Big Job Small Children

Introducing a new model that you will learn about and implement over the next ten weeks. This will build on the progress we are making. It will build on the previous two episodes.

The model is designed to be used weekly as part of a short review after listening to this podcast. It will increase your awareness. It will increase the chance of you taking action. Over the next ten weeks you will build the mindset needed to thrive at work and home.

Most of the working dads I coach put in 60 + hours a week. But they admit that many of these additional hours are unproductive because they are tired and overwhelmed. The problem is that often who we are and how hard we work are combined. This stops us changing.

This is why the next series is designed to cultervate a weekly review habit. You will get to try out a tool I use with clients. By the end of the 10 episodes I hope you will see how it can help you shift from a survive, survive to a thrive, thrive mindset at work and home.

Do you know how to holiday? Does it take you a few days to unwind before it's time to return to the office?

One of the benefits of reducing extreme hours is more holiday. Holidays benefit us two ways. One, time with the family. Two, time away from work meaning that when we return we are full of energy.

If we don't take holidays and breaks then long hour cultures will reduce our capacity to be creative and innovative.

Time to think more deeply about why it is so hard to change our mindset about work. How to move from a busy to a focussed mindset. This week we explore how to create a new, broader identity. By doing this you will open up new possibilities. You will do this by choosing one word that encapsulates the change you want to make.

"I feel obsolete". This is what a working dad living and working in Chicago told me this week. That creeping feeling that our best days are behind us. Head down, working harder than ever is not the answer. Everyone suffers in the end. Better to re-imagine ourselves. To create a new vision of what it means to be a working dad.

Today, by replacing one adjective with another you can re-imagine productive work long into the future,

Do you work 95 hour weeks? This has been a top business story this week. And it relates to our topic - what if you worked less?

This week we focus on the exericse the Daisy Dowling shared. It takes 15 minutes, a pen and paper. By doing this and listening to this episode you would have invested some time in your own development. That feels food for most of us. This is the joy of repurposing unproductive time.

Questions are a great way to help us to think and make changes. So:

What do you notice about your work habits?

Which one would you like to change?

What do you notice about the habits of those you work with? (the five people we spend the most time with have by far the biggest impact on our values and beliefs).

Week five. By now I hope you are thinking about unproductive versus productive work. As so many of us are tethered to our desks it is easy to, well, keep working. But this exhausts us and keeps us away from our families.

This week the challenge is to remove the next hour from your working week. And also to pick one skill you want to learn that you can invest 30 minutes a week in. This is in your control and one of the best ways to future proof yourself. It is also deeply satisfying.

Pick one skill you want to develop. Then cut out half an hour from meeting time next week to focus on this skill. By doing this you will a) continue to remove unproductive time and b) be investing in your development (an intangible asset most likey to yield benefits for you). This is a small win that can make all the difference.

The skill could be learning about strategy, coaching as a leadership practice or mega trends that will impact your industry.

Today, I ask US-based expert Daisy Dowling to share her tips and techniques to help working dads in senior positions to thrive at work and home. There is a brillant exercise she recommends.

Time to remove the third hour from next week. Each hour saved can be reused more productively – for learning and development, say.

Time poor working dads need easy ways to reduce the pressure to work longer and harder and faster than ever. That is why reducing the working week by an hour each week works: it forces us to think about our contribution and impact but not based on the number of hours worked. We also realise that things won't collapse if we do this. Like a JENGA tower, taking out a few wooden blocks carefully does not mean that the tower collapses. In fact, the ten wooden blocks create a new tower: focussed development to enable you to better future-proof yourself. Imagine ten hours a week to dedicate to your own learning.

Change is about small, weekly actions that over 10-weeks will reduce number of hours worked. Even better, you will be investing in the best asset you can – you!