SUB: 4DWW Challenge: Do you suffer from PTO Anxiety?

Luckily, he and the rest of the team have a detailed system in place to make the transition to 4DWW as smooth as possible — and with little growing pains. 

For Frank, there were three things specifically that helped him the most when it came to the 4DWW transition.

The first was developing a playbook. Think of it like an old-school video game manual that shows you all the cheat codes and guides to get past tough levels — but for everyone’s job at IWT. If there was any emergency or something came up, anyone at the company could refer to each individual employee’s playbook and take care of the issue while they’re out of office.

“Say I’m gone, and something goes wrong in tech land, then no one has to worry,” he explains. “I have everything written out so someone can reach out to all the different vendors and contractors to get support. That helped out a ton with anxiety.”

The second was doubling down on project planning. Instead of taking things day-by-day and tackling projects piecemeal, Frank has had to get better at anticipating each facet of his workload weeks in advance. 

“I’m definitely trying to get the bigger picture more versus my usual tunnel vision of getting through my normal tasks,” he says. 

That meant getting better at communicating with vendors and contractors. It also meant improving how he managed expectations and deadlines so he never found himself needing to stay late or having to come in on his day off. 

This might sound like a lot more stress at first blush, but it’s actually helped him grow in his role in ways that he didn’t expect at all. 

“This has definitely accelerated my growth with project planning,” he says. “I’m in a mindset that sees how this skill would really benefit me right now, so I need to kick it into high gear to learn it.”

Last, Frank was staying motivated. This ended up being incredibly easy. After all, if an extra day off each week was on the line, you’d be motivated too. 

Like Nasrin, who we talked to last week, this injected urgency into his work. Notice the wording. Urgency doesn’t mean stress. It doesn’t mean frantically rushing through your work because you have one less day to do it.

Urgency is a more positive and powerful motivator that allows you to get work done more efficiently — and save a ton of time in the process. It imbues all of your tasks with energy and importance, allowing you to get things done in a fraction of the time it would normally take. 

“The 4-day workweek didn’t add stress to get all my work done,” he says. “It just added motivation. I want to enjoy my day off. I don’t want to have to worry about things that need to get done. So I do all this planning ahead of time so that things go smoothly.”

Swift travels

The Frank you’d meet today isn’t the same guy who joined IWT six years ago. He’s more calm, less anxious, and a whole lot more skilled.

He’s also not afraid to actually use his PTO days, unlike when he first came aboard the company. In fact, he’s flying out to Los Angeles in August to enjoy a few days under the Southern California sun with his wife. 

Oh, and to catch a Taylor Swift concert.