📵 Minimize Distracted Work
Turn off unnecessary notifications that constantly pull you away from your tasks. This allows you to focus on what truly matters in the moment.
However, the best productivity app on your phone is the airplane mode (use it). Also, put your phone more than an arms length away from you (ideally a few meters away), when you intend to do deep work. This extra threshold, will allow you to avoid picking it up by habit just to check something.
Multitask for 6-8 unfocused hours
OR
Work 4 laser-focused hours and get ALL your important tasks done?
It’s up to you.
Reclaim: 10 h/week
📰 Go on an Information Diet
The world has gotten better in so many ways (ref. e.g. the book Factfulness by the late Hans Rosling). Violence is an all-time low. We have got more access to food, energy, water, health care, education on the planet than ever before.
If we just consider global extreme poverty. In the 1800s, 90% of the world was in global extreme poverty. In 1981 it was 42%. Today it is less than 10%. However, all you hear about is the negative constantly.
The news is so negative, it makes us sad to read the news. CNN could really stand for the Crisis News Network, or Constantly Negative News(!)
Personally I don’t watch network news and I don’t read any newspapers (been on an information diet since 2002). If something of note happens, you will learn about it from friends or co-workers, or carefully selected sources you pay attention to. In general, news has a short expiry date. There is a reason to why people e.g. don’t read yesterday’s newspaper, let alone a week-old newspaper. At the grocery shop, I glance at the front pages, that’s it. Every time I accidentally see the news, I just get sad.
When you are watching TV, or the newspaper, some editor or producers are deciding what gets fed into your mind. It can really screw with your mindset and thought-patterns.
See the graphic below to learn more about how our evolutionary biology plays a role in how news media is optimized, what the impact is, and what you can consider doing about it ⤵️
Consider being much more selective about which sources of information you consume, and pay attention to how they make you feel. Be thoughtful of how you curate your information diet. Your mental well-being and available time depends on it.
Reclaim: 7 h/week
📺 Cancel Streaming Services
On average people watch about 2-3 hours of TV and digital video. Some of this time is spent on watching news, which is covered above. Let’s assume that it’s 1/3.
All the time spent on mindlessly watching TV/streaming/YouTube/Tik-Tok etc., could have been spent on things that adds value to your life. You could have been spending time with loved ones, exercising, spending time in nature, working towards your goals, etc. Cancel your streaming subscriptions, and seriously consider whether you actually need a TV. You’re welcome!
Relevant song: Red Hot Chili Peppers – Throw Away Your Television (album: By the Way)
Reclaim: 5-10 h/week
🗓️ Avoid Long and Unnecessary Meetings
Default time slots for meetings are 30 or 60 min. While, most meetings can and should be significantly shorter. Consider Parkinson’s Law and schedule meeting only to the estimated time it should take based on its agenda. End a meeting immediately when it has served its purpose wrt. to its agenda.
Avoid any unnecessary meetings all together (use email, a short call or wait for a proper agenda.
A productivity tip, by Elon Musk, is to set meetings in 5-min increments (5, 10, 15, etc.)
Reclaim: 5-7 h/week
🥗 Optimize Planning, Sourcing and Preparing Meals
On average people spend about 1 hour pr day sourcing and preparing meals.
Save time with:
- Meal (healthy) planning for the upcoming week
- Grocery delivery (or bulk shopping only once pr week)
- Full meal delivery
- Bulk preparing and cooking on Sundays
- Meal replacement shakes
- Eating similar (healthy) meals daily
Learn more about: Healthy and Tasty Meals to Consider for More Optimized Nutrition
Reclaim: 6-7 h/week
👎 Make “No” Your Default
By making “no” your default in these situations, you take control of your time and create space for the things that truly matter to you. A polite, but firm “no” is a powerful tool for protecting your valuable time and energy.
Whether it is new work projects, tasks or responsibilities, information request (point to existing resources e.g. company wiki/previous emails), social events, unwanted favors, etc.
Take care to say “no” gracefully and elegantly by:
- Expressing gratitude for receiving the invite.
- Acknowledging it is a wonderful opportunity.
- Say you thought about the offer carefully.
- Make why you need to say “no” clear (overcommitted, deadline, personal rule, blanket policy, etc.)
- Wish them luck, and that you are sure their event will be a big success.
How to Communicate Boundaries
- Ask: “Is now a bad time?”
- Say: “When you _____, I felt _____.”
- Say: “I have a personal rule where I only allow/don’t allow _____.”
- Say: “If you keep doing _____, I will have to _____.”
- Say: “I hope we can make this work and continue to _____.”
When you say “Yes” to things you don’t have time for, it leads to unnecessary future decisions.
If it’s not a “Hell yeah”, it’s a no.
Derek Sivers
Reclaim: 5 h/week
🧹 Home Cleaning & Laundry
Buy these as services, if you can. Psychology studies shows that purchases that save us time make us happy.
Another way to think about this is that you should outsource any task that is below your personal rate (what your time is worth). If you don’t, you are actually losing money.
Imagine that you hourly rate is $100 and it takes you 1 hour to clean your house, then you have spent $100. However, if you hire a cleaner for $40 an hour, you have saved $60.
By outsourcing tasks below your personal rate, you will be able to focus on higher-earning tasks which will make you more money and save you more time.
Reclaim: 2-4 h/week
👕 Streamline Clothing Decisions
Either going full Steve Jobs, or Mark Zuckerberg (until ~2023), and wear the same outfit every day, or put together a minimalist wardrobe. Have pre-defined go-to outfits for certain occasions (weddings, funerals, Christmas, New Years, birthdays, job events/networking events, dinners, cinema, festivals, etc.). Either way, save time and reduce decision fatigue on non-important things such as getting dressed.
Reclaim: 2 h/week
📦 Personal Inventory Management
Identify your burn rate. Do you use toilet paper, paper towels, razors, etc. frequently? Then look into subscribing to them on Amazon. Ditto for other personal care items, light bulbs, pens/pencils, batteries, etc. Avoid wasting time going to the store for a single item, or reduce your overall time spent in stores.
Reclaim: 1.5 h/week
📋 Summary
- Minimize Distracted Work: 10 h/week
- Go on an Information Diet: 7 h/week
- Cancel Streaming Services: 5-10 h/week
- Avoid Long and Unnecessary Meetings: 5-7 h/week
- Optimize Planning, Sourcing and Preparing Meals: 6-7 h/week
- Make “No” Your Default: 5 h/week
- Home Cleaning & Laundry: 2-4 h/week
- Streamline Clothing Decisions: 2 h/week
- Personal Inventory Management: 1.5 h/week
Savings: 43-53 h/week
This is not about becoming a human robot. Rather, it’s about eliminating decisions that you don’t care about. So you have more time to focus on what matters to you, such as:
- Deepen your relationships
- Getting more fit than ever
- Working on your life goals
- Spending more time in nature
My advice is to carefully review the list, keep our current routines, but gradually reclaim your time by reducing/optimizing what you don’t enjoy doing.
Watch your life transform and your level of enjoyment increase across the next 6 months.
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