The Free-Time Formula Book Summary - The Free-Time Formula Book explained in key points

Listen to the Intro

00:00

The Free-Time Formula summary

Name: The Free-Time Formula
Rating: 4.4 (209 reviews)
Author: Jeff Sanders

Jeff Sanders

Finding Happiness, Focus, and Productivity No Matter How Busy You Are

4.4 (209 ratings)

21 mins

Topics

Routines & Habits Focus

Table of Contents

The Free-Time Formula
Summary of 8 key ideas

Audio & text in the Blinkist app

Key idea 1 of 8

What’s in it for me? Learn a formula for fulfilling your potential.

Whether it’s learning Japanese, taking up pottery or just reading more blinks, we all want more time to pursue the things that matter most to us. But carving out some time to pursue those goals often seems impossible. Work and family commitments, housework and social engagements just seem to swallow up every waking hour, leaving little time for you to dedicate to your personal development.

But the real problem, Jeff Sanders argues, isn’t so much the absence of time but our perception of it. In short, we’ve been thinking about time the wrong way. The most common error? Dividing our days into separate categories – “work time” and “free time,” above all. The key to getting the most out of life, Sanders believes, is to abolish that distinction and learn to see all our time as “free.” What really matters is how we use it.

And that’s just what these blinks will teach you how to do. Finding time for activities you find meaningful is all about maximizing your efficiency both at work and outside of it. Do that, and you’ll be amazed to discover just how much you can fit into an average day! So read on to learn:

why you should be thinking about your priority in the singular;
how to filter out distractions; and
why exercise should be your primary concern, rather than an afterthought.

Getting the most out of your waking hours is about prioritization, rather than enjoying your “free time.”

We often divide time into separate compartments. On one hand, there’s the time we devote to the things we have to do, above all work. Once that’s done, we get to enjoy our free time, or so the thinking goes.

The problem, however, isn’t that you don’t have enough time off – it’s that the very concept of “free time” is false. The reality is that you’re already free to do whatever you want with your time. But wait, that can’t be true – after all, you have your job and family, right? Well, yes, but when you get down to it, there’s nothing really stopping you from quitting your job and leaving your family; it’s just that most people don’t!

In truth, there’s no such thing as free time. What you have are the hours of the day when you’re not sleeping. And if you want to start getting the most out your time, you should be thinking about all your waking hours. That brings us to the first key point about time management: learning to prioritize and beat procrastination.

But prioritizing is hard. Whether it’s the overwhelming number of possibilities on offer or that impossibly long to-do list you carry around with you in your head, there are distractions lurking around every corner. The more you set out to get done, the easier it is to wind up not doing anything. This comes down to the fact that the human brain just isn’t very good at multitasking. In fact, it works best when you just prioritize one task.

In fact, one of the biggest time-management challenges in existence – procrastination – is closely related to poor prioritization. Say you’ve got an important project that needs wrapping up by the end of the week. If you don’t prioritize it, push it to the top of your agenda and get down to work right now, you’ll inevitably end up wasting half the week watering your office plants, surfing the web and getting bogged down in the minor details of some event that’s coming up in two months. Needless to say, leaving your most important tasks to the last minute is deeply counterproductive.

So how do you learn the art of prioritization? Well, that’s exactly what we’ll be looking at in the next blink.

Setting just one priority for the day ahead helps you focus on your most important commitments.

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.

A short but intensive workout plan is the best way of making time for both work and exercise.

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.

Decluttering your life and ditching perfectionism are great ways to free up valuable headspace.

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.

You can optimize your use of time by creating theme days and pooling similar tasks.

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.

Planning for the unexpected can help you get the most out of your time away from work.

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.

Social media and distracting thoughts are the two great enemies of making the most of your time.

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.

Regular sabbaticals can help you beat burnout.

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.

Want to see all full key ideas from The Free-Time Formula?

Key ideas in The Free-Time Formula

More knowledge in less time

Read or listen

Get the key ideas from nonfiction bestsellers in minutes, not hours.

Find your next read

Get book lists curated by experts and personalized recommendations.

Shortcasts ^New

We’ve teamed up with podcast creators to bring you key insights from podcasts.

What is The Free-Time Formula about?

The Free-Time Formula (2018) is a practical guide to better time management, addressing a problem we’ve all grappled with: the feeling that there just aren’t enough hours in the day to do the things we value most. These blinks show that the problem usually isn’t time itself but perception. Once we reframe our concept of time, Jeff Sanders argues, we can start setting realistic priorities and getting the most out of our days.

Best quote from The Free-Time Formula

My upcoming projects will wait. They will wait until it is their turn.

—Jeff Sanders

Who should read The Free-Time Formula?

Busy professionals
Workaholics
Self-development aficionados

About the Author

Jeff Sanders is a public speaker and personal coach who lives by the ideals he preaches. An avid early-riser, marathon-runner and committed vegetarian, Sanders is one of today’s most effective self-optimizers. The Free-Time Formula is his second book, following his bestselling debut, The 5 AM Miracle.

