, now I’m feeling MUCH better!
Today’s Magic Wand: I’m convinced that we DO create our lives exactly how we want them to be, if we believe that we must work long and hard to achieve results then that will be our reality, I’m not going to buy into that belief anymore…are you? Get great results and limit your efforts where possible!
WHAT IDEAS DO YOU HAVE on how to limit our time and continue to build Startup Princess?? What is important to YOU? Great content? Community? Events? Tell us so we can BEST use our time to serve YOU.
Kelly,
Looks like you and I have come to some of the same conclusions at the same time, again–family first!
Lately, I too have been trying to figure out how to re-balance my life so that my focus isn’t constantly on my non-profit. I love working for the Bulgarian orphans, but I don’t want my own kids to become orphans in the mean time. It is so hard to keep everything in balance…home, family, work, church. It seems I really am out of balance because my thoughts are contantly focused on emails, phone calls, fundraising, and all kinds of ideas for the organization. I have decided to make several changes though–so we need to chat on the phone and share some more of our ideas!
Each of us Startup Princesses has so much talent to offer to the world. We can do SO much good. Really, we are quite powerful! However, our families still need us the most! They are the most important and our greatest joy should be in loving and caring for them. Even though it can become so mundane and exhausting, taking care of a family is the greatest thing a woman could ever do! Tonight I spent my evening helping three of my five kids write in their journals until 11:00 PM. I didn’t think about anything else (meaning work or what I was going to do to relax this evening, etc.)and focused on how cute my kids were being with all their big thoughts and funny and sincere ways of expressing themselves in their journals. It felt really good! My kids loved the time we spent together and something tells me that this will always be a good memory for them…and me.
I suspect we all suffer from this. I thought I was the only one who sat with the laptop while the kids bathed;) Truthfully though I’ve also tried to eliminate laptop use as it does eat up time. And I found that even when I wasn’t using it, when my kids saw it, they felt they only had half my attention. I’m going to check out that book you mentioned as well. I’ve come to the conclusion over the years that my biggest challenge in life is to learn balance. I’ve yet to achieve it. Yet at the same time, I think I must be getting something out working so much or I wouldn’t be doing it.
As to Start Up Princess, great content and community are important to me. Truthfully posts like this from the heart of yourself and other Start Up Princesses are valuable to me because I know I’m not alone with our struggle to juggle being an entrepreneur and families.
Yes, balancing family and work can be challenging for mothers, female entrepreneurs. 4hww is a good guide. Thanks to http://www.timferriss.com I’ve organized my life much better now.
Hello Startup Princesses! Thanks for sharing your experiences here, glad to hear I’m not alone!
D-journaling with kids sounds like a great evening, good for you!
L-happy to see you here, glad we’re friends here…please keep telling us how we can help you grow your biz!
Eva, welcome! Glad you enjoyed 4hwww too…tell us what specifically you have applied from the book.
I’ve been getting emails about my new schedule…yep, I’m STILL doing it and it’s been great. It’s requiring a lot of discipline to stay away from the computer. I’m planning when I’m away though and so when I get to it there’s more strategy of what to accomplish. So far so good!
Kelly,
I’m glad I’m not the only one who sometimes loses the balance. I have actually checked email and tended to business (ok, and a little shopping!) on my laptop *while nursing my baby boy!*.
I licensed my products to another company and that has certainly helped create more balance in my life. I have just begun my “next” business, called The Mogul Mom, and it is a series of ebooks and a mentoring program devoted to helping other moms who run businesses and raise families.I hope to have these books available by the end of 2007 and I hope to save moms time, money and sanity.
Keep up the great work…you are a fabulous role model. You are “real” and you are wonderful.
Heather Allard
p.s. I love Timothy Ferriss’ The 4-Hour Work Week. I just recommended it to Heather Ledeboer of Mom 4 Life. Is my workweek 4 hours? Hell no…but I’m working on it. I think Tim should have one of us write a companion book called The 168-Hour Workweek for Moms. Ha!
I nurse my baby and compose emails with just my right hand ALL the time! I’m getting pretty fast at typing with one hand!
Oh what we do!
FG Deborah-80% of Startup Princess posts in the first year were written while I was nursing! I figured if I have to sit, I might as well type! Without nursing we might not have a site today…interesting blessing, eh!?