I’m in love with the hustle and grind. Coming from the Gary Vaynerchuk tree of working hard to get what you want in life, I’m guilty of sometimes overworking myself and clocking in more hours than I should.
I knew that this kind of lifestyle was not sustainable. Over the last few months, I’ve recalibrated my work-life balance. I’m doing better now—but I didn’t get here on my own.
I sought out the help of friends and peers in the industry. One of them was Kenneth Mardo, founder and CEO of Arcodea Inc—a fast-growing software development company in the Philippines.
Like me, Kenneth used to be a workhorse. Hustle and grind 24/7, just so his team can hit their numbers. He spends a lot of his time closing deals, while also leading the strategy and implementation of their major software development projects.
He also lives far from his office, so his time gets eaten up even more. Until one day, he realized that he’s been spending time on unnecessary things, so he eliminated them and started to focus on tasks that move the needle for his company.
I’ll be sharing the five game-changing, stress busting lessons I learned from Kenneth that helped him (and me) reduce the actual hours worked and the stress levels that comes with it.
1.) Listening to Podcasts On-The-Go
As entrepreneurs, it’s important to have continuous learning. One of the best ways to do that is to listen to podcasts. Podcasts for entrepreneurs are all over Spotify. What more, is that there are industry specific podcasts available as well.
Kenneth shared that instead of trying to find a way to get in those “educational hours” squeezed into his already busy schedule, he instead pops in a podcast instead of music when he drives to his office.
2.) Having Regular Lunches with Team
Some people enjoy eating alone, but for Kenneth, he puts a premium to spending more time with his employees because not only does it help him get to know his staff at a more personal level—it also reduces stress and tension because they can talk about non-work related stuff over lunch.
Imagine having a delicious meal with people who are working with you in achieving a common goal. Awesome, right?
3.) Less Meetings, More Output
Perhaps one of the best things Kenneth shared with me was how he decided to cut their meetings.
From having almost daily meetings, to now only meeting once or twice a week, he was able to unlock more time to do other things that matter.
Conclusion
This not only freed up time for himself, but for his people as well. Even top CEOs like Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, and Dallas Mavericks Owner and Business Tycoon Mark Cuban avoid meetings and refer to it as a productivity killer.
As an entrepreneur, we find ourselves not having as much time in our hands as we want to. But sometimes, there are things that we can improve on and further optimize in our daily schedule which allows us to, in theory, buy more “time”.
Hiring Virtual Assistants is another strategy that entrepreneurs can leverage to have more “time” for bigger things that matter.
If you’re an entrepreneur who’s determined to take your company to the next level—reducing stress and taking care of your health can give you more long-term success than endless hustle will.