Joe Sanok: “Thursday is the new Friday”

by | Joe Sanok, WBIY PODCAST, Write your book

 

SHOWNOTES

JOE SANOK is today’s guest on the Write the Book Inside You Podcast.

He is a Podcaster and Author of “Thursday is the new Friday” – a book to shake up your worldview of post-pandemic TIME.
✅ Links to Joe Sanok’s website and where to buy his book:
👉   https://www.joesanok.com
Order the book on Amazon (preorder until October 8, 2021)
👉  https://amzn.to/3lHBraV

JOE SANOK is a keynote and TEDx speaker, business consultant, and podcaster.
Joe has the #1 podcast for therapists and counselors, helping them grow a profitable “business.”
The Practice of the Practice Podcast has more than 500 interviews with world changers.

A few years ago Joe faced a series of traumatic health and family challenges that changed his view on life – and how we spend our precious time.

It is this TIME CHANGE PERSPECTIVE and how he applied it to writing his new book “THURSDAY IS THE NEW FRIDAY” that I hope you find fascinating.

Joe’s achievements:
So what does he know about a 4-day week?
He’s living it he says. “I enjoy my time outside of work as a family guy the most, but I also love what I do,.”
And it shows:

  • HarperCollins Author and written 5 books
  • Productivity researcher
  • Lived in a camper with my kids, taking them road-schooling during 2020/2021
  • Keynote and TEDx Speaker
  • Podcaster behind Practice of the Practice – recognized as one of the Top 50 Podcasts Worldwide
  • Business consultant
  • Writer for PsychCentral
  • Featured on the Huffington Post, Forbes, GOOD Magazine, Reader’s Digest, Entrepreneur on Fire, and Yahoo News

Get your free book writing Checklist: 5 Book Hook Tips from Caryl Westmore
👉 https://www.writethebookinsideyou.com/freegift

Find the transcript and show notes for this video at:
👉 https://carylwestmore.com/podcast

✅  Connect with Caryl Westmore on social media!

https://www.facebook.com/carylwestmoreauthor
https://www.facebook.com/groups/bookinsideyou

✅  Connect with Joe Sanok on social media!
https://www.facebook.com/PracticeOfThePractice

 

TRANSCRIPT

Joe Sanok : This is something a lot of authors miss. So I’d do the lighting differently. I would move my writing chair to a different part of the room. I had a specific playlist that I listened to, that I only listened to when I was writing on headphones that I only used when I was writing.

Caryl Westmore 0:15
I’m thrilled to introduce you to Joe Sanok, a keynote and TEDx speaker, business consultant and podcaster. Originally trained as a counsellor and therapist, Joe has gone on to help other therapists and counsellors develop and grow profitable businesses. Mainly he started a practice of the practice podcast with more than 500 interviews and resources for service providers like therapists and counsellors.

A few years ago, Joe faced a series of traumatic Health and Family challenges which changed his view on life and how we spend our precious time and it is this time change perspective and how Joe applied to writing his new book Thursday is the new Friday that I hope you will find fascinating.

Hello, and welcome to the write the book inside your podcast, tips, tools and interviews for coaches and healers like you want to write a nonfiction book to boost your visibility clients and cash flow while making a difference. I’m your host Caryl Westmore, a multi-published author, and energy psychology tapping book coach. Now let’s jump into today’s episode.

My guest today is Joe Sanok, a therapist himself who is now written a book called “Thursday is the new Friday – how to work fewer hours, make more money, and spend time doing what you want.” Now, Joe is actually starting a movement for the post-pandemic times we living in where people talk about well what’s the new normal and they are adjusting to a new way of living but are in danger, many of them, are falling back into their old ways of having to show up for work five days a week. Now, Joe, you’re going to tell us why you are piercing the curtain that says this is the way we have to be now. And although you’re doing it for busy people in business, I’d like you to also show us as solopreneurs and authors how we can apply your methods to our lives.

So first of all, tell us how you are redefining time?

