How to Use Time to Your Advantage

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1:48This is The Admirate Show. All right, welcome back to the show, everybody. So today we're going to talk about time. I think it's probably one of the most important topics you can possibly cover because it's the one thing you can't get back in life. It's every single second that goes by in your life, you have fewer and fewer of them remaining. And I want to talk about it today because I think over the years, it's been one of the great keys to me amassing the amount of wealth that I've been blessed to acquire, things like this podcast, the businesses I built, relationships, friends, et cetera, has a lot to do with the way that I view time.

2:26And it's an interesting topic because I've taught it for many, many years. There's actually a couple of funny clips on social media of me teaching it where I misspeak a couple of times about it. And I don't think most people that see those clips know that I've built hundreds of millions of dollars with these strategies in my own life and built a bunch of businesses and been blessed to help a lot of people. And I think the way that you view time matters. And so I'm going to go through a couple of principles with you today, and then I'm going to show you some strategies on managing your time, managing your day that I think will serve you.

2:56And hopefully I can do it in a way that is articulate and makes sense. So the first thing I want you to know is that I think in the top three keys in my life, the last 30 years has been my viewpoint and the way that I manage and I think manipulate and use time in my life. And so we all have the same 24 hours in a day. We all get 60 minutes in an hour, but how we use them and how we look at them means everything for a few reasons. Number one, what is scarce in life is valuable. And so when you believe that your time is valuable and you treat it as if it is a scarce commodity, because it is that all of a sudden other people begin to treat you and that meeting and that time with you as if it's more valuable.

3:41And so just off the top, you beginning to value seconds and minutes in your day matter. This isn't one of these things about being superhuman and working all the time. Listen, I take a lot of time to rest. I love Netflix and chill days. I love laying on the couch. If you knew me very well, you'd know I'm inherently an actual very lazy person. When people meet my family, they'll say, what's it like living with him? And they'll have to go, probably not what you think. I love to relax. I love to not work. I love that. And so because I'm that way, I had to build rituals, disciplines, viewpoints, and structures around time to make sure that I was hyper productive and successful because left to my own devices, I would not be successful.

4:30I would not be productive. And so I've run something called many days now for many years. It was a concept I was taught more than 30 years ago by a mentor of mine. The idea of it comes from this premise that as technology has increased, our way we view time should have changed with it. Yet, if you think about of all the constructs of society, the one thing that's really never changed is our perception of efficiency, our perception of time and how we manage it and use it to our advantage. And so it is really something that's pretty silly. When I was a kid in school, if I wanted to do a report, I had to get my mom and dad to drive me down to a library.

5:12I'd have to go into the library, search for the book, write it out by hand out of a book, then go to a typewriter and type it. If I mess up one letter, you got to rip the page out type. It took forever to type a report. Now you could just go on the internet and type it. They can get chat GPT. They can download, they can get all the information that took me hours and hours and hours, sometimes weeks to do in 30 minutes. So that day should look different in the way I perceive time and what I think I can get done in an hour should be different. And so I started to look at days differently. Meaning have you ever had a morning where you go, man, I crushed it.

5:55I got so much done. I got more done this morning than I can get done in most days, most weeks sometimes. Well, that's true in almost everybody's life. So why not start to look at time differently? In other words, I also think one of the fallacies nowadays is that meetings need to always be an hour long. Well, why is that? I mean, if I have Zoom, I could maybe do a meeting in 30 minutes that used to take an hour, right? So these things, we should start to look at our time differently.

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7:33So I started running something called mini days many, many years ago. Now, again, before I get into this, let me be very clear. A regular 24-hour day for me many times is I am laying on the couch all day Sunday after church, watching football, doing nothing else in my sweats. That's a day. And that could also be one of my many days So, please don't think this is some personal development. Oh, we work and grind all the time It is not that what I am saying is it's insane to look at time the same way now That we did even 30 years ago pre-internet pre-chat gpt pre-google pre-text message pre-email pre-mobile phone I'm old enough to remember that I would have to go to my house and there was a rotary phone we could only have one person on the phone at one time and I would have to dial and hope you were at your house to pick up I remember before there were answering machines this is how old I am then we went to pagers then we went to cell phone like it's crazy that the same time would be measured the same way when now everybody's reachable so having said all of that what are these many days.

8:43My first day starts from 6 a.m. to noon. And in my mind, I, in this day and age, should be able to get done in those six hours with someone 30 years ago, took them 24. And so I manage a day that way. And so it's 6 a.m. to noon. Now, sometimes that entire time is doing nothing like you do on other days. But oftentimes, I try to get the most meetings, production, working out, fitness, fun, spirituality in that window of time. Here's what it's called, guys, compressing timeframes. That's all this is. You're compressing timeframes so that you begin to view it differently. And so the other thing it does is I measure differently.

