Finding Time to Pursue Your Dreams: Free Up 750 Hours a Year with One Simple Change
Published on - September 24th, 2008 (by J.D. Roth) This is a guest post from Erica Douglass. Erica sold her successful business and “temporarily retired” at age 26. Having made over $1 million online, she is now sharing her business knowledge with over 10,000 people every month at erica.biz.
There is one reason most of us don’t learn how to invest, start a business, or even can our own food — we just don’t have the time to do those projects. Between jobs that force us to work ever-longer hours, and growing duties at home, there never seem to be enough minutes in the day!
I wanted to go deeper, though, so I delved into research to answer two questions:
- First, how do we actually use our time?
- And secondly, which activities could be cut down or outsourced to allow time for pursuits we really want?
Immediately, I assumed that we could outsource housecleaning tasks to free up time for our passions. I was right: we work on housework an average of 14.7 hours per week, or nearly 765 hours per year! However, my triumphant post about outsourcing housecleaning work was met with one criticism: “I simply don’t have the money to do that.”
What activity, then, could be cut back without incurring a significant cost — and leave us enough time to start a business, make more money, or do something we have always wanted to do?
I found the answer in a book called Time, Goods, and Well-Being, which uses “time diaries” to calculate how much time people are using. Unfortunately, this book uses time diary studies from the mid-1970′s. But after reading it, I’m not sure we are all that different today.
Breaking It Down
750 hours a year is 14.42 hours a week, or just over two hours a day. Besides housework, “market work” (the term the book uses to denote paid-for jobs), and sleeping, what activity consumes the most time?
The answer shocked me: It’s watching television.
Wait — don’t close this browser window yet! I’m not suggesting you give up TV. I like “American Idol” and “Heroes” just as much as you do. Instead, I merely suggest that you change a simple behavior pattern related to watching TV.
There are two types of TV watchers: those who turn on the TV and watch whatever is on, and those who turn on the TV to watch specific programs. By moving yourself from the first category to the second, you can find 7-8 hours a week of extra time. With that time, you can do those things you seem to continually be putting off:
- starting a business
- volunteering
- taking cooking classes
With a simple investment of as little as $10 (in an old VCR) or a more high-tech DVR such as TiVo, you can free up hours a week. (Not to mention that many DVRs allow you to fast-forward through commercials!)
Once you make the investment in a VCR or TiVo (consider it an investment in yourself — your time), thoughtfully consider which shows you most enjoy. For instance, my TiVo is set to record every episode of Dr. Phil. That would be 4-5 hours a week of watching Dr. Phil, except that I delete all the episodes I’m not interested in. That way I don’t have to worry about what I’ve “missed” — I can see all of the shows the TiVo has recorded, pick the one I want to watch, watch it, and then turn the TV off!
By making this one simple change, you can free up hundreds of hours of free time a year. By eventually going “cold turkey”, you could free up, on average, over 750 hours a year — enough to learn a foreign language, start a profitable business, or read enough books to make you more educated on a particular subject than 90% of us.
After implementing this change, I found I watched enough less TV to cut my cable bill from a digital package to Limited Basic, saving me $50/month and still allowing me to record network TV on my TiVo. I’m quite happy to have that $600 extra a year, but more importantly, I’m happy to have my time back.
But I Enjoy TV…
Does TV really make you happy? There is evidence out there that it doesn’t. In Bowling Alone, author Robert D. Putnam cites surveys that show that “viewers consistently report that television viewing is less satisfying than other leisure activities and even than work.”
How do you feel after watching a long series of TV shows? Chances are, you feel groggy, tired, and perhaps even grumpy. Since television is mildly addictive, however, it’s hard to give up. That’s why I don’t recommend going cold turkey. Try eliminating one show you really don’t care about that much. Then try strategic viewing — not watching every episode.
Finally, have a goal in mind for those extra hours. Otherwise, you will easily slip back into watching more TV, since you won’t have anything else to do.
- Schedule dinners with your friends.
- Sign up for a class.
- Make a date to go to the library or walk outside.
Motivate yourself with a specific, measurable goal — perhaps to lose 10 pounds by the end of the year, or read 12 books in the next 12 months. Whatever your passions are — this is your chance to let them shine!
What about the Internet?
