I don’t measure wealth based on my net worth.
Not anymore.
Instead, I measure my wealth based on the quality of my time. I have made massive strides in the past year on maximizing my productivity and balancing the use of my time.
Time — unlike money or energy — is one personal resource we all have the same amount of.
What separates the winners from the losers is what we do with that time.
I learned how to master my time from my mentor Tony Robbins.
He shared an amazing tool with me at the Life Mastery event I attended last summer…
Today, I want you to have it — so you can use it to make the most of your time and get the same productivity benefits I now have.
It’s called a time audit.
Here’s the thing — we all have 168 hours per week. Billionaires, kings, queens, paupers, etc. We all have the same 168 hours per week. You can’t buy additional time.
How do you spend yours?
Time for a little exercise. Take your 168 weekly hours and calculate the following…
Subtract those amounts from your 168 hours and that leaves you with 51 hours remaining that aren’t dedicated to sleep, work or your family.
Now — what do you do with your 51 hours?
Take the last seven days — be sure to include the weekend — and split up your time into the four buckets on this chart:
The chart ranks activities from not important (left) to important (right) along the horizontal axis and not urgent (top) to urgent (bottom) on the vertical axis.
Here are the four zones…
Distraction
This is stuff that’s not urgent or important to you. These actions are primarily geared toward sedation but also include pleasant, relaxing activities.
I used to spend a ton of time in this zone… but time spent here will not move you forward in life.
Delusion
This is stuff that’s urgent — typically for others, not you — but not important. Things like sending emails… obligatory meetings… your “honey do” list… those sorts of things.
Demand
This quadrant is filled with tasks that are urgent and important — probably because you procrastinated and now they’re due.
Finally…
In the Zone
This is the best place to be.
It’s important work but not super urgent, so you can work on it “in the zone.”
When we work in the zone, we do things we love, are passionate about and are typically great at — which leads to being more fulfilled.
Your goal is to pack as many of your 51 hours as you can into the zone.
I’ll use myself as an example. Here were my numbers before I made the Life Mastery changes:
I was wasting time on my PlayStation… watching Netflix… procrastinating… and fulfilling the urgent demands of others.
My in-the-zone time was only a meager eight hours per week — not remotely enough to do any truly meaningful work.
After this realization, I made some changes to how I spent my time.
Here’s what happened…
Your mission (should you choose to accept it) is to get more than 50% of your time in the zone.
Then you get to choose what you do with all this newfound, super-focused and needle-moving time.
You can learn a new skill… pursue a hobby… train for a major sporting event…
Or buy a business.
If you managed to have 26 hours per week in the zone and you decided to dedicate just half (13 hours) of that time to buying a business, you will be able to buy, own and profit from a small existing business in 99 days or less.
And owning a cash-flowing business will give you SO many things in life…
Can Netflix do that for you? No.
Will a PlayStation do that for you? No.
So audit your time, make the necessary changes to create this amazing new free time in the zone and do something truly meaningful with it.
You only have one life. Make it a masterpiece.
I will see you next week for another Mindset Monday training.
Until then, bye for now.
Carl Allen
Editor and co-founder, Dealmaker Wealth Society
P.S. What do you do in the zone? How much time do you devote to it? What changes will you make in your life so you can spend MORE time in the zone? I want to know. Reply to this email and tell me what you do with your free time.
