How do you guys even manage your time/energy?

[babyballer]

I’m no better, though. While I work a 40-hour week & go to the gym & groom myself every week, I spend my weekends mostly masturbating, pacing, watching the NFL, & playing basketball because I’m mentally exhausted by the demands of my work week. As well as having to take care of myself food-wise because my parents are too tired to do so. And I’m extremely lazy with regards to getting anything for myself. I also have a weakness in that it takes me extremely long to do basic tasks (e.g. brushing & flossing my teeth takes 20-25 minutes, eating a meal can take me 30-45 minutes, & I spend 45-60 minutes per trip to the toilet pooping because I have mild constipation issues).

First of all, what's your diet like? Is it standard American diet?

 

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[njord]

Talking about time wasting, when I realize all the things I need to do now I feel guilty every time i watch TV or youtube for wasting time.

These days i try do something productive like reading a book while eating ect... (not that i always succeed still a work in progress lol)

 

[Xeon]

What you need is a F*ck-This-Event.
Once that happpens, you'll have no mood or desire to brush/floss your teeth for 25 mins and sit in the toilet for an hour.

 

[GuestUser4aMPs1]

Paging @marcof_23 ... don't be a drive-by.

 

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[ZF Lee]

Boxing gloves? Well you are no fun at ALL!!! Unless..... hhmmmmm I might have to try that....

Don't think the boxing gloves have good material for 'that'. You might hurt yourself. The gloves are designed to cushion against blows, not handle skin with care!

Once that happpens, you'll have no mood or desire to brush/floss your teeth for 25 mins and sit in the toilet for an hour.

Here, I am worrying whether I brush my teeth too quickly....
Actually, sitting on the toilet bowl too long can be pretty bad for your body.
You actually make things worse for the blood vessels in your bum. Hemorrhoids. Sitting in such an unnatural posture forces the blood to concentrate down there.

Sitting on the Toilet for Too Long Will Wreck Your Butt

First of all, what's your diet like? Is it standard American diet?

Something tells me its pizza, tomato sauce and burgers. Or like in the Diary of the Wimpy Kid, '95% chicken nuggets.'

On a horrific side note, I'm wondering what's going on when the US health authorities actually pass ketchup on pizza as vegetables, for school kids. I hope this ain't in force now. Ketchup isn't real tomato stuff.
Ketchup Is a Vegetable? Again? - The Atlantic

 

[Bekit]

@marcof_23 The people who are saying things about diet are onto something. If you're eating the Standard American Diet, your food is probably not only contributing to your constipation, it's very likely also making your brain foggy. If you clear up your digestion, you'll be amazed how much mental sharpness you can regain... and since your brain is going to be your main tool for earning income for the rest of your life, you'll only accelerate your progress towards your goals with a better diet.

One simple change for you: Eat two prunes a day.
One drastic change for you: Try the GAPS diet for detoxing your system and supercharging your mental acuity.

 

[The Abundant Man]

Diet does play a role.

Eat meat, seafood, vegetables, nuts ,seeds and oils. Also cardio helps.

 

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[mentalic]

Try to reduce your time-wasting habits, one step at the time. Its ridiculus to spend 25' cleaning your teeth, start by that.
How do you commute to work? To you take the subway or use a car? Even working full-time, you should be able to afford 3h/day & 16h during the weekend AT LEAST for building your business, are you commited enough to do so? Don't look for stimulus at places other than yourself.

 

[mentalic]

It sounds like you have no ambition at the moment. If you know what the F*ck you want, you'll find the time.

I'm near Toronto if you want to chat/do some site visits for my business to see how it's done.

Also in Toronto (midtown/downtown). New in town & looking forward to meet like-minded people. Shoot a pm when you are around.

 

[TreyAllDay]

Death By A Thousand Cuts
The most important thing I learned was the "death by a thousand cuts" rule. Typically it isn't one large wound "distraction" that kills our focus. It's death by a thousand tiny distractions we let pop up. Answering small emails that aren't important, responding to a forum (lol), searching for the next song to play on spotify. Even in your personal life, the small distractions are what kills you. For me - it's my phone and looking at memes.

Set aside time to do the major things and schedule your day.

A great book on this
This may even be a great nomination for book club @MJ DeMarco. This book talks about how our brains are wired to want to handle the "urgent" things that pop up, without actually knowing if they'll make a difference in our lives.

It teaches you how to escape this pull toward mediocrity and take back more of your life by prioritizing your tasks into 4 zones.

