I workout in the gym every single day, but only for 30 minutes, which is only 2% of my day and only 2% of my time.
You can put 30 minutes (which is only 2% of your day) of dedicated completely focused wide-awake time on a task or project each day, and thereby be mastering 10 different things at once, without multitasking, in just 5 hours a day total. You can easily throw that on top of a full-time day job to pay the bills and still have hours left over to relax before bed.
30 minutes is just an example. For some tasks or goals, you do put 15 minutes (only 1% of your day) or 45 minutes (3%) of your day, or a little more or little less.
I sleep a full 8 hours everyday, but (as the math inclined among you will have already calculated) that still leaves me with 34 wide awake half-hours to distribute to projects or goals I want to work on at an average rate of 30 minutes per day. Some I might schedule for 15 minutes; some for a full hour. There's nothing magical about 2% (30 minutes); I just use it as an example. You can give 1% to some projects and give 3% or 4% to some others.
My gym workouts and progress in the gym is just one of my 32 2-percents that I have to spend. I can do 32 projects at once, and excel in each one, and still get a full night's sleep each night. The power is in the consistency over time, combined with the lack of multitasking. Each task or project gets its own time each day where it gets to be not just #1 but to be nearly all there is at that moment. Focus. Concentration. Dedication.
You can accomplish so many things just by putting just 2% or less of your day to each one, but really putting that 2% there, focusing on that one task during that time, staying consistent day after day, and not skipping days, not even a single one.
The trick to excellent results and huge progress in any goal or project (e.g. wanting to lose 100 lbs, learning a new language, wanting to start a side business that will one day let you quit your day job, etc.) is not to invest tons of time or effort per day. Quite the opposite! The trick is to be consistent. And promising yourself less is conducive to actually keeping the promises. It's in large part by planning to spend less time per day that you then actually stay consistent, don't skip days, and thereby achieve the goal and make huge almost unbelievable long-term progress.
In general, the person who plans to workout 15 minutes per day will succeed at that goal much more than the person who plans to workout 2 hours per day. The person who aims to lose 0.5 lbs per week will succeed much more than the person who goes on a crazy crash diet to lost 10 lbs a week. The person who aims to get rich overnight using get-rich-quick-schemes and extreme amount of willpower will typically end up even poorer than when they started. 100 times out of 100, I will bet on the person who successfully puts just 10 minutes per day to their side business idea or project, but does it consistently every single day for at least 21 days. Many people approach business and making money like a crash dieter approaches dieting, and I will never ever bet on those people.
Diligently avoid overextending yourself. And thereby avoid the self-deceiving lie that you don't have the time to easily achieve huge incredible results at multiple things, while still having plenty of time to sleep and relax. If you schedule everything for 4x as long as it needs to be then of course you won't have time for all your goals, but then that's a game of self-deception.
Plan from the get-go to invest less time and less effort on any given goal or project. Be cheap and stingy with your time and effort when creating your plan or time budget.
Then focus firmly on consistency. Do the planned task for the specified budgeted time every single day without missing a day, without skipping, without cheating.
Humans are great at designing ambitious diets, self-promises, and plans, but terrible at sticking to them. Promise yourself less, and then focus on actually keeping those promises.
Act like you are married to yourself, because you basically are, and then be a good loyal honest faithful spouse who keeps your promises.
With love,
Eckhart Aurelius Hughes
a.k.a. Scott
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In addition to having authored his book, In It Together, Eckhart Aurelius Hughes (a.k.a. Scott) runs a mentoring program, with a free option, that guarantees success. Success is guaranteed for anyone who follows the program.
