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Productivity: How to Gain 21 More Days in a Year (Includes Video)

personal development Apr 23, 2018

As life moves at the speed of Moore’s Law, many of us are vying to discover a rare treasure. Not gold. Not diamonds. Not even Bitcoin. I’m talking about time. The average American gets 6.8 hours of sleep a night. The 17.2 hours we spend awake each day are filled with necessary agenda items like commutes, meetings, work, eating, working out, running the kids to sports practices and more.

We’re over-scheduled and have become victims of time telling us what to do, as opposed to the other way around. There are, however, some areas where we spend unnecessary time. Think gaming, binge-watching TV and getting sucked into your smartphone. I’m going to give you a challenge that will make you 6% more productive, meaning 6% of your waking hours can be reclaimed toward fulfilling your purpose.

By The Numbers

First, let’s take a look at some numbers from ComScore’s U.S. Mobile App Report:

• 2.3 hours How much time we spend on phone apps on an average day

• 50% — How much of our app time we spend on our most used phone app

• 87% — How much of our app time we spend on our five most used phone apps

Knowing that we spend an average of 2.3 hours on apps each day, and half of that time is on our most used app, what would you do with one extra hour per day? To magnify that, what would you do with seven more hours a week, 30 more hours per month and 21 more waking days per year? Yes, that is how much time you spend on your most used app.

How To Find The Culprit

By habit or addiction, you have an idea of which app you use more than any other on your phone. If you’re still stumped, you can find this on your iPhone by going to Settings, then Battery. It may take a moment to load, but scroll to the bottom and it will show you which apps are using up the most battery. When you click the icon of the clock next to “Last 7 Days,” it will show you how much time you’ve had each app on your screen. This will pinpoint the amount of time you have spent on your specific apps in the last 24 hours or seven days. If you just walked through these steps, then you’re probably thinking “Ouch, what am I doing with my life?” I did this myself and it was eye-opening. So much so that I decided to make some changes in order to bring focus and productivity back into my life.

The App Challenge

So, are you ready to reclaim 6% of your waking time? Sure, it doesn’t sound like much, but when you think about the 21 waking days a year that you get back, that’s time to invest in relationships, business ideas and personal growth. Take the following challenge and see if it changes your life:

1. Take your phone out of your pocket, purse, backpack, hand, etc.

2. Find the app that you spend the most time on. Yes, even if it’s that coveted social media app that you don’t think you can live without.

3. Delete the app.

4. Continue living your life.

It’s that simple. You may cringe at the thought of it and think you’ll experience withdrawals, which you just might. Be strong, though, and experience how this elimination of distraction actually opens up your world and creates opportunities to deepen your impact. I can speak from firsthand experience that accepting this challenge allowed me to sharpen my focus on writing, developing ideas and strengthening personal relationships.

Is the challenge worth it?

We all need some time to spend on mindless activities like binge-watching a show or getting lost in our favorite app. However, when it becomes excessive, it actually takes us further away from our purpose and impact in the world. For me, this challenge was absolutely worth it, and I hope it is for you as well.

Comment below or on social media using #AppChallenge to accept this challenge and increase your focus and productivity by 6%.

#AppChallenge Video

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