There is always time left in the day. That is something that many people complain about, always busy with work, the gym, seeing friends, enjoying some leisure, and of course, resting. To this we must add maintaining a house, with all that this entails.
It is true that if we talk about “free time” some have more than others, but most have at least a few hours to spend however they want. And according to the “5-hour rule,” how you choose to spend those hours can mean the difference between success and mediocrity.
According to calculations, we have 16 hours of wakefulness that allows us (to a certain extent, because we have to work) to distribute our time however we want. If we remove those hours of work, We were left with 9 hours free, quite a bit really.
Much of those 9 hours are dedicated to life management: shopping, housework, and time spent eating. If we remove all this, most people have at least a few hours to do what they want.
For more than half of the population, those hours are wasted looking at the mobile phone and if we take as a reference the mantras that we have read so much from Elon Musk and Bill Gates, these They are not the people who will become the entrepreneurs, innovators, and success stories of tomorrow.
Well, one of the key findings that comes up time and time again is known as the “5 hour rule.” In short, it is the rule of devoting one hour a day to learning, reflecting and thinking and dates back to the time of Benjamin Franklin who dedicated (at least) an hour a day specifically to learning something new.
Today, Elon Musk or Bill Gates use some version of the 5-hour rule. The idea is that, behind all this, dedicating an hour of your day to education exercises your mind and improves your skills.
How to implement the “5 hour rule” in your life:
Learn
As BigThink informs us, one of the first steps is try to learn how you can and in the way that you feel most capable. The logical thing is to resort to the habit of reading, but it is true that it is not for everyone and that does not have to be a problem.
Today, podcasts, audiobooks, and radio are great ways to take action. Besides, The Internet is full of educational articles, entertaining and instructive, which are much more digestible than a 400-page book.
Experiment
The most successful people in life were not those who hit the key point on the first try, but those who failed several times until they got it and tried different paths. And it is considered that when we experiment, we have fun and learn a lot.
Tim Harford, in his book “Adapt: Why Success Always Starts with Failure,” says that success means that “First, let’s look for new ideas and try new things; second, when we try something new, let’s do it at a scale where failure can be survived; third, let’s seek feedback and learn from our mistakes as we go “.
Reflect
In the words of Samuel Beckett, “Try again. Fail again. Fail better.” There are many ways to reflect. For some, it may mean a journal, a planner, or ten minutes spent simply thinking about who you are and what you’ve done during the day. For others, it may mean talking things over with a friend.
The basis of all this is to express, either verbally or in writing, all our thoughts, with the aim of convert our reflections into ways to improve.
In summary, The “5 hour rule” is a powerful tool for personal and professional development. Taking time to learn and reflect can make a big difference in how you approach the challenges and opportunities in your life.