The 20-Hour Month: Only an aspiration?

August is - in our collective consciousness - ‘The Holiday Month’ … the time when schools are on a break; some countries have national down-time; and the world at large generally slows to a snails’ pace.

Past experience of self-employment-summers tell me that trying to find somewhere to work out of the house is a pain in the ass; trying to find focus when the kids want to play is a challenge only MacGuyver could solve; trying to ‘Do more! Be more! Power up! Go hard!’ when the world is actively telling me to slow down is a fruitless exercise which embodies the clinical definition of madness.

I am making a conscious decision to slow down.

There are five weeks of school holiday to survive.

Five weeks where I’d much rather be doing something else than sitting in my tiny Harry Potter-esque cupboard grinding on making progress in the business. There is, though, a business that needs constant fuelling to ensure the embers don’t die out both in terms of the awareness of others and my motivation to carry on.

I've been wondering for a long time if I really do need to do more to keep the business moving forward? August is the time that'll tell.

It's only an hour

Have you ever thought about how much you can get done in an hour? Just one hour - sixty minutes - of your time?

Bloody loads if you put your mind to it.

I’m not talking about much of the deep work and consuming projects which often cross the paths of a creative rebel. I’m talking the fuel for the fire; the cog-turning which keeps our business moving forward under its own steam.

I’m leaning into this idea of ‘getting shit done in an hour’ and making it my master for the month.

I know I will have twenty working days (plus a week where I am not working at all because holidays) and on each of those working days I will be doing just one hour of focussed work. An hour driven by an intention to do good. To work powerfully and in control. To work with purpose.

It will be strategic work which I have planned out and scheduled.

It will be tactical work which will serve the goals I have set for myself and my business.

It'll probably be administrative work that is going to save me a shit-load of time later on.

This slab of twenty days and single hours of work will be my 20-Hour Month.

Knowing what good looks like

One of the questions I ask all my coaching clients (and design clients for that matter) is this:

What would this look like if it went really, really well?

I challenge them to frame this scenario with ultimate positivity; absolute focus on the good they want. We don’t touch on how to get there (yet) because that doesn’t matter. What matters is drawing a line in the sand and saying “Hell YES this is what good looks like for me”.

This mindset of ‘knowing what good looks like’ is something I’m carrying with me throughout my 20-hour month. I will know what I want to do. I will know what a positive outcome will look like. Having this focus means I can get in and do the bloody thing rather than dithering over starting because I don’t know the direction.

Using this positive reframe allows me to put my overarching narrative - my reason for running a business in the first place - at the front of the queue.

I mean, if I can’t serve that with my intention, is it worth taking action at all?

Time for the real talk

You might be reading this thinking ‘Well, it’s OK for you, Tom; you can do what the hell you like but for me it’s not so easy.’

I get it; I really do. I have been where you are (and sometimes still am.)

But you want to know something?

I work hard to keep myself present in my business, in the consciousness of others, in the wider world of creative work … it’s a lot and, practicing precisely what I preach, it’s time to say ‘Not today, thanks’ and make real time for the things which really matter in my life.

See that? That's me blowing my own trumpet!

It’s a big behavioural shift this acknowledgement of short-term focus. It means letting a lot of things go; and I do mean a?lot. Some days my working focus might be calls with my students; other days it might be filing all my receipts for my accountant.

It’s not all going to be glamourous, sexy work but it is still work.

There’ll be all the obvious benefits - you know the generic stuff which LinkedIn content-makers pedal out for the likes … I will have time to rest; to recoup my energy where I can; to focus on parts of my life which might have taken a back seat for a little too long. I can assure you there’ll be no long lie-ins since I have a 13-year-old whose care needs supersede any kind of long-term rest I might desire for myself.

But, working in an intentional way means that the times when I am not ‘actively at work’ will be - by default - more restful because my head is not fragmented or multi-focussed.

Dude, what’s the point?

If you’re looking for a TL;DR I’ve got you.

The point is this:

You don’t need to work every hour of the day to make progress. You don’t need to have all the clients all the time to be a success. You work hard and you’re out on the front line every damn day doing your thing. You can slow down for a while. You can refocus yourself.

If you think I’m a rogue or renegade you’ve got it in one. I am the Creative Rebel. I am here to challenge?everything?you think you about what success looks like because I bet you a tenner that you’re modelling it from someone else.

Get out there and say what good looks like for you.

Read this bit! A very special offer!

Over August I have availability to hold five power-hour sessions for creative rebels who want to get shit done.

I want to do my daily hour of work in this way with you!

We could spend that time focusing on you and a challenge that’s weighing on your shoulders; on your business and something sticky that you want to unpick; on all the ideas that you want to channel and put in place when the world wakes up again.

Using this link you can book one of the five sessions at the discounted rate of ￡75 (normally ￡99). There are ONLY five sessions at this price (and my prices might be going up in September) so don't snooze on it.

If you’re adopting the 20-hour month and are going to spend one hour working really effectively, why not spend it working on yourself?

Give yourself the go-ahead to invest and make some moves forward.