 

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[Deleted50669]

This question has been given a lot of attention, but I'd like to add that even by asking this question you have created another distraction from time spent DOING. The biggest hurdle is that most people don't know what DOING actually is. So they think they are DOING, but they are more likely AVOIDING DOING (action faking) if they are not following a specific plan, or acting on behalf of a specific target. Once you know what your end outcome needs to be, you just start taking steps towards it until you get there, as fast as you can. In doing this, your time will manage itself.

Don't have an end outcome / solution to strive towards? That is your first problem. Without a target to focus behavior towards, you will be unproductive and unfocused. This seems to be the root cause issue for a lot of people, a lot of action in a lot of aimless directions. That's what ultimately makes people quit.

 

[Johnny boy]

My secret time hacks

No kids
No wife or girlfriend
2 friends max
No more hobbies
No desire to show off and spend money
I only do things that have a large impact and learn from my mistakes quickly

I sleep in until 10, have a mojito and fry up some fish, and get started whenever. I still get to put in more hours working on my business than most people because I spend 0% of my time on taking care of distractions.

Burn everything and start with you and your thoughts. Your attachment is what holds you back. Gotta maintain friendships, gotta maintain your relationship with your girl, gotta maintain your social media presence...all that bullshit is a pair of handcuffs.

Subtraction is the secret to productivity. Not addition. Not motivation. Better yet, start at 0 and only add what is necessary. That’s the secret to living with purpose.

 

[Deleted50669]

My secret time hacks

No kids
No wife or girlfriend
2 friends max
No more hobbies
No desire to show off and spend money
I only do things that have a large impact and learn from my mistakes quickly

I sleep in until 10, have a mojito and fry up some fish, and get started whenever. I still get to put in more hours working on my business than most people because I spend 0% of my time on taking care of distractions.

Burn everything and start with you and your thoughts. Your attachment is what holds you back. Gotta maintain friendships, gotta maintain your relationship with your girl, gotta maintain your social media presence...all that bullshit is a pair of handcuffs.

Subtraction is the secret to productivity. Not addition. Not motivation. Better yet, start at 0 and only add what is necessary. That’s the secret to living with purpose.

very true

 

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[SteveO]

I was planning on responding to the post but noticed a few things. The op only responded to the first couple of posts. There were no responses acknowledging the time people put into trying to "help" him. No "likes" or "thanks" to the respondents. Nothing back but questions and excuses. Not worthy of all the Fastlane participants that took time out of their day to help.

 

[Raoul Duke]

I was planning on responding to the post but noticed a few things. The op only responded to the first couple of posts. There were no responses acknowledging the time people put into trying to "help" him. No "likes" or "thanks" to the respondents. Nothing back but questions and excuses. Not worthy of all the Fastlane participants that took time out of their day to help.

And not even smashing that "LIKE" button.

 

[srodrigo]

Subtraction is the secret to productivity.

This is soooo true. Couldn't agree more. That's why most productivity stuff out there is BS.

Gotta maintain friendships, gotta maintain your relationship with your girl, gotta maintain your social media presence...all that bullshit is a pair of handcuffs.

Removing some distractions is great, but becoming a hermit sounds a bit extreme :-D

 

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[Johnny boy]

This is soooo true. Couldn't agree more. That's why most productivity stuff out there is BS.



Removing some distractions is great, but becoming a hermit sounds a bit extreme :-D

It's either that, or extreme discipline, or lowering your extreme goals.

 

[TonyStark]

My secret time hacks

No kids
No wife or girlfriend
2 friends max
No more hobbies
No desire to show off and spend money
I only do things that have a large impact and learn from my mistakes quickly

I sleep in until 10, have a mojito and fry up some fish, and get started whenever. I still get to put in more hours working on my business than most people because I spend 0% of my time on taking care of distractions.

Burn everything and start with you and your thoughts. Your attachment is what holds you back. Gotta maintain friendships, gotta maintain your relationship with your girl, gotta maintain your social media presence...all that bullshit is a pair of handcuffs.

Subtraction is the secret to productivity. Not addition. Not motivation. Better yet, start at 0 and only add what is necessary. That’s the secret to living with purpose.

Ah yes, gotta get rid of everything that’s enjoyable to achieve success.

Psyche!

 

[Johnny boy]

Ah yes, gotta get rid of everything that’s enjoyable to achieve success.

Psyche!

10x happier than I've ever been. You don't need to escape from your "work" when you're doing what you're supposed to do.

