When most people think about the weekend, they visualize nightclubs, barbecues, fishing or ballgames. However, when you’re an entrepreneur, weekends look a lot different…
Every Saturday morning, before my son wakes up, I go downstairs into my home office, turn on the flat screen mounted to the wall, and start about an hour long Skype call with my business partner in Malaysia. We are both fatherpreneurs and, given the time difference, he jumps on the call after putting his son to bed for the night. It’s a pretty cool routine. This is our creative time. We talk strategy, bounce ideas off each other for other businesses we run separately of our partnership, and problem solve on issues that came up during the week. We specifically do this weekly call on Saturdays for a reason: The weekend provides entrepreneurs with a unique opportunity to reflect and strategize that busy weekdays just can’t replicate.
In this entry, I’m going to share the 5 reasons why I think entrepreneurs should work on the weekend.
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No Rush, No Distractions
Monday through Friday is a busy time, as you know. It’s when the masses typically want to do business, and it’s very easy to get taken off task to deal with a client issue, make sales, etc.
Given the time constraints during the so-called work week, it’s very difficult to innovate and come up with new ideas that can help your business grow.
The most productive time to innovate is when you are relaxed, and not under any time constraints or pressure. Some of the best business ideas and products I’ve come up with came to me while on vacation. So, as a compromise to taking a weekly vacation, every Saturday afternoon, when my son takes a nap, I use those two hours to brainstorm and draw up new product ideas. It’s my time to write and reflect on how my businesses are progressing, and where I want to take them in the weeks and months ahead.
When the rest of the world is taking time off, use it to think and create.
Use it to Outwork Your Competition
Being an entrepreneur is not a career choice; it’s a lifestyle. And unless mediocrity is what you seek, that lifestyle includes working on weekends. The top entrepreneurs I know work virtually every day, and love that schedule. Matter of fact, come to think of it, I don’t know a single entrepreneur who only works Monday – Friday… at least not any successful ones.
Henry Ford once stated, “It has been my observation that most people get ahead during the times that others waste.” How appropriate to working on weekends.
Most of your competition takes the weekend off. Seize the Saturday to work harder than anyone else. Your work ethic, and dedication to your craft, will inevitably determine your level of success. Simply putting in more time and effort than your competition will give you a leg up.
Or in the words of NFL star defensive end, JJ Watt, “Success isn’t owned… It’s leased. And the rent is due every day.”
Allows You to Work in a Different Environment
Monday through Friday you probably show up at the same place to conduct business. The weekend gives you the opportunity to change your work space up. My number one place to work on the weekend is in my backyard, on my favourite lawn chair underneath a poplar tree. Its leaves make the perfect working white noise when there is a breeze.
Grab a brewski on a Saturday afternoon and write, sketch, brainstorm and strategize. This practice of working in different locations is conducive to thinking up cool new ideas.
Changing your environment changes the way you think.
Prepares You for the Work Week Ahead
Planning out the week ahead is paramount in achieving a productive and successful work week. However, once the work week begins, it’s on. And rarely on a Monday morning do I have the time to thoughtfully plan out my week. In light of that, usually after putting my son to bed on Sunday evening, I take about 20 minutes to think about the most important things I want to accomplish during the upcoming week. On that list I include the ‘must dos’ as well as the ‘want to dos’. It’s important that you plan out your week not just to get ‘things’ done, but to achieve goals that will grow your business in the near and long term.
It’s Very Rewarding
Knowing that you’ve completed a bunch of work while most others are slacking is a very rewarding feeling. Not only that, but if you properly balance your weekend by spending the morning or afternoon with your family, and an early evening in creative mode for the benefit of your business, you’re balancing life. It feels awesome knowing that I balanced my Saturday with family time and business time. Furthermore, given the weekend’s conduciveness to creativity, your business is certain to benefit from some of the ideas conjured up on Saturday afternoon, perhaps for years to come.
Some of you may be reading this article and thinking that I’m a workaholic. I see it differently. As mentioned earlier, being an entrepreneur is a lifestyle, and it demands daily commitments. But that doesn’t mean you neglect your personal life. Not at all. Being a successful entrepreneur means you don’t waste time on monotonous things like watching TV on the weekends. You work, and you play, on the weekends. But you don’t waste a minute.
Stay hungry,
Aaron
