Here’s a very interesting fact.
2 hours per day, 5 days a week times 50 weeks per year equals 500 hours. That is about 3 and a half months of full-time work (40 hour work weeks).
That means if it takes you 2 hours a day to come and go from your work, you’re spending 500 hours every year just driving. What are you doing during that time?
After wasting too much time for a bunch of years, I stopped feeling bad about it, decided to do something and not let that happen again, so I am now all about being efficient and productive.
I’ll be honest, it’s TOUGH, and I am never as productive as I would like to be, my wife tells me I am being highly productive but I still don’t feel that way.
In the beginning it felt like a chore, it was really painful to do stuff, but after a few days of being disciplined I started getting the hang of it and now I can’t be doing nothing, I can’t be still, every minute I am not reading, writing, drawing, learning or producing, I feel like I am wasting time away! and in the words of a very smart goblin “Time is money friend!!”.
So stop wasting your time!.
Everything starts with discipline
Discipline and consistency, consistency is key, even more than frequency or quantities.
I’ve always had a hard time waking up early, I still do. I realized it’s just a matter of creating a habit. I used to wake up at 10 am, whenever I tried to get up early I would set up my alarm to 6 am and feel like a zombie for the rest of the day.
Instead, what I am doing now is just reducing the time I wake up for about 30 mins every week, right now I wake up everyday at 7:30 am (I have a hard time going to bed early) but 7:30 am is SUPER EARLY FOR ME! and that has been a huge improvement for me.
Why? I now have 2 hours per day that I’ve been productive. I wake up and right away, even drowsy, I get to work on my stuff right away for at least 2 hours before I do anything else, sometimes I feel like it’s not enough or that I am doing nothing, but I don’t let myself get discouraged by my thoughts I just keep doing it everyday. Slowly you will build the habit ergo you will improve consistently.
It’s very important to plan what you are going to do the night before, or have a week plan, that way you wake up with ideas and already know what you are going to work on. Whether you like it or not, you just do it, you follow your plan, that’s what discipline is all about.
During this time the house is quiet, there are no distractions, no one is texting you, your phone is not ringing so you can FOCUS and be highly productive without any interruptions.
So think about it, 2 hours per day are over 3 months of full time work. It’s not just sheer numbers, it helps you grow because you develop a habit and the consistency of it makes you better over time.
You don’t have to limit yourself to 2 hours.
I try to study/practice at least 5 hours a day (trying to increase that), you could do 3 or even just 1. Just as waking up early or saving money in the bank, you do it little by little and it adds up, it stops being a chore and becomes part of your daily life, that’s the only way to improve your skills.
After a while, if you stop doing it, you’ll miss it big time.
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