Small Business: Work hacks - Steve Pirie, Unleashed Travel and Nurture Change

Steve Pirie Steve Pirie, an owner of Unleashed Travel and Nurture Change.

Small business editor Caitlin Sykes this week interviews a handful of small business owners about work hacks.

Steve Pirie is an owner of two businesses: Unleashed Travel — which specialises in graduation celebration weeks for Kiwis and Aussies — and the Nurture Change retreat for business owners.

Can you tell me about how you structure your working week to make it more productive?

I used to be one of those reactive types, connected 24 hours a day and checking emails at two in the morning. But with the birth of my second child I thought it was not the way forward; it was the trigger for me that 2016 had to be more about work life balance, and to become more productive, not busier. After listening to lots of podcasts I noticed lots of Fortune 500 CEOs and founders batch work in clusters. So I decided to shun the nine-to-five option, which has never worked for me anyway, and build a system that worked best with my mindset and lifestyle, which I call the 'five plus one' system.

How does it work?

In short, I spend an hour on Sunday evening sorting out the clear outcomes I want to achieve in the week ahead. I work from four sectors — business, finance, health and personal — and have five outcomes from each. I've found this gives me a clear focus and makes sure I work on what matters, rather than just doing things that will make me 'busy' but not necessarily productive.

I have two little ones, which means we rise at the crack of dawn as a family. I'm also big on fitness because I know that when I'm at my peak physically, I'm at my peak mentally, so I always fit in a daily workout. I have a 5am wake up, do 45 minutes of high intensity training followed by 15 minutes of meditation to clear the mind. I'll have breakfast between 5.45 and 6.15 then what I call the '5, 4, 3, 2, 1' comes into play.

I have 'focus blocks' of work each day, starting with five hours on a Monday, four on a Tuesday and so on until it's just one hour on a Friday, and I use these blocks only to do things that will get me closer to the outcomes that I've set myself on Sunday. The 'plus one' is an extra hour I can add to any day if I have fuel left in the tank to tidy up or surge ahead with things.

And have you found it's made you more productive?

Definitely. A few of my friends are on to this system now as well and are saying the same thing. And it's nice to go to bed without your head filled with work; sleep is the best productivity drug.

What other changes have you had to put in place to make the system work?

I have to put boundaries around my emails because they're the greatest distraction to getting things done. I batch them and respond twice a day, usually in the first and last hours of my working day. I can only access them now on my desktop and laptop, so I don't get emails constantly popping up on my phone. I also disconnect the wifi at dinner time, and we have one digital free day as a family a week.

Creating good, competent teams that work well alone and complement each other is another key thing. We break our businesses down into modules and people are given ownership of their areas, and this works really well because it gets me away from the day-to-day busyness. I thought other people in my businesses might struggle a bit with my hours, but because they're all accountable for their own areas, me being offline for a few hours doesn't seem to affect them much.

How about any tech tools you use to boost your productivity?

At Unleashed, we use a cloud-based task management system called Asana, and it's been a godsend. Everything in our operations is controlled within the system, so you can track everything in one place, but you're only notified about something when you are in the project or task, so it avoids a lot of the unnecessarily CC'd emails that clog up inboxes.

What are some other practical things you do to be more productive as a business owner?

1. Being mindful: Headspace is a fantastic app that coaches and holds you accountable through guiding meditation and mindfulness sessions.

2. A fit body equals a fit mind: I have a great virtual coach, Aaron Callaghan from Peak 40 who lives in Queenstown, and he uses an app to plan a fitness and movement programme that I'm held accountable to.

3. Take bizcations: My biggest passion and interest is combining travel with business. So far this year I've been to Sydney, Oregon, Vanuatu and Brisbane on business trips, and they've all taught me something new about business and how to run mine better.

4. Be accountable: As an entrepreneur and business owner working remotely, sometimes it's really lonely and isolated. You have no one to report to on your progress, so I use AccMe — an app that asks you the questions each week that a business coach would, and holds you accountable to outcomes.

• Coming up in Small Business: 'Handmade' products are a growing consumer trend. How have some crafty folk built businesses around their handmade goods, and what markets are they developing for their offerings? If you've got a story to tell, drop me a note at nzhsmallbusiness@gmail.com.