How to Get 25 Hours in a Day
A month ago, I had asked the following question both on my Facebook Page and on Twitter:
“Which do you need more of: ideas, or time to implement your ideas?”
Within 20 minutes, I had received over 50 responses. Ahh, the power of social media.
95% of the respondents said that what they all needed was more time. Here are some direct quotes from a few of the respondents:
“Time, by far. I have ideas by the minute.”
“Definitely time. It’s always easier to just stand at the staircase, than climb it.”
“…Ideas come and go, but time…blessed time!”
“Time…the precious commodity.”
Obviously, this was not a formal survey. It was just a question I had asked my specific group of followers on two social media platforms – so don’t think that 95% of all people in the world would have responded the same way. I think the thing to take away from this is simply that time is something we all wish we had more of.
Imagine what we could all do if there was just one extra hour in each day.
Unfortunately, we’re stuck with 24 hours, so it’s how we utilize those 24 hours that becomes the important factor that determines how successful we will be, with whatever it is we want to achieve. Luckily, there are things we can do to improve how we utilize our time, so it will seem like we’re actually getting more work done in the same period of time.
The following are some things you can do during the day to get that extra hour (or more) that you need to work on your own online businesses or blogs:
1. Know When You Work Best
This tip comes from a good friend of mine who is wisely “hacking” his time to start his own online business, so I can’t take credit for it myself.
If you work a 9 to 5 job, you know that during some parts of your work day, you’re super productive and “on point”, while during other times of the day, you’re sluggish and don’t seem to have very much energy to do anything. Take of note of when you’re the most productive, and utilize that time for your online business.
During this peak performance period, take time off of working for “the man”, and start working for yourself. Spend 30 minutes or an hour on your own stuff, and make up the time in some other part the day.
Many people find that when they first get to work in the morning, they are the most energetic and productive. However, “work” doesn’t seem to start until an hour later anyways because people are coming in late, checking emails, chatting about last night’s game – whatever.
What if you came into work and instead of doing all of those things, concentrated on your own stuff instead? I’m sure many of you, like my friend, will find that you can get a lot more done for your online business at the start of your day, rather than at the end of it after a long day’s work.
Of course, you’ll have to make sure that you are allowed to make up the hours you work for yourself later – maybe by cutting down your hour long lunch, skipping your 15 minute breaks, or spending more time at work (or a combination of each).
If you can’t stay later for whatever reason, why not come in an hour earlier?
2. Don’t Waste Your Dead Time
Dead time is time that you spending doing something where active thought from your brain isn’t constantly required. For example:
- Driving
- Eating
- Running/Working Out
- Taking a Shower/Bath
- Other Mundane, Repetitive Tasks
Yes, I know – you need your brain to drive, but driving eventually becomes so second nature to us that we aren’t required to constantly think about how to do it.
Dead time by itself is wasted time. Time that we can never get back.
If your commute to work is 30 minutes, that’s an hour each day spent in your car. Are you doing anything to make that time useful? Many of you, I’m sure, are probably not. Listening to Taylor Swift or Lady Gaga will not improve your online business.
So what can you do during dead time that’s useful?
The easiest thing that you can do is to educate yourself with either podcasts or audiobooks. You can’t (or shouldn’t) really do tasks that require the computer (except maybe eating – i.e. take a bite, write a paragraph, take a bite, etc.), but listening to podcasts or books that will later improve the performance of you and/or your business will help tremendously.
Whenever I drive alone or go to the gym, I play a Seth Godin audiobook or an Internet Business Mastery podcast on my iPhone and just soak it all in.
Search through the iTunes directory for podcasts (which are free) and audiobooks (most you have to pay to get) related to internet business, blogging and whatever your niche is about, to spend those extra 300+ hours a year in your car doing use something for your business.
3. Sacrifice
If you really want your online business to succeed and you really don’t have enough time, you’re going to have to make some sacrifices to make it work. Here is a list of a few things that you could possibly cut from your daily routine to find that extra hour a day you need:
- Television
- Video Games
- Facebook / Twitter (you know you could cut out some time from this…)
- Sleep
That being said, don’t sacrifice things that you love, which may seem like they can be added onto this like – like time with your spouse or kids.
