Living in today’s modern world in a big city, in the field of services (I don’t know how many of the readers of this blog, if any, work on a farm or in a factory), each of you must, more or less, do the following categories of tasks, to be independent. This does not depend on how much money you earn, what you do, or your position. To keep a certain degree of sustainable independence, anyone must deal with these:
1. Tasks sustaining life:
Cooking – even if you use semi-prepared foods, you still have to at least prepare them so that they are eatable from your plate. This takes about 15 minutes to 1 h a day. Even at the restaurant, you must wait for the order. You must stay in line to be served even at a fast-food restaurant.
Eating – even if you do it while driving, going to work, watching a TV show, or on the computer, it still requires at least 30 minutes a day. So, at most, 1 h 30 (assuming you have 3-4 healthy meals a day).
Bathing, showering, personal hygiene, and time spent in the bathroom. For men, at least 15 minutes a day. For women, at least 45 minutes a day.
Sleeping. At least 7 hours a day. At most, 9 hours a day. Add to that at least 15 minutes per day for the process of falling asleep/waking up. At most, add 30 minutes. All that is more than 30 minutes a day is pathological.
2. Tasks sustaining health
Exercising, doing some sort of physical movement. To keep a healthy body, at least 30 minutes a day. At most, 1 h a day (those who want to exercise more will do it as a hobby). This can be done by walking, jogging, fitness, weightlifting, gymnastics, kinesiotherapy, etc. No time exercising leads to even more time wasted each day on anxiety, depression, and time-wasting behaviors, not to mention eventual sickness.
Breaks. Time off your desk, off your job, when you do something refreshing like looking at the window, closing your eyes, doing eye gymnastics, whatever. At least 15 minutes per day, added from all the sequences of time throughout the day, leaving away the time spent on going to the bathroom and eating (those might also be considered breaks).
3. Organizing tasks.
Domestic housework, washing, organizing stuff, throwing out the garbage, dressing, undressing, cleaning the laundry, ironing, desk cleaning, all the little stuff, which are added to one another, take time. The more organized you are, the more time you save knowing where everything is. At least 25-30 minutes a day.
Planning, managing, monitoring, and evaluating tasks, goals, meetings, and resources. Even if you delegate, it still takes time to communicate instructions and make calls. You may do it with Google Calendar, on your smartphone, on an old-time agenda, or in an Excel file. For example, if you have a secretary, it still takes time to communicate with her. This should take at least 10 minutes and, at most, 30 minutes daily.
Banking & accountability, financial matters, paying bills. Let’s say you use internet banking, and you just count your money, and you go to one or two places to physically pay your bills. This takes at least 10 minutes per day, on average.
Acquisitions. It doesn’t matter if you go to the market, to the hypermarket, shopping in the mall, or on the internet. You still need time to choose, compare, test, and probe before you buy; even if you don’t do that daily, this can take up to as much as 15-30 minutes.
All sorts of computer tasks: checking your e-mail & FB, opening & turning off the computer, opening & closing software programs, dealing with resets & restarts, logging in & logging out, (dis)connecting USB devices – all these little tiny things that take time while you’re not actually working. At least 15 minutes a day if you don’t waste time.
4. Education & self-education.
Even if you’re not a student at a faculty or if you’re not looking for a master’s / Ph.D. degree, you still have to learn. Even if you’re doing a google search or reading a Wikipedia article. I also put video training, documentaries, internet research, news aggregators, audiobooks, e-books, printed books, magazines, blogs, and foreign language training. At least 1 hour a day. If you spend less time on any of these activities, it means you’ll be out of a job really soon.
5. Socializing.
Let’s say you only have a meeting with one friend for two hours a week. That translates into about 15 minutes a day. Add to that the time spent socializing on the phone, on Facebook, and face-to-face if you work with colleagues. It takes at least 30 minutes a day. Of course, if you don’t have friends to talk to, it will take more time, as you will end up frustrated & desperate for communication, in which case you’ll spend more time longing for this. And yes, this includes talking to your parents. So, at least 30 minutes a day, on average. At most, 1 hour a day (presuming you don’t have a sentimental partner with whom you spend much more time or live with).
6. Transportation.
It doesn’t matter if you’re driving, using the subway, or the bus; to go everywhere out of your house means time spent on the road. Of course, unless you work all the time from home and have a butler bringing you everything on a platter. The advantage of using just one or two means of public transportation is that during that time, you can actually do something else (especially learning through audiobooks and reading). Anyway, this takes at least 30 minutes a day. At most, it can even take 3 hours, but in this case, you’d definitely better use this time for studying or talking on the phone. Otherwise, it’s just wasted time.
All these take up at least 13 hours a day. So that means, if you don’t waste time in any of these departments, you should have, on average, at most 11 hours a day, time in which to do 3 main things:
1. earning money – either as an employee, a freelancer, an administrator, a manager, or an entrepreneur.
2. hobbies & leisure – exercising a talent, having a boyfriend/girlfriend, watching a movie, listening to music, going to a party, dancing,
3. any other projects or activities which may satisfy your needs of developing & contributing: going to Church, volunteering, blogging, participating in training, developing a business, etc.
The less money you earn, the less time you spend on #2 and #3. This doesn’t mean the more money you make, the more time you will have.
Now, for those who want to do more than go to work, have a partner, and make kids, handling all these hours makes the difference between mediocrity and performance.
If you perceive your timeline out of your body, then it means you have a Meta Time perception, which makes it easy for you to handle your tasks. If you, on the other hand, have an In Time perception, this article might have been a very clouded, silly idea for you, and it doesn’t matter how many of these you will read; it won’t make any difference.
If this article has incited you to ask yourself some questions, please also consider these:
1. Which departments do you spend more time in than needed?
2. What emotional benefits do you have by spending more time than needed in any category? Are they security, diversity, signification, connection, development, or contribution? Check Anthony Robbins’ pyramid of emotional needs.
3. How else could you satisfy those emotions more time-effective and awarely?
If you liked this article, please also read the following:
What are you doing with the rest of your 8 hours a day? [en, blog]
Ce am învăţat din exerciţiul lui Brian Tracy [ro, php]/What I Have Learnt from Brian Tracy’s Exercise [en] [link valid from 20.6.2022]
Piramida nevoilor emoţionale fundamentale după Anthony Robbins [ro, blog]
Marcus Victor Grant
Copyright © Marcus Victor Grant 2012-present, all rights reserved.
The materials on this blog are subject to this disclaimer.
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