The Free-Time Formula

10What to Do with All That Free Time: Free Time Is Not Netflix Time

I once interviewed a great personal trainer named Ted Ryce, host of The Legendary Life Podcast, who told me, “Soreness is not progress—progress is progress” (Ryce, 2015).

Well, free time is not Netflix time—Netflix time is Netflix time.

Your time off the clock is your time. You can do whatever you want with it, but commonly we spend that time doing what we have always done—without a second thought, and without regarding any sense of boundaries for the activities we have mindlessly chosen.

In the process of writing this book, I hit a wall, a mental block, and was ready for a good break. I went to Facebook and asked for recommendations for a great television series to dig into during my own free time.

Within minutes I had dozens of responses. Not at all surprising to me was that nearly everyone recommended I watch every season of Breaking Bad immediately!

Entertaining our brains with media is the norm. If you asked connected people for recommendations, you would get hundreds or thousands of ideas—more entertainment than you will ever have time to consume in ten lifetimes.

We are connected. We are distracted. We are conditioned to spend our time off the clock in pursuit of the next dopamine hit.

What we often do, myself included, is fall into bad habits and mental ruts because it is the easiest choice, the path of least resistance.

We commute home after a long day at the office, pour a glass of wine, and start watching ...