all right so today I want to talk a
little bit about the amount of time that
people mostly entrepreneurs claim
they're working so many entrepreneurs
claim like I work 50 hours a week I work
70 hours a week I work 100 hours a week
and the reality is that a lot of you
people who claim that you do all that
work in a week you're full of [ __ ] you
really are and it's not even that you're
lying to me that bothers me is that
you're lying to yourself that bothers me
so I'll see a lot of these people and
they'll talk about how many hours a week
they work and I want to talk about how
claiming that you work so much is not
only a lie to yourself but it also harms
yourself it harms your business and it
harms your life
so you say that you work 100 hours a
week so the first thing that I notice
from a lot of people is this they'll go
to work and they'll spend a half hour
talking to the receptionist the person
who sits up front it may be about
business or it may just be gossip about
new business and new ideas you call that
work I call that a half hour voice at
time then you'll go out and you'll
decide okay I did a half hour work and I
just got to work it's time for breakfast
I earned it you'll spend an hour out
somewhere getting breakfast and you may
be researching other businesses on your
phone by googling them or checking their
Twitter you call that work I call that
[ __ ] around on Twitter and blogs and
that's again another hour see that's an
hour and a half that you called work
that I would call crap because really
what did you accomplish in that hour and
a half you may have shown up to work you
may feel like you're working but what
have you done that is going to bring you
money right now what have you done
that's going to directly allow you to
build somebody or what have you done
right now that's actually going to bring
you money into the future nothing and
then you'll sit down at your desk and
then you may actually start working so
for one or two or three hours you may
put an honest-to-god good effort into
doing whatever it is your job is or
building whatever it is do you want to
build it your business and then you'll
walk back up front again and you'll
start talking other people or then maybe
you'll take a phone call or then maybe
again you'll just start [ __ ] around
on the internet again and that's another
thing a lot of people like they dick
around on social media and they call it
work when in reality they are not
working at all
and it is one of the things that just
kills me about this idea of the social
media manager and how social media
management is actually a job because
you've actually created a job that's
there
five to $40,000 a year where it's pretty
much we're gonna give you $40,000 a year
to dick around on the internet make one
or two snarky tweets a day which takes
you five minutes to do and but spend the
other six four seven eight hours your
day [ __ ] around on the Internet
that's what that comes down to I know
for a lot of people and the other thing
I want to talk about here with people
who think that they are constantly
working I want you to actually look at
what it is you're getting done make a
list of specific tasks of things that
you need to do and actually try to go
through them in a specific manner and
you will notice just how much time you
make I make these lists for myself all
the time let's see if I have any that
come up here in a notepad plus plus
which I often use as my task manager I
don't you know I don't particularly
let's see like here's just a basic silly
stupid example of one of the things that
I've done like 5:20 altra sonic this
machine 545 ultrasonic this machine six
o'clock
check the Wi-Fi circuitry on this
MacBook Air I know again this is I do I
make these lists for myself where I say
this is what I'm going to do it this
time this is what I'm going to do at
that time this what I'm gonna do with
that and what I noticed when I made this
list is God do I waste a lot of time on
inconsequential [ __ ] and look at all
these stuff that I used to allow to
waste my time that shouldn't have been
wasting my time so if you make a list
like this for yourself you're gonna
realize wow I spent three hours on this
one thing what in God's name is wrong
here and one of the problems that I
notice with other people is they feel
like they're working they'll talk while
they're working they'll say oh these
aren't as sharp as they used to be let
me find new tweezers actually do I
really want these tweezers let me see
what other people talk about with
tweezers so they'll Google and they'll
google this brand of tweezers and then
they'll Google this versus we heart
Weezer's and I'll see a post in the
forum no register on the forum and then
we'll start talking on the forum and
looking through the forum and
introducing themselves in the forum and
man what started out as let me replace
the filter on this iPad turns into a
three-hour [ __ ] unnecessary waste of
time and people this is this concept of
time management that people don't get
but the thing is you may have wasted
three or five hours on each job that you
did that day because you just you just
add yourself to veer off topic into this
[ __ ] because you don't have a
schedule but the problem is you actually
call that work and that's the problem
when you say I work 60 hours a week 80
hours a week 100 hours a week if you
spend two hours [ __ ] around on a
forum on the internet because you just
decided these tweezers don't feel the
way they did before that's not work work
is when you sit down and you make a
systematic list of every single little
thing that you plan to do in the
specific time frame and then you go out
there and you get it done and if
something comes up you're like you know
what [ __ ] it I'm gonna live with this
right now
but I'm gonna put at the end of my list
for the day fine ooh tweezer what this
does is it allows you to actually get a
lot done over the course of a day again
at my business I am the only one fixing
boards I have boards coming in from the
East Village i have boards coming in
from other parts of Manhattan
I have boards coming in from Germany I
have machines coming in from all parts
of the world and I am the only one
working on them and every single one of
them well 99% of them get an update in a
fair amount of time I am NOT gonna say
all of them because that would just be
no it'd just be a lie but 99% of them
get updated in a very reasonable amount
of time based on their problem I have
the time to to call and tell people how
things are going whether or not it's a
