Free Ways to Find More Time In Your Day
Feeling slammed? Try these things:
1. Sleep an hour less
I know. Sleep deprivation is dangerous. But I think the pendulum has swung a little too far on this trend. If you are sleeping 8 hours a day, try sleeping 7 tomorrow.
Then (and this is critical) use the extra hour.
2. Eliminate bad friends
This advice is terrible. It’s awful. I can make friends pretty easily, but I am miserable at shutting people out, even if I know they are horrible for me.
So what do I do instead?
I hide.
I crawl into my cave and go back to work. I don’t answer the phone. I don’t respond to text messages. I don’t reply to emails, and I hope they get the hint.
This is probably not a mature response, but if I don’t do this and allow bad people to influence my life, a sunny day turns sour, a 15 minute delay becomes hour, and a one-time favor becomes a full-time expectation.
Remove bad friends in your life. You deserve better.
See also: What are the types of people you should always avoid?
3. Poop faster
The average American spends 3 minutes a day actively removing waste from their body, but 20 minutes per trip to the stall.
I just made both of those numbers up. You know it’s probably true, though.
4. Find a Cathy
One of my favorite people in the universe is named Cathy. Cathy is a details extraordinaire. Nothing gives her greater joy than knowing everything is in its place.
I, on the other hand, don’t know where anything is nor do I particularly care where they get placed.
So I have a Cathy.
Cathy gives me ideas and tasks. I execute on them, then she puts all the pieces where they need to be. I am the engine; She, the GPS.
In other words — if you are standing next to Shaquielle O’Neal, stop standing on your tippie toes to reach a shelf.
5. Assign times to tasks, not the other way around
Believe it or not, this is a lot like the poop suggestion.
Try this exercise: Reduce the amount of time you spend checking and responding to email down to one hour per day. During this hour, you can read, review, and respond to whatever needs your attention.
Here’s my prediction. It will take you way LESS than an hour to take care of the necessities. So why then, do most of us pop in and out of our inbox as many as than once per day? We choose to randomly jump in when we have a down time.
This is often because we have no clear vision for how to spend the time otherwise. The inbox, hopefully, will offer chores. I don’t know about you, but when I check email or messages or notifications, it is because I am feeling lazy and want someone to tell me what to do.
Instead, I’m trying to focus on my other goals. It’s hard, but I’m trying.
Relentless prioritization is the ultimate time saver. The more clear you are about what gets your attention and when, the more time you have.
6. Allow yourself to be good at what you do
I just checked the same imaginary data source for the toilet statistics I cited earlier and discovered this:
I am one of approximately 11 thousand average-looking white guys telling you to be all you can be.
But I write books anyway. I have a YouTube show anyway. I encourage you anyway. I used to hold all those things in. I can’t do that anymore. It’s part of who I am, no matter who else is doing something similar.
There might be 100,000 people in your market. Only you can execute in that market with your unique experiences, background, talents, interests, looks, and abilities.
You are likely the ONLY person who does not accept you for you. Everyone else knows what you are best at. They know you can thrive. They know you have talent.
How would you act if you never had to hold back? Do that.
7. Get better
This is a two-step process, no matter how good you already are.
Step 1 — Do something to the best of your ability
Step 2 — Then do a little bit more
Average wealth? Save as much as you feel like saving. Then add 1%.
Average health? Run as much as you feel like running. Then add 1 mile.
Average intelligence? Read as much as you feel like reading. Then turn the page.
Repeat this process to free up as much time as you want. When you cap out, try this:
8. Do less
Honestly, quitting is underrated. I don’t know how it got this way, but some days it seems if we are not stressed out, tapped out, and timed out, we are not productive.
Repeat after me: Busy is not a status symbol.
Often the best way to add good things to you life is to subtract the crappy ones.
You are allowed to quit.
More Time + More Ideas = Abundance
I’m not entirely sure how this happened…
But one day I became convinced ideas were the key to my future. I believed the more of them I could generate, the more I would earn, gain, and grow.
Guess what?
I was right.
I’ve captured my idea process in a book — The Ultimate Guide to Infinite Ideas — which you can get for the price of an email address.