Many of you will be reading this right now and saying “I don’t watch that much TV!” But watch out: an Internet addiction can be just as bad. Wandering aimlessly around online and watching videos isn’t much better than watching TV. What goals can you set while working online? Can you make some extra money? Learn HTML? Set up a website or blog and keep it going for 3 months?
If you really want to start a business, or if you have a goal in mind, and you watch TV or surf the Internet mindlessly, you do have time to reach that goal — over 750 hours a year, in fact. This life is your chance to better the world around you in some way. What amazing creations can you make with that time? What will you do with your newfound 750 hours a year?
J.D.’s note: I agree with Erica 100% — you have the time and the knowledge and the resources to pursue your dreams. All it takes is a few small changes. For more on how I reduced my own TV consumption, check out cheap alternatives to cable television.
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Several months ago our family dropped our cable package down to the basic, local channels. At $12 a month it certainly helped our monthly budget, but we found many other benefits as well. Since dropping television our kids read more, and with the weather getting nicer they tend play outside more often. My wife and I spend more time talking at night, and reading some great books ourselves. Of course, dropping the majority of our television viewing has also enabled me to build up my blog which has been more profitable than the PT job I was considering.
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I have to agree with Jane at #38 — be careful investing in a DVR. I got one a few years ago, and by six months into it, I was watching more tv than I ever had *ever*. I recorded shows I missed because they were on at the same time, I recorded things I wouldn’t normally clear time to sit down and watch because all I had to do was hit a button, then watch it when I was bored, I saved up daily shows and watched them for hours long marathons on the weekend. I was watching shows my roommate recorded that I’d never seen, and if you don’t turn it off, most DVRs have a default setting that will record shows it “thinks” you’ll like, as well.
Obviously I was not disciplined in using it, and getting rid of it and cable totally, and turning to Netflix to get 1 show at a time, was the best thing I ever did.
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Nope, nope, nope. VCRs and TiVo can actually increase your TV time, because you no longer miss any shows, or skip shows because they are on too late or too early, or out, or doing something else, etc.
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A DVR is good in certain respects. I do watch more TV than before I had a DVR. However, I watch TV when I want to watch it and don’t let my life revolve around the TV. “Oh, it’s Thursday night but I can’t go out because Grey’s Anatomy is on!” doesn’t get uttered. I try to limit the number of shows that I’m into at any given time. Right now, I have Scrubs, Heroes, House, 30 Rock, Holmes on Homes, and Californication. That’s actually probably too many for me. I try to limit it to about 5 shows which is under 5 hours of TV in a week. I think that is respectable.
Also, I’m a triathlete and I spend a lot of my free time training for it. A lot of people ask how do I find the time to train that much. I ask them how much TV they watch in a week (and it’s usually something around 20 hours). Then, I tell them that I spend 75% of that 20 hours a week training and only watch TV maybe 5-6 hours a week.
TV isn’t inherently bad. It’s like anything else that can be viewed as black/white such as credit cards and guns. There are good things and bad things and people can find a reasonable balance between the two.
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If people are worried about becoming TV addicts, go work in the billing department of at a cable company. I used to LOVE TV, but after years of people screaming at me because their crack, I mean, cable, was off (because they did not pay their bill or because a huge fire/hurricane/tornado/flood destroyed the cable company’s infrastructure), well, I really started reading a lot more books. My TV viewing is about an hour a day, while working out on the elliptical machine. Of course being Canadian, you will find me watching Hockey Night in Canada Saturday night but even then, by the second or third period, I find myself muting the game and reading a book at the same time. Billing has ruined TV for me. In a weird way, I’m sort of grateful, I did not want to become one of those crazy people who freak out when they lose their cable.
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The time you save is great, but don’t forget the MONEY you save. Not paying $30-$150 a month. Not paying over $1000 for an LCD. Money for a Tivo. The monthly subscription for that Tivo. Not losing all that potential income from wasted time.
Oh, and how it makes you lazy, stupid and sedentary. And don’t forget the constant barrage of advertisements you are subjected to.
TV is pretty much the antithesis of everything related to personal productivity and finance.
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Sometimes I think people are too keen to regulate every single little part of their lives. We’re all bright people and already know that moderation in all aspects of life is good.