Do you really love video games that much?
4. Work More Efficiently
This is an obvious statement, but many of us are so used to doing things a certain way that we never consider that there may be an easier way to do things. Some of us may even know that there are easier ways to do certain things, but we don’t do it that way because we’re either too scared to figure it out (aka. change is bad), or we’re too stubborn to learn something new.
If something can improve your business and your output, why would you not do it?
As far as a list of ways to work more efficiently, there are far too many for this particular blog post. I’ll have that to you in a later post. 
5. Have Fun With What You’re Doing
If you’re having fun with what you’re doing, you’ll be able to get more (and better) work done.
You like what you’re doing, you’re excited to see the results, so there’s nothing holding you back. Remember this the next time you’re struggling with a blog post, or trying to figure out your next move with your online business.
That’s why writing blog posts like this come really easy for me. It’s fun!
Lastly, I would just like to say thanks to everyone who sent me their best wishes and congratulatory remarks these past few days regarding the birth of my new baby boy. My wife April and our son, Keoni, are both doing just fine at home now. It was seriously the most amazing thing that’s every happened to me in my entire life, and I can’t wait to Crush it even harder in 2010 for his sake.
Life truly is beautiful.
p.s. What are some techniques that you use to get that extra hour of work in that you need?
Posted on : December 28th, 2009
Related posts:
- Ask the Readers: How to Motivate the Unmotivated
- Why I Will Quit My Job for a Passive Income
- What Are Your Un-Goals For 2010?
- Another Benefit of Passive Income – Muscles?
- My February Time Breakdown and “Organic Earnings”
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29 Comments (Click Here to Leave a Comment Below)
I kind of enjoy driving in total silence. It’s almost like meditation and gives me a lot of inspiration and ideas while doing it. However, if I can find a good audio book I might use that, but I’ve noticed that just driving in silence is pretty cool.
Agree completely with #5, there’s no use in doing anything if you aren’t at least having fun or even better, if you aren’t extremely passionate!
Hope you had a good Christmas Pat!
I’m with Henri on the car thing. I have to schedule silence during my day in order to be the most productive. I’m one of those people who finds that I get the best breakthroughs when I’m in the shower, on a bike ride, or driving. However, I don’t get anywhere if I do those things with distractions in the background. That silence during the day is usually when I figure out how to drastically increase my income again.
One of the things that I teach a lot is automation. I’d much rather have a computer doing tasks for me whenever possible so that I can head to the beach!
Great blog. I’m all about the passive income, too, so I look forward to reading more.
Warmly,
Nicole
I only sleep 4-6 hours a night, Pat. Seriously. It’s in Army manuals. lol…..it frees up so much time, and my body has just become accustomed to it.
Hi Howie, I’m the same way. I think it’s from my days back in College while in Architecture school. I one stayed up 3 days STRAIGHT to finish a project. of course, I don’t recommend doing that all of the time, but I can function perfectly on 4-6 hours of sleep like yourself. Cheers!
I like the idea of using dead time, but I wouldn’t include eating as a dead time activity. I believe as a society a lot of our health problems stems from our bad eating habits, one of which is to multi task while eating.
If you’re not SATISFIED with your meal, which is hard to do when your attention is divided, you tend to overeat, and that causes a problem when it becomes a habit.
I like the ideas and I’ve used a few of them before, specially educating myself while driving.
Rasheed
Hi Rasheed, point kindly taken. Thanks for your input, which makes total sense. I guess it would take some practice to balance out a good meal with multi-tasking, but I’ve found it to be very helpful for me as I was starting my own online ventures. I used to work a lot during my lunch hour, while eating at the same time. Cheers!
Great post, Pat, and congrats again on the miracle of a new baby!
One thing I am doing to improve my time management and eliminate a lot of wasted “busyness” is establishing a detailed schedule for how I spend my days. By dedicating 30 minutes to social media at a specific time of day, I should be able to eliminate the tendency to let things like that eat up too much time. This will also allow me to specify and set aside time for long-term projects…like my e-book!