[ __ ] whether or not it's done I
have the time to manage my business I
have the time to grow my business I have
the time to clean around my business and
make sure it doesn't become a mess and
all of that happens because I have a
very strict schedule for what I'm doing
over the course of my day and the other
thing that you need to realize is that
if you're actually spending 60 or 80 or
100 hours to week a week working is that
you're probably tired a lot of the time
and you're probably working like a
zombie and this is another thing with
people like I work 60 hours a week I
work 80 hours a week as a badge of pride
look at all the work I do I spend 17
hours a day at the office working on the
network today I spend 10 hours today on
the microscope yeah I work all the time
and I don't care how many hours you
claim you've been working what I care
about the metric that I look at is what
did you get done today what did you get
done how much of a mess is your business
how much of a mess
is your life this what actually matters
and this is what nobody gives a [ __ ] how
many hours you work if I give this
customer back their board in three
pieces I can tell them I worked on it
for 80 hours they're going to want to
put a bullet through my brain if I tell
if I give them back this board working
within two hours I could tell them that
I worked on it for you know seconds they
don't care it doesn't matter nobody
cares how much time he's been working on
a project what they care about are the
results of that project and the results
of the project are often going to be
based on how well rested you are on how
well your brain is working so while you
may be bragging as an entrepreneur as a
startup person that you work 80 hours a
week I'm bragging about the fact that I
spent three hours that are actually
working but we know what I did during
those three hours that I was actually
working that you weren't what I did is
that I got a lot of real good work done
I came in and I had a little stack on my
desk of all these boards and I I just
defeated them and then I have things I
have to do for my website
I just got him done and then I had
something that I wanted to add some
picture I wanted to add or something to
the side or some organizational thing at
work that I wanted to to make better or
some project for some other company that
I have to write a proposal for and I
just get it done and then I leave and
what happens as a result of this is all
the work that I do is good honest work
all the work that I do is stuff that I
that is not going to cause me more
hassle in the future now when you're
working all the time when you are
working 100 or 80 hours a week you're
constantly exhausted and what happens
when you're exhausted is you don't want
to deal with solving a problem you just
want to get it away from you so that you
can just relax and rest because when you
were exhausted you don't want to use
analytical thinking you don't want to
have to explain things to people that
are going to be a pain in the ass to
explain to them you don't want to deal
with issues head-on you don't want to
create conflict with people head-on and
it was a result of not wanting to create
that conflict you're going to put these
little crappy band-aids on all the
problems in your life you're going to
not deal with the situation head-on and
actually fix what's wrong so as a result
of not actually implementing a proper
solution you're going to hear back from
that one person or from that company or
that employ
is going to continue [ __ ] something
up because you don't have the the energy
in you to talk to them and say listen
you've been screwing this up for this
amount of time here are the examples of
what you screwed up I want you to try
doing it this way so that we don't have
to deal with people getting angry
anymore
do you understand okay you don't
understand okay let me teach you how to
do this properly so that we never have
to deal with this again that may be a
half hour
that's a half hour that you're not going
to want to spend if you're at the end of
80 hours at work so what's going to
happen they're going to keep screwing up
so instance you couldn't take out that
half hour to talk to them because you're
exhausted you're gonna have to spend 45
minutes three times a week fixing all
their fuck-ups and what you notice is
that your 60 hour week that you were
proud of now turned into an 80 hour week
because you have all these extra
fuck-ups that you have to clean up
because you aren't able to clean them up
from the beginning because you were too
exhausted so now you have an 80 hour
work week and now let's say you say you
know what I'm gonna take out some of the
[ __ ] I'm not gonna post on the
forums anymore I'm not going to sit here
and [ __ ] with the receptionist I'm
not going to take a 1 hour breakfast
just because I felt like I did a lot of
work and you get your work week down to
70 hours but now you're still kind of
exhausted because now you got to fix all
those fuck-ups that are made from this
one person who keeps [ __ ] things up
because you haven't worked with them and
showing them how to do it right so every
time they make that particular [ __ ] it
takes you 45 minutes of time to fix and
now your other employees start screwing
something up at the same time now you're
right back up to maybe 75 hours and now
you don't have time to talk to the first
one because you got to deal the second
person screw up and right before you're
just about to talk to the second person
about this screw up you screw something
up because you're exhausted and now that
you screwed something up it's going to
take you maybe two hours to fix that and
then the two hours that you're not going
to be that you're working on fixing that
one thing that you screwed up now
because you're exhausted the employee
that's created this new employee that's
creating screw ups is creating one hour
screw ups because they're creating screw
ups on projects not just on general
device repair and so then you say you
know what okay I'm going to take out
this other thing that I do at work and
I'm going to Celeste and less time
understand the other and I'm just going
to focus on fixing all these other
fuck-ups you create this little wheel I
know I'm long-winded and now I'm
explaining everything but you've kind of
created this loop this feedback loop
where you're taking away the unnecessary
parts of your business so you have more
time to deal with the cluster Foxx
that resulted from you having
unnecessary fluff and crap in your
workday to begin with and then you get