But sometimes it seems like more and more people are playing productivity-chicken and oneupmanship. Is reading my book really better for me than watching TV? What if I snuggle while watching TV, but not while reading? Do I win if I am snuggling while reading a book on being more productive while knitting with my feet?
I think everyone undervalues “downtime”, where you should shamelessly do whatever you feel like, without guilt. You work hard, do you really need to play hard too?
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Shut off the TV when we moved here 20 years ago. Raised 4 children without it, and if I could stress just one benefit of turning it off. My children found so many wonderful things to do with their extra hours created by not having TV, some of those hobbies changed their lives. They would not be the same people they are today if that box had absorbed even 1 hour per day of their time. Yes, it caused screams of pain the day it went off, yes, they grumbled all the way through high school about the wierdness and cruelty of a life without TV. Bottom line-they are better educated and lead much fuller lives because it was dead.
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I’ve found that the internet is just as big a time-sucking device for me as T.V. is.
We cut our cable off long ago, but those time wasters seem to creep in there no matter what we do!
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I feel “groggy, tired, and perhaps even grumpy” after 9 hours at work 5 days a week, and so have no energy to do anything but eat and sleep when I get home.
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Awesome post! I’m going to start keep track of how much time I spend laying around on the couch doing “pointless” activities and try to re-invest that time into something more productive! Thanks for the post!
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I love the train of thought in this post and in the comments, although I have to disagree with one thing.
A few years ago a friend bought me a TiVo for christmas and she promised it would change my life. And it did! At first, I loved being able to not worry about being home for the news (or forgetting to set my VCR to tape whatever show I was missing while I was at night school). I loved being able to forward through commercials.
BUT! for me, I ended up watching WAY more tv after getting TiVo! Now that it only took me 20 minutes to watch a 30 minute show, I’d end up watching two at a time instead – getting totally hooked! It also suggested new shows and turned me onto ones I wouldn’t have thought about otherwise, and with the convenience of having them all lined up for me whenever I wanted, it was just too hard to put down the remote. I’d say my viewing habits completely changed after TiVo, but instead of spending less time watching TV it was DEFINITELY a marked increase.
I just got back from an 8 month trip abroad, during which time I missed entire seasons of Top Chef, Grey’s Anatomy, Project Runway – some of my favorite shows. While I had the option (if I REALLY needed a fix) of watching some of them online, I found that I had way more fun actually living life, and I hardly missed them.
In the meantime, I went back to reading books. I think that in the past ten years my attention span was shortened to practically nothing by the ubiquity of information being hurled at me in bite-sized pieces on the internet, TV, etc. During the time I was away I read through approximately 2 books per week, picking up old classics that I was supposed to have read in school, as well as new recommendations from friends. My newly rediscovered reading habit, combined with daily sessions writing in a journal, have helped me to turn over a new leaf. And I don’t miss my TiVo at all!
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You seriously watch Dr. Phil…?
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Awesome post Erica and thanks for hosting it J.D.!
Here’s another great read from the Journal of Cognitive Liberties — http://www.cognitiveliberty.org/5jcl/5JCL59.htm
It’s a scientific perspective on TV watching and how it affects our brains and bodies. It’s definitely been helping me cut back — and hopefully to quit soon!
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Lots of people are seeing the Tivo as a time-suck and it can be. I find that I need to allow myself to not watch things I don’t want to. I tivo Oprah but only watch the happy episodes. mostly in fast forward. Olympics? Tivo’d. I watched most of the swimming *gasp* in triple fast forward. Less suspense and really, if you’re watching it after the fact, you know who won.
The true time suck for me these days is internet, specifically wandering about yelp and reading feeds. I knit while watching tv but don’t while I’m online.
And doing without cable to watch on a small computer screen? I’d get Apple Tv and use Amazon Unbox instead. It isn’t about saving the money but about enjoying my time investment. A show here or there on the computer is fine, but I’d rather watch it on a larger screen. It’d also save me the pain of waiting for online shows to buffer.
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A VCR or DVR is definitely a good way to save about 1/3 of the time you watch TV as long as your disciplined with it. But as others have pointed out a Tivo /DVR can cause you to watch more TV. Cutting commercials out of TV is a good time saver, I agreee there.
But other than that Whats the real underlying suggestion here? Should I simply stop leisure activities and spend all my time with productive work? Or should I just not watch TV because some people dislike TV?
