July 25, 2025 • 20 mins
We blow the doors off the belief that we don't have enough time to do important things in life and provide practical methods to better use our time and focus on what truly matters.
• Americans spend an average of 38 hours per week (over 5 hours daily) on their phones
• Online content creators use clickbait and algorithms to manipulate us into wasting more time
• Never confuse activity with accomplishment - recognize what actions truly move you forward
• The "big rocks" analogy teaches us to prioritize what's most important first
• Family and close friends should be your biggest priorities - they're who will care when you're gone
• Your health must be a big rock - you'll accomplish more when mentally and physically healthy
• Use the grade school system (A-B-C-D-F) to prioritize tasks by importance
• Track everything you do in 15-minute increments for a week to gain awareness
• If an activity doesn't take you toward your goal, it's taking you away from it
Head on over to Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen, and subscribe to the show. If you're ready to get over your fears, self-doubts and past failures and break through your comfort zone to reach the pinnacle of success in every area of your life, head over to terrielfosome.com to pick up your free gifts and so much more.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
If you've been stuck in fear, self-doubt, your past
failures and you're ready tobreak through your comfort zones
to finally reach the pinnacleof success in every area of your
life, then this podcast is foryou.
Here's your host, Terry LFossum.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
The next bolt we're going to talk about is wasting
time.
I just don't have the time isone of the biggest fallacies in
the history of mankind.
In this recording, we're notjust going to blow this bolt,
but we're going to blow thedoors off of the belief that we
don't have time to do theimportant things in our life.
You're going to get a method tobetter use your time and the
focus of where to spend it.
Let's get started.
I have a rescue dog named Thor,thor the Wonder Dog.
(00:55):
Thor is part yellow lab, partgoofball and 100% intensity,
especially if you say hisfavorite word in the world walk.
Oh my God.
You could be giving anhour-long dissertation and he
could be sound asleep in anotherroom with a TV on, but if you
say the word walk anywhere inthere, thor will hear it and
(01:17):
start going crazy.
It kind of reminds me of myteenagers and the word food.
But if Thor hears the word walk, he will run and not walk to
the front door with his noseright up against the crack of it
, seemingly willing it with allof his might to open, open, open
.
And when it does, the entireworld of distractions opens up
to him.
Look, there's a tree, there's acar, there's a bush Ooh,
(01:39):
somebody peed here.
All of these distractions comecrashing in and then I bring out
the ball.
Now, when I bring out the ball,nothing else in the world
suddenly exists.
As long as I have the ball infront of him, you could set off
a nuclear bomb right beside hishead and he would not notice it.
(02:00):
As long as the ball is in frontof him, nothing else in the
world exists.
But if I hide the ball, it'sout of sight, out of mind.
Suddenly he forgets it everexisted and all the distractions
of the world come crashingright back in again, just all of
it all at once.
And we're the same way, aren'twe?
As long as we have our goalsand our action plan in front of
(02:27):
us, we can keep pretty focused.
But as soon as we look awayfrom them, the entire world of
distractions opens up to us andstarts crashing in.
We really need to check email.
There might be someone tryingto reach us with something
important.
Oh, look at that.
One of my Facebook friendsposted something.
Someone we're following tweetedsomething very important.
We better check that out.
And you know what?
There's some crazy stuffhappening in the world.
I better stay informed.
I better check on the onlinenews.
And before you know it, themorning's gone and it's almost
(02:49):
lunchtime, so you reallyshouldn't start something this
close to lunch.
In fact, it looked like acoworker was having a really bad
day, so I better talk to himand make sure he's okay.
I mean, the morale of thegroup's important.
It's also important thateveryone likes me, so I
shouldn't seem to like.
All I care about is working andanyway.
Hey, I'm about to reach a newlevel in my online game, so I
really should.
You know I can go back to thatthing and, oh my gosh, out of
(03:09):
sight, out of mind.
It's amazing how quickly we getdistracted in this fast-moving
world of ours.
We're constantly bombarded withdistractions.
Okay, check this out.
This is going to blow your mind.
It did mine.
According to a study byProvisional Living, americans
spend, on the average, 38 hoursper week on their phone.
(03:33):
Did you catch that?
38 hours per week on theirphone, that's over five hours a
day, and we wonder why we're notreaching our goals.
Let me say that again Americansspend an average of 38 hours
per week on their phone.
That's five hours a day, plusFive hours a day.
We could stop screwing aroundon our phones and put towards
(03:55):
our goals.
But how do we get sucked intosuch terrible distraction?
Have you heard the termclickbait?
This is going to be importantfor you to realize.
Clickbait is the catchyheadlines people write online to
get you to click into theircontent.
