Chad Silverstein argues that people generally have as much time as everyone else (despite common complaints), pointing to high phone screen time (often cited as 3–6 hours/day) as evidence of wasted attention. He urges treating time like an accountant treats books—tracking it via journaling—and choosing to spend, waste, or invest time deliberately. The core claim: prioritize inward work to achieve wholeness and oneness with loved ones and work; making time for personal, emotional, spiritual, and professional growth is essential because the cost of neglect is anxiety, stress, and a life lacking fulfillment.
Questions this video answers
3–6 hours per day.
Chapters
I don't know what the average amount of time people today spend on their phone, but I think if you look at your screen time, I think they say, now it's between three to six hours in a day. So I love when I hear people at work or people who are considering getting a coach, they say they don't have time. It's such a joke. You know, if you think about how much time you're scrolling on your phone and how much time you waste in front of a TV or searching on the Internet or doing whatever it is you do, you have nothing but time. And you have just as much as everyone else. But time is undefeated. And as you get older, it's the most important thing that you'll have. And sometimes you don't realize that until maybe a health scare or you're burned out at work, or you're just miserable with life. This is why people go through a midlife crisis. You can spend your time, waste your time, or invest your time. And you have to be sort of like an accountant. An accountant's gonna scroll through the numbers. They're gonna take an accounting of the books, and you have to do that with your time. This is why journaling is so powerful. People who keep track of their day and where they spend their time. And there's something really powerful with adopting a discipline to be, like, just crazy with making sure you make the best use of your time because it's limited and you don't know when your time's going to be up. I always say, you know, your clock's ticking, and just because you don't see that clock doesn't mean your time is decreasing. And unfortunately, as we know in this world, that could end any minute. And so making the most of the time that you have and pouring yourself into what really matters most. And what's interesting is you ask people that, and they always say family. A lot of people will say faith. A lot of people will say their job. But there's nothing more important than you personally growing personally, professionally, emotionally, spiritually. And if you look at the fact that if you're not whole, if you don't have that oneness with the most important people in your life, and you were to write that out, you know, what's the cost for you to not have that oneness with your loved one, to not have that love and that fullness that you want at work, what's the cost? And usually it's anxiety and it's stress, and it's losing time and losing sleep and getting sick. And that stuff is irreplaceable. And when you think about it on the flip side of what it's like when you have the love, that wholeness, that oneness, that satisfaction, that complete feeling that you can have if you're in love with the people in your life and you have good relationships and you love what you get to do every single day, and it gets you up every day, excited, you're passionate about it, how much is that worth? And thinking about what's that worth? And so everyone who I've ever done this exercise with will say the same thing. It's worth everything. That's what they always say. It's everything. And the cost of having, you know, not having that stuff is going to be, you know, miserable relationships and stress and anxiety. So if you think about those polar opposites, you know what that's worth and what the cost to you is. What could be more important than you working on yourself and becoming whole so that you can then do the things that you want in your life with people that you love or at work? And you can't do that unless you're whole with yourself. So it all starts inward, looking at you, you working on you, and you getting stronger and having a really strong core so that you can battle life storms and be able to overcome the obstacles that are usually test designed to help you grow, ironically. So it's a mindset, and it starts within, it starts here. And unfortunately, most people today are trying to change everyone else around them instead of focusing where they should, which is looking in the mirror and trying to, you know, close your own integrity gaps. If you want oneness, if you want wholeness in your life, then you need to work on yourself. And to say that you don't have time to do that is ridiculous. It's ridiculous. I don't care how busy you are, I don't care how much responsibility you have. You make time for whatever is the most important thing in the world, period. You have your priorities, period. And so if you can't tell me that having oneness with the people you love, wholeness with the places where you spend the majority of your day isn't one of the biggest priorities in your life, well, then you've got your priorities mixed up, because again, the cost of that is a life not worth living. And the aim is to live a life worth living and to have oneness and have wholeness first with yourself and then with others.
