Forced to work 2 hours/day. Here’s what happened.
In this episode, a CEO’s forced digital detox during a European vacation reveals how just two hours of focused work a day can unlock sharper priorities, empower your team, and expose the hidden cost of micromanagement.
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Welcome to Repeatable Revenue, hosted by strategic growth advisor , Ray J. Green.
About Ray:
→ Former Managing Director of National Small & Midsize Business at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, where he doubled revenue per sale in fundraising, led the first increase in SMB membership, co-built a national Mid-Market sales channel, and more.
→ Former CEO operator for several investor groups where he led turnarounds of recently acquired small businesses.
→ Current founder of MSP Sales Partners, where we currently help IT companies scale sales: www.MSPSalesPartners.com
→ Current Sales & Sales Management Expert in Residence at the world’s largest IT business mastermind.
→ Current Managing Partner of Repeatable Revenue Ventures, where we scale B2B companies we have equity in: www.RayJGreen.com
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Transcript
A few weeks ago, I took my
family on a vacation to Europe.
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:We went to Spain, we went to
Italy, we went to France, and
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:this wasn't a, a work vacation.
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:We actually do plenty of those.
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:We travel quite a bit, and as long
as I've got, you know, a laptop
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:and a wifi, I am, I'm pretty solid.
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:Like this was the gonna be
an actual vacation, right?
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:Because for the most part, I, I didn't
know if I was gonna have connectivity.
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:Um, a lot of the normal
calls that I, I have.
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:On my calendar, I wouldn't be able to
do because of the time zone difference.
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:And our schedule was gonna
be unpredictable, right?
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:And I didn't want to be on a, on a set
schedule, but I, I knew I'd have basically
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:like an hour or two while I'm working
out each day to find some wifi and plug
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:into the business and get shit done.
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:So, you know, if you've, if you've
been around me or my content long
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:enough, you know what I, I love Tim
Ferriss and I love the four hour work
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:week, and I love lifestyle design.
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:But if you actually look at my calendar.
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:I, I suck at the four hour work week.
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:Like I, I put in a lot of work and I put
in a lot of hours because, you know, I
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:believe if you want to build something
significant and meaningful and you want
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:to compress the timeline in doing that,
meaning you want to get there faster, like
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:you're gonna have to work your ass off.
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:Um, but what really surprised me about
this vacation and this trip was that
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:being forced, at least temporarily,
like so, so being temporarily forced.
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:To work less made me a better CEO and
the, the takeaway that I had was like, I
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:created a constraint with this vacation
that actually forced some clarity out for
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:me because, you know, when you've only
got one or two hours a day to work, your
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:priorities get really clear, really fast.
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:And like you, you get, you have
to get laser focused on what do
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:I have to get done right now?
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:Like, I've got 90 minutes to do this.
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:What do I need to get done?
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:And it, it's a forcing function to
get the most important and to a degree
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:urgent, but like the most important
things to the top of the list.
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:And I, there was no, you know,
checking Slack for the hell of it.
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:There was no, let me catch up on emails.
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:There was no, let me look at, you know,
some of the, the systems that we've got
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:or the backend systems or you know, just
checking tasks that you know, oh, you
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:know what, I forgot about doing this.
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:Like none of that stuff.
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:I didn't have time for it.
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:Right.
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:And, and so those things
didn't get any of my attention.
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:And what I, what I realized,
especially coming back and, and
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:sitting down, was I stopped reacting
to the noise within the business
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:and I started filtering for signal.
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:I.
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:Right, like I forced, or I was forced
to, to only look at what was actually
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:going to move the business forward.
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:Like what are the critical issues,
the essential things that need to
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:get focused today and or need to
get focused on today and not what's
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:gonna make me feel productive, right?
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:So like there's, I mean, if you're a
business owner, you know this, you can
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:get to the end of the day, you can put
in 10, 12 hours and you can feel hyper.
