EP194 – Ask Stuart #16 - Taking Back Control of Your Week with Ian Luckett & Stuart Warwick

INTRO

In this episode of the IT Experts Podcast, we're going to help you work out how to get control of your week.

Welcome to the IT Experts Podcast, the only podcast to help MSP's scale to 1,000,000, and if already there get to five and go fast at the end of the day, isn't it all about building a business that works for you? Rather. Than you for it I. Hope you enjoy the show.

IAN

So, good morning, good afternoon, good evening. Welcome to the IT Experts podcast. We've got Stuart Warwick back in the house today. Hey, Stuart, how you doing?

STUART

Hello everybody. Great to be back for another podcast.

IAN

Fantastic, and in today's episode, we're going to help you work out how to get control of your week. So many times we hear people just in general who are just overwhelmed with technical client team issue. And when we actually start to unpeel it and we start to understand what's beneath it, we find out that there's actually some really simple rules that you can create yourself to get control of your week. And we're going to run through those rules today to help you to get control of your week, to be more productive so that your team can be more productive. So your business can be more productive, so you can actually enjoy it a little bit more, aren't we? What's give us a bit of context behind kind of what's going on in our minds here now, because everyone's busy, we talk about time management, but that's a bit boring, isn't it? This is going to the next level is, isn’t it.

STUART

It is and in the context of growing an MSP. So if you're looking to scale it, you want to get it to a million or you're already there and you're looking to take it further faster is time is the only finite resource that they're dealing with, of course, it's cash as well. But in terms of our own personal time, it's fixed. We all know this, and it doesn't matter what business you're in or if you're at home looking after the kids. We've only got so much time. And based on how that time gets used depends on how we feel at the end of every day, the end of every week, and it shows up in our results. And so if we're not getting what we want from our life or our business or our MSP, then it's doesn't take rocket science to think well, it's what am I doing with my time, that's affecting the results that I'm getting and therefore how I feel and therefore the quality of my life in general. And when you talk about MSPs when you're putting out you're busy in the detail. You're in startup mode, doesn't matter whether you're a million in revenue, 2 million in revenue or two or 300,000. I think there's a point where we all stop and go. How do I get control? Because I'm losing control and I'm not getting the outcomes that I want to get that I know that will make a difference going forward in the future and so therefore you're kind of liking Groundhog, you're getting the same sort of results every year. It's a bit better, it's a bit worse, it's okay, but it's not and it's acceptable perhaps over a few years. So we plan, so, and then it's like, well, what's got to change for me, and so I think the keyword with time is intentional. We've got to get intentionally deliberate and deliberate about what we do with.

IAN

Our time, because what's really funny, isn't it, whenever you know, whenever we coach ourselves in what we're doing and we look back and whenever you look in the rearview mirror and whenever you review. What's kind of happened? You just think, well, I didn't really need to do that and I didn't really need to do that. And that wasn't important, and this wasn't important. And we have these little voices in our head, that kind of almost tell us what we've got to do every day to make you feel good, doesn't it? It's like the bloody To Do List, you know. Yes, we have some wonderful pads in the growth hub here, which have got little tick boxes on it and people love it because their to do lists cause we get it all done. But if you live your week by A to do list. You're going to inherently pick off the things that are quick and easy, easy, leave the big hairy things you know, eat the frogs, Brian Tracy book and all of those types of things into the background and just get the endorphin hit to say yes. I've tick, tick, tick, tick, tick. I've done those three things, but they could be the smallest things that didn't really moved the needle. I think that's what we're saying. So what we're going to help you understand today is what, order and how to organise your day a little bit more so that you can move that needle. Just talk to me just quickly, Stuart, about what's the fear that sits around this? Isn't it? Because when someone says I've got to do this, I need to do that, I've got to do this, I've got I got I got, you know, we hear that a lot. I even say it myself and I'm sure that you do as well but that's crapping it to a point of saying, you know, this is, you know, you haven't got to do something you need to if you know, if you move into that needing to do things, then it's a place of desperation, isn't it?