An enormous amount of time andmoney is spent on coming up with
just the right clickbait to getyou to open it and from there,
(04:18):
what you clicked on is recorded.
So more clickbait, just likethat appears next time you're
online, which for some people,is all the time.
So people are actually workingextremely hard to get you to
spend more time looking at theirmaterials.
They're actually manipulatingyou.
They're manipulating you andbecause it's content that's
(04:41):
formulated just for us, we keepwanting to see more and more and
more.
So ask yourself how many hoursper day do you spend looking at
stuff online?
Guess what your answer?
It's most likely veryunderestimated.
Just like in weight loss,people overestimate the amount
they work out and burn caloriesand underestimate how much they
(05:05):
eat, the number of calories theytake in every day.
In the same way, we greatlyoverestimate how much time we
spend working towards our goalsand underestimate the amount of
time wasted every single day Ihear so often, I just don't have
the time.
There's only 24 hours in a day.
Have you heard that one before?
That's right, there are only 24hours in a day, but we waste a
(05:29):
huge portion of those hours andwe don't leave time for the
things and the people who aretruly important.
If we better use the time wehave, we could absolutely make
progress towards reaching ourgoals every single day.
Okay, we understand we can makebetter use of our time, but how
do we actually do it?
Okay, first, never confuseactivity with accomplishment.
(05:53):
Activities are things that keepus busy, things like checking
social media, checking emailsmore often than necessary,
playing online games,researching in quotes on the web
and they're not all online.
I can't tell you how many timesI've had people tell me but I
had to clean my desk.
I just can't concentrate with amessy desk.
I can't tell you how many timesI've heard that one.
(06:14):
And chatting with coworkers isanother big one.
The list goes on and on and on.
Now I'm not saying to work allof the time I don't think that's
healthy but I am saying torecognize everything for what it
is.
Be honest with yourself.
There's a great story to helpillustrate this.
A professor walked into aclassroom one day and went up to
(06:36):
a table at the front of theroom that had a large bucket on
it and several other items,including some large rocks.
He placed several of the largerocks in the bucket until they
protruded over the top and askedthe class have I now filled the
bucket?
The curious class answered inthe affirmative yes, you've
filled the bucket.
Hearing this, the professortook a smaller bucket filled
(06:58):
with pebbles and poured it intothat larger bucket, filling in
the gaps around the large stonesuntil they reached the top.
No, he announced, the bucketwas indeed not filled to begin
with.
I could fit considerably moreinto it and I have done so.
I have now filled the bucket,have I not?
The class confirmed Okay, thebucket wasn't actually filled to
(07:19):
begin with, but yes, now it is,you've filled the bucket.
Fine, said the professor.
And then he pulled out yetanother smaller bucket filled
with sand and he poured it intothe large bucket as well,
filling all of the space betweenthe pebbles.
As you see, said the professor,even then the bucket wasn't
filled, but now it is.
There's finally no more room inthe bucket.
(07:42):
The class again agreed, but theprofessor went on, took another
small bucket filled with waterand filled the large bucket to
the top.
Now, what is the lesson, heasked.
Several answers came back likethere's always room for more.
You can always fit more in youlike tricking us.
All of those are true, hereplied.
(08:02):
But to get to the main point,let's reverse the process.
So he started again with newmaterials, this time adding the
water first, followed by thesand.
Okay, no big deal.
But as he began to add thepebbles, something began to
become apparent.
They were almost to the topalready with just those items,
(08:24):
and by the time he got to thebig rocks, there was room for
very few.
The smaller items had taken upall of the space before the big
rocks could be added.
Now he asked what's the lessonhere?
Put in the big rocks first, wascalled out.
That's exactly right.
Put in your big rocks first.
(08:45):
Now, perhaps you've heard thisstory before or perhaps you've
already made the analogy, but Ifind it's one that bears
repeating to remind us every day.
We all have the same amount oftime in every day.
The question is what we do withit.
If we focus on the mostimportant things first, then we
(09:05):
can fill in the gaps with thosethings that have lesser
importance, then lesser, thenfinally time wasters.
But if we do the time wastersand less important things first,
we don't leave enough room forthe things that are truly
important.
That's when we feel likethere's not enough time of the
day to get to the things thatare most important, because we
filled our bucket first witheverything else.
(09:27):
So let me ask you and this is areal question, think about this
one what are your big rocks?
What are the most importantthings in your life?
Okay, let me be real with youonce again.
If you only talk to thingsyou'd like to accomplish, you
have your priorities way screwedup.
(09:48):
Wow, didn't expect to hear thatfrom like a motivational guy.
Huh, listen, this is important.
This is yet another place whereI believe, differently than a
lot of people out there in thisrealm, this is important.
When you die, youraccomplishments, they're not
going to care.
Your job isn't going to care.
