Time is our most precious commodity. Money is up there but we can always get more. Once time has past, we can never get it back. I used to do a bunch of things to “waste” some time or “kill” time. Looking back, what a stupid thing to do!
At the same time, the day seemed to always get away from me and before I knew it, it was time to go to sleep and I had little to show for it.
So I decided to do something drastic. I delete all the apps on my phone! It was hard to do but its liberating.
Between Facebook, Tumblr, LinkedIn, eBay, and these addicting games such as Top Eleven Soccer, Billionaire, Bejeweled, Monopoly, and Candy Crush, I had plenty of options to “waste” time.
Did I really need to see what my friends are up to every 5 minutes? Of course not. Did I have to get my line up in order for my next virtual game? Did I really have to pay to get more tokens? Hell no! But I did.
I tried to cut back on my “killing” time but it was just too tempting with all these cool apps. I tried to reason that I would just keep a couple; the ones that I used the most. I also tried to reason that I made an “investment” into that soccer game so I should just keep it because of that. It wasn’t as much fun as it used to be but it would “give me something to do.”
So I went cold turkey; I deleted everything at once. I did this a couple days ago and I’m not gonna lie, there’s a bit of a void. I’ve found myself going to my phone and trying to get into an app and then I realize that it’s no longer there. When this happens, I do something productive instead such as reading, working on a business idea, or even straightening up my house.
It finally feels like the day isn’t getting away from me and I’m much more productive which is always good for an entrepreneur.
Let’s conservatively say that I spent 30 minutes on these apps each day. That was probably a minimum amount of time I spent but you get the idea.
So 30 minutes X 365 days (a year) = 10,950 minutes / 60 minutes = 182.5 hours.
And that’s just a year. Holy shit! If you want to dive further into the numbers, that’s 3.5 hours a week.
Imagine how much more productive I could be and you could be if you simply deleted your apps and changed a small behavior?
Crazy.
So give it a try…..delete all your apps or whatever you do to help you “kill” time and see if it helps you become a better entrepreneur. Let me know how it goes.
This is truly a great idea and I have tried it myself once or twice before. I spend most of my time on social media apps (tumblr and instagram). I usually burn through one, jump to the other, see all the new posts and then go back to the previous one to find a handful of new posts. Then I stare at my phone like its failed to entertain me. Luckily I don’t do phone games. I’ll ocassionaly switch to Twitter to get some news or read some articles on Inc. or Entrepreneur (or just watch stupid videos on WorldStar). The second I put the phone down, however, I feel like I have nothing to do even though I have TONS to do. It’s like I have no way to procrastinate (my BIGGEST problem). I need to step up my discipline and just do this! Although, what do I do at work? I browse those apps constantly to distract me from doing actual work haha.
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I tried weening myself off and reasoning that only some is better than all of them but it didn’t work until I went completely cold turkey. It’s extremely awkward at first but its liberating after you get over the initial shock!
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Totally agree. I’ve found over 1000 hours over the last 2.5 years(90min/day) by using time that I’d ordinarily piss away on facebook or going to lunch with work people who are not my friends, etc. Instead, I’ve been learning Japanese and haven’t had to sacrifice any family time to do so.
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Hell yeah! Improving yourself without giving up quality time with the family; that’s what its all about!
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