Blog Detail Centre Wellington Chamber of Commerce

Peter – Simplifying Entrepreneurship

What does it mean to work ON your business vs IN your business?

It's such an important thing as entrepreneurs, we get mired in the frustrations of working hard IN our business all the time. We don't give ourselves the opportunity to come back up and look at it from a strategic point of view. I think it's important that every business owner takes time to work ON their business. You got into business, to have a better life. And if you're finding yourself working 50-60-70 hours a week in your business, and not enjoying some of the things in your better life, your family, your relationships and free time, then you need to do some work ON your business. You own your business, and it shouldn't own you. Another way to frame that is, you don't and shouldn't have to be the foundation of every decision in your business. Your business is there to support your life dreams and your goals. So, what are you doing strategically to set it up to give you the life that you want as an entrepreneur?

The Focus Time best practices

I look at time in three ways. There's Free time, Flex time and Focus time. And we need pieces of our days and weeks in each of them. When it comes to Focus time, Focus time is really the idea of getting into what you need to most do at that given time. I find with most entrepreneurs that they're pulled out of focus time very easily. It's usually the dings and rings of your phone, or computer. The notifications happening when you're trying to work on something. What I like to do and find effective is make sure all your notifications are turned off. And sometimes transplant yourself from your existing area, to another desk where you can actually sit down with dedicated focus. It takes time to get into focus time, usually around 20 minutes to get down into the deep focus. If you can plan on having two to three focus time sessions a day, think about how beneficial it will be for you to take those highest priority things that you need to do and get them done. I can tell you that with two or three Focus times a day, you'll be more efficient than you will be just letting things happen all day long. Think about Free time and Flex time, which helps support your Focus time. How you can get into focus with no other things bothering you so that you can get even more done and have more time to do those other things afterwards.