Categories with The Free-Time Formula

Productivity Mindfulness & Happiness

Books like The Free-Time Formula

168 Hours

Laura Vanderkam

You Have More Time Than You Think

Boost Your Results, Reduce Your Hours

A Total Productivity System to Achieve More by Doing Less

21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time

Feel Less Busy While Getting More Done

20 min

4.5

The One Minute Manager

Ken Blanchard and Spencer Johnson

Increase Productivity, Profits and your own Prosperity

10 min

4.1

Clearer, Closer, Better

Emily Balcetis

How Successful People See the World

26 min

4.1

Happy Mind, Happy Life

Rangan Chatterjee

The New Science of Mental Well-Being

18 min

4.5

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

Stephen R. Covey

Powerful Lessons in Personal Change

23 min

4.7

High Performance Habits

Brendon Burchard

How Extraordinary People Become That Way

Surprising Lessons from the Science of Motivation

28 min

4.3

The Productivity Project

Chris Bailey

Proven Ways to Become More Awesome

13 min

4.4

The 48 Laws of Power (New Version)

Robert Greene

The secret methods to getting what you want

33 min

4.2

Procrastinate on Purpose

Rory Vaden

5 Permissions to Multiply Your Time

Get More Done One Thing at a Time

Listening to Ignite the Human Mind

20 min

4.5

The Art of Stopping Time

Pedram Shojai

Practical Mindfulness for Busy People

25 min

4.5

Make Time

Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky

How to Focus on What Matters Every Day

35 min

4.5

Secrets of the Millionaire Mind

T. Harv Eker

Mastering the Inner Game of Wealth

22 min

4.3

The New Corner Office

Laura Vanderkam

How the Most Successful People Work from Home

13 min

4.1

Excellent Advice for Living

Kevin Kelly

Wisdom I Wish I'd Known Earlier

Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business

Developing Focus and Discipline in Your Life

10 min

4.0

Workplace Wellness that Works

Laura Putnam

10 Steps to Infuse Well-Being and Vitality into Any Organization

A Guide To Spiritual Enlightenment

The Secret Life of Dictionaries

20 min

4.3

15 Secrets Successful People Know About Time Management

Kevin Kruse

The Productivity Habits of 7 Billionaires, 13 Olympic Athletes, 29 Straight-A Students, and 239 Entrepreneurs.

The Path to Extraordinary Productivity

How to Think and Act Like the Most Successful and Highest-Paid People in Every Field

The Fine Art of Limiting Yourself to the Essential ... in Business and in Life

14 min

4.5

The Mythical Man-Month

Frederick P. Brooks

Essays on Software Engineering

16 min

3.9

The 11 Laws of Likability

Michelle Tillis Lederman

Relationship Networking … Because People Do Business with People They Like

15 min

4.1

I Could Do Anything If I Only Knew What It Was

Barbara Sher with Barbara Smith

How to Discover What You Really Want and How to Get It

Building and Scaling High Performing Technology Organizations

15 min

4.0

Tranquility by Tuesday

Laura Vanderkam

9 Ways to Calm the Chaos and Make Time for What Matters

16 min

4.3

The Daily Stoic

Ryan Holiday & Stephen Hanselman

366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance and the Art of Living

How Design Thinking Transforms Organizations and Inspires Innovation

The Bulletproof Plan to Age Backward and Maybe Even Live Forever

24 min

4.2

Why Has Nobody Told Me This Before?

Julie Smith

Everyday Tools for Life’s Ups & Downs

What You're Missing and Why It Matters

22 min

4.5

13 Things Mentally Strong People Don't Do

Amy Morin

Take Back Your Power, Embrace Change, Face Your Fears and Train Your Brain for Happiness and Success

Proven Strategies for Getting Up to Speed Faster and Smarter

Transforming Books and the Reading Experience

The Mind Management Program for Confidence, Success and Happiness

19 min

4.3

Eat Sleep Work Repeat

Bruce Daisley

30 Hacks for Bringing Joy to Your Job

24 min

4.1

Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!

Richard P. Feynman

Adventures of a Curious Character

The Secret to Love That Lasts

Say Less to Get More from Any Pitch or Presentation

How Looking Backward Moves us Forward

23 min

4.6

Waking the Tiger

Peter A. Levine with Ann Frederick

Healing Trauma

14 min

4.2

People ❤️ Blinkist

Sven O.

It's highly addictive to get core insights on personally relevant topics without repetition or triviality. Added to that the apps ability to suggest kindred interests opens up a foundation of knowledge.

Thi Viet Quynh N.

Great app. Good selection of book summaries you can read or listen to while commuting. Instead of scrolling through your social media news feed, this is a much better way to spend your spare time in my opinion.

Jonathan A.

Life changing. The concept of being able to grasp a book's main point in such a short time truly opens multiple opportunities to grow every area of your life at a faster rate.

Renee D.

Great app. Addicting. Perfect for wait times, morning coffee, evening before bed. Extremely well written, thorough, easy to use.