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How To Uncover Your Forbidden Schedule And Watch Your Time Multiply
This is the key to really uncovering more time that feels like it multiplies exponentially.
Time is at the crux of all productivity hacks.
We spend a lot of time trying to organize better, manage people better, zero out our inboxes, and more.
But the truth is all we really want is to better manage our time.
Think about it.
Would you really need your computer files to be organized in perfect alphabetical order if you have all the time in the world to search for what you need?
Would you really be concerned with hiring the perfect employee if you had all the time in the world to hire as many people until you found the right fit?
And would you really care about some glorified pat on the back accomplishment of a zero inbox, if you had limitless time to sort through all those junk emails?
We probably wouldn't care.
Time is the foundation of it all.
And that's where we should spend more of our time.
Get it?...Spend time focusing on time...it's okay, nevermind.
On a serious note, if you learn to master your time, you will inadvertently master many areas of productivity and self growth.
That's why today, I want to share how to uncover your forbidden schedule and watch your time multiply.
That's a big promise.
"How on Earth can some random guy writing alone in his room, help me multiply my time?"
I know it sounds crazy but I know it's possible because I've done it for myself.
Time is always fleeting.
It seems like the more we do, the less time we have.
And that's an equation that will always suck.
Pretty much, the more successful and ambitious we become, the less time we'll have to accomplish more things.
That's why I spent a lot of time analyzing my patterns.
Where am I spending my time currently?
I wake up and watch YouTube for hours.
I drive for 40 minutes to the office.
I hit the gym for an hour and a half.
I work until the evening comes.
And then I drive back home for another 40 minutes.
And guess what I do as soon as I get home and lay down?...
Youtube.
And that's the problem.
Okay, it's not a problem per say, but it is sucking up a lot of my free time that I can be using in more productive ways.
So I created a Forbidden Schedule.
And this is the key to really uncovering more time that feels like it multiplies exponentially.
Most people spend all their energy and effort in trying to create the perfect schedule of what they want their day to look like.
"I'm going to run at 7am, then write for an hour at 10am, and come home and cook a fresh meal at 6pm."
That's super admirable.
It's a great ideal day.
But life isn't always going to be ideal.
There will be days you're too tired to cook for dinner. What then?
There will be days you wake up later than 7am. What then?
There will be days you're not at home to do any of the things in your perfect ideal day schedule. What then?
That's when the whole schedule falls apart.
And you get zero value from the schedule you made because you didn't create your Forbidden Schedule.
For every Ying, you need your Yang.
A Forbidden Schedule looks at the patterns of where you waste the most time, and creates the "Do Not Allow" list of your life.
It sounds silly, but it's scary effective.
Humans are creatures of habit so we want to do the bad things often at the same time or with the same environmental factors.
Sometimes something as simple as saying, I can't eat junk food after 9pm, the time you ALWAYS eat junk food, will stop you from eating it all day.
So if you know you always take a nap at 2pm and waste two hours of your day, put a block on your schedule where naps are forbidden from 2pm to 4pm.
It won't turn you into some kind of discipline rockstar, but it will put a little bit of momentum on the side of productivity.
Go through your whole day, and list all the unproductive things you do.
And create a schedule specifically forbidding you from doing these things, at the times you normally want to do them.
That is your Forbidden Schedule.
So for me, watching YouTube videos is forbidden in the morning. I don't have to be productive but I have to find something else to do besides sit on my ass watching MrBeast.
And chances are I'll just choose to get up and start my day earlier.
That's productivity.
And the best part of your Forbidden Schedule is that it will always be there even if you're out of town or have a slow start to your day.
Just because I'm on a business trip in Chicago doesn't mean I can magically watch YouTube videos in the morning now.
It was forbidden at home, it's forbidden out of town.
That is how you build a schedule that isn't based on a perfect ideal world.
Combine your Forbidden Schedule, with your Ideal Daily Schedule and you'll be on a whole new level.
You can be a true master of your time.
You just have to be hungry and willing to take a bite of the forbidden...
In progress,
Tim
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