The Free-Time Formula

7You Have Permission to Let Go: Let It Go

Trying to do it all?

Let it go.

Maintaining a perfectly clean house?

Let it go.

Catching up on every episode of The Bachelor?

Cue the Frozen soundtrack.

If I could give you only one piece of advice to free up more time on your calendar every week, it would be to stop doing dumb, useless nonsense.

Harsh? Yes, but I would guess that you and I both engage in activities all the time that never have to happen at all.

Typically, when we think about free time, we are thinking about spending less time on the things we dislike (responsibilities, obligations, and so on), to spend more time on the things we love.

In reality, we are routinely spending time on things we enjoy, but those activities have a very low return on investment.

The ROI of our normal weekly habits is weak at best.

Does watching every episode of your latest TV show bring you happiness, or do you watch every episode out of some vague sense of loyalty?

Are you surfing the Internet for life‐altering information that could springboard you to success, or do you scan social media sites again and again because it is more entertaining than getting back to work?

We do things all the time out of habit.

We engage in activities that are mediocre or good, but far from great.

We say yes to new tasks, projects, and events for a multitude of reasons, few of which directly relate to pushing us closer to what truly lights us up.

In other words, we are busy—very busy—with all kinds of activities ...