Personally I enjoy TV. Its my primary choice for how I spend my leisure time.
Yes if I cut back on TV I could have more time to do other things. But I choose to spend my leisure time watching TV. If I choose to cut my leisure time I have more time to do work. But I enjoy my leisure time and I enjoy spending my leisure time watching TV.
Theres always a balance between leisure and productive / work time. Sure, cutting back on leisure time can free up time to work, but I don’t want to work more.
Otherwise its a personal opinion and preference as to whether we want to watch TV, read a book, play cards, exercise, or do other things with our own leisure time. While I understand many people feel TV is a waste of their time any other choice of how you spend leisure time is still simply a personal preference.
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We love our Tivo. We can watch a 30 minute show in 20 mins as we fast forward through commercials. (Major time savings.) And it is a good way to keep track of exactly how much TV we do watch. (Which is very minimal, but still something we do enjoy.)
I am with a few people here in that I can’t find 14 hours in a week. I am a working mom (full time) with two small children (and have outsourced housecleaning AND lawn mowing). My husband also works full time (plus overtime and an hour each way commute).
After everyone is sleeping in my house I hop on the treadmill and/or blog for my local newspaper (which while it makes me well known in my community, isn’t going to make me a millionaire!)
Anyways, good article and helpful for some out there. I agree with many points.
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I wonder what the results would be if you polled much of America with this idea? Cutting out tv? I think people have become more productive with the introduction of DVR’s and TIVO’s, but what percentage of American’s actually own them? It must be a small amount. Anyways, as I have gotten older I have cut back on TV and spent more time on the web, especially blogging. I definitely have give myself more time but I am just trying to make that extra cash in my spare time! Great points!
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Definitely if you want to pursue your dreams, you need to free up time to be focused as well eat right, exercise, get proper sleep and get lucky.
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Good post.
Though, in this day and age (and for this crowd), I suspect “idle Internet use” may be an even bigger time consumer than television.
How many hours a week do we spend chatting, watching YouTube videos, playing online games, Stumbling, etc. etc. etc.
If you’re already achieving your goals, and have time to waste, by all means, do what pleases you (TV and internet included), but if you’re always feeling pressured for time, check yourself a few times a day, and see if you’re engaged in something meaningful.
Good luck, all!
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This is parallel to J.D.’s article about attentive spending except that this is attentive use of time. I agree with #70. You can use your time for anything you want, just make sure it is REALLY what you want to do with your time.
As a matter of fact, today I started keeping track of what I did as soon as I got home. I did not realize I spent so much time cooking because the TV was on and I kept pausing to hear what they were saying!
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Wow ! Talk about strike a nerve ! There’s a ton of responses to this. I guess I’m lucky, I generally consider the vast majority of television programming to be without value. But, internet addiction, well …
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I like tv, I won’t lie. But, eventually I’ll be moving out of my rental house and into a house I buy. So the free cable will disappear.
I’d love to be able to download shows from the internet and watch it on my television. The Appletv won’t work, because I don’t have a hdtv. Are there any other options? This would allow me to watch the shows I like but limit my watching of filler.
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On the cleaning front, I personally give up on trying to keep the house perfectly clean. I hired a cleaning service years ago to save my marriage and time. For the Internet, I launched myinspirationlounge.com, an online portal to help women connect to the best of the web without all the searching! My vision is to help women get one step closer to doing what they love!
Misty
Founder
My Inspiration Lounge
http://www.myinspirationlounge.com
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@Jen S – awesome! I met my boyfriend by discussing The X-Files in a newsgroup.
In topic: I’m watching as much tv now as some years ago – I bought a DVD recorder one year ago but my habits remained the same: I watch some favorite series and good films.
But yeah, I waste much more time on the web, I’m more worried about that.
Though I must admit that sometimes I prefer wasting some time because I’m just tired and feel lazy – not the internet’s fault, or the tv’s fault…
By the way, one book a month is not enough to be a goal, read at least 2.
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This is why i love my TIVO. I just watch the shows i want when i have the time to watch it. I usually set aside one day to watch the shows of the week without the commercial interruption.
