Time-blocking could be your new best friend, and the first step to your ultimate dream life.
I’ve said it once, I’ll say it a million times:
Output = Input
Newton’s 3rd Law.
One of the most important inputs of our lives is our daily habits.
Most importantly because our daily habits happen autonomously.
We don’t even think about them as we do them.
In fact, this is quite literally the definition of habits from a psychology standpoint.
As defined in Britannica, a habit is:
“any regularly repeated behavior that requires little or no thought and is learned rather than innate.”
The most important part of the definition in my personal opinion, is that habits are:
“…learned rather than innate.”
Meaning they can be changed, unlearned, altered, or otherwise newly developed.
They are not set in stone.
Habits are something that every successful person I’ve ever listened to or learned from has talked about.
- Gary Vaynerchuck
- Jeff Bezos
- Elon Musk
- Tony Robbins
- Lisa Nichols
- Ray Dalio
- Dean Graziosi
- Steven Bartlett
- Tom Bilyeu
- Mel Robbins
- Ed Mylett
Listen to enough of their keynote speeches and videos on YouTube…
And you will hear every single one of them mention the importance of habits.
Developing good habits is essential to achieving both short-term and long-term goals.
Our habits not only shape our decisions and actions, but are also directly responsible for our personal growth and success, as well as our struggles and failures.
According to James Clear, habits are formed through a loop consisting of three parts:
- A cue
- A routine
- A reward
The cue triggers the habit.
The routine is the action we perform.
And the reward is the outcome that reinforces the habit.
(a.k.a. that nice hit of dopamine we get that gives us those happy, satisfied feelings)
Habits are formed and strengthened through the repeated activation of this loop…
Ultimately becoming ingrained in our neural pathways.
But John Assaraf, a renowned entrepreneur, author, and mindset expert, emphasizes the importance of reprogramming our brains to develop good habits that lead to success.
Through his work in the field of neuroscience, John explains that the brain’s ability to change and adapt, known as neuroplasticity, is a critical piece for both habit formation and habit transformation.
By understanding that our brains can forge new neural connections and strengthen existing ones, we can actively work to rewire our thought patterns and behaviors to get rid of bad habits and develop good ones.
Check out a great interview with John Assaraf on Impact Theory here.
In one of my previous articles, You Can’t Improve What You Can’t See, we talked about creating SMART goals to help provide clarity and focus on what needs to be accomplished.
We also briefly touched on a concept known as time-blocking, which is what I want to dive a little deeper into now.
The habit you didn’t know you needed.
While SMART goals can help you get organized so you know exactly what you need to do…
Time-blocking is an incredibly powerful productivity technique that forces you to actually carve the time out in your schedule to take the actions you need to take, in order to achieve your goals.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had the conversation with friends or family where they tell me they wish they could do or achieve something in their life.
When I ask them WHY they can’t do whatever it is they want to do…
(and believe me, I always ask…)
I literally get the same response every time…
It usually goes something like:
“I just don’t have the time… I’ll do it when [fill in the random excuse or magic moment in the future].”
Guess what?
That magic “moment” never comes!!
Which is exactly what I tell them.
My response also always includes:
“It’s not that you don’t have the time. We all have the same amount of time.
It’s that you haven’t made it a priority.”
You have to decide to make your goals a priority instead of thinking about them as some distant dream.
And you do that by adding the tasks that will get you there to your schedule.
As John Assaraf would say, you have to be committed instead of interested.
By allocating specific blocks of time to different tasks throughout your day or week, you ensure that you’re dedicating the necessary attention to your most important goals.
“Compound interest…”
“Output = Input”
“Progress, not perfection…”
THEY’RE ALL CONNECTED!
Just different branches of the same tree.
Using this productivity technique not only helps prioritize tasks, but also minimizes distractions and enhances focus.
As James Clear points out, it’s usually much harder to get started with a task than it is to continue doing the task once you’ve begun.
Time-blocking helps you overcome this by allowing you to focus on simply getting started, rather than trying to finish.
And by the way,
That voice inside your head…
You know, the one that tells you that “you don’t have the time…”
or “you can’t because of ABC, XYZ…”
That voice is a manipulative liar.
The only thing stopping you from pursuing the thing you dream of most is yourself.
Empower yourself by introducing time-blocking into your daily habits.
Your future self will thank you.
Warm Regards,
Zyler Kade
Apex Haus
P.S.
If you haven’t already seen it, check out this keynote speech by James Clear where he goes in depth as to how you can take action to build better habits and start getting 1% better every day, starting with today.
If you’re looking for an easier way to start implementing time-blocking into your life, check out one of my favorite online productivity tools: Motion. It takes your meetings, tasks, and projects, and automatically builds you the perfect daily schedule using artificial intelligence (AI) technology that will even re-schedule events based on newly added information and schedule changes!
And whenever you’re ready, here are 2 additional ways I can help you:
1. If you’re looking for a simple, streamlined, organized step-by-step process you can follow to begin building your own passive income streams, I recommend starting with an affordable course.
→ The Full-time Freedom Codex is a self-paced online video course where I teach you how to quickly and easily create, automate, and monetize digital content based on your hobbies, passions, and interests. You can learn more by clicking here.
2. If you’re looking for personalized digital product development or sales funnel design services for an already established business or personal brand, I recommend checking out Apex Haus.
→ Apex Haus helps creators, coaches, and CEOs increase their income, influence, and impact with personalized digital product development and sales funnel design. You can learn more or see if you qualify by clicking here.
Note:
In full transparency, not all, but some of the links you find throughout my emails will be affiliate links, which means if you end up making a purchase using one of my affiliate links, I will get paid a small commission.