Today’s topic: extra time.
This is your daily growth hack, where each day we bring you tips, tricks, and insights to help you uplevel your life so you can become the author of your own story and what we call the five to thrive. That’s mind, body, soul, relationships, and business. Now, what do I mean by extra time. I know you’re thinking like “Doug, you know we all have 24 hours in a day. Nobody has extra time.” And that’s totally true, but let’s say you’re the average American.
Now, I know you’re watching this and you’re going off to www.authorofyourownstory.com and you’re participating in the community. You are anything but average. You’re extraordinary. You’re actually one of those people that are taking the bull by the horns, and living life on your terms. And I commend you for that, but let’s take a step back and just think, “What if you were average? You’re the average person, okay? And maybe we’re closer than we think. Well, did you know the average person spends four hours a day watching TV? Two more hours on social media. That’s six hours a day. Well, what could you do with six hours a day? I mean, if you just wrote that down, it would be astonishing. Did you know that if you just eliminated TV and social media, just in those six-hour average times, you can master a foreign language, be fluent in two months?
Think of all the things that you can do just by simply reducing that time. Let’s say you only watch two hours of TV and spend an hour on social media, then that frees up three hours a day of your time to pursue your goals, your passion. Start a new business, really connect with the people that you love, look at those people that in your life and spend time with them. Look at your goals: What do you want to learn? Is a foreign language? Do you want to learn to surf? snowboard? Do you want to travel more? Do you want to start a new business? What I’d love you to do is take out your journal or your notebook, and write down those things you do in a day. Now, everybody that I’ve coached says “Doug, I don’t watch TV. I’m not on social media that much.” Well, come to find out, they are a lot more than they think.
There are lots of good applications out there that can monitor your time on your computer. I use one to track my time to see what I’m on. What websites I’m spending too much time on. How much I’m on Facebook or YouTube or any other websites, reading journals or newspapers or etc online as well as on my mobile device: my cell phone. Really trying to see where I’m at and tracking my time. There’s also just journaling, writing down what you’re doing. You would be shocked to know how much time are you spending in the car, and while you’re in the car, are you listening to something that’s feeding your brain? Are you listening to bubblegum music? pop music or country or whatever it is that you enjoy? That’s fine, but do it with intent. Listen to music as you love it, but don’t listen to it just to drown out the other sounds. Try silence. Try our driving meditation so to speak. Or listen to something like the daily grow hacks that’s going to help you up level your life.
What I’m challenging you to do today is write down your times. Each day, write down all those things that you do. Write down how often you watch tv, watch the people around you. If you’re married with your spouse, don’t try to change this habit just yet. Just record it. Just be aware how often are you actually commuting, how often are you actually spending on social media.
I highly recommend downloading and installing one of these time-tracking applications that you can actually look at at the end of the day and see how much time you’re spending on websites such as Facebook, YouTube, or any of the news media outlets. Look at your time at the end of the week. See where that’s benefiting you and see where you want to move or pivot. Now, I know for me, I found that I was actually watching a lot more TV and I found myself on YouTube quite often.
Now, I watch you Youtube too because I watch shows like this too. I watch things that are going to inspire me or going to uplift my life, but I found that I was watching them a lot more than I thought. I was spending a lot more time on these websites and by consciously making a decision to cut that down, I’ve actually been taking that time and started practicing my Spanish. Now, over next course of a year, I could be fluent in Spanish if I continue on this path. If I multiply the hours they say that it takes to master of foreign language, I’m on track. And by this time next year, when you and I are having a conversation, I’ll be able to speak to you in Spanish, and it’ll be awesome.
So, the whole idea of extra time is being conscious of your time. So write your times down to really track it. I really highly recommend these time tracking devices are available for laptops as well as phones, but also manually tracking things that you’re doing. And I’m not saying TV is bad or social media’s bad. Nothing’s bad. It’s just is that where you want to put your intention? If you were to look at yourself a year from now and look back on how you got to where you want to be, was it the TV time that is really rewarding you? You know when you sit down binge-watching five shows of the Walking Dead, the next day, do you feel better about yourself? Or is that time better spent doing something else? Maybe watching one episode or two or maybe spending another time doing it? Really, what I’m asking to do is just be conscious of your time.
I’d love to hear your results, love for you to share them in the Facebook group. Also, remember to get these show notes and all the other show notes, as well as tips tricks and other ways to uplevel your life, go to: www.authorofyourownstory.com today. That’s it for me today. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.
That’s it for me today. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.
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