Need More Time? Make Your Day 25+ Hours Long.

[LibertyForMe]

Also, sleep is a big time sucker. I say this because I tried to wake up at 7am this morning. I didn't have the willpower, so I laid back down for 2 hours. What a waste of time. Don't let sleep steal all your time either.

 

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[RHL]

Also, sleep is a big time sucker. I say this because I tried to wake up at 7am this morning. I didn't have the willpower, so I laid back down for 2 hours. What a waste of time. Don't let sleep steal all your time either.

This is the worst on a slowlane "day off." You normally get up at 6:15. You silence the alarm and wake up at 10:45. I've never, ever had a day go well at that point.

 

[LIkeafox]

Great advice! I deleted some mindless freemium game off my phone recently and I instantly saw an increase in my own productivity. I would never play the game for long, but the five minutes here and then minutes there really added up.

 

[RHL]

Great advice! I deleted some mindless freemium game off my phone recently and I instantly saw an increase in my own productivity. I would never play the game for long, but the five minutes here and then minutes there really added up.

The only reason someone pre-liquidation should have a data package on their phone is if they need it for work. For every one person using it to make money, a thousand use it to waste their lives. Cut it out, save cash, use the wifi at home or work as a bridge..

 

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[Tommy92l]

Also, sleep is a big time sucker. I say this because I tried to wake up at 7am this morning. I didn't have the willpower, so I laid back down for 2 hours. What a waste of time. Don't let sleep steal all your time either.

I know that feel man. Waking up only to think of how much you could've accomplished in those hours while you slept.

The hardest part usually isn't doing the work once you're up, but getting up in the first place.

 

[Guest]

Great post! Here is my take on why games are so much more addictive and dangerous than a more passive time waster such as TV.

The RANKING/REWARD system is the cleverest idea conceived by man to implement control over the masses. It is an effective control mechanism because it was the individual who made the commitment to enter the system and invest their time and energy for something in return to display how much effort they had put in.

The military, corporate world, and the rat race are great examples of this. Fear is the primary driving factor because who would want to get their medals revoked, get demoted or fired, or lose that fancy house or car? So in order to keep those things you just have to work harder.

Games glorify this concept with leveling up, rankings, rewards, promotions, upgrades, enhancements, hacks, cheats, money. The best and funniest part is that it's all a fantasy.

Facebook exemplifies this concept through social status with likes and objectifies people as "friends". The more you collect the greater you are.

In order to be free from control you have to remove yourself from the system. Or just never enter it in the first place. Or in this case literally remove the gaming system from your life.

 

[H. Palmer]

One of the most vital steps in switching from team producer to team consumer is to cut out the things that are consuming you.

You mean it the other way around.

Switching from team consumer to producer.

Great post btw.

 

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[RHL]

Indeed. Can't edit it now though :-\

 

[coder]

I dont watch tv, but played counter-strike for 12 years. For about 2years I dont like playing any games except cs which i`m playing on organised meetings 2 nights in a row, 1 meeting for 4-5 months and play rather to meat each other on lan and also have fun with friends . I totally agree that time is most important thing and will improve my daily time management. Nice post !

 

[MJ DeMarco]

Indeed. Can't edit it now though :-\

Incredible post ... rep++ Also fixed that problem for ya.

 

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[Ca$per]

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.

Heavy stuff there man. So true too. So glad I actually get my a$$ to the gym as often as I do. What am I doing here, time to go take action

 

[H. Palmer]

I never watched much television, but stopped watching altogether since about 2009 cause I couldn't stand the negativity of the economic news anymore.

For me one big distraction that remains every two years is when the Dutch national football team is up for the World Cup or European Cup tournament.

Even if you tried you can't get around it because everywhere you look see the color orange and everyone is talking about it.
Even if you lived like a hermit the mailman rings one day to bring a package and wants to know if you think "we" are going to win the world cup.

The thrill of that possibility is immense, but then again, you lose so much time and energy with stuff like that.
Since they were kicked out yesterday - penalties again - that problem is solved for the next two years.

From time to time I get addicted to complex strategy games. 10 years ago I was hooked on Europa Universalis and it took months of my life.
One day I gave the cdrom to my wife and told her to put it away.

Then a few months later I found that I needed to reward myself for hard work and begged her to give it back, and she did.

I finally got so fed up with the software bugs of this game that I cut the cdrom through with scissors.

Four months ago I discovered Supremacy1914, a similar game but online where you play against others.
Geez, this was addictive. I opened 5 or 6 games to enjoy playing different countries.
Emotions and anger got involved, because other players were plotting against me when I became too "big".
Then I got a grip on myself and limited it to one game and played that to the end.
Now time consumption is reduced to one hour per day and I'm winding it down. I will win one game and that's it.

