Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, phone calls, private messages, snap chat, WhatsApp….there’s myriad of things competing for your attention, and most of it is not really time critical at all.
Here are four rules to win back your time and help you save your energy for the things that matter.

1. Have projects and timelines.

We shouldn’t go through life hoping that everything will just work out the way we want it. Without some planning or direction, you will end up just living through the years and then achieving nothing. In my opinion, we should all have life long goals and then work our way back from that goal. Plan your life like a military operation.

2. Don’t answer phone numbers that you don’t know – ever.

As soon as you answer a call from an unknown number you enter the conversation from a position of weakness. Let it go to message bank, it’s probably marketing or not important anyway.

3. Check emails in blocks.

A good rule is to allocate two hours once a day and just get it done. Don’t answer emails as they come in through the day, as it will begin to own you and take your attention from things that really matter. Same goes for Facebook and Instagram. Dedicate time to this and don’t have any other distractions whilst you’re managing your “online presence”.

4. Turn off notifications.

Beeps and chimes are distracting and take your attention away from what you should be doing. You are more productive when you DON’T multitask – FACT.

These rules are not new. Tim Ferris goes into great detail about how to control your time in his book “The Four hour Work Week” and many of the amazing people that he interviews in “Tools of Titans” have similar rules. However, we expand on these from a military perspective in the Warrior Aspire program.