I remember reading Tim Ferris’s book The Four Hour Work Week in 2008 when I was one year in starting Connectimass digital consulting, one year deep in doing SiliconCaribe the blog, and Kingston Beta our Tech Startup Community Event. That same year, I was also reading The Art of Nonconformity Blog by Chris Guillebeau which is all about Unconventional Strategies for Life, Work, and Travel. I was already 1 year into being a full-time Digital Nomad. All those things percolated and influenced how I lived and did business – untethered to a single desk in a single location, 100% into all things online and digital. I was in full-on geek and tech entrepreneur mode and unfortunately a proud workaholic at the time.
15 years later, things have changed, especially those lessons from 2 burnouts and a year-long sabbatical.
SiliconCaribe and all that I lead it to achieve is now 15 years old this year. In fact, on February 28th to be exact. That date is the day we launched Kingston BETA, which became our signature at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel in Kingston, Jamaica. An event that grew out of the SiliconCaribe blog, kickstarted a tech startup movement, that spread to 10 Caribbean Countries and the Diaspora. So much to be thankful for as we grow SIliconCaribe into a more profitable and impactful media and events business and as I become more strategic about how I invest ( tech, wellness, women startups, and crypto), consult (advising, deal-making, and connecting), and do keynote speaking ( for tech and business events).
A great time to experiment again with HOW I do all of this and live a healthy, happy, fun, and multi-dimensional life in the years to come. This is a marathon, not a sprint I often remind myself.
With 2022 still new-ish, I’m going to continue to experiment with HOW I live and do business a bit more since I’m an almost fully recovered workaholic.
So, for the month of February, I’m only going to work, be open for business 4 days a week. Monday to Thursdays. Starting this Friday, Feb 4th – Fridays are now for sleeping late, massages, reading, exploring new places, the kick-off to weekend travel adventures, meeting new people, hanging with friends, or also, simply do not a damn thing. Fridays, there will be no business calls, meetings, checking emails, or checking the crypto prices…lol.
I have a feeling that this will make me work a little longer and more intensely on Mondays to Thursdays, or maybe, I’ll become even more focused, more deliberate about what I work on, during those days, and also delegate more. As my friends over at 37signals now Basecamp said years ago about their 6 months long 4 day work week schedule -“ When there’s less time to work, you waste less time. When you have a compressed workweek, you tend to focus on what’s important. Constraining time encourages quality time.”
I’ll report back and share how I did and what I did with my 3 day weekends in February, and how did it all affect me.