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:Productive in the sense that you
put in a lot of hours, but you still
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:look back and you're like, did I
really move the needle forward?
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:And this is a really good
way of identifying the
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:things that have to get done.
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:The high leverage, high impact activities.
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:And it wasn't, it wasn't the result
of some productivity hack, right?
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:Like it wasn't the, the result of
some calendar trick that I learned,
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:like it was just forced on me.
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:It was survival and the impact was.
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:It really shaped or reinforced, I would
say the, the way that I think about
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:time and leadership and leverage, right?
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:Because the lessons that I'm,
that I'm sharing here, they
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:weren't completely new, right?
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:Like this, but it was, it was
refreshed, it was reinforced.
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:And you know, there's a, there's
something called Parkinson's Law, right?
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:Which is, um, you know, that
work expands to fill the time
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:available for its completion.
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:So if I give a, a presentation.
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:16 hours on my calendar to get done.
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:Chances are it's gonna take 16 hours.
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:Right.
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:Whereas if I say you only have
90 minutes and, and you have a
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:constraint, that actually forces the
fact that you only have 90 minutes.
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:You can get that presentation done in 90
minutes and you will hit the essentials.
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:And this is.
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:It's kinda like in, in school, you know,
when you cram, you know, like you, if
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:you, if you start studying, at least
for myself, if I start studying weeks in
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:advance, you know, I've done this before
where I start studying and then, you
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:know, it takes me three weeks to basically
learn the same thing that I could learn
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:in, you know, eight hours the day before.
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:Right?
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:So, so Parkinson's law says work
is going to take as much space
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:on your calendar as you allow it.
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:And this trip with my family because of.
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:Lack of connectivity because of lack
of bandwidth and time and wanting to
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:just focus on, you know, hanging out
with the family and spending time
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:and experiencing like where we were.
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:Like it forced me to flip
Parkinson's law on its head, right?
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:Like it was, it's the opposite.
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:So we compressed the schedule
down to, you know, one, two hours
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:and that's all I had, right?
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:So everything got contracted
and it got sharper.
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:You know, there was, there was no fluff.
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:There was no filler.
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:It was, there was only enough time
to focus on high leverage execution.
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:Right.
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:And so that was one takeaway.
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:The other thing that I, as I, as I was
thinking about this, was the, as as
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:your time strengths, as, as you know, as
the, the, the, your calendar contracts,
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:so does your grip on the business.
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:And what I mean is the
more time that I have.
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:The more I tend to clinging to
tasks that I could delegate.
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:Right.
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:Whereas being on this trip, you
know, I didn't have any choice.
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:Like I, I had to let certain things
go and I had to look to my team
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:and say, well, shit, like I've,
all I have is time to give you
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:direction on what I need to get done.
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:And all I have is time to coach and, and
give you some feedback or review what
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:you're, what you're sending me instead of
controlling it instead of doing it myself.
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:And that was actually a really good.
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:Um, experience for my team, right?
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:Because I, I, I was forced to push things
to them, to empower them to do things.
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:And the result was they
made decisions on their own.
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:They executed without
me being the bottleneck.
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:They gained confidence because
they were like, Hey, I've
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:gotta get this done my way.
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:Ray is not gonna be able to
look at this before I send it.
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:So, you know, they gained confidence.
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:And then as a result, so did I.
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:And I guess it, as it turns out,
your level of micromanagement is
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:often in, in direct proportion.
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:It's, it's, there's a directly
correlated to how much time
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:you have to micromanage, right?
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:So you take Parkinson's law,
which is like work will expand
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:to the time that you give it.
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:If you track it and you can press
the calendar, well then what are the
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:things that tend to get tossed out?
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:Well, one of 'em is micromanagement,
and I'm, I'm not by default
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:like a, a micromanager.
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:But it, there were a lot of things that
I typically would've either done myself.
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:Or had more direct, like,
Hey, do it this way.
