Most of us work on average eight hours per day which leads to having the necessities life offers us up. Food, water, shelter, and of course many bills to pay. Without the work though, you would have to learn how to fend for yourself in the wild which most of us would not be able to do and would die doing so. This is not a solid base to start from so you should consider getting a job to pay for your daily life needs.

That number eight may be more for some, and it also may be less for some as we come to understand different jobs have different expectations that come along with them. Put yourself in your own shoes and tell yourself how many hours a day you go to work. Write it down or remember this and please keep reading, the important stuff is under this paragraph.

Working Hours

The next number in the equation could range from 4-12 hours for some people depending on how long of days they put in at work. This next number represents the amount of free time you have to attain before or after work happens. This number is typically the most abused one during people’s day. This brings us to the main point, “What are you doing with the remaining hours of your day regardless of how tired or how unmotivated you are to do anything after work?”

This is mostly an assumption, but it’s assumed lots of it is spent by the screen not doing productive activities such as watching or playing something on a screen.

Down Time

Other things would be lounging, resting, thinking about the next day of work, family, responsibilities, and all the other things that come with a 9-5 lifestyle. You can have what you need from life if you can focus for these important hours after the bills are paid!

No matter the responsibility, you can read a book on something you want to learn. You can pick up a pencil and begin trying to write down thoughts and ideas, or even plan for a better future. You can pick up the weights you have been telling yourself you need to pick up because you lack physical activity. You can create a spending budget that allows for money to be saved and reallocated to the more important things such as good food and quality lifestyle choices.

The number of things you can do in your window of time before and after work is astounding, and this is where people can thrive, or merely just survive.

What do You Want to Achieve with Your Time?

What is it you want from yourself? If you want success, what is it that you define as success? If you want health, how are you going to develop an action plan to become healthy? If you want more money, what are you going to do to allow for you to move up and out of your current financial struggles?

The answer is this, start utilizing the time you have that normally is delegated to nonsense, and make that time count. The first eight pay the bills, the second eight create the life you have dreamed about, and the third eight (or six, or four, depending on sleep cycles) is your rest you most certainly deserve to be ready to kick ass the next day. All this isn’t possible though unless you identify where your time can be reallocated to.

It is important to have relaxation time each day, but no more than one to two hours max. This allows for the brain to reset and trim off the excess stress that most of our days allow us to accumulate. You must write down goals, or type down goals that you want to achieve, which may also be dreams you have had wanted to achieve since childhood. It is never too late to start this practice of effective tasking; this is important to note.

Life is hard, we all know. How are you going to respond in the face of adversity? Drugs? Poor choices? Bitter feelings and self-doubt?

Make sure that you define what it is you think you want, and create a plan based on 8 hours after work things you can do. Literally, make a spreadsheet and incorporate each hour as a category. Maybe one hour you will think and write down goals or things you want to make better about your situation. The next hour you will meal prep and make healthy food for you and your family for the week. The next you will go achieve the physical activity you have always told yourself you need. The next hour you can read a book on a subject you want to learn. These hour periods could even be broken down into half-hour periods; it’s totally up to you to decide and execute.

Develop Discipline

If you can develop the discipline to act like the sort that have been discussed throughout this article, you can have the freedom of choice life grants us. You want to be a writer and become a published author? Good, you have the time to practice and get better each night you come home from putting the food on the table. You want to be a Teacher? Good, sign up for school and start doing your damn homework during the time that has been described as post-work time. You want to run your own business one day?

Remember, whatever you want to do in this life is totally up to you. To say you don’t have the time is a complete lie you tell yourself each day. Take notice, you always have free time. How are you going to utilize it to succeed? You see, it isn’t your job holding you back, it’s your frame of mind. Whatever your formula to equal 24 may be is yours but make damn sure you make the most of your own 24.