(10:08):
Your job isn't going to care.
Your stuff isn't going to care.
Your toys aren't going to care.
Your money isn't going to care.
Your fans and followers?
Well, they will for a few shortmoments.
Then they'll go on to someoneelse.
When you die, you know who'sgoing to care your family and
close friends.
That's who's going to care yourfamily and close friends.
(10:32):
And yet all too often we get sowrapped up in accomplishments
that we forget that our mostimportant accomplishment of all
is the difference we make inpeople's lives that we care
about the most and who care themost about us.
Your big rocks must includespending time with those people.
(10:52):
They absolutely must.
That's the important thing.
That's your big rocks.
There's never been a person ontheir deathbed who wished they'd
spent more time at the office.
They do wish they'd spent moretime with their family and close
friends.
They'd spent more time withtheir family and close friends.
(11:13):
Prioritize time with the peopleyou love.
And, speaking of your deathbed,that brings us back to your
next big rock your health.
If you work yourself to deathaccomplishing things, you're
still dead.
Take care of yourself mentallyand physically.
You'll accomplish more ifyou're healthy, both mentally
and physically, and you'll havea lot more fun doing it.
So take care of yourself.
(11:34):
Schedule in you time.
Yeah, actually schedule it.
It's a big rock.
Now.
Next in the realm of big rockscan be the accomplishments you
really care about, the thingsyou really want and even need to
get done more than anything.
Then you can decide what yourpebbles are, and so on.
(11:54):
Now, to help you do this, I'vegot an exercise for you.
This is what I call my gradeschool system of prioritization.
It's a simple A, b, c, d and Fsystem.
Hey, it's something we're allfamiliar with and it's something
we can relate to.
So here's how it works.
Prioritize your activities withan A, b, c, d and F.
So take the time to write out alot of what your priorities are
(12:17):
.
Write them down on a list andyou're going to actually give
them a grading system like this.
A priorities are your big rocks.
These are the most importantactivities that you must do on a
daily basis to help you reachthose goals that are most
important in the world to you.
You don't just make these agoal, you make them an absolute.
(12:38):
You will absolutely do theseevery single day.
In fact, you'll complete all ofyour A priorities before you'll
allow yourself to do anythingelse.
If it's not an A, it doesn'tget done until all the A's are
completed.
Now, when you've completedeverything on your A list, then
you can move on to your B's.
(12:58):
The B's are lesser importanttasks that you want to be done
today but don't have to be done.
You don't have to answer everyemail that's sent to you.
If the house isn't perfectlyclean, that's okay, you're going
to have to be done.
You don't have to answer everyemail that's sent to you If the
house isn't perfectly clean,that's okay.
You're going to have toprioritize which of your goals
you want to be done and whichneed to be done to get you where
you want to be.
C items are those that may beon your to-do list, but it's not
(13:23):
that critical at all.
They could actually be donetomorrow.
It's interesting If you stickto this plan, you'll find
yourself getting more C-listitems done that you would expect
to, because you're wasting lesstime and getting more done.
The D-list items are those thatare on your long-term list.
They need to get done sometimethis month or sometime this year
(13:45):
, but not right now.
And F well, those are the timewasters and get this.
These are actually okay.
Let's say you've reached all ofyour A, b and C list priorities
.
You still have some D listpriorities, but you're making
progress on those as well.
Every once in a while, cut loose, go crazy, do an F list thing.
(14:07):
Hey, reach that next level onthe silly online game.
That's okay.
Gossip with your coworkers, alittle Sleep in a day, or take
an extra long lunch.
Now, don't get me wrong.
You don't do these every day.
You really shouldn't do themevery week, but every once in a
blue moon, enjoy a guiltypleasure and feel good about it.
(14:29):
The trick is to make sure youdon't do it too much and, again,
most people do it way more thanthey think they do, so how do
you know for sure?
How do you know how much timeyou're actually spending on your
A's, b's, c's, d's and F's?
All right, here we go.
There's a roll up your sleevestime.
There's a gut check time,because I've got an exercise for
you that you might not like atfirst, but when you do it, you
(14:53):
find it's going to be one of themost powerful exercises that
you can do to stop wasting timeand prioritizing your life.
I need to emphasize this becauseI'm concerned, honestly, that
you're not going to do it.
Okay, listen again.
You want me to be honest withyou, right?
You're listening to this so youcan get through the things that
have held you back in the past.
(15:14):
You didn't pay good money, soyou could just go.
Well, that was nice.
You want to change?
Right.
You want to improve, you wantto move forward in a better way?
Well, that's going to take somework.
It's not just going to happenon its own.
Just because you decide youwant it doesn't mean you're
going to get it.
You're going to have to workfor it.
