How do you plan to spend the rest of your life?

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Every Friday is Thinking Day at AlexShalman.Com.

The philosophy here is that the routines and habits of your average day determine how you will live out the entire rest of your life. So it makes sense that the amount of time you spend on an action directly correlates with the amount of value you attach to it.

We’re going to make a couple of assumptions to make calculations easier and this point clearer. You sleep 8 hours per day, thus leaving you with 16 waking hours. You repeat your routine seven days a week.

  • 1 hour exercising = 1/16 of your life
  • 8 hours (+1 for commute) = 9/16 of your life
  • 2 hours watching TV = 2/16 of your life
  • 2 hours cooking/eating = 2/16 of your life

So far that’s 14/16 of your life, leaving only 2 hours for everything else you want to accomplish in life. Let’s say you’re going to live for another 60 years (hopefully much much longer for all of you!). Take 60 years – divide by 16 – multiply by 2 – congratulations you just spend 7.5 years of your life sitting on the couch watching TV!!!

On your main priority list, where you list things such as health, family, friends, education, religion/spirituality, conquests, adventure, contribution, etc. where does 7.5 years of television play in?

The point should be clear right now (and no it’s not that sleep is clearly the biggest waste of time lol). Look at your average run of the mill days and ask yourself some questions (this is a perfect journal opportunity).

  1. What is really important to you?
  2. What is not important to you?
  3. Where does your time go?
  4. How do you plan to spend the rest of your life?

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Posted by in Thinking | August 3, 2007 | Digg | Del.icio.us | Stumble | Print | 13 comments

  • http://www.todayisthatday.com/blog/ Aaron M. Potts

    Ummm…Alex?

    I don’t remember authorizing you to use this picture of me! Some overzealous photographer grabbed this shot of me as I was about to leave for the barber! Those paparazzi are everywhere…

    As far as this post, I love it, and you present a great message. Big props! :)

  • http://www.alexshalman.com Alex Shalman

    Lol Aaron – I love your sense of humor… I thought you were going to get angry that I used this pic! I guess it’s a win-win!

    Thank you – I’m glad you liked the post.

  • http://www.freshome.com Michael @ Freshome

    I don’t know why but when I ask the first question my mind goes blank.

  • http://www.alexshalman.com Alex Shalman

    That’s tough Michael. I would recommend getting out a piece of paper and free-writing whatever you think might be important. What you care about, passions, and things that make you happy. Once you can get 5 solid things on what’s important to you, you can work towards achieving those things.

  • Anna Kravtsov

    i’m glad you finally put up a picture of yourself! i guess the summer really changed you ;)

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  • http://www.alexshalman.com Alex Shalman

    lol – everyone is a comedian =)

  • Ashraf

    I think we should spend 8 hours in what we want to accomplish. That is our job should be related to our goals. Otherwise, It is very difficult to achieve your goal by just spending 2 hour or less time everyday.

    Ashraf

  • http://www.alexshalman.com Alex Shalman

    Ashraf, if you are in a position where your job fits into the bigger picture of your life (your life mission) and you thoroughly enjoy it, than you’ve got it made.

    This is why having a great guidance counselor in high school really pays off =)

  • http://www.psych101online.com Helen

    I agree with Ashraf. If we want to spend more time with what we want to accomplish, our job should be related to what we love to do or better yet, we need a job that we love doing.

  • http://www.best-of-time-management.com/values.htm Pamela

    It’s a good point. Realization doesn’t have to be one sided. Using different approaches makes it more helpful for the person. We’d certainly appreciate any extra tip together with the real message.

  • http://www.alexshalman.com Alex Shalman

    Pamela: I meant this article to be a thinking exercise. Every person is going to come to their own conclusions.

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