You are too busy, stupid.
My daily routine during my last vacation was relatively simple, and it can be summarized as follows:
- Gym
- Meditation
- Writing
- Reading
- Walks
- Cooking and Eating
- Sleeping
- Repeat
And, to be honest, I haven’t felt so fulfilled for a while –despite looking “boring” from the outside. The reason? I can focus on meaningful and relevant activities for my self-actualization journey. I want you to remember the last time you had a similar experience (hopefully, it was not so long ago).
On the other hand, nowadays, most of us are “busy” and with full agendas–and at the same time, feeling miserable and empty inside. Is this a coincidence? Chances are, you are one of those busy individuals who is ransacking some time for themselves. At the end of the article, I will tell you how to get at least one extra free hour every day in 3 simple steps.
Modern society and its accelerated pace
It’s no surprise to anyone that the pace of life has accelerated in the last centuries (particularly in the previous decades) thanks to technology. Our lives are now full of endless possibilities. We can travel to (almost) any country for a fraction of the time and cost of previous generations. We can enjoy the cuisines from many countries with a few clicks from our favorite delivery app. To finance that, we must work at least 10 hours every day (8 hours of work + 2 hours of commute) to get our deserved paycheck at the end of the month.
On top of that, add social media and the constant pressure to get new things. After all, you want to stay caught up on the latest trends your friends enjoy!
Even if you are into self-improvement, you are bombarded with advice such as
- Meditate every day!
- Go to the gym!
- Read a book every week!
And even though this advice is sound and will add immense value to your life (you can see I do them regularly), it sometimes feels like too many things to do. At worst, you get overwhelmed, and you end up doing nothing.
Trust me, I know this feeling, and it sucks.
In this post, I won’t tell you to add new stuff to your already-packed daily routine. On the contrary, I will recommend you to do less. And I will tell you exactly how you can do that (see the “Track-Assess-Reduce” framework below ). I call this Lifestyle minimalism.
So, will you make me declutter my room?
I’m pretty sure you have heard the word “Minimalism” before. If not, it’s a lifestyle based on having only the necessary physical possessions. If you have too much stuff in your home (and probably this is your case), the idea is to eliminate all the stuff you don’t use. Minimalists are also mindful of any new things they want to get. I’ve become aware of this concept from The Minimalists. If you are interested in the idea, go to their website to get a better explanation of the concept (which is more than just having fewer physical possessions).
From now on, I will call this type of minimalism Material Minimalism to separate it from the minimalism we discuss here. But both share the same principle: to focus on what matters. And what matters? Well, that’s up to you, and that is where the beauty of the concept lies.
If you are like most of us, you have been told what you should do in your life:
- Go to school, then university
- Have a job, a family, and some friends
- Retire at 65 and die at ~80
And I want to be clear: all those are legitimate life choices–I spent ten years trying to get a Ph.D. The problem is when you do them on autopilot. Sadly, that is the path that most of us follow.
You must break this cycle.
Empty your cup
“The best self-improvement advice I could give is decluttering your life.”
If there is a phrase that almost everyone can agree with, it is this one:
“I don’t have time.”
I’m sure 99% of us will agree with this one–myself included. After all, life is exciting, and there are so many places to visit and cool things to do. At the same time, we are full of responsibilities: family, friends, and work commitments.
On top of that, if you are a self-improvement junkie like me, you have a stack of books in your to-read list and a couple of good habits you want to install (but not enough time to implement them).
Thus, we end up in a catch-22: we don’t have time to improve ourselves. Because of that, we get stuck in life and cannot progress to a stage where we can have more free time. This cycle can be challenging to break, especially if you have a family to care for, a competitive job that absorbs your life, or both.
Yet, I’m sure you do at least one of the following activities:
- Play videogames
- Scroll through social media
- Party on the weekends/meet friends or family
- Consume entertainment on TV/Netflix/Youtube
- Work extra hours
If you do at least one of the activities above, the steps below will help you get at least a couple of extra free hours a week.
The “Track-Assess-Reduce” framework to reclaim your free time
If you follow the steps below for 2 months, I’m 100% sure you will get at least one extra free hour per day.
1) Track:
For one week, create a list of all activities you do daily. You can also add each activity’s time, but this is optional. The goal is to be as detailed as possible with the activities.
A typical workday could look like this:
- Waking up
- Showering
- Having coffee
- Commuting to work
- Working (here, you can also add more details of what you do during your working day, like having lunch and coffee with colleagues, meetings, etc.)
- Commuting back from work
- Picking up kids
- Going grocery shopping
- Cooking
- Scrolling social media
- Having dinner
- Cleaning
- Watching a movie
- Sleeping
(You can even add going to the toilet and brushing your teeth, but that’s something everyone does many times a day, so I’m not including it).
Remember to include weekends! The goal of this stage is not to judge what you do and be brutally honest. The point of this exercise is to help you become aware of your activities.
2) Assess:
After doing the previous step for at least a whole week (including weekends), we will add a number 1–3 to each activity:
- 1 is a high priority: cannot be removed (like working or sleeping, for example)
- 2 for medium priority: could be removed if necessary, but it is desirable. Consider showering, for example. Ideally, you want to shower every day, but if in the face of an emergency, you can skip it (but not for many days, please)
- 3 for low priority: those are the activities that are not necessary. It doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t do them, but there is no harm if you skip them. For example, playing video games, scrolling through social media, attending a family party, etc.
Note: the priorities in 2–3 are person-dependent, and you should spend some time considering what fits into each category. For example, you may assign a family party (wedding) a “2” but playing video games a “3”, or vice versa.
3) Reduce:
You remove one activity (and no more) from the ones labeled with a “3” for one week and live the rest of your life as usual. You don’t want to add new stuff up to this stage. The best thing you can do for now is to sleep more (chances are, you are sleep-deprived) since it will give you the best return on investment.
After one week, reflect on whether your life has improved, worsened, or stayed the same. You want to continue tracking your activities until it becomes second nature. Implementing habits takes around 2 months, so be patient.
Every couple of weeks, repeat step 2 (assess). You may discover that some of your priorities have changed.
4) Iterate:
After 2 months, you will free 1–2 hours of your life by applying this method. At first, you may remove activities you spend 10 minutes daily. But over time, these activities will add up, and you will be saving several hours a week. This exercise aids you to become aware of what is important to you. As a consequence, this may change your priorities in life.
Note: don’t be surprised if you have a mini life crisis after this.
Conclusion
This framework empowers you to be the architect of your life. It is very easy these days to get caught by routines that don’t serve us. But we must take our time seriously.
Time is our most precious asset. Sadly, most people are wasting it on pointless activities that won’t lead them to a more satisfying life. I’m also guilty of this sometimes, so take it as a skill to master over time. Remember, the fun in the game of life is always to try to level up.
If you are serious about self-improvement, you must become very frugal with your time.
I talk in more detail about this topic in the video below. If you liked this article, subscribe to my newsletter to get access to free self-improvement principles every week.