9:25So now that day ended at noon. Most people at the end of a day, a 24 hour day, take an inventory. What did I get done? What did I not get done? What did I miss? What do I need to double down on? What went well? What am I grateful for? Right? So they do that at the end of a 24 hour day. I just do it at the end of my six hour day. So there's a clock that kind of just goes off now in my head around noon every day. In fact, I'm coming up on it at the time I'm recording this in about 15 minutes. It just subconsciously is like an alarm. It kind of goes off at around noon. I go, okay, what did I get done today?

9:57And I look back at it and I'm grateful. And I take an inventory. What did I miss? What do I need to double down on? Did I not get a chance to relax or whatever it might be? And then my second day starts from noon to 6 p.m. And this is another day in my mind of getting things done and productivity, work, et cetera, working out, relaxing, family, friends. But I've shrunk the time frame down. Why that matters is a few reasons. Number one, I'm more efficient. I'm also measuring and giving myself an evaluation and a course correction more regularly than most people do. But more importantly, maybe myself and everybody around me values my time differently.

10:37Values my time. I'm in a little bit bigger hurry. I'm a little bit faster. Things with me became more valuable to myself and other people because it was more scarce. Diamonds are worth more than paper because they're more rare. When you have rarer time, you become more valuable. You begin to walk and talk and behave like a successful person, maybe even before the results are there because of the way you're looking at time. So my second day is noon to 6 p.m. And in there, I want to get whatever it is. Maybe it's a whole day of fitness. Maybe it's business and work. Maybe it's family. But I've now used those six hours.

11:11Would you agree with me that based on technology compared to even 30 years ago, you ought to be able to get far more phone calls or text messages done in an hour now than you did 30 years ago? Would you agree with me on that? So why is it that you're still measuring time like they did then? That just seems silly to me. And so I am now using those six hours as a day in my mind. And then at 6 p.m., I kind of have a little clock that goes off again. What did I get done? What did I not get done? What am I grateful for? Et cetera, et cetera. And what do I need to double down on? What did I miss? So it gives me an other chance for evaluation, for reflection, for awareness.

11:52And it just happens really quick. And then the third day is 6 p.m. to midnight. And of course, in some of that window, you're sleeping, you're sleeping. I go to bed at 9 p.m. So that day is not as long, just like a normal 24-hour day. You're not awake the whole 24 hours. But somehow that's a third day. And in that day, I'm compressing timeframes. I'm being efficient. Many people will tell you, I hear back from Ed a lot, 7.30 at night, 8 o 'clock at night. A lot of times that's when I return emails and phone calls. And by the way, a lot of times for me, it's having a cigar and a bourbon and I'm returning 30 calls.

12:22but I'm using that as a day, right? And so now I got three days in one day. And so I begin to give myself more opportunities to be efficient, more opportunities for efficiency, more opportunities for me and the people around me to perceive my time as more valuable. And I believe I am running time in my life according to what technology provides it to. I'm under no illusion that everybody needs to do this, but I can tell you it's been significant for me. So by the way, at the end of a given week, I've had 21 days, so to speak, for evaluation, for reflection, for recalibration. I've shrunk meetings down to where they're more efficient.

13:01This has nothing to do with being superhuman or crazy or 10 million cold plunges or any personal development mumbo jumbo. This is just having time catch up to technology and the way it's measured and calibrated to some extent the way that you manipulate it. And again, we all the same 24 hours. We all have the same 60 seconds in a minute. But at the same time how we use them has everything to do with how our life you show me your schedule And i'll show you your life You show me how you use your time and i'll show you how happy you are how fit you are how wealthy you are And I say this again I've been blessed to create hundreds of millions of dollars of net worth And you know and help lots of people in my life and it's certainly not because of my talent level or my high IQ It's because of the way that i've used my time now there's other factors But one of it is i've just looked at my life Differently also as a person who struggled with health later in my life now Time is more important to me Family how I use every minute.

13:59I'm blessed for another day every day And so for me It's time is precious And I want to make sure that i'm using it to my advantage that it doesn't use me And I think it's an archaic idea to measure time like everybody else If you're going to get a life that's different than other people, you've got to do something different than other people And one of the things you can do different is just to begin to think And use time differently and maybe it's not my mini day concept, but for me, it's a great hack to expiration of productivity prosperity peace success and bliss You know, one of the things that this also does for you is I start kind of looking at like shaving minutes So for example, I I try to do things that would normally take say 30 minutes I try to schedule them in 20.

14:50I think you will find out that a lot of things that you think take a period of time If you just give yourself the construct of a smaller window. So one of my routines for example is that when i'm Training and working out i'm really timing what I do in between my workouts I realized that in the gym, there's a lot of empty time of conversation that's not productive And so I now work out with headphones on I don't have conversations It's just me. It's just the way I like to train and work out But I just I always want to feel efficient. I want to feel neat I want to feel like what i'm doing is what greatness is And if average and ordinary people are kind of wasting minutes, what does that do at some point?

