You Have A Lot More Time Than You Think

Now think about how much time there is in one single day. You have 24 hours in a day, and if you sleep 8 hours, that's still 16 hours of available time. Now every single high achiever, you know, Elon Musk, Michael Jordan, you know, Conor McGregor, Cristiano Ronaldo, everybody has 24 hours. So I'm going to explain exactly why you have a lot more time than you think, you just have to use it wisely. And that is where time management comes in, which is why I'm going to share with you the top principles to manage your time like nothing else. Because just think about your time, where does it actually go? You have all of these hours every single day, but they just seem to disappear. It just seems like one wasted day turns into weeks and then months and then years. And then you're in exactly the same spot that you've always been. Before we go on to the first part, I want to give you this quote. The cost of discipline is that every day looks the same. The cost of indiscipline is that every year looks the same. Now take out a notebook just like this to take some notes, because information without implementation is just productive procrastination. By the way, I'm Dan and I've coached hundreds of people to help them fix their focus, build discipline and shift their identity to get to their goals. Without further ado, let's go to part number one, hidden hours. You see, there are certain things you do in your day that don't even register that you're wasting time. You might be doing something that takes you two hours, but you don't even think that it's taking any time at all. So the first thing to do is take out your notebook and identify these hidden time wasters. For example, cooking, you know, if you live by yourself and you're cooking, you think that doesn't take time, but actually it's the time to wash the dishes, the time to prepare, the time to cook, the time to eat, the time to clean. And that probably takes like two hours. Or for example, going to the gym. I remember I used to go to the gym and I'm like, why don't I have enough time in the day? It's because I was spending two hours in the gym. It would take me 15 minutes to go to the sauna and then another 30 minutes to talk to somebody and then another 30 minutes to drive there and drive back. And by the time like this whole gym session took four hours and I was confused. I'm like, why don't I have time? But then I looked at the data and it was simple. I was spending four hours in the gym. My screen time was four hours. And like after that, it's like 16 hours of available time, four hours gone to screen time, four hours gone to, you know, going to the gym and back. That's eight hours. That's half the day that you have available. So what I did was I didn't stop going to the gym. I just made it more efficient. And I would find the gym close to me. First of all, I would show up, I'd do an efficient workout, get things done and then leave. And then I cut my screen time from four hours to like an hour. That's already three hours saved. And that's already three hours more that you could put into your business, your life, your goals to get there. So it's about understanding and first identifying these time wasters, these hidden hours, these things in isolation. They don't feel like you're losing time. But when you combine everything, the cooking, you know, the cleaning, the going to the gym and like wasting time and the scrolling and the checking and everything. When you combine everything, you lose hours every single day. And if you lose hours every single day, then in a year, that's not just hours, that is months. So a lot of time actually goes from checking tasks and switching between tasks instead of focusing on one task at a time. Now, there's something called attention residue, which is probably something I will explain in another video. I already have other videos around that. But it's basically when you switch between tasks, you're not just losing focus. Part of your attention is still at the previous thing. So if you check your phone and then you go back to work, part of while you're working, part of your brain and attention is still on your phone. And this continues and it just piles up attention residue, which saps your brain power and your focus. And it makes it just harder to just do the work. So you need to audit your time for the maximum results. If you list out every single hour of your day on a piece of paper and you identify exactly what you do, then you will find the gaps. A lot of the times you try to work harder, right? You try to add more water into a bucket that has holes in it. And when you fill a bucket that has leaks, it's only gonna make it worse. So first fix the leaks in your time, in your schedule, and then add more water. Think about this. If you do four hours of deep work, like you call it a deep work session, but in those four hours you get distracted for one hour, you waste time for 30 minutes. If you just increase the amount of hours you do that type of work, you're just gonna increase the amount of times and the amount of like hours that you scroll and waste time and check and get distracted. So first focus on the quality of your time. Focus on the quality of the task that you do. Focus on the quality of and efficiency of everything you do and then increase the quantity. Before you can do eight hours of deep work, first focus on how do I do two hours of efficient deep work and then scale to four and then eight. By the way, if you haven't noticed, this is my new setup. I have a new softbox. I have a new background because I moved in to a new place. And honestly, I think it looks better than the old setup. It's kind of like the same. The YouTube plaque doesn't fit there anymore. I put it like somewhere else behind me. But yeah, anyway, subscribe if you're liking these videos and if they help change your life. And let's go to part number two. Stretching the day. So first of all, to effectively manage your time like the top 1%, you need to do this. First of all, stop measuring your time in hours. Measure it in output. What I mean is simple. Every hour is not equal, right? You could in one hour, you could either do no work or you could complete so much work. Depending on the level of efficiency, one hour of deep work could give you no results or it could give you all the results. So the hour is the same. The hour is constant. It's more about how efficient you are in that hour that determines the amount of work that you get. And also think about an hour in bed scrolling versus an hour actually focusing on the work. Those are the same. It's the same amount of time, but depending on what you do, it changes everything completely. So instead of measuring your productivity output and time in hours, measure it in output. Meaning how many tasks you completed throughout the day, how many hours you stayed off your phone and you didn't scroll, how many hours you allocated to self-improvement mastery and reading and developing a skill. So instead of counting hours as a constant unit of time, measure your time as the amount you get done per unit of time. So the equation here is output per unit of time. That is how you measure your success. So the main idea here is you cannot make the clock move slower, but you can make more use out of the same time. The second thing is stack your time. So some things don't need your full attention. Like number one, you need to, your admin work, your shallow work, the things that