“Never waste any time you can spend sleeping.” -Frank H. Knight

Unfortunate PSA: Your day is not 50 hours long. 

You will find it’s only 24. 

And here’s the math: 

8 hours sleeping +

8 hours at work/school/studying +

30min shower +

20min. For using the toilet at various points +

2 hours for commuting- to work/gym/school/pickup kids/drive to grocery etc. +

2 hours eating (breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks) +

1 hour Household chores- laundry, cooking, cleaning +

2 hours phone time (answering texts/DMs, checking social media)

 = ~24 Hours

If you want to do anything else in your day, you either have to sleep less, work less, commute less, do fewer household chores, or abstain from going to the bathroom or eating with your family or friends (or, let’s face it, with Netflix). 

We have heard how to do 15-minute workouts and how to eat only 1000 Calories a day- how to budget away our money, calories, weight, and living room space. 

But what about our lives?

How do you actually live a fulfilling life of aimless hobbies, meandering walks by the sea, and slow afternoons of cuddling with your dog when you only get 24 hours every day, and you can’t give up another hour of sleep (no, you are not one of those people who can function healthily with 5 hours of sleep. I don’t care what you keep telling people.)?

You can try blocking off yet another 14.5 minutes on Google Calendar to do what matters most: live. 

Or you can make a few big decisions to eliminate the dozens of smaller ones that eat up your life every day. 

Today I want to talk to you about these big decisions, so that you can finally pursue the work you love, the life you dream about, and, of course, the not-so-stupid, stupid interests you’ve been putting on hold since childhood. 

Easy no’s.

While we want to say no, it might not be easy to actually do it.

So first I want to talk about how to cut out the tasks we want to say no to, but can’t figure out how. 

#1: Unconscious content consumption. 

In my own journey toward cutting down on unconscious content consumption, I have discovered a few key facts about this particular time-drain:

1. We are all underestimating how long we spend scrolling each day. 
2. We are so used to the dopamine hit of intense content consumption that we often experience withdrawals, making it incredibly difficult to “quit” social media even if we wanted to. 
3. If you quit Instagram, you will scroll more on YouTube shorts. 
4. People will start talking to you about Instagram, and then interject with “Oh, you’re not on Instagram anymore,” as though you have been on a restrictive no-carb diet and they feel some pity because you haven’t seen the latest viral cat video.
5. You will be annoyed when you hang out with the people you love, and see that they prefer scrolling than actually paying attention to you. 
6. Ergo, you can never escape social media. 

Let me say that again- you will never escape it. 

That’s why this is an easy-not-so-easy no. 

We would all like to believe we prefer real life to screens, but we have never even stopped to ask ourselves how this is supposed to work when the world demands that we use these same exact screens to socialize, market our business, communicate with each other, and stay up-to-date. 

So I am not going to wag my finger at you and tell you to throw your phone into a lake.

Instead, let’s try something else. Let’s get strict about phone usage the way we are strict about alcohol consumption or sugar. 

What if…

#1: You designated certain days for no-YouTube, no-Instagram, or no-Facebook? This way, you don’t have to quit completely, and you can still get back all that time during the week to read, see people in real life, go to the park, walk your dog, and so on. 

#2: You installed a shortcut on your phone that creates a buffer before you open any social media app. I still use YouTube, but every time I open it, I have a shortcut installed with an app called “one sec” that makes me wait 10 seconds before actually opting in to go to YouTube. 

It also has an option for “I don’t want to open YouTube”, which just takes me back to my home screen. Making the process of opening YouTube that much more aggravating is enough of a deterrent for me to help me stay off the app. 

#3: You switched your phone to black and white mode? 

I have done this, and now anytime someone sees my phone open, they cringe. The upside is that, once again, using my phone is such a depressing experience that I am not tempted to sit on it for hours. 

My daily screen time is usually 2.5 hours, between answering texts, listening to music, using Safari, taking notes, and (you guessed it) YouTube shorts, and when I am not on black and white mode it will often go up on average by an entire hour.

#4: You left your phone in another room for a few hours every day. Every time I do this, I experience so much peace. 

Something about knowing you can’t get bombarded by notifications…

#2: Emotional labor from saying yes out of guilt. 

Growing up, I had lots of allergies, but the biggest one was probably to the word ‘no’. 

Will you join my club? Yes, that sounds so fun!

Will you stay after school for this event? You know it!

Will you come and see this movie with me? Absolutely, I love that actress! 

(*anxiously looks up the name, because I have never heard of them in my life*)

It was a real problem, because with every additional ‘I guess I’ll do this’, I was saying no to an ‘I wish so badly that I could do that.’

In the end, no one is happy, because you are never fully committed, but never fully honest about it with them or yourself. 

Life is too short for saying ‘no’ to what you really really really want, and that means it’s also too short for saying ‘I guess so, sure’. 

What if…

#1: Instead of saying “Yes”, you said “I’ll get back to you later with an answer.” It gives you time to evaluate your excitement and enthusiasm, and seriously think about what are the other options of how you could spend your time in a way that makes you excited. 

#2: You made your automatic answer ‘no’ or ‘probably not’ instead of ‘yes’. Realistically, we don’t truly pursue most opportunities available to us, so why not adjust our behavior to align with that reality?

How you spend your 24 hours is how you spend your life.

Have you ever heard that quote that goes “How you spend your days is how you spend your life?”

Me too. While it’s unclear who said it first, its wisdom rings alarmingly true. 

Do you spend your 24-hour allowance on joy, growth, and purpose? 

What about spending it moving your body, stretching your mind, and connecting with cool humans (and dogs)? 

I hope when you lay down to rest, it’s with a content smile. 

If so, you have succeeded.

Thought to Action

1. Make Your “Ugly List”: Write down 5 things you’ve been too scared to start and commit to beginning one this week—ugly on purpose.
2. Create an “Ugly Drafts” Folder: Store your roughest starts and revisit weekly.
3. Try a 24-Hour Debrief: After beginning a project, come back the next day and reflect—did the cringe evolve?
4. Post Before You’re Ready: Share one in-progress idea publicly or with a friend to build momentum.
5. Talk To People In Other Fields: Use these 11 tips to start conversations with people from other fields. 

Sources

No external sources were used for this post.

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