STUART

Yeah, the fear that sits behind kind of frustration is that will anything ever change and therefore will I in the context of wanting scale your MSP and wanting to grow it and to leverage it and turn it into the asset that it can be, I think the fear is will it ever change, will I ever get a different result other than me being busy all the time and generally pull from pillar to post, obviously some weeks days are better than others. And that's why it comes back to deliberateness and intention being intentional.

IAN

Because there's this fear of failure thing is something that doesn't necessarily show up every day, but that sometimes is what drives business, but there's also a fear of success, isn't there as well.

STUART

Yeah, there is that. You know, do we believe that we could run £1,000,000 business, you know, could I

be worthy. Yeah. Could I take 200,000 a year as a dividend, you know? You know what's that 15 grand a month, could I pay myself 15 grand a month in a dividend for some people, that's a belief thing. But we're not talking about beliefs today. I think we're talking about being intentional and the way to get control of your week or your time is to start with the time frame. So if we start with a year, the new, fine year. If we start then with a month or we start with a week and a day and it's really chunking it down from that intentionality around, okay, what do we want to achieve this year? So we're not here to talk about plan today planning today on the based on the assumption that you've got a plan and that plan is related to you scaling the business let's say getting to a million. It's then working backwards and say okay, if that's the plan for the year, what does my month need to look like or what does my quarter need to look like in terms of, you know you're here with EOS, you know, what are my rocks? Yeah. What are the key projects? What are the priorities for the next quarter? Therefore the next month that are going to move the needle on my business because the day-to-day, is the day-to-day. You've got tickets coming in. You've got engineers on the phone, you've got engineers going to site. You've got billing taking place day in, day out, quotes being signed off, procurement happening. That's the day today. Now you can choose to allow yourself to be sucked into the day-to-day, and when you're in startup mode and you know sub two or 300,000, you are the person doing a lot of that stuff. So we're starting with the time frame and then we're starting with how do we carve up my week or day into certain activities? And so there's directional activities of yourself and the team, which is kind of wrapped around doing, yeah, there is the thinking important project stuff. So that's thinking, strategy, planning or working on it might be. What's the next PSA I'm going to transition to because I don't have a PSA and I know I need to transit big things, fixing my chart of accounts, you know the strategic stuff, whilst it might be a bit in the doing, they are projects that we need to work on to actually allow the business to scale. They're some of those foundational things, it might be marketing, it might be sales and then there's the admin, the default diary, it's one of the easy concepts to talk about, and everybody's probably heard about it, but actually, if you're intentional about your year and if we start with the year and go, okay, when am I going to have my place.

Let's put personal first. Yep, okay. We're going to have six weeks holiday, and it's going to be on these dates, and I've planned it with my partner, boom and the kids. What's the rhythm of the meetings that I have in my business? I have a monthly management meeting or a team meeting. I have a weekly team meeting. I have some one to ones with my staff. They're all fixed in your calendar for a year. So that's your default diary. Then you've got what's left. So let's say you've got 60% of your week then left because the rest of it has been intentionally. And then we're into, okay, what do I do with my time and that brings us back to what does my week look like in the context of having a great month or a great quarter? And therefore you can work it out. So right this week, I want to move forward, two of these key projects that we're working on. Therefore, I need to do XYZ, but if it's if a good week looks like, working on those two projects. And I don't mean projects in terms of a client project. I mean it might be I mentioned earlier working with your accountant or your bookkeeper to fix your chart of accounts...

IAN

Working on the business.

STUART

Working on the business, it might be going to an event, you know, because that's about working on the business and our clients. You know, we encourage them to set aside an off grid day, which is usually made-up of part of their time on the coaching accountability and troubleshooting calls that we run. But giving them the rest of the day to work on the plan on the business, that's a 20% in a week. It's quite hard to start with, but they become quite addicted to it after a while because they start to see themselves getting stuff done. But that then, because we're being intentional, we're then able to divide the week up, weaken the day up into directional activities of the team. So it's like...

