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Time is our most valuable asset. We only have a limited amount of it, and there is no easy way to get more of it. The way you spend your free time is also an essential indicator of the life you are going to live.
That’s why the most successful people consider very carefully how they spend their free time.
“A man who dares to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life.”
– Charles Darwin
Still, you may think, “Nah, why should I worry about how I spend my time? I still have so many years to live. I can worry about that later.”
Let’s take a little time to think this through. I am currently 20 and considering modern biotechnology and my healthy lifestyle I do expect to live at least until 100 years old.
That means I have 80 years left, which would be 29.220 days or 1.753.200 hours. That’s a lot, right?
Well, yes and no. While it is indeed a decent amount of time, I can’t really use all of it freely.
First of all, I need to sleep. Let’s say I sleep 8 hours a day on average. That would be a third of my day. So I only have 19.480 days left, in which I am awake.
Then, of course, I have to earn money. Let’s say that takes me 9 hours for 5 days a week. And of course, I also have to drive to and from work, go grocery shopping, clean the house, go to doctors appointments and so on.
If we count in all the necessities we have to accomplish during a typical week, pretty soon it becomes clear that probably another third of our time gets invested into those kinds of things.
The end result, therefore, is that you only have a third of the time you have in your life, to freely decide on how to use it.
If you are a Felicity Seeker like me, then you want to spend this time in the best possible way.
To help you with that, here come 15 ways to spend your time wisely. Enjoy!
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1. Travel
Have you ever heard of a person who regrets having traveled for fun too much in life? I haven’t. However, I am sure you are aware of many people who wish they had traveled more.
Traveling has been something that fascinated humans for hundreds of years now. There is just something about experiencing some of the infinite treasures this beautiful earth has in store for us.
The places you are going to see and the people you are going to meet will change the way you see and live life forever.
And the best part about traveling in the 21st century is that it not only has never been this cheap before it also has never before been this effortless.
Within 24 hours, you can basically reach any destination you want by sitting in a comfortable plane with a premium view and beverage service.
Next time you are ungrateful about the narrow airplane footwell, think about your ancestors who would have had to embark on a month-long journey on a not very luxurious or sanitary ship.
Traveling still takes quite a lot of time, yes. But the price-performance ratio is outstanding!
2. Exercise
“A man’s health can be judged by which he takes two at a time – pills or stairs.”
– Joan Welsh
I probably don’t need to tell you that you should exercise and eat healthily. In 2019 the great health and fitness wave has already hit us full force, causing fitness-studios to spring up like mushrooms all around the world.
However, just because many people exercise today, doesn’t mean that enough people do it. This becomes very apparent when we look at worldwide overweight statistics.
Exercise is not only essential to living a longer life but even more to live a better life. Fit people are often happier in life than overweight people.
And as a Felicity Seeker happiness is one of your main priorities in life.
3. Educate yourself
Education holds the keys to an extraordinary life. With every new information or skill you learn, a new door full of opportunities opens for you.
And I am not speaking just about the education schools and universities provide you with. No, more important than that is real life education. Start learning how money, investing, and taxes work. Inform yourself about mental health practices or how to study effectively.
There is an infinite amount of knowledge out there waiting for you to discover it. Every course you go through, informational YouTube video you watch or book you read has the potential to change your life! And altogether, they definitely will change your life!
What you learn today may seem absolutely insignificant to you, but you never know when it could help you.
Knowing how the royals keep those enormous hats on their heads may seem unnecessary knowledge today. But it might answer you the last “Who wants to be a millionaire?” question or give you a billion dollar worth business idea in twenty years.
So education is definitely worth your time!
If you are interested into broadening your horizon and educating yourself further, check out my Reading List.
As I am an avid self improver I read every day. This list includes the Non-Fiction books I have benefitted the most from. You should check the list every once in a
4. Spend time with loved ones
This one is immensely important. I dare say you could fulfill all of the others and still be unhappy in life if you don’t spend time with your loved ones.
We humans are social creatures. We crave connections to other humans.
Therefore you should always think twice if your job is worth neglecting your family and friends.
Money is easily made. Developing deep love and trust with others, on the other hand, takes months or years.
Set your priorities straight. Especially your parents and grandparents won’t be there forever. And your friends deserve someone who wants to invest his time in them.
5. Make memories
If you invest your time in exciting activities with your friends or family, you will double your outcome. Not only do you enjoy the time itself, but also the memories that are created in those moments.
Playing video games or binge-watching series might be something you enjoy doing as well. However, what are the chances you will look back when you are 80 and say: “Remember that one time in Call of Duty?”
6. Helping others
We, humans, have an altruistic streak. Whether you care for the people you are helping or not, helping others will give you a sense of satisfaction and pride.
