Comments on: 120 Minutes

By: theBadLibrarian

theBadLibrarian — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 16:41:07 +0000

I’m totally doing this already – but then I’m out of a job. Every action HAS to be productive, either monetarily or otherwise. I just wish I’d done it earlier – I thought I was – but you can always squeeze a little more time and effort out – even besides the extra lazy-jobless-bum time.

I just wish I was less tired from all the doing-useful-stuff. I don’t think there’s any solution to that. Sometimes you have to pay the price to get the prize.

By: Debbie

Debbie — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 11:22:13 +0000

Very good post. Can’t say I’ve gotten a whole 120 minutes more a day but am striving for more me learning time. I now listen to books (Strangest Secret, etc) or finanical self improvement on my iPod to and from work. It’s already made a big difference and that is just 45 minutes a day.

By: Maggie Shaw

Maggie Shaw — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 03:44:26 +0000

I finally signed up to get my personal trainer certification, a goal I’ve had in mind for quite some time. Any spare time I used to have will now be spent studying.

By: Lisette

Lisette — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 01:45:41 +0000

My dream is to work at a newspaper or a television show- on a national scale.

It kind of bugs me that watching TV or reading the newspaper is considered “wasted time” per this post.

Since when is being informed a waste of time?

By: Susan Mclaughlin

Susan Mclaughlin — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 18:04:32 +0000

This is my first time posting, but I became a fan of this site a few months ago. Time does a number on me Life is so busy it is hard to find time for anything.My life has gotten extremely busy, as I’m sure all of you can relate. I put in allot of overtime in the last six months which literally keeps me from getting on my computer.
During this time, I have also begun to further define my life, values, goals and plans. Back in August one day, I was out of laundry soap, and short on money. I had been trying to cut back on my spending because money seems to get tighter every day.
I went to my trusty computer and goggled in home made laundry soap. In my search I found a sight called thesimpledollar.com. This sight contains a program called “Fix Your Budget in 31 Days”. Ok, you’re saying…another gimmick. Basically the program cost 2.00 and you download it. I thought this might be something that could help me to adjust my spending and relieve some of the stress that I have been feeling lately about my financial situation.I know this sounds like a commercial, but stay with me.
So I bought the program. I figured 2.00 would be a small price to pay for help to get my life going in the right direction. I have been working on the program for 2 months now. I guess I am a bit slow when it comes to taking things in. So far, this program has been the best thing I ever bought for just 2 dollars!
It is helping me to become more focused on what I really want my life to be like, and is showing me how to achieve it. It has a different approach than most budget programs. It starts with creating a set of core values. From these core values, I have created matching goals to achieve living these values. Then, making a plan to achieve these goals.
The results have been amazing already. I have made so many improvements on how I am living my life and how I am spending my money. Of course I still have a long way to go. But my stress level has gone down dramatically. The peace of mind that I seek is becoming more and more a part of my everyday life.
I am slowly becoming the person that I want to be and moving in the direction towards the life I want to have. One that when all said and done, will be one that I can be proud of having lived. One that is full of quality memories that I can take with me when I die. When I am no longer on this earth, I hope that the people that knew me will remember me because of the positive influence I had on their lives.
We all spend our lives, acquiring material things, but in the end, none of that will be part of our eternal futures. What will be, is our memories, how we lived our lives, how we treated other people, and finally, weather or not we believed in God.
I try to squeeze every second out of my days and make it mean something. For me, a good day, is one where I was productive, and achieved much.
I just want to say thanks to you Trent, to this site and all the wonderful people that contribute.
One tip I want to share that I do to get more out of my day, is that when I find articals on line that I like, I print them and take them with me for “reading material” when I’m at work or the doctors office etc, instead of reading magazines or reading nothing at all. When I’m finished witrh them, I share them with a friend.
May God Bless you all.

By: Bella

Bella — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 17:37:17 +0000

Very touching article!
Two hours a day… I guess I’d sleep less… Get up earlier…

By: Matt

Matt — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 17:19:52 +0000

These are great suggestions. To add an another real motivating lens for one’s own life. It really inspired me to check where I am and where I’m going. Take a look at the late go getter Randy Pausch in his “last speech.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji5_MqicxSo

By: Gayle RN

Gayle RN — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 08:05:05 +0000

Great picture of the Sleeping Bear National Lakeshore, which is one of the most beautiful places on the planet.

By: Kevin

Kevin — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 03:32:36 +0000

Your link to Seth’s blog is bad.

By: Robyn

Robyn — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 01:48:53 +0000

I too saw this post at Seth’s site and was very inspired. It’s interesting bec I quit my job 3 months ago to start my own business, and I also set up a couple blogs and a website, and learned a ton of new stuff in the process, by using more than 2 hours a day on my new projects. Now I’m pretty comfortable with my new routine but find myself now spending too much time on stuff I’ve already established. So now the challenge is to shift away from that fairly new process and focus on stepping up my business and/or finding new projects.
Incidentally, I just posted an article on my blog about a trip I was able to take 10 years ago by following the practices written about here and following what Seth wrote about this week. I’m trying to figure out a way to do something similar in the next year or two.

By: Molly

Molly — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 13:22:47 +0000

3. Spend at least one weekend day doing absolutely nothing but being with people you love.

I absolutely agree with this. I used to try to clean on the weekends, and get my husband to help me. Our apartment was bothering me so much. We never got to hang out or spend any time together. Plus we’d argue about having to clean. Now, I just ignore it from the time my husband gets home from work on Saturday til Sunday morning. Sometimes I don’t even wash the dishes. Since we had our son 20 months ago, I’ve been getting busier and busier. I have to schedule things and actually do them in the time allotted or I get ovehwhelmed. When Monday comes, it takes most of the day, but at least I don’t feel like I’m spending my life cleaning.

