Are you lying to yourself about not having time?
How to get back 40+ hours per week (without quitting your job)
In Happiful, one of our core exercises is called the More Time List. You make a list of all the things you would do, or do more of, if you had more time.
Common things on the list: Get in better shape. Learn a language. Take a course. Play an instrument. Write. Creative pursuits like painting. Spend more time with friends and family. Be outside more. Travel. Meditate. Read. Play sports or games. Work on home projects. Explore local experiences.
Take a minute and think about your own list.
What would you put on it? What have you told yourself you would like to do, or do more of, if you had more time?
The truth is, you almost certainly have all the time you could ever need, to do all those things you want to do.
How can that be? Well, people in the U.S. waste an average of 82 hours per week on the following activities. These are the most common culprits stealing your time and preventing you from doing what you really want to do:
Online shopping and browsing: 4 hours/week
Online “research” that doesn’t lead to action: 4 hours/week
Reddit/forums and other online rabbit holes: 6 hours/week
Consuming news (TV, apps, websites): 6 hours/week
Watching sports: 8 hours/week (and a lot more during tournaments, playoffs, etc.)
YouTube and other short-form video: 10 hours/week
Video and computer games: 10 hours/week
Social Media: 13 hours/week
Streaming TV/Movies: 21 hours/week
That totals an average of an incredible 82 hours per week!
Think about that. There are 168 hours in a week. If you sleep 8 hours a night, that leaves you with 112 waking hours. And the average person is spending 82 of those 112 hours on activities that do almost nothing to improve their life, and most of it, they likely don’t even enjoy – they’re just habits that distract you from your real life.
If 82 of your 112 hours are wasted, no wonder it feels like there’s no time left for the things you actually want to do.
Personally, I spend about 10 hours per week total on all of those activities combined, and most of them are zero.
That’s how I’m able to:
Be involved in 4 different businesses
Walk 30–45 minutes every day
Do stretch and mobility work for 30 minutes daily
Workout or run for 45-60 minutes most days
Follow a consistent Morning Routine
Read every day
Spend meaningful time with friends and family
Travel extensively (over 100 days a year)
Hike and play sports regularly
I have made an intentional decision to NOT spend time on the long list of time-wasters so that I can spend that time on things that matter to me. You can make this same decision.
You don’t need more time. You already have it. Right now, your life is exactly what your time allocation produces. If you want a different life, you need to reallocate your time toward what actually matters.
If the idea of creating time to do the things you want sounds worthwhile, here’s how to make it happen:
Create your own More Time List. Write down all the things you would like to do (or do more of), if you had more time.
Keep a time log for 1 week. Get out a piece of paper and each time you do something – anything – write down the time. At the end of each day, calculate the time spent on each activity, and then add them up by category.
At the end of the week, review your total time spent on the various categories. This will show you what you can eliminate from your life so that you can do the things on your More Time list.
Decide what you will eliminate for a week and schedule time for some of the things on your More Time list that you can now do with all your free time.
If your More Time List gives you an idea of how you’d like to make some changes in your life, you may want to take our Design Your Ideal Life course. This online, interactive course guides you through creating a Vision of your ideal future life as well as identifying your Values, so that these two things can help you make decisions and take actions every day to help you reach and live that ideal life. Click here to learn more. And since you read this blog, send me an email at paul@behappiful.com and I’ll give you a coupon to take the course for free!
