Ep 605 | You Have the Time. You're Just Wasting It

Thank you for joining me today. It's Brian Gubernick, and welcome to the No Days Off podcast, where we believe that every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. Today, I want to talk about maybe one of the most common lies— and that's a pretty aggressive word— but common lies that I, that I hear each day. It might even be the biggest lie that we all tell ourselves. And that lie is, I don't have time. The statement, I don't have time. We say that like, like it's a fact. Like time is, is this external force that, that somebody else is controlling. But here's what I've come to realize. We all get the exact same 168 hours a week. You get it, I get it, Elon gets it, Oprah gets it. We all have the same 168. So if, if time is not the issue, like we have 168 hours, if time's not the issue, then what exactly is it? Well, let's break it down, literally. Let's, let's run the math and then talk a little bit more about this. This, this math equation. So, if we all have 168 hours per week, let's subtract what I would call the non-negotiables. Okay? So, for example, sleep. You're gonna sleep 7 hours or so a night, 7 days a week. So, right there is 49 hours. You're gonna work 9 hours a day if you include the commute. 5 days a week. So there's another 45 hours. You're gonna work out, especially if you're a No Days Off Nation member. You're gonna work out at least an hour per day. Let's just go with an hour for sake of the conversation right now in the equation. Hour per day, and you're probably gonna go 5 days a week. So there's another 5 hours. You're gonna have your meals and your prep. I'm gonna call that an hour and a half per day. Times 7, that's 10 and a half hours a week. You're gonna have family time, and I'm gonna be generous here, more generous than I think most people are spending, but I'm gonna go 3 hours per weekday and 5 hours on the weekends. So, that's another 25 hours. And then lastly, I'm just gonna call it personal hygiene/admin-related tasks. Let's just call it an hour per day. So, that's another 7 hours. So when you go through what I just ran, you know, the equation I just ran or the math I just ran out, what you find is 141.5 hours that I would call accounted for time. What that really means is that we have 26.5 hours left after accounting for everything I just said. And that's every single week, 26.5 hours left, more than a full day left. That's 3.5 hours per day of what I would call flexible time. Even if you don't like the math equation I just gave you, like, you're like, "Oh, I'm gonna sleep a little bit more. I'm gonna work out 7 days," or, you know, "It takes me a little bit longer to eat." Okay, fine. So, you'll go from, call it, 3.5 hours per day to 2.5 hours per day instead. That is a lot of time. Here's the kicker. I don't think most people can tell you where that flexible time even went, where those hours really truly went. Where does the time actually go? Well, I mean, there's a lot of research out there on this. There are some very common time thieves, and you're probably all thinking exactly what they are, and you're probably right. Social media is a 2 to 3 hour habit per day for most people. Now, if you're listening to this podcast, you're not like most people, but there's 2 to 3 hours per day gone to social media. There's 2 to 4 hours per day gone to TV and streaming. There's probably an hour or two per day going to text and email and whatever other mindless communication tool you're using. And then there's just mindless internet surfing and YouTube and Reddit or whatever it is you're doing. This is what I would call invisible time loss. It's, it's death by a thousand scrolls. We're not actually out of time, we're completely out of focus. And I think this is exactly how people end up saying things like Oh, I want to start a business, or I wish I could write a book, or I should be in better shape. But then nothing ever happens because that margin, it's spent watching Netflix or scrolling Instagram Reels. So, I'm not trying to get after anybody or be too aggressive here. I am just as guilty. I mean, every night I've been watching something on Netflix for for an hour and that's— and I justify it as like my wind-down time. And as a result, I sleep less. And as a result, I read a little less than I could. Now, I do believe you should have some joy if that in fact brings you some joy. But do I need 2.5 hours like it sometimes could turn into if I don't control it? Nah, probably don't need 2.5 hours on Netflix. Because the reality is it's not really a time problem. It's a priority problem. Time's not the issue. It's clarity and intention that are actually the issue. How do I know this? Uh, because people make time for fantasy football leagues. People make time for watching a new season of their favorite show. People always make time for like the third rewatch of The Office, but they can't make time, I guess, to read 10 pages a day. Or call their mom or journal or meditate or create. So you are either choosing your time or you're letting someone else choose it for you. I think we've got to take control. We've got to really regain control over our time. And, and as I'm thinking through, like, how do we go about regaining control? I think there's really 4 tactical ways to do that. The first thing I'd consider doing is just running a time audit. For the next few days, track every hour, every single one. I think you'll be stunned at what you'll find is eating up your calendar. You could use a spreadsheet to track, or there's actually apps. I haven't used them, but I've heard of like an app, an app called, I think, RescueTime. There's another one called Moment. But they allow you to track your time. So, run a time audit. Where are you spending— take the next 3 days, where are you spending every single minute or every single hour? I think you'll be shocked. Number 2, I would deploy what I would call the 1-hour earlier strategy. I think most of us here today can leverage this 1-hour earlier strategy. Most people have no idea what waking up 1 hour earlier can do. If you pick up 1 extra hour just 5 days a week, that's 5 more hours per week. That's 260 hours per year. 260 hours per year. That's the equivalent of, of 6 full, 6 full work weeks. What could you build with, with that sort of time, right? What could you build with 260 more hours per year? 2 more. I mean, that's so much more time. It's crazy. Next, I want you to create what I would call no-fly zones. No-fly zones. What do I mean by that? I want you to block your sacred time with zero distractions. The time for, you know, block this time for work, for working out, for your side hustle. Treat it like a flight. That's why I call it no-fly zones. I love flying sometimes because I get so much done. Why do I get so much done? Because there's zero distraction. There's no calls, there's no emails. There could be emails if I'm on Wi-Fi, but there's no calls, there's no interruptions. So create these no-fly zones. And then lastly, and I love this one, it's been a game changer for me. I want you to install what I would call default habits. As we've discussed here, you don't usually rise to the level of your goals, you fall to the level of your system. So, when I say install default habits, what I think about is, instead of saying something like, "I'll read more," what I would challenge you to instead do is, "After I pour my coffee, I will read 10 pages." That becomes the goal. So again, instead of broadly saying, "I'll work out more," what I'm gonna instead do or say is, "At 5:30 every day, I'm at the gym," Period. This is the default habit. Clock strikes 5:30, at the gym. Pour my coffee, read 10 pages. In other words, automate your time around your goals and not just automating your time around dopamine hits. So as we wrap up, you're not too busy, I think you're distracted. You're not really out of time, I'm not really out of time. We're just bleeding time, we're just leaking time. I don't think you need a new calendar. I think we all just maybe need some new commitments. So, the action step here, I already mentioned it. Do that 72-hour time audit. Track where every hour goes. And then, pick one activity that shows up on that time audit and just reduce it by 50%. Maybe, again, it's social. Cut it by 50%. Maybe it's TV. Cut it by 50%. And instead, reallocate that time to something that matters to you. Be it your health or your relationships or, you know, a hobby that matters or your craft. Time is not the enemy here. Time is actually an ally, but only if you in fact stop wasting it. That's all I have for you today, the No Days Off Podcast. Thank you so much for listening. And remember, every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. So let's get after it. [MUSIC] [MUSIC]