These games are time, energy and money traps.
Simply don't start or be radical and throw away the PS3, cut through the cdrom or delete your account.

 

[pgtownsyou]

Just on Tuesday I called my cable company and cancelled all TV. No regrets.

 

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[cmiddlebrook]

But what if your passion is video games? What if you not only love to play them, but to write about them, and even code them (from the age of 11!). What if the main reason you want to free up more time with your business is so that you can spend more of that time playing video games?

I want to make more money with my business but for me, games have been a passion since I got my first computer over 30 years ago. Right now, I'm building a new business so I've cut right down, and I only play 1 game and it's a game I can play while I do other stuff like read or watch TV so I use that time to watch training I've purchased etc. But once I'm making more money and can work less, I'd much rather free up some of that time to play my beloved games than to just keep working more to keep earning more.

Surely, the whole idea of the ultimate financially free lifestyle is to allow us to spend our time doing whatever we want? And if one of those things happens to be video games is that bad?

 

[MJ DeMarco]

Relevant to this conversation...

I posted this to FB and someone sought to argue it's syntax and assumption. Sad indeed.

But what if your passion is video games?

Will the market have a passion for whatever you are producing? Then it works.

 

[RHL]

@MJ DeMarco , that poster is 105% pure legend. Seriously, that may be the greatest thing I've seen this month.

But what if your passion is video games? What if you not only love to play them

My passion is cars. I love cars. I can fix almost any problem with them short of specific computer cracking/tuning, know way too many details about power figures, redlines, and specific weights, do auto-x, drag, etc.

Nobody cares.

Prior to reading TMF , I basically worked so that I could have three weeks PTO and enough money to race and mod my cars. After doing that for years, you know what I had to show for it? An aaaaaaaaaaaaaawsome 90's Corvette that gobbled up about $4,500/yr in gas, repairs, and mod money. I didn't want to be rich, I just wanted a fun car for HPDEs. That was all. And it consumed everything.

Since reading TMF about 9 months ago, my net-worth has nearly tripled, and the old Corvette? It's for sale. I am no longer earning money for my cars, or orienting the telos of my life around "doing what I love." I'm earning all this in a field whose occupants I used to mock when I was in college. It was so stupid. It didn't take any talent. It was a waste of time. It was beneath me and my STEM degree.

Guess what? I met with business owners and realized that they needed it. A lot. A lot more than other things I was doing. I don't give a shit about the field I work in. I have zero emotional attachment to my products. I would be fine if today was the last day I ever touched the stuff I need to do the work that keeps me in the fastlane. But other people care. They care a lot. They don't want me to give it up, because they're depending on me, and because they depend on me, I reap the rewards that come from providing value to them.

There's absolutely nothing wrong with spending your time playing video games once you've "made it" in the fastlane. But I still have to emphatically suggest that people cut them out now, or they never will.

 

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[cmiddlebrook]

There's absolutely nothing wrong with spending your time playing video games once you've "made it" in the fastlane. But I still have to emphatically suggest that people cut them out now, or they never will.

There's the rub I honestly don't think I could cut out games completely. I have done that before and then rebelled horrifically and let my business tank whilst I did so! I do not want to repeat that again.

I hope I can strike a balance. Honestly, if in order to "make it" in the fast lane, I have to work every spare moment, then I guess I will never make it as I'm just not designed that way. I burn out and rebel and that's when games take over completely and that's really bad. But if I play a little then I can work lots and feel good about it.

 

[RHL]

Honestly, if in order to "make it" in the fast lane, I have to work every spare moment, then I guess I will never make it as I'm just not designed that way.

 

[FloK]

One of my favorite apps is Rescuetime. When I find myself spending 20 minutes on espn.com, I turn on focus mode for 180 minutes, and I'm forced to get work done. The other problem that I have, even after making a few million in sales for my business, is spending time on tasks that won't make me money. Checking email, checking email, checking email.

 

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[Rawr]

my app of choice is freedom - it shuts off the internet and you are SOL. stolen from the bestselling author of many books Neil Strauss... he says "you have to safeguard yourself from youself and your laziness." Make distractions go away and find a way to give yourself the best chance. Honestly, if you think about it, most of us myself included are weak bitches. My grandfather would laugh at an app such as Freedom and would say "just do it, it's good for you to do!"

 

[arfadugus]

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.

How do I get my girlfriend to get rid of her netflix and tv?!?

 

[OldFaithful]

How do I get my girlfriend to get rid of her netflix and tv?!?

This sounds vaguely familiar. https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/community/threads/how-to-adjust-your-wife-accordingly.70096/

 

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[falcon87pl]

"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."

@RHL This resonates with me a lot. Thank you.

 

[rpeck90]

How do I get my girlfriend to get rid of her netflix and tv?!?

Leave your girlfriend