How To Add 416 Hours Of Productivity To Your Year

One of the biggest excuses people throw around when they don’t reach their goals is the classic line, “I just don’t have enough time”…

But let’s examine this in-depth for a moment.

According to a Gallup poll, “Adults employed full-time in the U.S. report working an average of 47 hours per week, almost a full workday longer than what a standard five-day, 9-to-5 schedule entails”.

Now note that the poll is referring to “adults employed FULL-TIME”.

Let’s take a hypothetical person RIGHT NOW and look at their work schedule.

Tom Jones works a full-time job.

He averages around 47 hours per week working a traditional 9-5 job.

Some days he’s asked to stay at the office a bit longer and once per month he’s asked to work on a Saturday, so his average work week is 47 hours.

In his free time Tom hits the gym after work which takes up about 1.5 hours when you include drive time.

Come Friday night, Tom goes out and parties.

Instead of pacing himself and choosing NOT to drink on Fridays, he wakes up late on Saturday with a hangover and by the time he gets going realizes he’s lost over half the day on Saturday.

He runs some errands on Saturday then heads back out to party some more.

Sunday he wakes to find he has lost MOST of Sunday as well and his hangover is even more brutal due to the back to back nights of heavy partying.

Sunday evening he spends watching TV shows and before he knows it he’s back to the 9-5 grind Monday morning.

Tom wants change.

You see, Tom has been wanting to start an e-commerce business for quite some time.

Almost a year in fact.

For a year he’s done some research here and there on e-commerce sites and believes he has a solid business idea in a proven niche that could be quite profitable.

The ‘problem’ is that Tom can NEVER find the time to really work on his idea.

Weekend after weekend he’s so burned out from work, that he ‘escapes’ to the bottle in order to relax.

The byproduct is that Tom spends a whole ENTIRE year losing hours of opportunity due to this pattern.

So what is Tom to actually do?

He needs a REAL social life to a certain extent.

He also needs sex to a certain extent.

But, he also needs to start his e-commerce site so he can eventually escape his job which he absolutely detests.

What Tom doesn’t realize (yet) is that he actually has an extra 416 HOURS of time available to him per year.

How is this even possible?

If Tom were to commit to working on HIS business every Saturday for 8 hours, then at the end of the year he would have worked 416 hours on his business.

If Tom were even to commit to working on HIS business every Saturday for 4 hours and every Sunday for 4 hours, then at the end of the year he would have worked 416 hours on his business.

416 hours. 52 eight-hour work days. 

Easy to say and even harder to do execute, right?

Let’s examine how Tom could restructure his life so this is even easier to actually do.

Cut out Friday night drinking. 

If Tom were to JUST cut out Friday night Happy Hour with his co-workers which turns into a late night, then he would wake up Saturday without a hangover and ready to be ultra productive.

He doesn’t have to cut out going out period, just eliminate the drinking and MAYBE head home an hour or two earlier.

Spread out his errands throughout the week. 

Many people will let their errands pile up for the weekend and try to get EVERYTHING done in only one day.

They’ll leave laundry, grocery shopping, getting their car washed and any other miscellaneous activities for Saturday usually.

So they spend the whole day running around like a maniac on minor errands.

These could be spread out throughout the week so Tom’s Saturday is open.

Car wash?

Get it done during the week earlier in the morning.

Car washes usually run Early Bird specials for those who get in early during the week since they’re slower weekdays.

Laundry?

Knock that out another night during the week.

Groceries?

If you have the necessary income, then simply outsource that.

In fact, you could outsource the laundry too.

Make Friday night a work night. 

Let’s say instead of going out Friday evenings with his co-workers Tom went straight home and worked on his e-commerce idea for 4 straight hours.

Then he hit’s the hay early and is up Saturday morning and works for another 4 hours.

There’s his 8 hours and what did he REALLY miss out on?

He might get laid a little less, or he MIGHT use his Saturday nights to go balls to the wall when he’s out approaching girls and his game gets even better.

Without a doubt he’s going to feel more confident and happy because he know’s he’s been working on HIMSELF and his future and girls will immediately sense this.

The easiest solution Tom finds to his “lack of time” problem is setting himself up on a REAL actual schedule.

Since he’s incorporated two list methods his productivity has absolutely exploded.

Here’s what he actually does:

Make a list on Sunday for the week.

In this list Tom has the Overall Objective Goals for the week.

This is the major stuff that he definitely has to get done.

Make a daily list the night before.

Every night before he goes to sleep Tom makes a daily list for the next day.

Ex. Monday night he makes his Tuesday list.

He checks this against his Overall Objective Goals so that every day he chips away at what the main goals are for the week.

This ensures he stays on track and helps him wake with purpose the next day instead of fucking around simply wasting time.

We’ll come back to Tom in a minute…

Without slamming people over the head, I’d like to talk about this lack of time that people struggle with finding to accomplish their goals.

There are multiple reasons why people use this excuse, but the main core reason I’ve seen behind average peoples’ “lack of time” reason is this: 

Busy work creates comfort.

Busy work creates comfort.

Look around sometime.

How many of your co-workers are acting like their lives are extremely busy, but when you examine WHAT they’re busy with you realize most of it is complete utter bullshit.

They hustle and bustle around like they’re an important politician on the campaign trail, however, when you dig deep into their activities, it’s ALL total fluff.

It’s NOT concrete, but instead activities that make them FEEL like they’re busy.

Note the word ‘FEEL’.

Feeling like you’re busy and actually BEING busy are drastically different.

The byproduct is that when an average person fills their schedule up with all these ‘activities’, then it allows them the perfect excuse as to WHY they’re NOT where they COULD BE.

It makes them feel better about themselves.

It gives them a reason as to why they haven’t buckled down, created discipline and charted a tangible course to getting what they actually want.

There’s comfort in creating excuses for ourselves, but is that REALLY the life that YOU actually WANT?

Back to Tom…

Tom decided to dedicate every Saturday for just ONE year to his e-commerce site idea.

You see, it’s just an idea, until it actually MAKES MONEY; then it’s a REAL actual business.

Tom got caught up in talking about his ‘business’ for so long BEFORE it was ANYTHING more than him buying a site URL and THINKING about it…

That he had to check himself and understand that he hadn’t earned the right yet to call it a real business because he wasn’t TREATING it like a REAL actual business.

Tom spent 8 hours every Saturday (occasionally splitting his time between Sat and Sun 4 hours each) focused on his e-commerce site.

He built it.

He made it happen.

His site is already getting buzz and daily he gets real-life actual orders.

His goal is to quit his 9-5 corporate job and go full-time with his online business and…he just might MAKE it happen.

Tom doesn’t REALLY actually exist, but there are plenty of ‘Toms’ out there in the world.

Maybe *you’re* one of them.

You have business ideas, or maybe you’re even an artist, but you haven’t learned to claim the time you do have and that’s okay.

IF you only want to be average.

If the idea of being average repels you…

Then you have what it takes to actually get ahead…

But you have to sit down, plot your week and carve out just 8 hours that you dedicate to your business idea, etc.

If you do so, then you’ll find in just one short year you’ll have made incredible progress with the 416 hours you ‘discovered’ in your week.

Those 8 hours can literally change your life.

Don’t ever throw them away.

Until next time.

Your man,

-Elijah “The Realist”