Joe Sanok 2:42
Yeah, Caryl, thank you so much for having me on the show. You know, when I started writing this book, I started with a big whiteboard and said I want to just start from scratch. I had all the chapters sketched out and everything had been approved through HarperCollins. I thought I just want to start with new eyes. And so one question I asked myself was how did we even get the seven-day week? How do we get the 40 Hour work week?  That wasn’t something I’d even addressed in my book proposal. Alright, so I looked back, and a few 1000 years ago, the Babylonians, they made up the seven-day week, the Egyptians had an eight-day week, the Romans had a 10 day week. So if we just start with, there’s nothing in nature that says seven days, we made up the seven day week, we could just as easily have a five day week and have 73 weeks a year. So if we just start there, and then fast forward to the late 1800s. How did the average person work in the late 1800s, early 1900s? They were working 10 to 14 hours a day, six to seven days a week. So a crazy amount of work. So then came Henry Ford in 1926. He decided in an effort to sell more cars to Ford employees to switch to a 40-hour workweek. He had this idea that people weren’t going to buy a car in order to get to work faster. But if they had a weekend where they could go recreate and hang out with their family – they want to zoom around town in a car faster than a horse. And it worked. He sold a lot of cars and a lot of other companies then switched to the 40 Hour workweek. So if we just start with a lot of what we hold dear, the seven-day week, the 40 Hour Work Week is all made up. We just made it up, you know the 40 hour workweek is less than 100 years old. So if we can just name that five-day-a-week schedule and say the industrialists are the ones that gave it to us. At the time, that was a big step forward for human evolution, for business evolution, going from a 10 to 14 hour day, six to seven days a week. That’s a big step. But we’ve outgrown that. And now as the post-pandemic generation, we have a great opportunity to reevaluate and say, Is this how we want to work?

Do we feel like our health outcomes are the best outcomes that we could have… our sleep outcomes, our happiness, our relationships? Are we really at peak performance right now? Or is there a big reevaluation that has to happen? And we see that right now with the amount of people that are resigning from their jobs, you know, the great resignation, saying I’m not going to live this way anymore. And it’s because people are saying: “This industrialist way of thinking, this old way of thinking, where people are machines that you plug them in, they do their job, they go home, we aren’t buying that anymore.”

Caryl Westmore 5:10
And you know, I think even as a solopreneur, or an author, a coach, like I am – working in my own environment, I’ve had to learn not to pressure myself to think I should be doing something all the time and not taking time off. In fact, for me, I got so burnt out a few years ago that I took a whole year off to paint. Now I’m hearing that you don’t have to get to that crisis point. If you follow your way. You can measure your slow-down times, and really replenish yourself every week. And maybe you’re going to tell us how to do it on a daily basis. How did you write your book? Did you take an approach that could help us?

Joe Sanok 5:53
Yeah, so I definitely used the neuroscience I was learning for the book to apply to the writing of the book. So one of the biggest things that we need to flip is, most people will work hard all week, and they’ll be burned out, and then they’ll get to the weekend, and they’ll barely recover. And then they’ll do it all over again, we don’t do our best work, when we’re stressed out and maxed out. That’s not when we’re creative. It’s not when we’re out of the box. And so we need to rein that in a bit. And really focus on how we slow down. And so if we even just look at how did I write the book? Because I know a lot of your listening audience are authors.

I wrote the book every Thursday, from April 2020 until September 2020. So it’s mostly just a one-day-a-week thing and a full book written in that period of time. So what did I do? Well, the week before, I would always sketch out on the whiteboard, what the next week’s chapter was about. So I’d think through what are the big five to seven points for each of these chapters? What are the questions that I have, if I was to have new eyes with these, and then I let it just kind of sit in my brain for a week. So on the day of my writing, I would protect my brain.

That’s the first thing you need to do is you protect your brain before you enter into the writing. So you’re not looking at texts, you’re not looking at email, you’re not reading the news, you’re doing things that your brain is clean and fresh. Entering into that writing process. I had the same breakfast and smoothie and coffee and tea every morning when I was writing to make sure my body was full of good nutrients, and that I wasn’t gonna get hungry in the middle of my writing that I knew I could really go throughout the morning that I had what I needed within my writing space. Then when I entered into that writing space, I made sure the environment was different. And this is something a lot of authors miss. So I do the lighting differently, I would move my writing chair to a different part of the room, I had a specific playlist that I listened to, that I only listened to when I was writing on headphones that I only used when I was writing. So very quickly, I could jump back into flow state where I was in that flow of writing that the week before I had been in, instead of having 45 minutes, I felt like I was in my groove. I didn’t have to do writing exercises to get going I didn’t have to do journaling to get my brain going, I jumped right back into where I was at. So I saved a good hour of time.

