THE LIFESTYLE ENTREPRENEUR

Read time - 4 minutes

The 24 Hour Conundrum

In this issue:

• The 24 hour conundrum

• My mixed success at managing it

• Strategy and execution

You ever notice, when you add up all the things you need to accomplish each week, let alone the things you want to accomplish, there’s not enough time in the day?

Me too.

Here’s the breakdown of the average american in the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Annual “Time Use Study”

ActivityHoursSleep8Work8.5Leisure and Sports5Eating and drinking1Household activities1Educational activities1Shopping and purchasing services0.5Personal care1Travel and commute1Total27

Note the totals conveniently add up to more than 27.

That’s based on reporting methodology of course, but the point is convenient.

For most people reading, I’d guess your breakdown is pretty close to this:

• Work - 9

• Sleep -8

• Eating, Personal Care, Transition, Commute - 3

• Everything Else - 4

And for most people reading, I’d guess each day you want to do the following:

• Exercise - 1.5

• Have time for yourself - 1

• Spend time with spouse and kids - 1.5

• Do something fun like watch a show, read a book, go get ice cream - 1

• Connect with a friend - 1

Using rough numbers - we’re all probably figuring out each day how to cram 6-7 hours of stuff into that 4 hour window.

Even with smart rotating of activities - the numbers don’t add up.

And during our peak career years - most of us are handling it poorly.

• 42% of Americans are obese

• 35% of Americans get less than 7 hours of sleep per night

• 19% of Americans have some form of mental illness

These are sobering statistics.

And they tell us what we know painfully well - modern life makes a healthy existence extremely difficult.

And it’s getting worse every year.

How do some people do it?

While the average person is barely surviving each day, how is it that some among us seem to be able to do it all?

We all know a few of these people - those who have built great careers, have big families, are extremely fit, give back to their communities, and have active social lives.

The reality is if you dig into anyone, they all have blindspots and lack balance somewhere.

Nobody is perfect and I’ve never met anyone who has it all figured out.

But there’s no denying, some people have simply figured out how to manage life better than most.

My productivity history

The 44 year old Mike appears outwardly a pretty highly productive individual, and i’d say inwardly I feel pretty similar:

• I have meaningful work that pays well and I’m excited for each day

• I have 4 kids, including a 10 month old, that I have a very good relationship with and spend a large amount of time with

• I live an active life that includes diverse sport and activities, regular exercise, and ample time outdoors

• I have an extremely active social life that includes very regular dance parties :)

One of my biggest current strengths is BALANCE - I do pretty well at most of the main elements of a happy life.

I’m also very happy with my life, which is really the only important measurable there is.

I wasn’t always balanced though, and I wasn’t always particularly happy.

My previous self allowed for great inbalances that caused my first marriage to fail, caused me to become somewhat unhealthy even though I was running multiple fitness businesses, and caused insomnia and anxiety that has taken me years to manage and overcome.

My lifestyle inbalances, and the subsequent years of work to get to a better place, drive much of my writing, study, and professional work today.

I’m a student of what it takes to live a happy life. And one of the primary requirements is day and week management that allows for a balanced, healthy life.

How to make it all work

My methodologies and recommendations are all based on a combination of 1) best practices from academics and experts, and 2) what works for me.

I’m a practitioner and tinkerer. And one of my strengths is to pull large amounts of data together to provide actionable tools for regular people.

Based on the above, my philosophy around managing our limited days involves:

• Strategy

  • Future-selfing and goal setting

  • Personal planning and journalling

• Execution

  • Defining what’s realistic

  • Tools for executing

The primary reason the majority of people are completely failing to live the life they dream of is because they don’t have a clear idea who they’re trying to become or where they’re trying to go.

Without a direction, everything you’re supposed to be doing seems equally important, and as Patrick Lencioni said:

“If everything is important, then nothing is”

This lack of clarity keeps people in a continual state of desiring to accomplish more than they’re capable of, and giving up because of overwhelm and fatigue.

Strategy

The first step in improving is to know where you’re heading.

There are infinite tools available for this, but if you’ve read anything I’ve written, you know I value SIMPLICITY.