anybody else can come and do, those things, those tasks, you need to give them a restricted amount of time. You cannot allow yourself more than 30 minutes to an hour of admin and shallow work. The second thing is mundane tasks, day-to-day tasks that don't require your full attention, like driving, cooking, cleaning, walking somewhere. You can pair the things that you already do with the things that you have to do. So while walking, you can listen to the podcast that you would have otherwise listened to while you were trying to do work, but you can't work and listen to a podcast at the same time. It doesn't work because work requires a high level of attention. But when it comes to something like walking, you can walk and listen to a podcast at the same time. Or if you're going to the gym anyway, you can schedule a time to meet a friend at the gym. That way you're meeting a friend, socializing, also bonding, because like it's fun. You just get better and you improve together as well. So you can take those same two hours and you've went to the gym, you've socialized, and you've met up with your friend. Just an example, but you can use this principle as you wish. And the next thing here is turn gaps into opportunities. So you need to understand that your day is full of gaps. Gaps are areas of time where you're waiting. For example, you might have calls scattered throughout the day and you probably have like a couple of calls in the morning and then one call like six hours later. And it almost seems like after you finish the first batch of calls, you're kind of procrastinating, you're kind of not getting work done and you're just in a way waiting for the next appointment, the next call. You finish a task, you have like 30 minutes or like you have an hour. And like these small amounts of time, these small gaps throughout the day, a lot of the times you dismiss them. For example, I was waiting in the car and instead of just like waiting and doing nothing, I sent an important voice message that I had on my mind, you know, like an open loop. Like if I have a 20 minute gap, I can make an important phone call, I can make a voice message, or I can even read a book. You might be thinking that, oh, 20 minutes is not enough to sit down and read a book, but you can use these gaps in your day to actually fill them up with things that you need to do. And also I've had so many times where I had like 30 minutes till, you know, for example, I have Muay Thai at like 6.30 and it was 6 p.m. And I had like 30 minutes of like open time before I left. And I'm like thinking to myself, yeah, it's not enough time to work or do anything productive. So I did nothing. But instead, the other time, I'm like, yeah, 30 minutes is a long time. Let me actually get some work done. And I actually got a meaningful amount of work done in those 30 minutes. It's more about how you see the time versus the actual time itself. So part number one was the hidden hours. Identify every single activity, task, unit of time that is just being wasted that you don't even know. Those things that are taking up actually a lot of time, but it feels like they're not wasting any time. Number two is stretching the day. You can't make the clock move slower, but what you can do is you can make your time worth more. Increase the output per unit of time. Fill the gaps and squeeze opportunities to be productive. And also stop measuring your time in an hour because an hour is irrelevant. It is what you do in that hour that matters and makes a difference. So let's get into part number three, the missing link. Now let's get handy. Let's cut straight to the chase and list out the things that are gonna help you. Number one, don't immediately fill the extra time. So it's about understanding that those 30 minutes, the open 30 minutes, you can actually do so much work in that time, but it doesn't mean that you have to fill every single gap with something because that just turns into, you know, scrolling, checking something, and you're just back at square one. It's also good to have time where you do nothing. That is not a time waste. That is actually productive. People think that doing nothing is a waste of time, but the truth is like when you're sitting with your thoughts and thinking, just like thinking about life, thinking about your goals with no stimulation, that is when your dopamine actually resets. That is when you get the best ideas and that's where you just level up. Like if you're in the car and you're just waiting, you know, you don't have to do anything. Like you can send a voice message, you can make a phone call, but what you can do as well, which is also productive, is just sitting and doing nothing. I know that kind of contradicts what I said earlier, but it's just more of like the balance and how you frame it. Number two, create more with less. You need to be more efficient with your time. You need to do more work in the same hour instead of trying to do more hours of work. Don't get stuck in the common trap of productivity of, you know, I have to do more work. I have to do more, like work longer hours. That is not true. You have to work better hours. You have to get the most important work done and focus more efficiently. That is what is going to make use of your time. And number three, make it your identity to manage your time efficiently. Start seeing yourself as a person who manages their time, who doesn't waste time, who is very productive and efficient. You need to start changing your self-image to match that narrative because you will always take action in alignment with the way you see yourself. Psycho-cybernetics classic. If you see yourself as a person who cannot waste time because they understand how valuable time is, then you will never waste time. Identity and discipline are the two most important things to achieve the goals that you have, to get the work done, to fix your focus, to scale your business and just get to where you want to be. Number four, split up your day into two halves. If you just have a long stretch of time throughout the whole day, you're bound to waste time. Instead, cut up your day into chunks. For me, I wake up, I read, I meditate, I freshen up and I stretch. And then at around 8.30 a.m, I will sit at my desk, get some coffee and start deep work. And this is the first half of the day. I will work until lunchtime. And then at lunchtime, the second half of the day begins. And then after a quick lunch break, walking, going outside, I'll come back and work from like 2 p.m to 6 p.m. This is my second half of the day. And then after around 6 p.m, I will not work anymore. That is my shut off routine. Splitting up your day into different parts, having either two halves or three thirds or four quarters of your day is a great way to change the perspective and frame you have around time. It just makes every single half or a quarter feel more valuable and more useful. And finally, number four, don't do it alone. Join our community, DisciplineOS. This is what we help you with. We have weekly coaching calls every single Sunday that are going to help you stay consistent, get your goals, fix your mindset, and just manage your time effectively. Trust me, the things that you learn inside are going to change your life. It's all about accountability, discipline, and identity. Those are the things we focus on. So join our community, DisciplineOS, link below. So finally, your level of success never exceeds your level of discipline. Take care and you got this.