Answer this question.

Have you ever said, “I just don’t have the time” ?

This post is for you.

What is time? Time is a construct. It’s not actually a thing that exists in reality. It was made by humans to measure things we have placed meaning on. Things like:

• hours worked

• days left until the weekend

• hours until our flight lands

• when an investment matures

• hours invested into a skill

Humans made time. We measure it in seconds, minutes, hours, days, months, years, and fractions of, or combinations of the former.

What does all this mean? It means that if we think creatively we can use time differently. Let’s jump into that.

HERE’S THE DEAL

In order to take advantage of time we have to learn how to value time. So that’s where we’ll begin.

Valuing time first requires that we understand and accept it is a human creation. The universe does not know time. Animals do not know time. The stars do not know time. Not a single fish in the sea works on time.

Secondly, it is important to understand that humans are addicted to time. Most specifically the counting down of time. Not only are humans notorious for wasting time (the very thing we created), but have you noticed that you are always counting the hours down to something?

Seriously think about that. You are always counting down:

• down to new years

• down to your birthday

• down to the weekend

• down to your vacation

• down to Christmas ;)

• down down down down.

Does it feel positive? I know your answer. But did you realize you were doing it or has it just been…well…automatic?

Let’s flip the switch at see what counting UP time can look like.

COUNTING UP TIME

Counting up time will not only change your experience from negative to positive, it will change the way you live your life IF you make it a practice.

Here are some mental exercises to consider:

1. Suppose you have children. One day they are going to grow up into adults just like we have. So if you have children here’s a way to count up your time with them:

   • the amount of time you get put them to bed because one day you won’t get to anymore. There’s a total amount of hours available until you don’t get to do this anymore.

   • Counting down those hours as most people do, will make a person feel sad.

   • Counting UP how many hours, and chasing adding as many as you can will make you feel good.

   • When the allotted time with your babies is over, you’ll be proud you maximized it to the best of your ability.

2. There’s a stat that says 75% of the time that we will ever spend with our parents is hit by the time we turn 12. Then you get your own life and start doing things. Your parents are at work, you’re at school, then you get a little older and only want to be with your friends, then you move out and start your own life. Here are some things you can count up:

   • the number of quality conversions you share

   • the number of dinners, lunches, brunches you make time for

   • the number of deep laughs you share

   • the amount of times you choose to disarm an argument instead of having it, for the sake of saving the days, weeks, months or years you’ll stop speaking to one another as a result of having the fight.

Can you see the power of counting up yet?

THINGS I COUNT UP

There’s a lot of things I like to count up here’s a few:

1. hours I spend doing things I love each day

2. number of times I say no to things instead of saying yes (oh how much time and energy I’ve saved)

3. how much time I spend speaking to my mother

4. how much time I spend having meaningful conversations with my friends

5. how much time I spend loving myself

6. how much time I spend loving my life

7. how much time I spend loving my family

8. how much time I spend helping other people

There is a question that needs to be answered here which is, “How do I count up in a way I can measure and manage?” Here is the answer.

I set intentional targets of time I want to count up, and I schedule them into my calendar.

• some daily

• some weekly

• some monthly

I schedule these important things because what gets measured can be managed, and measuring and managing the right things creates a meaningful life. The meaning of life will be determined by you. It’s not some mystery question of the universe.

IF you are intentional about what, where, and with who you spend your time then you will live a great life. If not you’ll probably have a crisis at some point because your miserable, or you’ll live out your days in fuckin’ unawareness until you hit your deathbed and realize you really fuckin’ blew here, and slip away into oblivion filled with regret. I’ve put this into your awareness, so now you can’t un-know it. You’re welcome btw lol.

Now let’s get into how to value time.

VALUING TIME

Even though time is not real technically, it has value because we die. Our level of consciousness as human beings has given us the power to be aware of death, and the inevitability that it will arrive to sweep us away. In some aspects it’s morbid and depressing but in other ways it’s empowering and refreshing. Let me explain.

We each have the exact same amount of time per day which is 24 hours. This number 24 is the only amount of time that can reliably be measured because death can be caused by an unlimited number of unknown variables that can strike at any time. The idea in valuing time is maximizing the amount of it you spend each day doing things that you love. There are however some very important things to consider.