to a point where you're not really even
working where you're just trying to put
out the fires as they happen and you're
okay with the fact that your building is
on fire you're okay with your building
being on fire as long as your foot or
your leg right in front of you is not
directly on fire you're happy and that's
a really sad way to live life that's
really sad way to run a business and it
is not sustainable long-term it leads to
you losing your [ __ ] mind that I know
because I've been there and most people
who start a business who started from
having absolutely nothing and built it
up from having zero dollars to their
name started the same way they started
working all the time but what you have
to realize at one point is that you need
to realize that you're probably not
being as productive as you would be if
you worked less if you have a structured
system in place against some stupid [ __ ]
like this where you just open Notepad
plus plus you open the memo app in your
phone and create [ __ ] that you're going
to do within 15 minute or 30 minute or
one-hour increments and you stick to it
I know that you're gonna find a bunch of
stuff that you do over the course of
your day that you don't need to do
because it's not in your list and then
you'll put it on your list if it's
important and then you'll realize that
some of the things that are on your list
may not be that important well one of
the things you may notice is that you're
wasting a lot of time on things that you
should not be wasting time on so what
I'm trying to say here is don't take
pride in working 60 or 80 or 100 hours a
week because all those people that are
working 60 1800 hour weeks for the most
part they're not getting anything done
they're just chasing fires and putting
out fires and
in constantly dealing with this little
mess that's right in front of them
because they weren't able to actually
put a stop to it in the beginning and
then it's a really helpless disgusting
miserable [ __ ] feeling to have when
you feel like there's nothing that can
go right when you feel like nothing you
do is ever good enough when you feel
like there's every single time you try
to solve a problem that it's not going
to end right because you just have to
pick up the phone for stuff to put out
another fire or you have to take us you
know another job back in and put out
another fire or you have to deal with an
employee that is creating a fire while
you're putting out the other employees
fire like I'm telling you if if you deal
if you think that having an 80 hour work
week is good think again
if you think that you're actually
working when you say I work 100 hours a
week
think again you're probably not again
like there was one employee that I had a
long time ago I you know he would be
here all day and he seemed to kind of
not really like the fact that I would
come to work a lot at 3 or 4 o'clock in
the afternoon and I would leave at 7 but
you know what happened when I came in at
3 or 4 in the afternoon
I'd have a stack of seven boards in my
desk they would be done by 7 o'clock and
at 6:30 or 7 o'clock I noticed that my
brain was kind of starting to turn into
mush and instead of staying here and
then creating issues with the boards
that I'm working on that will cause him
to come back for a warranty or staying
really late which would cause me to wake
up late the next day which would cause
them to feel discombobulated which would
feel me to not do my job right at work
which would then cause me to take longer
o work which would then cause me just to
have a longer work week which would
cause more stress which would cause me
to not come to work on time and work
properly and just [ __ ] everything up I
just saw you know what it's 6:30 or 7:00
I'm gone and that model really really
worked very well and you didn't seem to
like that model very much I really
understand why it did it but the reason
I did it is because again Oh doing a lot
of work or working hard has absolutely
nothing to do with the amount of time
that you spend sitting in the chair it
has nothing to do with the amount of
time you spend thinking about your
business it has to do with what you get
done with the time that is available to
you and if you make efficient use of the
time that is available to you then
you're going to get a lot done with your
business but if you don't make efficient
use of the time that's available to you
or you just chase every single thing
that's right in front of you like home
I'm doing this repair I don't like these
tweezers let me research tweezers oh
there's a forum where people are posting
about it oh I know that guy oh I'm gonna
post and talk to him oh no I'm gonna
have an interesting conversation about
business oh now I'm gonna learn
something about from somebody else about
business that while being interesting is
absolutely nothing if I can do with my
workday oh look I got nothing down on my
work pile look I got one or two things
down on the pile of 100 things I got to
get done again I've made this mistake
and I assure you it is a bad mistake to
make and you will pay for it with your
sanity if you continue down the path of
saying I
I am working hard I'm doing good work
because I'm working 70 or 80 or 90 hours
a week now when you notice that you can
work 10 or 15 hours a week or 20 hours a
week and you get all the stuff that you
need done in your small business you're
probably doing a great job and when you
notice that you're working 80 or 90 or
100 hours a week there's a good chance
that all you're doing is putting out
[ __ ] after [ __ ] after
[ __ ] because you aren't able to
set up a system to do everything right
from the beginning if you create a
system that allows you to do everything
right in the beginning or if you had
very least acknowledged problems as they
arise in the beginning instead of just
making up excuses as to why those
problems are okay you'll be fine
but if you just again if you say that
I'm working 80 or 90 hours a week when
you're you're [ __ ] around on the
Internet are you doing things at a silly
pace and you're not keeping a timer for
yourself on how much time you're
spending on each one of these tasks
you're not going to get anything done
you're not going to have time to create
your website you're not gonna have time
to reorder inventory you're not going to
have time to contact your customers
you're not gonna have time to fix
anything you're not gonna have time to
learn anything new you're not gonna have
time to grow your business all you're
going to do is have 80 hours a week that
you're spending to go insane