“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.”
– Steve Jobs
Looking at what Apple has become today, we can see that Steve’s vision has been more than realized since his death. He spent his time living his own life, doing what he loved: innovation and entrepreneurship.
And he’s right, we only have so many waking hours in a day (about 14-16 hours), so why not use them efficiently?
It’s less about the number of hours outside work and necessities than about utilizing those free hours available.
Strangely, I find myself utilizing my free time most efficiently when I have a crunch time to do it (like 4 hours or so after or before work) (like Tim Ferriss famously advocates).
Reflection
As unproductive as it sounds, doing nothing allows us to be more efficient in all we do.
It’s kin to an engine that runs all day and all night, for hours on end, without pause for oil and cooling. At that rate, it will overheat and burn out.
The same applies to us, we must pause to replenish and restore our mind and body by, well, doing nothing.
As we practice awareness, we find that balance between all that consumes our waking day, that balance of work, life, and all that falls through the cracks.
Since I like to get personal on here, I’ll just lay out my day as an example. (My secret? Pen, Paper, and a little orange app called Streaks):
07:00-08:00
*Wake Up
*3min Cold Shower
*Workout
Meditation
Journal
Vitamins, Minerals, and Breakfast
08:00-18:00
Work
Protein, Carbs, and Lunch
18:00-22:00
*Swim and 40min Sauna
Fruits, Veggies, and Dinner
Blog Post & Electronic Mix
*Practice Spanish
*Meditation
Read for an hour
Wind Down
I’ve starred the activities I need to focus on much more as this is my ideal day, not necessarily my every day right now.
Something to keep in mind is when we miss an activity, it’s much better to forgive ourselves and focus on getting it done the next day rather than stress out and beat ourselves up over it (at least that’s what I do).
Encouragement
Try pausing a few times throughout the day, even for 3-5 minutes, to notice how the mind and body feel.
Write down a rough draft of what you want to accomplish throughout the day, starting with the items you need to especially focus on.
Do you feel you’ve gained a little more awareness of where your time is going?
Thanks
I’m changing things up a little here by shooting for shorter posts and aiming to release them at a more consistent rate.
Thank you for reading these and emailing me all the encouragement ya’ll! I realize that not everyone has the time to read, so I’m working on audio versions of these posts that I hope will turn into a podcast soon, so stay tuned!
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