And it should get me back into balance with my lifestyle…exercise, my old friend, it’s time we get reacquainted.
“In time take time while time don’t last, for time. Is no time when time is past”. Think about this.
The simplest way to add one more hour to your day is to wake up one hour early.
Really nice post but i don’t really have much problem with time. I got lots of time to do what i wanted to like reading your blog.
Best wishes to your family from India.
Azad Shaikh
http://www.internetgeeks.org
Pat, great ideas as usual.
When you talk of “Knowing when you work the best” I have talked about this before and called it finding your power ban. There is definitely a time of day for everyone that they are most creative, efficient, and motivated. It is different from person to person, for myself I am most efficient between 10pm and Midnight, I find myself creating my best work without having to work hard for it at this time. Effectively finding when your most efficient is must for sure!
Thanks for the tips.
I think one of the best ways to add an hour on your day is to identify your “money making” activities, and spend your time doing them. So many beginning internet marketers think because they are in front of their computer doing SOMETHING they are working ~ this just isn’t the case. You can get so much further if you identify the things in your internet marketing strategy that will make you money and then focus on those things. ahem… checking stats 50 times a day is NOT a money making activity.
Congrats on the baby ~ Get sleep when you can ~ it may be elusive for quite a while.
Jackie
I get more out of my days by implementing the 80/20 principle and focusing on the small part of my business, work, etc that will provide the most ‘benefit’ in the short or long run.
Its all a balancing act but when you cut out the fluffy stuff like instant messaging, checking emails 20 times a day and going to the water cooler 16 times you really can get in the ‘mode’ easier.
I’ve also noticed that what you said, focusing on what you like to do, or your passion is a great way to really stay motivated. You can outsource or hurry thru the drudgery but leave ample time for pursuing your passions.. that is what builds your niche the best.
I finally took the time today to write a formal schedule for all my online blogging and website tasks. It’s still flexible enough to add or delete some items, but I think now I’ll finally get some projects completed and goals achieved in 2010.
I definitely get a lot of my business done before the real action here starts. I work through my lunch and stay later if need be. But not so late that it interferes with my personal life, I try to keep the two balanced.
Well I wrote the schedule and so far I have veered off course each day, I blame it on the holidays. LOL:)
Some great tips for maximizing your time, Pat. I find that scheduling properly and working efficiently can always be better honed.
However, I would argue that there’s no such thing as “dead time.” Without some time to clear out your head and just enjoy the taste of your food, focus on maximizing your workout or get adequate rest, the rest of your time will be a little less efficient.
I’d even add “Meditate” to the list – it’s one thing to have ideas by the score, and quite another to allow the truly great ones to rise to the top. And sometimes I’ve got to clear the clutter from my mind to know that.
Last, time is that one thing that 20 years from now you’ll wish you enjoyed more. Enjoy more.
Thanks for the Seth Godin blog tip; I didn’t have that one yet. Good stuff. I’ve started to think of time like money–I pay myself first when I can, in terms of both time and money. At my 9-5 job, I make sure I crush it, since that’s what they pay me to do. But, I simply rearranged my time such that the productive or creative 1/2 hour for online-business stuff is shifted to the morning, to guarantee I get that time in. Otherwise I find myself in the same position as the day before-nowhere. I just stay later at work to make sure I get everything done. My company actually benefits because I can get tons of non-creative production work done with nobody here after-hours to bug me, and I benefit because my creativity is at its peak in the morning hours before lunch. I notice it’s increased both personal and work-related productivity to operate this way. Then before I leave for the night, I download more podcasts to listen to in my car for my commute. I always read a useful book (or this blog) during lunch as well. From the 4-Hour Workweek, I learned to 80/20 my time, i.e. I identify what 20% of my activities get me 80% of my results and make those my primary tasks.
Pat,
Congrats on starting a family, very exciting. Thank you for the great podcast suggestion. I look forward to catching up on those during my 1-hour commute. I wanted to piggy-back on what Jackie said about a money-making activities. I believe that getting more out of your day actually starts with idenifying your priorities and incorporating them into your schedule in a realistic way. Therefore, if making money is one of your priorities there is no excuse for running out of time.
