“I’d be jacked if I had more time” – Everybody who isn’t happy with their body
Whether it’s in the gym, on the streets, or in the bar, the quotation above still reigns supreme. Everybody thinks they have no time to work out.
I’ve never thought this way. To me, it’s stupid. If I think I have no time to work out, you bet your ass I will make time to work out. Get in the gym. Rock it. GTFO. That’s the strategy.
I would estimate that 80% of jacked people make the gym, nutrition, and sleep their priorities. It’s just good time management.
I’ve always been a firm believer that if you make these bad boys your priorities, you will end up being more productive throughout the day, feeling way more awesomer (not a word but it should be), and looking freaking amazing.
Looking back into first year of university, I thought I was busy. Same with high school. Same with public school.
The truth is, that if I managed my time better in the past, I could have probably freed up an extra 20+ hours per week to do whatever the heck I wanted.
This whole blog post is inspired by my Intermittent Fasting brother from another mother, Brad Pilon:
Here are three simple tips to help you manage time better so you can get jacked.
Schedule Everything
Whether you use TeuxDeux.com, Google Calendar, or a smart phone app, you need to schedule all events. I don’t care if they’re super important, or ridiculous, you need to schedule them.
For example, on today’s schedule, I included “Write awesome blog post” and “Finish orbital mechanics assignment question 3”. Those were pretty important things.
For a ridiculous thing, I also included “shave”.
Don’t worry; I won’t be shaving my moustache. Movember’s still here.
Other people may think that adding “shave” to my TeuxDeux list is stupid. Here’s the thing, if I didn’t add it to my list, I would never ever shave and I’d look like a hobo.
Once everything is scheduled, prioritize the list from most important to least important. Do this the day before. This way, upon waking, you can just open up your list and start checking things off.
You will magically get more shit done.
This brings us to Numero Dos.
Know How Long Everything Takes
If you schedule 6 tasks that you think will take one hour each and they end up taking two hours each, then you’ve just officially screwed yourself for an extra 6 hours.
When scheduling events, you absolutely need to know how long it will take to accomplish. This way, you won’t schedule too much stuff in one day.
When you schedule too many events, you will feel like you failed at the end of the day (since you didn’t finish your list). This will also screw other people over if you tell them that you are going to work on a certain project and have it to them by Tuesday night, and it turns out that you give it to them on Wednesday afternoon. This is a big problem and sets you up to look flaky.
Really dig down deep and figure out how long events will take. For example, I know that my workouts will take about 60 minutes of gym time. This doesn’t include walking to the gym, showering and all that other good stuff. Adding in all those other variables, I know that I need to schedule 2 hours to successfully go to the gym. If I go to the gym on the walk home from an errand, I will successfully bring that time down to 1 hour and 45 minutes (sometimes less if I decide not to shower).
Before you say “Ew, you don’t shower”, I don’t shower on “Recovery Days”. On these days, I’m just squatting and benching (or overhead pressing) at like 70% of my max for 2-3 sets of 5, so I don’t shower. Relax.
Good enough is good enough
I stole this beauty from Dan Kennedy, and it’s awesome. In order to have an abundance of time, you can’t be a perfectionist. Knowing this, if I make something 80% perfect and 20% satisfactory, that’s still an A.
This falls in line with the 80/20 rule. Let me reiterate it for you: 80% of your results come from 20% of your work. This means that if I am freaking fantastic at the all-important 20%, then 80% of my work will be awesome. Therefore, I just freed up 80% of my time.
This means that a project that takes 10 hours to be perfect would only take 2 hours to be awesome. Screw the other 8 hours and do something else (AKA get jacked).
The same holds true for my written articles. In school, you are taught that you need to edit and proofread your paper at least 7 times in order for it to be perfect. When I write my blog posts, I don’t proofread them 7 times.
I proofread them once.
When I do this, I know that they are 80% fantastic. Sure, I’ll still have a little error here and there, but for the most part, my readers will (hopefully) get some solid info and learn a thing or two about getting jacked. If I proof read another 6 more times, I won’t have any time to write lots of blog posts, coach clients, and create awesome workout and nutrition programs like Decembulk.
A Method from Madness
If I want you to learn anything from this blog post, it’s that you have more time than you think. Stop looking at pictures of your ex on Facebook and start scheduling your time (especially your gym time). Make sure you know exactly how long each activity takes. Lastly, in most of your tasks performed, follow the 80/20 rule and let yourself know that “good enough is good enough”. A pat on the back is nice here too.
When I first told my buddy Tyler that he was going to be testing out Decembulk, the first thing that came out of his mouth was that he had no time. Guess what: he overcame this objection, managed his time like a champ, absolutely destroyed the program and built 12lbs of solid muscle while simultaneously losing 17lbs of fat.
Manage your time poorly and you will look like crap. Manage your time like a champion, and you will become one.
Go get Decembulk and build a champion.
“Manage your time like a champion and you will become one.” – Tweet This Quote
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