So I like a two-part process that can be as elaborate as doing 12-week meditation programs, or as simple as starting with a 1-hour clarity break:

1. Develop your future self (inspired by Dr Benjamin Hardy’s work):

   1. Reject the past - You are not your past. Every day you need to remind yourself of this, and that you are capable of becoming whoever you want.

   2. Decide who you want to be - Write down in great detail the person you want to be. Where do you live, what work do you do, what do you wear, what does your ideal day look like. Be specific.

   3. Audit your environment - Call out the people, tasks, responsibilities keeping you from your future self. Make a plan to change those areas.

   4. Shift your identity - Identify some of the daily habits that your future self would exhibit. Put those habits on your list of desired daily activities.

2. Personal planning and journalling - I outlined my personal planning system in The Lifestyle Entrepreneur #8 - find it here

   In order to know where to spend your time, you must know what are your priorities today, this week, this quarter, this year.

   Do this by building your personal plan, mine involves:

   • The wheel of life

   • The personal VTO

   • The Weekly journal

   • The Daily Journal

   This whole process can be done in less than an hour once a quarter, and less than 5 minutes a day.

Spending the time to complete these kinds of exercises allows you to focus on what’s really important to accomplish your goals.

For me that involves:

1. My personal wellness comes first, over everything including my work and family

2. My work is very important to me and gets priority over everything except health, but I’m not willing to take on a volume that takes away from 1) health, and 2) ample family, social, and leisure time

3. Friendships and non-family relationships are important enough for me to prioritize them each week

The above 3 principles are very different than they were in my early 30s.

Execution

Daily Priorities

One outcome of the above process is my 3 Things to make today great.

These are the three things that must occur today.

I work to accomplish these like a zealot. It takes a little practice to call them out properly, but once you get the hang of it, it will become your most powerful tool.

Scheduling & Time blocking

Another core tactic is putting everything on the calendar and avoiding blowing up your schedule.

Most people have a detailed work schedule, and their kids’ schedule that is written in stone, and everything else is built around it.

The better way is to put your workouts, clarity breaks, time with friends, time with your spouse, on the calendar and sticking with it.

Effective Multitasking

Multitasking doesn’t work when you’re attempting two similar tasks, like talking in a meeting while you’re responding to emails. Don’t do that.

But there are multiple situations where multitasking is desirable, for example:

• Walking meetings - Walking is one of the healthiest things we can do. Meetings are part of life for most people. Turn every possible meeting into a walk.

• Meals with friends - Americans love working through their meals. That makes us burnt out and rush through our meals like zombies. We need breaks to be productive, and we need human connection to be happy. Do some planning and have your meals with friends and colleagues.

• Make your workouts more efficient - This concept drove my first decade as an entrepreneur. Slow bodybuilding-style lifting sessions are inefficient and unnecessary for 90% of people. Do compound movements faster to combine strength and cardio. Stretching and yoga take too long and are too tedious for people with limited time - instead do jiu jitsu which provides all those benefits plus many more (ok that one is extreme but it’s true).

Environmental Updates

Your environment drives your life. Regularly auditing your environment will tell you what you need to change over time (think years not days):

• Reduce commutes by moving jobs & housing over time

• Join gyms that are close to home and work, and/or on the way

• Live in areas that have walkability, quick access to grocery stores, and good accessibility to active options

Something > Nothing

The best laid plans will get crushed by life’s realities. Build a something>nothing approach in many areas:

• A 5 minute workout is better than nothing, and with the right movements can be a potent lung burner.

• A 5 minute meditation will change the outlook on your day, a 10-minute daily meditation practice will change your life.

• A walk around the block can reset your mind for your next meeting.

The above strategies and tactics are just a few of almost infinite recommendations out there, they are ones that have worked particularly well for me.

The best tools are the ones that work, however, so you must be a tinkerer yourself. If you’re reading this you already are, you’ve been working your whole life to manage the impossible 24 hours.

This weekend is a good one to assess where you’re at, where you’d like to improve, and take one or two steps towards getting there.

Talk to you next week,

Mike