I think it is insane to want to cram more into a day when, as you suggest, eliminating TV, video games, etc is an easy solution to that. I would suggest that everyone prepare a set of clearly defined goals or promises based on the priorities you feel most strongly about, and reflect those golas or promises in your schedule. If you do this, then you’re priorities are in plain sight and you won’t have to search for that “extra” time.
I actually turn up later at work BECAUSE i would rather spend my most productive time, i.e. in the morning, to do the things I love e.g. Tai Chi, writing etc at home.
thanks for the timely post.
Hi Pat,
I love your blog, have been following for a little while now. I’m a big “Time Protector” since I’ve been working at home and creating new businesses.
One thing that I am looking into is getting an assistant, a VA. It means managing another employee, but if I can pay someone $250$350 to do 160 hours worth of work a month, is that not worth it? I certainly couldn’t get that much work done for that little money. (I was managing upwards of 150 employees in my prior business so one or two is cakewalk!)
My other tip is to break up your work load day into 2-3 hours of “focus time” so that it’s not a 10 or 12 hour marathon. I’m only really effective for a short period…then I need a break. I have found too that since working at home, I find my best hours for my focus is between 7 and midnight. The kiddos are in bed, or close to it, and I get absolute silence!
Congrats on the babe! Looking forward to many great posts!
I’ve been thinking along the same lines – time management is my big bugbear – and one I am determined to get under control in 2010!
Good points. I have a commute of 1 hour each way to work. I’m going to get a recorder and record thoughts as they occur to me. That’s my new thing for 2010.
Hey Pat.
Fantastic post and again great timing.
As a mother of 3 looking after a very very busy household I find that I am more creatvie durring the late wee hours of the nite, like now when its midnite here in Australia.
I use a mindmap to schedule my days. Mornings I find I am more physicaly motivated, late at nite when kids are in bed I am more creative. I even have a 15min cleaning routine which I use as a break from work time and time to listen to a podcast.
So many great ideas in the blog and the comments. Congrats again on the new addition, all the best of the new year to you and your family Pat.
Cheers
Tammy
I believe when you’re passionate about what you’re doing then time utilization becomes easier. Every down time I have I’m thinking about my online projects.
One big thing I do is focus on what I want to accomplish for that day. As long as it’s done then everything else is icing on my cake and time becomes less of an issue.
Good read as always Pat.
Congrats on your new baby and hope you and your family have a very HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!
Those are all great points, and I’m doing most of them. One thing I discovered that’s a little surprising is that my most productive time isn’t when I thought it would be. I’m a night person, so I assumed it would be late at night. But in reality I get the most stuff done if I get up long before dawn and work all bleary-eyed. In my case I think that’s because I’m too tired to do anything but the single task set out ahead of time. So I plow through it and it gets done much faster than it otherwise would have.
Hi Pat,
Listening to audiobooks and podcast is a good way to make full use of our time. It is a smart thing to fully utilize the time we spend in commuting as we spend much of our time traveling to and fro. Nightingale got some great audiobooks. You might want to check it out.
Cheers,
Vincent
I tried to either get up, or get to work 30-45 minutes before everyone else. The quiet of this time, allows me to plow through more tasks than any other time of the day, plus it allows me to feel like I accomplished something before the day has even started.
Fantastic advice which has left me wondering exactly when I function best! Quiet, cool, no or few interuptions and non glaring lights help – but the hours have been so long for so long – dipping into auto pilot to get the tasks done to disgusting deadlines (not mine). Your blog is like a lovely cool stream of sanity. Thank You!
Hi Pat,
I think that time itself is not the holy grail of getting more done, but energy comes to the equation as well. What good does it to you to have one more hour a day if you spend that hour feeling tired, unfocused, and having difficulties to stop your mind from wandering?
It’s not only about time management, but managing both time and energy efficiently – a topic I want to explore further to improve my own productivity
//sami
[...] How to Get 25 Hours in a Day [...]
Hi Pat,
After getting motivated from this post i finally came up with my own post on Time Management.
Thanks for the motivation.
Azad Shaikh (The Internet Geek)