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I grew up in the very old days. One black and white Tv with 3 channels- and my dad picked what we watched. Then for a while, I couldn’t afford a Tv- and when I could- it was an old set for which I created an “antenna” from telephone wire that I had to be held to make it work(don’t ask) while watching. Eventually I got money, got TV(s), and got cable and then 13 years ago- got rid of it(cable, not TV). Cable was a treat on vacation/business trips(Clinton and Stacy-I love you- but don’t look at my clothing). For the past few years, the only show I had to see was Lost(and often the only show I watched).
Now, kids grown, husband retired- My husband is a TV addict and this was his idea – we got FIOS this week. I started clicking. I didn’t know there was more than one shopping channel(scary, really- but I’ll never buy)-I thought there was QVC. A whole slew of evangelical/religious channels(is Ernest Ansley around?)?? Lots of local gov’t program channels(a whole channel for the county council???- granted -our county has a larger population than Alaska). However, I didn’t see a whole lot to watch and I don’t even know when Stacy and Clinton are on.
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We got rid of our cable and got an Apple TV box. This was a huge help. At usually $2 per show our bill was a fraction of what it was with cable and we watched our favorite shows commercial free in Hi Def.
This biggest advantage is it eliminates aimless watching, as well as all the annoying commercials. The hard part is not having sports, but there are always sports pubs around to catch the game….
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I’ve been TV free for three years. My DVD player broke last year and I never got around to fixing it. My neighbor just shut off their wireless (yep, I was poaching) and after a week or two of pangs, I don’t miss it. And Guess What? my tangled jungle of a garden is newly beautiful, the house is clean, and I am making art EVERY DAY- working on that MFA I always dreamed about. TRUST ME – you won’t miss it! And you won’t be depressed any more, either!
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I am a mother of three young children, the vice president of a company, read extensively, and have many hobbies, to the point where I’ve been given the joke nickname “Martha Stewart” (um, I hope its a joke). People always ask me how I have time to do it all, and I always tell them its because I don’t watch television. Well, unless Project Runway is running, in which case I watch 1 hour of television a week.
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Good analysis on the two types of TV watchers. What makes the Television networks think they can tell me what I can and cannot watch on Tuesday night at 7 pm. If you are the first type of TV watcher you need to take a serious look into your life and goals and then move into the here and now of DVR/Ti-Vo.
Or you could just not own a TV. My wife and I have now been married for nearly 3 years and we have never owned a Television. With internet programing you can now watch pretty much anything you want any time you want, you can even watch it in HD. I agree that one of the only downfalls of not having a TV is sacrificing watching live sporting events. Sometimes you can find them online but the quality, size and overall experience just isn’t the same.
The best part of the post though is the part addressing what to do with you new found free time. You must have a plan and some goals. Dont just plan to plan or plan to make goals -DO IT. then you will never miss your TV
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Don’t forget that TV watching is cheap entertainment. You don’t need the latest LCD big screen, or the full cable package. An older nice-enough TV lasts for years and years, basic cable with Internet and a Netflix subscription is enough. You can improve the quality of your entertainment by pre-selecting (“targeted viewing”) shows and films that have good reviews (check metacritic.com). The library has DVD’s for free as well.
When I get home from my rather long and stressful workday, sometimes I am too wound up to sleep, and it’s too early. I’m not going to do much productive, so I relax and unwind with some quality television and a low-cal dinner. Beats going out and spending money and eating and drinking too much socially.
The web is a time-suck for sure as the commenter mentioned above. Kill monsters and collect gold games, even the fancy new ones, are fun but they hit the right brain-receptors and keep us coming back for too many hours.
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I haven’t had cable since I lived at home. We subscribe to Blockbuster online and it’s so much better, I’d only go back to television if there was a gun to my head.
I watch the shows I want to watch, when I want to watch them. They come in the mail and sit until I’m ready for them.
They have no commercial breaks, so you’re saving time.
If you’re married to someone whose mouth goes like a duck’s rear, you can rewind to catch what you missed while he was flapping his gums. Ahem.
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I agree with a lot of the post and a lot of the comments, however I think addiction and procrastination is the key thing here. We gave up our cable in December last year, basically a financial decision. Not because we couldn’t afford it, but because it wasn’t economically viable. You see we watched 2-3 shows a week (yes on DVR) for $50 a month for HD (Ballpark figure as I really don’t remember the exact price). Totally not worth it to us, especially when the seasons changed and it was 1-2 programs a week. We canceled the cable and haven’t looked back. Like someone mentioned we can watch programs online on the channels website for free!