Most rich people who seemingly have it all, heavily get into charity work, because among other reasons it gives them that boost of happiness needed for a life in Felicity.
Of course, you don’t need to spend money. Helping others can be done in multiple ways. Volunteer, donate clothes, tutor children, pick your sibling up from school or take care of some of your parents chores.
However little the actions you perform, it will definitely be worth your time and effort, because not only do you help others, you also make yourself happier.
7. Self-care
More important than helping others is helping yourself first. If you do not take care of yourself, you will not be able to help others to the biggest extent possible.
In general, you will not be able to enjoy life to the fullest. And in my opinion, that might be the biggest waste of time.
Another thing to consider is your loved ones. By not taking care of yourself, physically or mentally, you make them worry about you. Do you really want that?
8. Saying no
I love this one because it is incredibly quick and easy, but it saves you hours.
If people ask you to do something, which you absolutely do not enjoy doing and when there is no logical reason to say yes despite pleasing that person, decline.
It’s as easy as that. Say no. If that person is not among your loved ones, why should you give your most valuable asset to him without a good reason?
Saying no does not only save you time but also reduces your stress and anger.
9. Invest in time-saving tools
It is all about working smarter, not harder. Therefore, you should regularly spend a little time looking out for time-saving tools.
Sure, it might not only cost you time to find the tool but also money to purchase it, but if this makes life easier for you, it is worth it!
10. Plan your future
You should always have a vision of where you want to go. Otherwise, you might never be able to create that extraordinary life of your dreams.
Planning your future can take quite some time. But it is necessary for you to become clear about how you need to spend your time to reach your goals.
With no clear destination in mind, you might be running around in circles when you already could have reached your destinations weeks ago.
But be careful to not live in the future too much! You should spend the majority of your time in the Now, since that’s were life actually happens.
If you want to dive deeper into this topic, I recommend you to read The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle. You can also check out my Review of the book and the lessons I learned.
11. Build a side hustle
Spending one hour a day building your side hustle might enable you to quit your hated job in only a few years.
If you still need to be convinced on why you should build your own business, check out my 9 Reasons Why You Should Start Your Own Business.
12. Be creative
Creativity is something uniquely human. At least to our current knowledge. So why shouldn’t we embrace this gift to the fullest?
Being creative is like food to our soul. It reduces our stress, boosts our happiness, and inspires us.
Even if you think that you are not creative, I assure you there is at least one creative activity out there that you’d enjoy doing!
Just try a few different things. It will not waste your time.
13. Do what you love
“Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.”
– Marthe Troly-Curtin
Of course, you should also spend time doing what you love even though it won’t benefit you in any other way. Joy, in itself, can be reason enough to take some time.
Still, you should be careful. Ask yourself, do I really enjoy watching TV every evening? Or am I just doing it because I can turn off my mind and want to be lazy?
There is a big difference between merely liking to do something because it is comfortable and genuinely enjoying an activity. The former only steals the time you could invest in the latter.
14. Follow the 80/20 rule
Now, we cannot always do what we love. We all have obligations we have to meet, be it cleaning the house or earning money.
Nevertheless, you can spend your time wisely doing these activities. One tool to do that is the 80/20 rule or the Pareto Principle named after the Italian engineer and economist Vilfredo Pareto (1848–1923).
This principle states that 80% of the effects are the result of 20% of the causes.
While this principle was initially intended for the economy, we find that it works equally as well in almost every area of life.
Just think about it, you probably use 20% of the floor in your house 80% of the time. After all, you probably always walk the same paths.
Another example could be that out of all the people in your life, 20% of them cause 80% of your anger.
Of course, the relation is not always precisely 80 to 20, it can just as well be 70 to 30 or 85 to 15. What truly matters is the rule that a small part of your actions causes the most significant part of the results.
This can help you save your precious time. Whatever task is ahead of you, try to figure out what tasks produce the most significant results and what tasks waste the most time for the smallest achievements. Then try to spend more time on the former one.
15. Gratefulness
Lastly, something truly worth spending time on is gratefulness. You only need to spend a few minutes once in a while to mentally or physically list a few things in your day or in your life that you are grateful for.
Those few minutes have the power to light up your whole day. Gratefulness is one of the easiest and quickest sources of happiness.
So spend some time on gratitude. It is definitely worth it!
Those were the 15 Ways You Can Spend Your Time Wisely.
Don’t worry, the time you spent reading this fall under the category of education. So congratulations on having spent your time wisely!
What are some of the biggest time wasters you encounter daily? Is there anything you know you should stop spending so much time on?
Comment down below! I’d love to hear your thoughts.
Until next time,
Sophie