15:29You know, have you ever had a conversation with a friend and they left the lunch or you left it and you went gosh That wasn't what I was hoping it was or a date or a talk with your children And it's the worst feeling in the world to feel like you wasted time time isn't it and i don't want to waste time in my life particularly as i get older and i realize there's only so much more time left you know jesse itzler and i talk about this a lot but when my dad was alive jesse asked me he goes um how many times a year do you see your dad and my dad at the time was 70 my dad i believe passed at 75 and uh i said i i forget the exact number, but I ended up saying, you know, I see my dad like four or five times a year.

16:13And so Jesse said, well, then if he passes at 75, I'm paraphrasing here, by the way, but he passes at 75, you don't have five more years with your dad. You have 20 more visits. And then it got us, Jesse and I talking and I, we, and I have this running thing where I'll text him and go, Hey man, we've got 20 more summers. You know, we've got 15 more Septembers or whatever it is. And when you begin to look at it differently, it becomes so precious. Also, the people that you meet with become more precious and valuable. You begin to take more of life in when you evaluate time. You do. It doesn't just fly by.

16:51You know, when I was eight years old, I didn't think about time. But when I started to, I remember when I turned 30, I thought, my gosh, I'm so old now. You know, I'm 30 years old. I remember when my mom turned 30. And all of a sudden as you get older everybody listening to this will you'll attest to this Time becomes more precious And when you add a little health issue like i've had to it, it really does and so every moment matters every second matters You know, one of the great blessings you and I have right now is we're still here We're still here, you know, 170 000 people didn't wake up today and that doesn't just affect them, but their families and the people that love them.

17:39Literally over a million people today have been affected by the fact that someone didn't wake up today. They don't get another second. They don't get another minute, and you and I do, and shouldn't we start to appreciate those minutes more? God's given us all these blessings of technology that can shrink time, and we still think about a day the same way we did 30 years ago. Shame on us. Time is precious. People are precious. Today you woke up. Today I woke up. Let's make the most of the day. Let's start to look at every hour as if it counts. Let's look at every day as if it counts. How about every person as if they count?

18:15Every meeting. What if more and more this meeting meant something because it's scarce? This meeting meant something because we don't have forever to have them. When it comes to what your family eats and drinks, you know your choices matter. You're the expert because you know what fits your life. And getting it right starts with good information. That's why America's beverage companies are sharing more information about our ingredients at goodtoknowfacts.org. No spin, no judgments, just the facts straight from the experts for more than 140 beverage ingredients. Visit goodtoknowfacts.org. Now, are there things in my life where I don't want to schedule on it?

19:01I just want to, yes, there is, and there are, and there always will be. But I want to get to those things as fast as I can by getting done with the things that I don't want to be doing. And there's a lot of times in life, I just really believe this. If you were to ask me, why are certain things happening in my life? I've just outworked most people. And most successful people at the end of it will tell you, I outworked them. I did more. And they do more because they look at time differently. They just do. And I think the happiest people look at time differently from many perspectives. Not only are they want to be more efficient and more productive, but they feel more blessed to have it.

19:42As you get older in life, you'll find your circle of friends shrinks. It doesn't get bigger at some point. The people that matter to you are so precious to you. Time with them is the greatest blessing in your life. And so why not begin to treat your life with that level of grace and blessing and preciousness now? And you do that by honoring the minute. You do that by honoring the hour You do that by honoring yourself and all of the people around you with how you look at this precious time because when you meet with me You're not only in your hour, but you're in mine People ask me all the time.

20:27Why do you put out content like you do this specific? Most people charge thousands of dollars for stuff. That's not as good as you put out for free every week It's because you've chosen to spend this time with me You don't get this back And neither do I and so if we're going to spend some time, let's do it great Let's have some fun. Let's learn. Let's grow. Let's kick some tail Right if you're going to live you might as well win if you're going to live You might as well dream if you're going to live you might as well help if you're going to live You might as well get to know god better Right, this is awesome time is finite and I could tell you this when my dad was passing away I could promise you this my dad wasn't saying hey bring me my possessions Uh bring me all of my awards bring me my money My dad said bring me my family Bring me the people that I love bring the people that are precious to me Living a good life Is treating and honoring people with the time you spend with them treating and honoring yourself See to me you're honoring god when you're saying thank you for this moment god.

21:31Thank you for this minute Thank you for this day. I'm gonna get the most out of it I'm gonna help as many people as I can. I'm gonna have as much fun as I possibly can I'm gonna do everything I can to honor you and the people I love around me. Thank you I think the way that you pay god back Is how you honor him with the time you spend here and not wasteful with it and not spending it frivolously You wouldn't do that with your money. Why do you do that with your time? You can get some money back You can get some friends back, right? You can get some stuff back. You can't get time back and so to begin to look at it like people who have lived pretty well look at it might serve you and it's something i'm very passionate about and i could tell you that when they do click my lights out someday and this thing's over i want to look back go man i did it i maxed out my life my first book was called max out my hashtag on instagram for years has been maxed out i want to max out every moment of my life.