One thing is that we tend to swap one behaviour for another. I noticed I was spending more time online, more time stuck infront of a computer screen, so now I make it a point that on ‘days off’ (I work from home) I don’t go on the computer till after lunch. Sundays I try and stay offline all day. I’ve done so much more since doing these few things, had more time to get things done and achieved so much! And it all started by giving up TV!
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Time indeed is a precious commodity and it is not necessarily what we do with our time that is the most mportant but how we feel when we are doing it. If watching television or being on the internet makes you feel guilty or not productive then stop doing it. If on the other hand you feel good about it because you are relaxing; or your learning something from the program you are watching then you are not wasting your time. Remember, time is what you make of it and not how it is perceived by others.
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There are many famous people who sleep 4-5 hours a night including Bill Clinton, Martha Stewart, Madonna, Donald Trump.
If you cut your sleep time in half from 8 hours to 4 hours, in the next 10 years you will have 14,600 extra hours awake. This is equivalent to 608 days which is over 1 year and 6 months extra your awake. Imagine having an extra 1 year and 6 months over your competition. The more productive your are now,the sooner you can relax.
Read up on the REM cycle’s your brain goes through when you sleep. 4 hours is really all you need. It’s not easy, but it’s definitely the best way to have more time! I personally have changed mine from 8+ hours to 5-6. It’s not 4 hours, but it’s a start.
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Hmmmm….but what if I spend my time reading “getrichslowly?”
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My partner invested in a wonderful Digital Video recorder with the unfortunate result that now he spends even more time watching all the shows he records during the day. And so do I. Missed “Beautiful People” or “Oprah” ? No worries, it’s all there when you get home.
The real solution is to turn the TV off and have very light dinners. I find elaborate , long drawn out dinners with snacks are what sparks a lot of TV watching.
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I was really intrigued by the title of this post, thinking it would be something scam-like anywhere else, but never on Get Rich Slowly. However, I haven’t had TV in several years. Sometimes, as a treat after a large project has ended, I will watch something on Hulu, but I probably average 0-2 hours a month. I don’t get caught up reading things online, and often spend weeks or months without spending the internet time to completely catch up on email or read my favorite blogs.
You said:
“If you really want to start a business, or if you have a goal in mind, and you watch TV or surf the Internet mindlessly, you do have time to reach that goal — over 750 hours a year, in fact. This life is your chance to better the world around you in some way. What amazing creations can you make with that time? What will you do with your newfound 750 hours a year?”
and I really find myself wondering how I must spend these 750 hours that others spend in front of the tv! I used to stage manage professionally in the evenings, which was a easy way to attribute my lack of time, but now I work on my blog, have dinner parties, and go to sleep at a reasonable hour. I am still hard-pressed to fit in time to learn a new language or get my freelancing off the ground.
Do you have any advice for finding those extra 750 hours for those that don’t watch tv or loll around online for hours at a time?
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For a few years, I was an aspiring TV writer. In that time, I read a whole host of “TV is bad for you” and “stop watching TV” blogs and articles. Yes, the advice makes sense, to a point. If you’re sitting in front of the TV 6+ hours a day, it’s time to get up and do something else.
However, for a lot of us, energy is the thing we’re lacking most, not time. After a stressful day at work and a trip to the gym, making dinner, taking care of kids etc who has the energy to learn advanced physics or Cantonese? Not me, that’s for sure. But watching a TV show I love helps me switch my brain off, de-stress and be entertained all at the same time.
Studies have also shown that watching TV with your spouse or significant other is actually an intimacy building activity – one that doesn’t occur while my husband is reading the news online and I’m absorbed in a novel, even if we are in the same room.
Finally, storytelling has been a part of human culture as long as language has been around. I wonder how much TV satisfies our need for bringing stories, empathy, and adventure into our lives?
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Thanks for using this article as an example of a guest post Erica Douoglass. Its funny how some things make the world seem even smaller. I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that cutting out tv is true genius of this article. As I describe in the first information product I ever created, Take Back Your Time and Do What You Love, its the time journal that opens your eyes to the big time wasters. You are indeed the boss of your time even if you trade hours for dollars. When you look at where you’ve spent the time, you can find an extra 45 minutes a day. I guarantee it!
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