Many people are talking about the 4-hour working week. It is the new way to entrepreneurial success. What they forget is that this is only possible if your mind is working the other 164 hours – and that includes while you’re asleep!

…the other 20 hours…

How many times did you wake up in the middle of the night with the answer to a complex business problem? Does the time you were processing that task not count as work?

There are 4 stages to any successful business decision – frame the problem, gather the necessary information, organize and analyse, then act on the conclusion.

The last stage may only take 4 hours, but the other three stages take the 95% balance of time required to resolve the problem. Your brain needs time to process the problem and all the information that you have thrown at it.

Given the way our brain is structured,  it will often find this easier if you are doing something totally unrelated – physical exercise, having a shower or best of all sharpening your mind by learning a new skill.