22:29I want to max out every opportunity, every relationship, every emotion. Life's about getting all of the juice from life. And you don't do that by wasting time. You don't, and you certainly don't do it by building the habit that your time doesn't matter. Other people's time doesn't, another day, another dollar. I'll get around to it. Procrastinate. All these things is you're basically saying right now doesn't matter. You don't matter. And I don't matter. And I think you're better than that. And if there was a system that could help you get it, you should take advantage of it. And I can tell you for me, 30 years ago, a mentor taught this to a room of about 30 people.

23:06And I'm pretty sure I'm the only one of those 30 people who did anything with it. But I went, you know what? I think that might be a little bit weird at first, but I'm going to make a run at this. I'm going to start starting to go. Okay. My day just started at 6am. Let me see what I can get done by noon, round noon. Let me just evaluate a little bit. Let me see if I can compress time frames a little i'll get this second day around noon By the way the man that taught me it was worth a couple hundred million dollars Was married once in his life very involved in his church. I thought this guy's got a pretty good life.

23:34This sounds like a key And of those 30 people i'm real sure i'm the only one who did anything with it long term And life is not about comparison and I don't even know where most of those people are But I could tell you from the day I learned this technique and strategy thought process and system to now some pretty good stuff's happened. The day I learned it, I had no money. Nobody knew me. I was broke, right? Body not in shape. All I could tell you is 30 years later, it's turned out okay. I'll take it. Now, are there things I would fix? You bet. But one of them is not the way I've used my time and manipulated time and honored the time, my own and that of other people.

24:19And so at the end of this life You're gonna add up all those minutes and i'm convinced of this life really comes down to a handful of moments If you think about your life right now, I said tell me about your life You'd describe a handful of moments that stand out in your life. Wouldn't you? It's that relationship that happened or that degree you got or that promotion or That time you reconciled with somebody or that walk on the beach or that beautiful place you saw or you went to or that something You felt somewhere There's these magic moments, aren't there? You just thought of a few of them right and to me A great life is just more of those moments If you get to the end of your life and there's three or you get to the end of your life and there's 300 Who had a richer life?

25:02You had more of those moments and I believe when you begin to look at time as more precious You begin to use it differently You create more opportunities for those moments to occur in your life than they would otherwise And they are a handful of moments At the end of my life, I want the people I love around me and I want to be reminiscing on those moments And the longer that list the more rich it was The more it was shared with people that I love the better my life was and I got a funny feeling the way I look at time both theirs and mine and god's will create the Opportunities for you and I to have more of those moments in our life than we would otherwise and it is wrong to look at time Like we did 30 years ago when we've got the blessing of all of these advantages now We got a chance to live a better and greater life if we begin to use a system of time like these many days There's this great chinese proverb that says if you want to know the road ahead ask those coming back And if i'm one of those people in your life that's coming back I can tell you one of the hacks for me is i've just looked at my life and time very differently I'll always explain it very articulately but I know how I use it and I know what my life looks like.

26:14I know that in about eight minutes, it's the end of my first mini day and it'll just be a split second of reflection, doubling down, moving on. I know that it's coming up on noon and I have already done, let's see today, I've worked out already today. I've had my prayer, my morning walk. I did my little cold plunge. I actually am on my second podcast of the day as we're doing this right now. And I also had about four phone calls this morning that I've already done three or four phone calls. And so that was a pretty productive day so far. And that's because of the way that I look at time. And I can tell you that this is a game changer for those of you that understand it and use it correctly.

26:53And so if you want to have a different life than most people, you got to do some things different. And I could tell you right now, the way you look at time, and by the way, you do this for a year or two and just your overall efficiency, but you know what you're gonna have more of free time. You're gonna have more of more fun You're gonna have more of more days. You look back on a go. I left it all out on the field today Man, I got it all out of that day. I I if this was the last day of my life I had a great one and that's in some extent when I coach people one-on-one I always say if this was your last meeting if this was your last day This is your last conversation with your daughter.

27:27How would you handle it your son? How would you handle your spouse? How would you handle it? Well, if this was the last day of my life How would I want to have looked at time and with all of the blessings and advent of technology and influence and by the way Everybody around you having that same access this idea that you can only get three or four meetings done in a 24 hour A day or that every meeting needs to be an hour and 90 minutes long or that we should only evaluate ourselves around 9 p.m Every single night seems silly to me When everything we do this podcast 30 years ago would be impossible for you to even watch or get on your phone, if that's where you're getting it, or on your YouTube.