You can try to take over the world in 24 hours… but at some point the clock will roll over into the next day and you’ll still have lands left to conquer, armies yet to be defeated, and governments left to overthrow.
The fact is: you can only do so much in a day.
You can’t make the days longer unless you can move planets and stars…
And even if we could magically freeze time, your body will always need rest and nourishment.
But then why does it seem that some people are able to accomplish more than others in the same amount of time?
After all, Bill Gates became a millionaire at age 26…
Google’s co-founder Larry Page made his first million at 25…
Elon Musk sold his first company for $307 million at age 27…
These guys are all limited by the same restraints that limit us, right?
As far as I’m aware, they can’t manipulate time or survive longer without rest than everybody else.
It really comes down to two main things:
First, maximizing the time spent doing meaningful things…
Now I’m not saying you can’t ever relax and watch TV, play games, or look at Instagram every now and again…
But consider this:
In 2020, the average American spent over 1,300 hours on social media. That’s over 54 days looking at Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc… Nearly 2 months.
You could learn a new language in that time.
The Spirit of St. Louis, the first aircraft to perform a solo nonstop transatlantic flight from Long Island, New York to Paris, France, was designed and built in 60 days… in 1927.
Mark Zuckerberg built the initial version of Facebook in just two weeks by himself.
The point is that 54 days is plenty of time to do something meaningful — and how you use your time is something you have control over.
Number two is getting more out of the time spent doing those meaningful things.
In other words, if you can do 10 things in an hour… how do you increase it to doing 12 things in that hour? Or 15 things? 20 things?
You need to become more efficient.
Now, that doesn’t necessarily mean you’ve got to rush through each thing and sprint to the next…
That might help you do more stuff… but it will likely decrease the quality of the things you’ve done.
If you want to be more efficient you need to improve how you’re thinking about what you’re doing… and to do that, you need to think about how you’re using your time.
Inputs & Outputs
Your day is made up of inputs and outputs.
An output is something you produce…
The work you do at your job… the solution to a crossword puzzle you’re working on… or an idea you have for a new way to acquire customers in your business.
Inputs are things you consume… and I’m not just talking about food and water.
I’m referring to books you’ve read, videos you’ve watched, and conversations you’ve had.
Inputs are also a product of your outputs.
Stay with me for a minute…
The work you do at your job also gives you experience, new skills, references you can use, and so on… which improves the quality of the work you do in the future.
So as you do something, you get better at it, and you become more efficient at doing it the next time.
Ok, what’s the point?
What you do with your time directly impacts how you can become more efficient with your time.
Simply put: increase your input and you’ll see your output improve.
Leave a Reply