In Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, there’s an old story about a general named Joshua who had supernatural success in war, conquering dozens and dozens of small nations and city-states with a ragtag army. In one such battle, he faced a united enemy attempting to destroy one of his allies. The enemy was in full retreat, but with night falling, Joshua feared that the enemy would escape under cover of darkness and be able to mount a counter attack at a later time. So the story goes that he prayed, and God halted the transit of the sun across the sky, giving Joshua and his army extra hours to defeat and capture their foes.
In business, do you ever feel like there just aren't enough hours in the day? Do you feel like you've got victory in your sights, but you'd just need the day to be 31 hours long to get it all done? If only you had just a little more time before bed each night, when the mountain of emails and a new day's demands would reset, and victory would escape your grasp. I can't tell you how to make the sun stand still, but I can tell you how to make the day last 25, 26, or 27 hours-No miracles, magic, or Red Bull required.
About five months ago, maybe four weeks after finishing TMF , I made a drastic change in my life. It was a decision that I should have made on a fateful day back in 1995. I remember struggling with my difficult classes in college, like o-chem diff eq. and medical physics. I remember in graduate school, with 500 pages of reading to do each week, thinking that there was no way to do it. If only I had another hour.
I don't feel that way now, even though I'm swamped with work. I feel like a vast expanse of time has opened up, like my days are supernaturally long, like the sun is frozen in the sky giving me all the time I need. And you can too.
In 1995, in May, I think, I spent all my Christmas money, $29.99, on MechWarrior 2: 31st Century Combat, the first video game I ever owned. Over the subsequent years I would buy Half-Life, Star Craft, Counter Strike, and many others, along with thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars in cutting edge computers. I don't how much I spent on video games during my childhood, not that much by adult standards, but the point was more what they took from me in terms of resources-everything. They consumed, and consumed, and consumed. Somehow, when it came time for exams, I was always left wondering why I had to stay up until 3AM, drinking 40oz of coffee per day.
One of the most vital steps in switching from team consumer to team producer is to cut out the things that are consuming you. Your mind will make up all kinds of excuses: You're having fun, you earned it, it's just a hobby, it's just to relax. Meanwhile, your actual work seems impossible, because every day, hours go to TV, or Video games. Your brain might justify it by the level of excitement that you're experiencing-you're right in the middle of solving crimes, fighting wars, healing patients with exotic diseases... but you know what the reality is?
All those nights in college, or in high school, you weren't battling monsters or securing victory for the USA or healing people-you were sitting virtually motionless in a char for hours, possibly moving your fingers. You were doing... nothing.
Doing nothing is the antithesis of being a producer. Every minute that you do nothing, your ability to produce languishes, and you languish.
If you're 19 or 23 or 25, I'm begging you to listen to the wisdom of somebody who is just a few years farther down the line. Do what I did five months ago:
Take everything, all the games, all the controllers, everything, wipe your hard drive, and drive it to a Salvation Army and leave it in their collection bin. Put it out by the curb in the trash. Immediately, get rid of it. Don't give yourself a chance to change your mind.
Beyond freeing your time, it frees your life. I have never, not once, looked back on my childhood and wished I played another minute of video games.
Stop watching someone become the biggest loser and start getting in shape yourself.
Stop racing your dream car in Forza and get out there and get it in real life.
Stop following a TV romance and get out there and fall in love yourself.
Real things don't vanish when you flip the switch. Spend your time getting the things that last when the power is off. No matter how old you are, or where you are in life, I'm an ex-addict who escaped from team consumer, and this is an intervention. Throw your console out. Delete your games. Delete your Reddit account and block it with productivity software. Cancel Netflix. You cannot afford to waste another night of your life on things that consume you, and give back nothing in return.
In business, do you ever feel like there just aren't enough hours in the day? Do you feel like you've got victory in your sights, but you'd just need the day to be 31 hours long to get it all done? If only you had just a little more time before bed each night, when the mountain of emails and a new day's demands would reset, and victory would escape your grasp. I can't tell you how to make the sun stand still, but I can tell you how to make the day last 25, 26, or 27 hours-No miracles, magic, or Red Bull required.
About five months ago, maybe four weeks after finishing TMF , I made a drastic change in my life. It was a decision that I should have made on a fateful day back in 1995. I remember struggling with my difficult classes in college, like o-chem diff eq. and medical physics. I remember in graduate school, with 500 pages of reading to do each week, thinking that there was no way to do it. If only I had another hour.
I don't feel that way now, even though I'm swamped with work. I feel like a vast expanse of time has opened up, like my days are supernaturally long, like the sun is frozen in the sky giving me all the time I need. And you can too.
In 1995, in May, I think, I spent all my Christmas money, $29.99, on MechWarrior 2: 31st Century Combat, the first video game I ever owned. Over the subsequent years I would buy Half-Life, Star Craft, Counter Strike, and many others, along with thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars in cutting edge computers. I don't how much I spent on video games during my childhood, not that much by adult standards, but the point was more what they took from me in terms of resources-everything. They consumed, and consumed, and consumed. Somehow, when it came time for exams, I was always left wondering why I had to stay up until 3AM, drinking 40oz of coffee per day.
One of the most vital steps in switching from team consumer to team producer is to cut out the things that are consuming you. Your mind will make up all kinds of excuses: You're having fun, you earned it, it's just a hobby, it's just to relax. Meanwhile, your actual work seems impossible, because every day, hours go to TV, or Video games. Your brain might justify it by the level of excitement that you're experiencing-you're right in the middle of solving crimes, fighting wars, healing patients with exotic diseases... but you know what the reality is?
All those nights in college, or in high school, you weren't battling monsters or securing victory for the USA or healing people-you were sitting virtually motionless in a char for hours, possibly moving your fingers. You were doing... nothing.
Doing nothing is the antithesis of being a producer. Every minute that you do nothing, your ability to produce languishes, and you languish.
If you're 19 or 23 or 25, I'm begging you to listen to the wisdom of somebody who is just a few years farther down the line. Do what I did five months ago:
Take everything, all the games, all the controllers, everything, wipe your hard drive, and drive it to a Salvation Army and leave it in their collection bin. Put it out by the curb in the trash. Immediately, get rid of it. Don't give yourself a chance to change your mind.
Beyond freeing your time, it frees your life. I have never, not once, looked back on my childhood and wished I played another minute of video games.
Stop watching someone become the biggest loser and start getting in shape yourself.
Stop racing your dream car in Forza and get out there and get it in real life.
Stop following a TV romance and get out there and fall in love yourself.
Real things don't vanish when you flip the switch. Spend your time getting the things that last when the power is off. No matter how old you are, or where you are in life, I'm an ex-addict who escaped from team consumer, and this is an intervention. Throw your console out. Delete your games. Delete your Reddit account and block it with productivity software. Cancel Netflix. You cannot afford to waste another night of your life on things that consume you, and give back nothing in return.
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