By: LC

LC — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 13:21:43 +0000

I realized I was spending a few hours a day watching TV, mostly home decorating shows. I enrolled online and now two years later will graduate soon with a graduate degree. Same amount of time per day, and since it was online, I was still available for my family if they needed me.

By: Kristine

Kristine — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 12:33:05 +0000

I used to run through all the things I COULD do when I had a free moment, and that mental process would make me feel overwhelmed and indecisive.

But rather than schedule every second, When I have in-between time that would sucked away with tea and surfing, I look at my ongoing list of small and big projects in progress, and pick what I feel like doing that moment! Productive, and it feels a bit like shopping for success.

BTW- this blog is one of my few time indulgences- I am a strady reader- sometimes agreeing, sometimes not!

The family day is a wonderful thing. I try to to do the same thing here- with a list of things we CAN do home or out(seasonly revamped), then we don’t spend that precious time trying to come up with ideas! And the foresight helps us pick lo-cost options as well!

By: Sara

Sara — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 11:38:18 +0000

I have recently gained a group of really close friends, and we have started having “communal dinner night” every tuesday, where we coordinate a menu, and then everyone cooks and brings the food over to my house for dinner. Its great because a lot of us have kids, so going out to eat would be not just more expensive, but also more stressful if we had to try and curb the kids chaos. But, we let them all run and play in the living room while the adults socialize over dinner, and everyone has a great time. Our first dinner (two weeks ago) was 7 adults, and 4 kids – next week is going to be 10 adults and 6 kids. We keep growing the group each week :) So thats where I’m spending time with my loved ones. Not only that, but Saturdays and sunday mornings are days that I have off of work, and child free – so I get to spend a lot of quality time with my boyfriend, and my friends. Then Sunday night through Thursday mornings its just me and my son while my boyfriend is at work. So yeah, I have the quality time thing down :)
I waste my time playing stupid internet games, checking redundant social networks, and multiple emails. I really don’t watch much TV.
I have recently started really organizing my life. I was always pretty lazy about cleaning the house, and stuff like that – but now I have a scheduled day for cleaning everything, and a day that I go grocery shopping – all that jazz. And I actually feel much better after having accomplished something than I do if I just sat around “enjoying downtime”. And I think one of the problems too, is that people don’t do things that actually make them feel energized with their downtime. They just numb their brains for a little while, and then feel drained afterwards. Excercise may seem like a chore, but it will make you feel better afterwards . Especially if you don’t think of it as exersize for the sake of exercise. Do something that’s fun, and just so happens to be active at the same time. Put your favorite music on really loud and dance around. Play tag with your kid – or fetch with the dog. Pack a picnic lunch and hike to a nice spot to eat it. Go swimming. Just because your brain says your having fun, doesn’t mean its not exercise.

By: dlc

dlc — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 09:22:14 +0000

I like the guy who´s hanging out two hours at the bar every night. I mean: he doesn´t even spend money. And, supposedly, he´s having fun with some nice people. Sounds like a great way of using these two hours!

By: Susy

Susy — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 03:35:16 +0000

Some friends and I were just talking about this last night. We decided that taking the iniative and using your time wisely to better your life is what separates the “haves” from the “have-nots”. I think being proactive helps build self-esteem and confidence which spills over into other areas of your life making you more successful. Feeling entitled to everything without doing anything leads to depression and feeling of being let-down and feeling un-lucky.

By: drizad

drizad — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 02:39:17 +0000

“Is your dream worth giving up that hour of television?”
YES! OF COURSE!
This post really struck the chords in me. Have been closely monitoring and reading your blog for the past few months, and really, I think I am in the same shoe as you.

Keep up the spirit, Trent!

By: Kristen at The Frugal Girl

Kristen at The Frugal Girl — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 00:37:17 +0000

I’ve got the weekend day down…I’m one of those weird Sabbatarian Christians(lol), and so my Sundays are always spent worshiping and then doing restful things.

I’m always astounded at the amount of time people waste watching TV…and then those same people wonder why I can manage to get so much work done in a day. I wouldn’t be able to if I watched three hours of TV every night.

By: PJ

PJ — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 00:27:12 +0000

I’m all for taking advantage of any ‘extra’ time you have laying around, but if you spend the day shuttling kids and yourself to and from school, work, and home, as well as prepping meals and doing a bit of house cleanup… taking an hour or two to do something you really enjoy is, IMHO, a necessary sanity-saver. Stressing out on how to be maximally productive during that time seems like a bad idea. Not that you can’t enjoy being productive, but I guess I’d just like to hilight that you should try and *enjoy* whatever downtime you have – don’t we all get enough stress from work and home obligations?

By: Cyllya

Cyllya — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 22:01:04 +0000

Mmm, I already try to do that with ALL of my “spare time.” I have trouble doing anything for fun without taking a hit to my self-esteem for not working hard enough.

My problem is becoming too miserable to motivate myself to do anything useful and instead using that time on useless things.

I wonder if I should try harder to make myself do things I don’t want to do, make myself have fun so I don’t get burnt out, try to vary my work activities more, or what?

(For the record, some of the work is fun and really is toward a goal I want.)