 

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[Mario_fastlaner]

Hey,

I’ve noticed something.

Most people are EXHAUSTED & OVERWHELMED by the demands of modern, Scripted life. My mom, for example, struggles with 80-90-hour workweeks, barely gets 1-2 hours of sleep at night, and can’t contribute around the house on weekends because she’s too tired, & she & my dad end up passing out on the couch watching Netflix & sleeping all weekend because they’re too tired to do anything.

I’m no better, though. While I work a 40-hour week & go to the gym & groom myself every week, I spend my weekends mostly masturbating, pacing, watching the NFL, & playing basketball because I’m mentally exhausted by the demands of my work week. As well as having to take care of myself food-wise because my parents are too tired to do so. And I’m extremely lazy with regards to getting anything for myself. I also have a weakness in that it takes me extremely long to do basic tasks (e.g. brushing & flossing my teeth takes 20-25 minutes, eating a meal can take me 30-45 minutes, & I spend 45-60 minutes per trip to the toilet pooping because I have mild constipation issues).

Meanwhile, you guys can seemingly work 100-120 hours per week & get on just fine & still stay on top of everything else.

Also, all 3 of us (my parents & I) are commuters in Toronto (commutes like L.A.).

How do you do it? Do you guys have any time management tips, tricks, etc.? Any “secret substances”? Note that I don’t have or make a lot of money right now, so I’d need a “broke people’s guide to getting as much time out of your day as you can”.

I think this isn't a problem about managing time or energy,i think it's more a problem about meaning and purpose (have you read uncsripted?) because if you spend your free time watching and playing football insted of doing something relevant for your finances that means you are not motivated enough about going out from your comfort zone.
So the first thing you should do is read the chapter 28 of Unscripted , and find a real motivation.

Secondly, and i'm sad about saying this because i'm in the same situation, the unconscious influence of your parents stops you from reacting. If you have the possibility, go living alone.

Thirdly, as someone before me said, working 80-90 hours a week sounds too much. You could try freelancing (see the threads of @Lex DeVille) and make a living with much less hours and so stay concentrated on new opportunities.

 

[Insidious]

Lots of good advice.

Something I didn't see mentioned is Parkinson's Law ("Work expands so as to fill the time available for completion"). In boot camp, this was overcome by a drill instructor counting down the number of seconds you had to complete a task. As in, 'you have 15 seconds to get dressed.. 15-14-13..',' you have 10 seconds to eat.. 10-9-8..' some of these sucked.. like having 2 minutes to shit.

But on the plus side, what it did was program us to have two speeds: balls to the wall & passed out. If you're going to DO, do it FAST. (Not true for creative work, but anything rote.. how fast can you go?)

Do Less has already been mentioned. There are a TON of things you CAN do that have absolutely nothing to do with your quality of life or goals.

And this ties into The ONE Thing (What's the ONE Thing you can do such that by doing it everything else will be easier or unnecessary?). If your goal is financial independence, do you know what ISN'T your goal? Anything that gets in the way of that. Top 20 something examples are 'partying' & 'girlfriends'.

No this isn't 'live like a hermit to succeed'.. it's FOCUS on what you want until you get it. You'll have plenty of time for wine, women & song later. In fact, you may have 100% of your time for wine, women & song. But only if you FOCUS now, on that ONE Thing.

 

[biophase]

My secret time hacks

No kids
No wife or girlfriend
2 friends max
No more hobbies
No desire to show off and spend money
I only do things that have a large impact and learn from my mistakes quickly

I sleep in until 10, have a mojito and fry up some fish, and get started whenever. I still get to put in more hours working on my business than most people because I spend 0% of my time on taking care of distractions.

Burn everything and start with you and your thoughts. Your attachment is what holds you back. Gotta maintain friendships, gotta maintain your relationship with your girl, gotta maintain your social media presence...all that bullshit is a pair of handcuffs.

Subtraction is the secret to productivity. Not addition. Not motivation. Better yet, start at 0 and only add what is necessary. That’s the secret to living with purpose.

If you do it this way, you'll have nothing to do and nobody to spend your time or money with when you get rich!

 

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[ProcessPro]

Hey,

I’ve noticed something.

Most people are EXHAUSTED & OVERWHELMED by the demands of modern, Scripted life. My mom, for example, struggles with 80-90-hour workweeks, barely gets 1-2 hours of sleep at night, and can’t contribute around the house on weekends because she’s too tired, & she & my dad end up passing out on the couch watching Netflix & sleeping all weekend because they’re too tired to do anything.