Caryl Westmore 8:05
I love that. But did you not in-between times have ideas and jot them down somewhere?

Joe Sanok 8:11
Well, I think as creatives our brains don’t just turn on and off when we want them to we have those ideas. But we need to have ways that we take notes of those that doesn’t disrupt our entire life. If I’m playing with my children. And then I’m like “Sorry, I’m inspired, I got to go write for an hour.” That’s disruptive to my family. So I would come up to the whiteboard, I’d write on it and then leave it in the office, or I might put it in a note on my phone. And I also had a Trello board that outlined every chapter. So if I say saw a news article, I would just add it to the Trello board, then I’d walk away from it. So then I was able to re-enter into that content without having to have it disrupt my life outside of that writing time.

Caryl Westmore 8:48
So is it like we need to, within the idea of the four-day workweek, we have to give our bodies and our neurology a kind of system that they know that they’re going to have their time off, but that there’s also going to be what you call the sprints you mentioned that it’s good to work in sprints for many of us.

Joe Sanok 9:07
Yeah, so Sprint’s are batching – it isn’t a new concept. But the new concept that I discovered in the writing of this book is that like personality types, we have sprint types. And so sometimes people would do sprints or batching. And so I just didn’t get things done, like I thought I would get done. And so what we want to look at first is the two types of Sprints that are around what type of work we’re doing. So there are time-block sprinters. And there are tasks sprinters. So a time-block sprinter is someone that needs one task for a period of time. So that’s what I did. So every Thursday, I’m writing the book, I’m working on the book, and I wasn’t bouncing into email or pulling in other things. It was purely working on one aspect of work. Whereas task switchers are people that need that variety. They may say I’m going to work on the book for 20 minutes and then I’m going to do email and then I’m going to go for a walk and then I’m going to come back.

So figuring out how much variety you need in the work that you’re doing. Okay, the next step for the sprint types is when you do it. So an automated sprinter is someone that every single week has the same time and it’s on repeat. So that’s again what I did for writing the book. Every Thursday, I’m working on the book, and that just was on repeat, my assistant knew she couldn’t schedule anything during that time. Whereas an intensive sprinter’s someone that needs to go away, they need to go away to an Airbnb for three days. My friend, Dr. Jeremy Sharpe, who has the Testing Psychologist Podcast, he goes away a couple of times a year; he rents an Airbnb, he makes sure there’s a vegan restaurant within walking distance – because he’s vegan. He looks at the menu ahead of time. So he’s not using his brain energy to you know, decide that morning, but he knows exactly what he’s going to order. He makes sure there’s an outdoor space. But he does a variety of things there, he doesn’t go and just write a book for three days. He does a bunch of his podcasts, he plans out his content for the year. So he batches tasks that are within that intensive. That’s when you can start to figure out your sprint type, you then are more effective when you have that time to work.

Caryl Westmore 11:04
I think that’s very, very helpful for everyone listening, and being aware of the time we have, is there anything that you would like to put out there for solopreneurs and entrepreneurs who work for themselves? And beyond what you’ve told us today? What are your last thoughts? And where can people get hold of you?

Joe Sanok 11:25
I think the biggest myth is that we have to work extremely hard to get big things done. You know, you want to write a book, you’re an aspiring author, you have great ideas for the world.

It’s actually going to be reining in your schedule that helps you the most because it’s going to force you to drop the ball on the unimportant things. We think that we need to be taking out the trash, we need to be the ones that are most mowing our lawns and vacuuming our offices and you know, doing our bookkeeping, and as an entrepreneur, we’re doing everything – we’re wearing all these hats. It’s actually when you start removing those hats that you do your very best work. And when you start to outsource, when you start to really say, Okay, what is that top thing that I need to be focusing on when you can figure that out, then you can move quicker in that direction. Rather than saying, I’m going to just stay burned out, I’m going to keep doing everything I’m going to bootstrap it. It really is that slowing down and that reining in the schedule,that is actually the key to getting to that next level.

