We’ll never get around to implementing most business ideas we have.
I for one, have been writing down my ideas on yearly iPhone notes since 2018. Now I have decided to publish one of my ideas here each Saturday. As for the process: I just reopened my 2018 list with 18 ideas (as a start) and generated a random number between 1 and 18.
My random idea for today is idea 8 from 2018. Let me pitch it to you.
Idea 2018-08: Time Stop Service
Ah yes, the busy lifestyle of the 21st century catches all but the most resilient of us in its ever-turning wheels. Emails between meetings, slack messages between emails, squeezing in the actual work somewhere in the morning or the evening, and when we get home we take care of one out of ten envelopes that may or may not contain an overdue bill. And then there’s friends and family… We are struggling to keep up with people, we drink too much when we finally have a moment of release and then we spend a day’s free time effectively as a zombie. We find yet another gray hair on our head and wonder: Where did the last ten years go? And before we can think about this any deeper our phone vibrates.
The solution? Stop time! For a day, or maybe even a week! You hit the pause button (kind of like that Adam Sandler movie) and for a predefined amount of time, time stops for you and you can choose to practice a hobby, watch movies, exercise, walk in the park, do whatever you want effectively, as long as it fits the idea of stopped time.
Here is where our Time Stop Service comes in! For the low price of 500 dollars per day (or 2000 dollars for a full week) we pull the breaks in your life and freeze time for you. You will have a designated team of time stop professionals that will:
Create a valid, documented excuse for you to disappear at work for the ordered amount of stopped time, leveraging our strong network of doctors and employment specialists.
Engage with your time stop champions (people you select from your friends and family to be “in the know”): These close ones will be on your side and make sure your back is kept free from other personal contacts, while being the only people we let you communicate with during stopped time.
Handle your correspondence, both physical and digital with absolute confidentiality and according to a protocol that is agreed with you, the time stopper ahead of the period. Protocols range from passive ignoring to active communication in your name (for a surcharge).
Set up your stopped time location. It can be:
In the comfort of your own home, where we ensure areas of stress (such as messy offices or piles of unopened letters) are either locked away, or processed by our specialists (for a surcharge).
At our beachside facility for hardcore time stoppers. We offer an all inclusive experience with a spa, great food and not much else but space to relax. No communication technology (smartphones, laptops) allowed, but we do have lots of books, pen and paper… and also a smart TV in every room, because you shouldn’t feel guilty about binge watching a series if time has stopped.
We conclude your stopped time with an unpause session, where we go through your main priorities for your first day post time-stop and suggest a plan to face it head on (our approach: prioritize, remove, execute). One of our experts can even stay another day to stick the landing.
So there it is. An idea worth millions.