The Free-Time Formula summary

People often talk about their priorities in the plural. That’s a common mistake and a fairly recent one at that. As Greg McKeown, the author of Essentialism, points out, it was only after 1900 that people stopped talking about “their priority” in the singular. If we want to get a handle on our to-do lists, we’d do well to return to that more realistic way of talking about the things we prioritize.

Why? Well, as we’ve seen, the brain isn’t really equipped to deal with multiple jobs at the same time. Ask it to focus on several parallel commitments, and it’ll end up losing its focus entirely. In fact, the best the brain can do is rapidly switch from one task to the next. But that’s not a sustainable solution. It leads to tiredness and distraction, as you’ll doubtless know from the last time you tried to do it.

There’s nothing more important than your health. After all, if you’re not in good physical shape, you’re not going to be able to take care of your other commitments. That means exercise should be at the center of your plans, rather than an afterthought. But how do you fit it in, especially when you’re busy?

A good place to start is reminding yourself that making time for exercise isn’t a distraction from work – it’ll actually help you get through your tasks more efficiently. In fact, you’ll most likely be gaining time by freeing up some space in your schedule for your workout routine. That means your number one priority should be exercise rather than work. So start off by penciling in your morning run or midday yoga class, and then add your other commitments around that.

One of the key insights from today’s increasingly popular spiritual teachings is that letting go of unnecessary burdens can help you declutter your home and free up valuable headspace. Like the soundtrack of Disney’s Frozen movie, the new mantra seems to be “let it go!” That makes a lot of sense when it comes to managing your time as well.

Take it from Joshua Becker, the author of Minimalism and one of the eponymous movement’s most well-known advocates. Becker argues that getting rid of stuff you don’t really need is a liberating experience. It frees up more time and resources, and it cuts a huge amount of stress out of your life.

When Sanders was at college, he found out that his school’s cafeteria offered an all-you-can-eat buffet three times a day. It was a fantastic deal for a hard-up student, and he soon found himself eating most of his meals there. Soon enough, he was piling on the pounds – every day was “cafeteria day.”  It wasn’t great for his health, but the experience taught him something important: scheduling themed days is one of the smartest ways to improve your time management.

As we’ve seen, accomplishing the things that matter the most is all about making them your priority – singular. Theme days do just that, allowing you to focus all your attention and energy on one task. That’s something Sanders regularly puts into practice. These days, he avoids the cafeteria and devotes days to personal projects like developing a podcast about motivational speaking and coaching.

We’ve all been there: the stars align and grant you your wish of an afternoon off, but all you end up doing with those precious hours is binge-watching your way through a so-so TV series. This is due to the fact that we often fail to plan for the unexpected and don’t know how to make the most of unforeseen strokes of luck.

Planning to be spontaneous might sound like an odd concept, but it’s actually pretty simple. Essentially, it’s all about creating a “just in case” list of things you’d like to do. Obviously, it’s best to be realistic here and come up with activities that you can feasibly fit into the amount of free time you might end up with. So if it’s plausible that you might get a 15-minute breather at work, ask yourself what you could squeeze into a quarter of an hour. For example, It could be a quick yoga session or a brisk walk around the block.

There’s no getting around it: social media is often little more than a mildly entertaining way of wasting time. Sure, it might be fun now and then, but mostly it’s the number one reason you don’t get important but difficult tasks done. In other words, the downsides vastly outweigh the benefits.

That’s a great reason to cut out technological distractions if you want to improve your time management. That doesn’t mean you have to renounce tech altogether and become a neo-Luddite. What it does mean is that you should start looking at which technologies are helping you achieve your aims and which are undermining your efficiency.

Social media isn’t the only addiction that prevents us from using our time effectively. If anything, workaholism is an ever greater issue in contemporary society. These days, many executives and CEOs adhere to punishing work regimens, but there are also cases of them making reckless decisions, perhaps driven by exhaustion.

The evidence suggests that working yourself too hard is neither healthy nor helpful. Take it from Sanders, a one-time workaholic who fell into precisely this trap. Years of grueling, 100-hour workweeks ended up seriously undermining his well-being. He suffered panic attacks, couldn’t sleep and became dependent on endless cups of coffee to keep him going.