Caryl Westmore 12:19
Today’s podcast episode is sponsored by my book, You can Break-Free Fast EFT tapping the second edition which comes with book “Power Boost the Law of Attraction with Matrix Reimprinting, using EFT tapping available on Amazon, and other places where you buy books.

Joe are you starting some kind of movement where people can tune into each other? I know you’ve got a manifesto at the end of your book, which is already for on pre-order on Amazon.  Have you got a vision for for this new way of helping people make this what you call evolutionary shift? What would your vision be for the world and we can get hold of you to help us?

Joe Sanok 13:01
Yeah, so Thursday is the new Friday. It’s really that next step in business evolution, I see it as in the same way the Babylonians gave us the seven day workweek, or the seven day week, Henry Ford gave us the 40 hours that we collectively can move towards a four-day workweek. Looking at what our highest use of time is, in order to do our best work, we’ll unlock so much untold potential. So imagine a world where we had three-day weekends. Imagine the relationships, the creativity, the lack of stress, the health outcomes – that to me really is that next step.

Caryl Westmore 13:36
Gives me goosebumps! Because those of us who who are coaches and healers and want to help people, you know, it’s so lovely to just say to the whole world: this is the way we must go forward. And so it’s been such a pleasure talking to you, where would people look for the website to continue this conversation?

Joe Sanok 14:03
Yeah, so my website, joesanok.com is the best place for everything  – for my keynotes; for the book. We’re also keeping track of all of the experiments that people are doing, we really encourage people to try new ways of doing the four day week and to report that out. It’s only going to be collectively together that we do this is not going to just be my movement. We’re all going to be a part of this conversation so they can submit their experiments there. And wherever you get your books, that could be your local bookstore, it could be on Amazon Thursdays, the new Friday is available for order wherever you get your books, if you get five or 10 books. We also over at Thursday’s the new Friday comm have a number of extra bonuses and mastermind groups. And so you just submit your receipt there and then you get access to our six week mastermind group that’s going to be walking you through how to really live out Thursday is the new Friday so we’re hoping people will get their 10 books, maybe do a small book club with some friends and then join that mastermind group.

Caryl Westmore 14:54
Well, it’s been a real pleasure having you on and what I’ve loved about it is you’ve been time-efficient. You’ve told me that’s the time I’ve got and it’s been such a pleasure talking to you. Thank you.

In Thursday is the new Friday Joe includes at the back of the book a manifesto which goes as follows:

This life is ours.

We believe that we are made for slowing down and doing creative and impactful work that weekends are not enough and that our best work comes after we slow down.

We believe that the mechanical system created by the industrialists was a step forward for the time but is no longer what is best for humans, or the world. Our human potential is being limited by mindless and useless work, instead of the impactful work that sits quietly inside us. We believe that slowing down is the way to release this creativity into the world. Our best work comes when we are centered, de-stressed and able to breathe, and able to contribute in disruptive and world-changing ways. Only when our bodies are centered and have slowed down, we believe that we are a changing organism that is allowed to switch interests, experiment with ideas, and fail. Failure and experimenting are linchpins to allow ourselves to expand.

Gone are the days of being paralyzed by perfection. Instead, we will live with a posture of pushing the limits to find what we and society are made of.

We believe we are recreating our world in a way that will expand our potential openness to better living and create the most meaningful work we could imagine. We believe that Thursday is the new Friday.

And I want to say I applaud and share that and wanted to read you that Manifesto, which is available if you go to the back of the book, Thursday is a new Friday, there’s a link to where you can actually download it and read it often.

Thanks for joining me on today’s podcast. Once a free gift to inspire you further on your book writing adventure, my free checklist, 5 Book Hook Tips to kickstart your book writing journey. We’ll help you get clarity on the key essential to make your book a winner downloaded at www.writethebookinsideyou.com/freegift –  The links are in the show notes. Until next time, a big virtual hug and keep writing!