IAN

Yes. Yeah, they do, yes.

STUART

Direct managing the team and the I'm talking smaller MSPs so sub 5600K so they're still transitioning between managing and doing themselves. So they're wearing multiple hats still, but that that's just part for the course as you transition to build the it's same when you're a bigger MSP, but you're dealing with more of your time on strategic projects than on small doing stuff because you've got people. So that's the way in which it we need to think about getting it structured. So think about the time frame and then think about the core activities that are non-negotiable. And then the rest of the time, there are three activities around directing others man working on your own important stuff and then admin, you know that back end of the day where your energy might be lower where you can catch up.

IAN

With small stuff, had a people get started with this because it's great to sit here and listen to a podcast. Yeah. Yeah, let's do that. Sounds like a great idea, Stuart. Brilliant. Get off the podcast. Get out the car or walking the dog. Whatever you're doing, then you get in the office. You what he said. You know, habits is a really key thing, isn't it? You know, we we've been. We've been talking to the clients about creating small little habits on a daily basis. How do you eat an elephant bite, size chunks, small little pieces build up the habits as you're moving forwards and things like this. What's the way for people to take this into an actionable methodology for them to follow in their week.

STUART

But it's like the default diary again, so I'll tell you what I do at the start of the week and it usually starts Sunday evening as I'm kind of getting my bag ready to think right. I'm in the office tomorrow. We're working together. It's like, okay what does the week look like? What's going on this week? What's going on this month, what's non-negotiable in terms of outcomes for me this week, it might be. I need to write some emails. It might be that we need to shoot some podcasts. I need to put some time, got some coaching planning coming up, planning the next intensive or actually doing some 1:00 to 1:00 work with...

IAN

Yes, yes.

STUART

Some of our clients. So then I know what my week looks like. I've got default health stuff. You know, go to the gym and I know what's going on in my social life, cause that's in my diary as well. Yeah. So the rest of the week is my own to fill it with whatever other business stuff I want to do. I have a list, I have a list of stuff I'm working on some of it. I'm behind on some of it, I'm, you know, is due this week. And I plug it in to my week like Mondays, I don't get much stuff done because we're working on the business together Wednesdays and Thursdays, client delivery and then working on the business in terms of on my projects is my Tuesday and my Friday that creates real clarity for me about what I'm going to do. And then each day starts the same. It's like I've got my list. It's like have I ticked it off, I love. I'm still a bit of a paper guy, could do it. Yeah. We use Asana lot. I could be using my tasks, you know, in outlook. But I use paper still because I love the feeling of screwing up checking in the bin and writing down what I'm going to do tomorrow and it works for me most of the time, some days than others.

IAN

Yeah. What we're going to do the next link. And I think one of the things you know, when you and I got together and started working you, you had one way. I just wrote on lists, but I never threw them away. So the desk was just full of these bits of paper. And I never knew where our bloody well was or anything like this. And it's taken me a while, but you we used Asana, a project tracking tool for the business and when we kind of roll back to the beginning of this podcast, what's the annual goal? What's the quarterly goal? And you have all of those goals, you know, set in your system. Now you could even put these in your room in PSA. You could set all of these up in your systems. And I think the thing that's been great for me, you know, I'm one of these people, who's not terribly organised most of the time, but when you decide and you commit that everything goes into Asana, that's where it lives, right? Because guess what, it's not going to get lost. Whereas what you can do and what I ended up doing was finding out, ohh I got a new pad or right on there. Someone to give me a notebook. I'd write some stuff in a notebook. Ohh. Do you know what I've heard, someone's using OneNote on the phone, so I then got the phone out. Using OneNote on the phone. And before you know it, your brain is scattered. Not across the week, aacross multiple pieces of media and it's like you're discipline on this, just getting the notes and just picking on a note and throwing it away and what's the thing we doing in there is really key and for me bringing it into the one tool into Asana, then at least you know where everything is the team knows where everything is, they know how to assign me and then all they all need to do is just kick me up the bum to say go in there and go through the tasks.