I’m no better, though. While I work a 40-hour week & go to the gym & groom myself every week, I spend my weekends mostly masturbating, pacing, watching the NFL, & playing basketball because I’m mentally exhausted by the demands of my work week. As well as having to take care of myself food-wise because my parents are too tired to do so. And I’m extremely lazy with regards to getting anything for myself. I also have a weakness in that it takes me extremely long to do basic tasks (e.g. brushing & flossing my teeth takes 20-25 minutes, eating a meal can take me 30-45 minutes, & I spend 45-60 minutes per trip to the toilet pooping because I have mild constipation issues).

Meanwhile, you guys can seemingly work 100-120 hours per week & get on just fine & still stay on top of everything else.

Also, all 3 of us (my parents & I) are commuters in Toronto (commutes like L.A.).

How do you do it? Do you guys have any time management tips, tricks, etc.? Any “secret substances”? Note that I don’t have or make a lot of money right now, so I’d need a “broke people’s guide to getting as much time out of your day as you can”.

I recently read an idea from @GoodluckChuck and been using it over a week. Short time yes, but it's been going great.

I've copied and pasted the relevant part of his post below.
Source: (post #66) GOLD! - Did It: Zero to $12k a Month While Traveling the World

"A tool I use for my power list is called Trello. I create a card for each day and have 30+ days of cards made ahead of time.

I use these cards as my schedule. If I have an appointment or a sales call coming up, it goes on my power list.

If I'm working on a project, I break it into pieces and put those pieces on various power lists.

I start each day by opening up Trello and looking to see what I have on the list. I complete everything on there and I move the card to the 2019 folder.

I don't worry about what's on the list tomorrow or next week. I don't dwell on the mountain ahead of me. I just focus on what is on my plate today.

This breaks the gigantic process of building a multi-million dollar lifestyle into tiny bite sized chunks that are easy to swallow.

This keeps me from getting overwhelmed and even allows me to enjoy the process.

I can look in the 2018 Trello board and see 365 cards with completed power lists. The life I'm enjoying today is a result of the work that is displayed on those cards.

With this method literally anyone can do anything one power list at a time.

Thank you Andy Frisella for this awesome podcast. If you want to learn more about this concept you can listen to the episode here: Trust Your Instruments, with Andy Frisella - MFCEO183A

If you are feeling overwhelmed about the mountain of work you see in front of you, try the power list method. I promise it will change your life."

 

[ecommercewolf]

Great post with a lot of great ideas

 

[unaided]

you don't work 80-100 just for the sake of working. The hours are put in because you have so much in the hopper that's necessary to provide the value proposition of your business. If you're working 80-100, it's usually a conscious decision that it's not quite time to hire an employee or you know that once you build the widget or the process or the automation with that time, that it's going to save you time later on.

The "find your passion" convo is so tricky because it's a mantra you hear over and over from those who have it...but for those who have not "found it" yet, it is kinda useless.

Passion finds you. You tinker with things, you try new ideas, you jump around opportunities until something grabs you. Usually you find your good at something through trial and error, and only then do you become passionate about it. Lead with a value proposition (where in the marketplace can I add efficiency, value, better service, consult with my specific expertise?), and then you tinker until something grabs you.

The thing that is frustrating about 80-100 hours work weeks is if the work is not volitional - because you're scampering to fulfill someone else's deadline, or there's not enough skin in the game for you to care.

When it's your own deadline, and your own project, where you reap the majority of the rewards for its completion, it's a much different application of energy. So you want to choose opportunities that allow for the PROBABILITY of success. This is paramount to chaos theory and detailed essentially in the Millionaire Fastlane . When faced with two choices, choose the one with the higher probability of the outcome you want long-term.

If there's a choice between two jobs that average 50K/year, and one is commissioned and the other is salary, you take the commission every time because YOU are in control of being above the average mark. If you're in sales, you absolutely want a full commission model....because when you figure out your own systems and automation, you'll discover how to scale it and teach it for your own idea at higher commission/"return on value provided" and you won't mind putting in 40 hours of the commission gig to pay your bills, while building out the scalable, "better probability exposure" idea at 20-40 hours over the nights/weekends.

At the very least, there's a measurable return on the extra work with full commission model whereas an hourly, or "end of year bonus" models are more based on someone else's opinion or someone else's business management skills rather than your own hard and fast results.

 

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