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:You know, like step one, step two, step
three, and record a long loom video with
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:very detailed, you know, instructions.
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:Because I'm, I'm thinking that I'm
giving direction and I, I'm thinking
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:that I'm giving coaching, but what I'm
really doing is I'm taking some of the
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:decision making away and some of the
empowerment away from people on the team.
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:When you don't have the time to do
it, you don't have the time to do it.
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:You say, this is what the finish line
looks like, and then they go do it.
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:Right?
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:So that was, um.
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:That was a, uh, a big,
a big lesson for me.
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:So, you know, they,
all of this comes back.
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:So I've, you know, I, I spend, you know,
a little more than a, a couple of weeks,
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:you know, getting really focused on.
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:What these high leverage, high impact
activities are, and then come back
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:home and, and here's the cool part
is now that I'm back home and my
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:calendar is, is full again, right?
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:Like, now that I have the space, I like,
I've got, you know, eight, 10, if I
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:need it 12 hours a day to, to do what I
need to, to move the business forward.
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:The, the thing is, I've
kept that filter, right?
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:I've, I've kept the filter of.
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:Hey, let's, let's not start doing
all the stuff that I just didn't
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:do for, for over a couple of weeks.
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:Why don't I look at, now that I've got,
you know, six to eight more hours to, to
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:focus, what are the other high leverage,
high impact things that I can do?
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:Right?
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:So I've added it back with more
firepower, I would say, and the.
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:Uh, the clarity on what really moves
the business forward is, is really
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:powerful and, and now I can use the
entire workday to double down on the
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:biggest, most important things that
I should be doing, not necessarily
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:that I'm holding that I shouldn't.
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:Right?
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:So like the, the two
hour constraint changed.
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:Not just like how I was working for
a period of time, but it changed
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:how I was, how I thought about some
of the work that I've been doing.
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:And it's really been like a,
a turbocharger for, for me.
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:And, you know, it would, so I mean,
my advice is like, if, if I wanted
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:to make this actionable, it's like,
hey, can you do a two hour experiment?
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:Right?
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:Like, if you only had two hours a day
to work, what would you stop doing?
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:And I know, like I've, I actually have a
friend of mine that, you know, has said,
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:Hey, pretend it's four hour work week that
you've, you've only got X amount of times.
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:And it's, it's so much more difficult
until you're really forced to do it.
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:Um, but if you can create that
environment where you've really gotta
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:think about, if I only had two hours,
like what would I stop doing right
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:now and what would I double down on?
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:Right, more and or more importantly,
if I only had two hours, what would
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:really break in the business and what
would actually thrive in the business?
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:And, and the answers might point you to
where you're potentially over involved
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:as a, as a business owner, as a CEO,
uh, where you're under leveraged, um,
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:or where you're holding onto stuff
that you know, really don't belong to.
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:You don't belong to you because.
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:One, somebody else could do it.
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:Two, somebody else could
potentially do it better.
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:And three, somebody else doing it
frees up your time to do stuff that
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:you're uniquely qualified to do, right?
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:So, you know, you don't, you don't
have to fly across the, you know,
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:the world to, to run this experiment.
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:Uh, but if you can compress your
calendar for a few days and, and take a
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:step back and narrow your, your window
and narrow your focus and see what
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:surfaces, um, it's, you know, it may be.
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:I think a really good way to, to filter
what's truly important and what's needed
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:to actually move forward and, um, and
move the business forward frankly.
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:So, um, that's one of my lessons
or a couple of my lessons from
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:that, from that trip that I just
wanted to, to pass on to you.
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:And I, I hope it helps, and
this is probably something that
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:I'll revisit because it's easy
to drift back into homeostasis.
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:You know, if you've been like in a, in
a certain, uh, routine or a certain type
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:of focus for a period of time, you know,
a couple weeks is like a good jolt.
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:But it's easy to, to drift back.
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:So this is as much for, for
me as it is for, for you, and
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:um, I hope it helps Adios.