And when you go through the tasks, guess what? They're never as bad as you think, and then never as long as you think. And in actual fact, the good thing there is what you talk about the directional of things. If you can wake up in the morning and the first thing you do in the office is get your team working, that is the most powerful thing you can do, because if your team are hanging around for you to sort yourself out and tie your shoelaces and come back from the gym and go for a walk and do all these other bits and pieces, how many other people are sitting there waiting till and their thumbs waiting for you, you know you can have your whole team twiddling thumbs till lunchtime. You know, but it's bringing it into that one place I think it's really important.

STUART

And this is related to the growth that you have to go on as a business owner. So there's that transition that there's that growth of you personally, there's the strategic growth of your business and then there's the growth of your team and your capacity to deliver a bigger business. And that personal side is as you transition from doing. Which you're doing most of the time to then managing a small team and then directing a small team and the percentage amount of doing, managing and directing changes as you start to let go. And as you get more structure, more documentation, more system, more process and your role well. The objective if you're ambitious to scale your MSP to a million and beyond is to move from doing through to managing through to directing, but it starts with you and so as you start to get to control of your time and you become more intentional and deliberate with your time and the activities that you fill your time with, it shows up in your results and it shows up in your numbers. Easy to say, but the slower we go is so reap. And so every day you're reaping and so.

IAN

Yeah, yeah.

STUART

And so the sewing piece is like 10 minutes before the day begins. Maybe when, you know you've woken up, the kids have gone to school. It's 8:45, half eight. Whatever the time is for you. And it's like, right. What's a good day look like for me today? And you're just having a look at that pad? That screen thing. Okay, I've got that first team kick off meeting just to keep the team, get the team going if you're currently the support manager or SDM in your MSP. Because it's smaller and then after that I'm free from 10:00 and that's XYZ, whatever that is. It might be a TBR, which is an important piece of, you know, what you do in your role or it might be I'm working on the finances working with a vendor, you know, on the big stuff you talk about the 10 LB hundred pound 1000 LB tasks. It's a. It's another way of doing it. Where am I spending my time? Where have I got a plan for my 1000 LB tasks, my 100 LB tasks and probably not doing many 10 LB tasks, but that's where you've got that time we talked about earlier for admin the 10 LB tasks it might be your mileage, it might be your expenses.

IAN

So we've got a bit of a rhythm going on here. Talk about the three things, the directing and managing and the leading talk to me a little bit more about that. Why is 3 so important when we're trying to make any type of change in?

STUART

Either ourselves or our businesses, it seems that odd numbers 3/5 are psychologically really strong numbers. I don't know why, but in many cases it's about, I think that in terms of it's, it's big enough to be important. If it's five key things, yeah. And if it's three, three key things, it's on a smaller scale and more manageable. And I think each day that we have, we shouldn't have anything more than three key things that we want to get done each day. You know, like tomorrow, I want to get my expenses done because it's the end of the quarter and I need to get it done. And it's important, I want to have those two, one to ones with my key staff and I want to finish that proposal for that key client.

IAN

Right.

STUART

Might be the three important things now the rest of the day is sitting, you know, having the huddle at the beginning of the day with the team, taking some phone calls may be, you know, the rest of your day can be filled with other stuff like the 10 LB and 100 LB tasks. But for you that day, the 1000 LB tasks are those three things we've just talked about because actually at the end of the day, achieving those two or three things of that three core things makes it. I've had a good day, yeah. Because I've tipped off those big.

IAN

They feel like...

STUART

Yeah, even regardless of how big or small they are, it means you've moved forward, which means tomorrow if you clear down another three key things. And The thing is actually when we get out of our own way and do them, sometimes a big thing is I've done it in 15 minutes, but we thought, well, I've got to sit down. I've got to plan this. I got to do this. Actually, when we really apply ourselves, sometimes these things take 15-20 minutes or 50 minutes. They don't need the whole day, but we build them up such that, well, I've got to look at the bill here, but actually a lot of the billing.