1. Consistent Repetition of things you love - the actions you take today, build onto all the actions you took all the days before today. Why does this matter? Well because if you do different things each day then they don’t really add up to much. BUT if you:

   • workout daily - you’ll become fit and stay fit

   • read on a single topic daily - you’ll master it and become rich and move onto the next topic

   • give gratitude daily - you’ll have a positive experience by the day, which adds up to your life.

   • help others daily - you’ll have a world full of people you may one day need to count on

   • behave with integrity daily - you’ll be known as trustworthy, and opportunities will flow in abundance in your direction

2. Clarity - knowing what you want in your life will help you understand what things you need to be repeating on a daily basis. You find clarity by sitting and thinking about:

   • the life you absolutely don’t want, in all its detail.

   • the life you absolutely do want, it all its detail.

   • write each of these stories down and refer back to them daily. The brain has a habit of forgetting. It’s not a memory bank even though it has memory capacity.

3. Focus - because unfortunately you can’t do everything you want but, if you’re smart you’ll do the most important things to you and forget about the rest.

For me personally, I want to be healthy, rich, have a loving family life, and help other people achieve one or all of the same. Which with deep gratitude - through use of the advice I’m sharing now - I’m doing all of the above.

So up to this point you have a little homework to do, but let’s jump into what valuing time looks like in practice.

ACTUALLY VALUING TIME

THERE ARE TWO PARTS TO YOUR DAY

1. The things that you love that are moving your dream life forward

2. the other tasks that I just call daily life

You’ll want to build your days around #1.

Actually valuing time look like:

• saying no when you mean no

• doing the things you want to do on the days you don’t want to do them

• setting boundaries for how you will and will not be treated by other people

• making time for your important focus list items each day, ideally first things in the day while energy and willpower are highest

• actively managing the amount of time you spend thinking negatively

• aligning your behavior to your ambitions

• having an internal locus of control (read about that here)

I value my time so I’ll share with you things that I do and don’t do

I DONT:

• spend time with people I don’t like

• spend money on things I don’t love

• allow other people to influence my feelings or behaviors

• live like a slob

• allow my feelings to get in the way of the work

• spend time to save money (I spend money to save time)

THINGS I’M IN THE PROCESS OF STOPPING

• cooking (I will hire for this)

• cleaning (I will hire for this)

  • this might need some clarification. I’m creative and a businessman. The wage of a cook and the wage of cleaner is much less than what I earn in working hours. So if I spend money in the short-term I’ll have less but I will have more time to work on profitable deals which will earn me more than I spend in the long term. This is valuing time.

• thinking negatively

  • do you think negatively? If you added up all the time you spent thinking negatively how much time do you think that is? I don’t even want to know the answer. So daily I practice catching myself in negative thinking and switching it. This is valuing time.

• repeating anything repetitive in daily life that doesn’t add to my main dream life activities

  • this is things like paying bills, grocery shopping and other tasks you have to do as part of life. You aren’t actually achieving anything by grocery shopping other than wasting time. Pay a delivery service like Uber Eats or DoorDash, or Instacart or Deliveroo or whatever. More money in the short term, more time in the long term.

I hope this shit doesn’t sound crazy to you but let’s assume it does. Imagine this version of life for a second. You wake you and do a wicked morning routine that you love. Whatever part of that routine that required something to be prepared like food, water, vitamins, gym bag packed and anything else, was all prepared by someone else that you instructed and paid. All you have to do is show up and do the stuff. And then, the rest of your day is the exact same way. You spend your time doing the things that only you can do. Which happens to be all things that you chose and love.

I don’t know about you, but this is absolutely the life for me. That is the life I am working towards on a daily basis.

ONE VERY IMPORTANT RULE

When you have stopped doing things in order to save time, you MUST use the time you saved doing something more productive otherwise you just WASTED THE TIME YOU SAVED. That is NOT valuing time.

and that’s its.

Till next week.

-James

P.S. The best way to help yourself is to help someone else. If you found value in this letter, share it with someone else who might.