In this episode, ecommerce entrepreneur Josh Hadley shares his weekly operating system for structuring a productive business week. He argues that most business owners don't have a time problem, they have a calendar problem. Josh breaks down his weekday by day: Monday for KPI reviews and one-on-ones, Tuesday for deep work on growth initiatives, Wednesday for consolidated meetings, Thursday for strategy and product development, and Friday for planning and documentation. His core principles include protecting deep work, grouping meetings, reviewing before reacting, and using the calendar strategically to drive real business growth.

Bullet Points:

Weekly operating system for structuring business activities
Importance of addressing calendar issues over time management
Strategies for protecting deep work and minimizing distractions
Detailed breakdown of a structured weekly schedule
Focus on reviewing key performance indicators (KPIs) and cash flow forecasting
Emphasis on deep, uninterrupted work days for growth initiatives
Meeting-heavy days for consolidating discussions and maximizing efficiency
Strategic planning and product development sessions
Documentation of processes and decision-making frameworks
Core principles for effective time management and productivity in business

Timestamps:

00:00:00 The Calendar Problem
Most business owners don't have a time issue, but a calendar problem, getting hijacked by distractions instead of focusing.

00:01:54 Introduction to the Weekly Operating System
Josh introduces his weekly operating system for running an eight-figure brand, designed to protect attention and align leaders.

00:02:56 Monday: Grounding the Week in Reality
Monday's focus is on reviewing KPIs, ensuring the team met goals, and identifying what is off track.

00:04:03 Monday: Cash Flow Forecasting
The second priority is reviewing the 12-month cash flow forecast to understand the business's financial health and available resources.

00:05:47 Monday: Auditing Personal Time
The speaker audits his previous week's time to identify distractions and improve productivity, sometimes using a time-tracking app.

00:06:46 Monday: One-on-One Meetings
The rest of Monday is for one-on-one meetings with direct reports to set strategy, solve bottlenecks, and provide direction.

00:08:37 Tuesday: Protected Deep Work
Tuesday is dedicated to deep, uninterrupted work on growth initiatives, with a brief leadership huddle to start the day.

00:11:33 Tuesday: Structuring Meetings
Any necessary meetings on Tuesdays, like vendor calls or interviews, are scheduled back-to-back at the end of the day.

00:12:21 Wednesday: The Meeting Day
Wednesday is a deliberately meeting-heavy day, consolidating recurring discussions, including a 90-minute leadership meeting to solve business issues.

00:13:18 Thursday: Strategy and Products
Thursdays are for zooming out from daily operations to focus on strategy, future hiring needs, and new product innovation.

00:16:19 Friday: Planning and Documenting
Friday is for solidifying the week's takeaways, proactively planning the next week, and documenting knowledge to scale the business.

00:18:06 Key Principles of the Schedule
The speaker outlines six key principles behind his schedule, including giving each day a job and protecting deep work.

Links and Mentions:

E-commerce Platforms Mentioned: "00:00:30"
CEO Dashboard Podcast Episode: "00:04:03"
Weekly Cash Flow Planning Podcast Episode: "00:04:58"
Timing App: "00:06:43"
Conducting a Two Week Time Study Podcast Episode: "00:06:46"

Transcript:

Josh Hadley 00:00:00 Most business owners don't actually have a time issue. They have a calendar problem. Today I'm going to be sharing with you how to structure your week properly so that you are focused on the right things so that you can scale not only an eight figure business, but a nine figure business and beyond. Welcome to the Ecomm Breakthrough Podcast. I'm Josh Hadley. I've scaled my own ecommerce brand from 0 to 8 figures, and I'm actively building towards nine figures in sales. This podcast is where I document that journey and share the systems, the strategies, and the lessons learned in real time so that you can learn what actually matters and scale your own business. My name is Josh Hadley. First and foremost, I'm a man of faith. I'm a husband to a beautiful wife and a father of four children. I have been selling in the e-commerce space for over a decade, doing over $20 million in annual revenue and doing multi-million on sales channels such as Amazon, TikTok, Shop and Shopify. I am also the host of the number one business strategy podcast for ecommerce entrepreneurs, and that is E-com breakthrough.

Josh Hadley 00:00:57 Today, I want to share with you exactly how you should be structuring your week in order to ensure that your focus is on the highest priorities, rather than getting caught up in just putting out fires and basically dealing with the thick of thin things. So I'm sharing this with you from my exact like schedule, in my exact structure that I have in my own business. For you to be able to use that as like a framework to structure your own week. So here's the problem. Most founders don't have a time issue. You actually have a calendar problem. And the reason why is because, like you're just getting hijacked by slack email, reactive meetings, WhatsApp notifications, a bunch of different like mastermind groups that you're in that are slacking you or texting you, etc. and ask me why. I know that because like, I was the guy who used to have that happening to me all the time, but now I literally turn my phone on silent mode and do not disturb mode, and I ignore the WhatsApp messages that are happening throughout the day.

Josh Hadley 00:01:54 And to be honest with you, I'm frankly amazed how much interaction is happening during the day when people theoretically should be working on their business. Instead, they're reaching out and asking questions or predictions about this. You know, travel hacks about that. All those things are good, and they are decent conversations to have. However, I'm not going to sacrifice my time in my deep work that's actually going to grow the business to go chit chat and have random side conversations. Because actually, the moment you like are distracted and turn your attention to something else, it's ten times harder to bring it back to the focus that you originally had. So this is the exact weekly operating system that I use to run our eight figure brand, and how I protect my attention, align my leaders, and carve out enough time to actually move the business forward, rather than just kind of like staying stationary and keeping up with just the regular admin of maintaining the business as it is today. Let's dive into Monday. Monday is one of the most important days in the entire business.

Josh Hadley 00:02:56 And it's not only important for me, but this carries out through the rest of my leaders Their Mondays are structured very, very similar to mine, and Monday is about grounding the entire week in reality, not urgency. Right? It's this is where the strategic planning and prioritization really comes into play here. Okay, before anything else gets my attention, I review what happened this previous week. So let's talk about that. The very first thing that I do Monday mornings is I'm looking at my weekly KPI tracker. And if you're wondering, well, what KPIs does Josh actually track and look at? If you go check ...