IAN

Right.

STUART

Might be just to focus 90 minutes. And you've actually broken the back of it. You might not finished it, but you've broken the back of it, man, I'll come back to it tomorrow and move it forward again.

IAN

Just quickly, I know we're pushing for time on this one, but just quickly help us out with some tips to stop people interrupting you when you're setting this time, either in the office or at your desk if you're in an open plan desk and someone comes up, hey, Stuart, can I just quickly. Hey, can I just quickly do this and you're trying to get this focus time and obviously environment is important. If you can get yourself in another space, you know working from home or in another office. But what what's some of your golden Nuggets for helping us to stop people coming up to our desks and getting in our way and interrupting us?

STUART

Well, the first one is being visible, so work from home work in another space as you said, but be intentional about it and think you know, look at your week and go right Wednesdays. I'm going to work from home or I'm going to work from Starbucks or that hotel or wherever it might be. But then also don't be so available. So if someone, our people are knocking on your door or you're in an open plan area. Well, first of all, if you're an open plan area, see if you can remove yourself and create an, you know, have an office.

IAN

Yeah.

STUART

Make an office let them know that when the doors open, you're available.

IAN

Yeah.

STUART

When the doors shut, you're not available. You could put a sign on if you wanted to. You know, there's many ways of doing that. But I think it's training people to recognize when you're available and when you're not available, or if you are in the office and they are. Can I just ask you this? It's like, yes. Can I come back to you in 10 minutes or I'm just finishing this when I finish this, I'll come up.

IAN

Yeah.

STUART

Mind you, and so it's taking control rather than letting people impose their needs on you and that comes us back to being intentional, intentional about that prioritizing your time, I think it's as simple as that and it's discipline. It's like not eating the sweets and eating the fruit.

IAN

Yeah.

STUART

We've got to kind of break the habit of being available and wanting to help everyone and not value doing what we need to be doing as a result, we're always still in the office at 9:00 and your staff have gone home at 5, having done what they want to do.

IAN

We probably trained him to interrupt us, to start with, didn't we? So that's a bit embarrassing as well.

STUART

We have, we have, I have and also you've been one of the team. So therefore you are available and you've enjoyed being one of the engineers with your team as you've been growing it. But there's a point at which you have to separate yourself. In the same way as if you promote one of your engineers to be the team leader or manager or the SDM, they've gone from colleagues and mates to like, well, they've got a different status and that's challenging for them to redefine the relationship. That's a whole different podcast.

IAN

Yes, that's, that's a whole different one, so just wrapping up now, Stuart, what's the key points for people to take away from today's show?

STUART

I think the key guys is to be intentional because without it you are all over the place. So if you're intentional about your year, your quarter, your month, your week and your day, and particularly your week and your day. Then you're in control. You're on the front foot. If you're intentional about what's important, what's fixed in the diary, and what's flexible, and you stay focused on that. And every day, it's like, what are the top three things I want to get done today if you're 80% successful on average week in, week out, you will transform your results. That’s the key.

IAN

Fantastic. Brilliant. Thanks very much for your time today. Another great show. Good to get you out of the coaching hub and look forward to catching up on the next show.

STUART

Love it.

IAN

See you soon. Take Care now.

OUTRO

Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait... Just before you go. And if you're curious about how this episode links with the ability to scale your MSP to a million or if you're already there accelerate to five, then one invite you to come and take the MSP marketing, please. And in just three minutes, you're going to get 300 and seats with scan of your business where you can identify the one or two tactics that help you find more time, engage and align your people, and help generate more leads in your MSP. It's really simple. Just click on the link in the show notes and if you have enjoyed this episode, we'd love to get some feedback from you by means of a rating review on Spotify or iTunes or your podcast platform of Choice, we'd really appreciate every single one of them. Now you can go and enjoy the rest of your day and we look forward to catching up and connecting with you soon. All the best.