You're going to have to takethe steps necessary to make it
(15:36):
happen.
Even if they're not fun, yougot to do them.
So here's your exercise for thissection.
For at least an entire week,you need to write down
everything you do in 15-minuteincrements.
That's right.
Everything you do in 15-minutemaximum increments.
Wait a minute.
(15:58):
You might say You're telling menot to waste time, but you want
me to take the time to writedown everything I do.
That's what I call a colossalwaste of time.
That's right it is.
It's a short-term sacrifice fora long-term gain.
I promise you it's not a wasteof time.
And, by the way, attorneys dothis every single day.
(16:18):
They bill in 15-minuteincrements, so they attorneys do
this every single day.
They bill in 15-minuteincrements, so they're writing
this down every single day.
So you're going to spend alittle time now to complete an
exercise that's going to saveyou hours and hours and hours
and hours.
In the future, this one exercisecould actually be the
difference between reaching yourgoals and failing.
Why is that?
(16:39):
Because it's going to focus youfor an entire week.
For an entire week, you'regoing to be focused on doing the
things you really should bedoing.
Now here's another fun partabout it.
I'd like to say that anotherbenefit is that it's going to
show you how much time thatyou've been wasting.
But to tell you the truth,because you're focused on it,
(17:00):
you're not going to be wastingso much time.
Just watch.
Instead, you're going to noticehow much more you're actually
getting done, even though you'retaking the time every 15
minutes to write it down.
Now, why is it so important youtake the time right now to
analyze everything you do?
This is important.
If it doesn't take you towardyour goal, it's taking you away
(17:23):
from your goal.
Let me say that again If itdoesn't take you toward your
goal, it takes you away fromyour goal.
And why is that?
Because you only have a certainamount of time each day to
reach your goals.
You only have a certain numberof years, and those years start
screaming by and are gone beforeyou know it.
Anything that takes away thattime takes away your ability to
(17:46):
achieve those goals.
Here's the funny thing the moreyou do this, the more you're
going to feel better aboutyourself.
Think about it for a minute.
How do you feel when youfinally get something done
you've been wanting to get donefor a while?
It feels pretty good, doesn'tit?
Especially if you've beenputting it off or feeling like
(18:06):
you really wanted to get it donebut you could just never seem
to get to it.
It keeps nagging and naggingyou, doesn't it?
Until you finally have thatsense of relief and
accomplishment when you get itdone.
Until you finally have thatsense of relief and
accomplishment when you get itdone.
What if you could feel likethat each and every day?
What if you could set those bigrock goals and check them off
(18:28):
as you did them?
How would that feel?
And if you could spend lesstime with time wasters, how much
more do you feel like you couldget done?
How much more quality timewould you spend with family and
close friends?
How much more could you getdone on that goal, that dream
that was feeling like it was outof reach.
(18:49):
Okay, let's make it happen.
Take the time to write out yourgrade school system of
prioritization.
What are your A items, your bigrocks?
What are your B, c, d and Fitems?
What are your A items, your bigrocks?
What are your B, c, d and Fitems?
What are your time wasters?
Each and every day, fill thatbucket of yours with your big
rocks first, followed by yourpebbles and so on, and enjoy the
amazing success that comes withit.
(19:10):
Listen, you have one life onthis earth.
Don't just take action.
Take the right action.
Reach your goals, whatever theyare, and make it count.
Blow that bolt.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
So that's it for today's episode of the Comeback
Chronicles.
Head on over to Apple Podcastsor wherever you listen, and
subscribe to the show.
If you're ready to get overyour fears, self-doubts and past
failures and break through yourcomfort zone to reach the
pinnacle of success in everyarea of your life, head over to
terrielfawesomecom to pick upyour free gifts and so much more
(19:52):
.
We'll see you next week on theComeback Chronicles podcast.
If you've been stuck in fear, self-doubt, your past
failures and you're ready tobreak through your comfort zones
to finally reach the pinnacleof success in every area of your
life, then this podcast is foryou.
Here's your host, Terry LFossum.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
The next bolt we're going to talk about is wasting
time.
I just don't have the time isone of the biggest fallacies in
the history of mankind.
In this recording, we're notjust going to blow this bolt,
but we're going to blow thedoors off of the belief that we
don't have time to do theimportant things in our life.
You're going to get a method tobetter use your time and the
focus of where to spend it.
Let's get started.
I have a rescue dog named Thor,thor the Wonder Dog.
(00:55):
Thor is part yellow lab, partgoofball and 100% intensity,
especially if you say hisfavorite word in the world walk.
Oh my God.
You could be giving anhour-long dissertation and he
could be sound asleep in anotherroom with a TV on, but if you
say the word walk anywhere inthere, thor will hear it and
(01:17):
start going crazy.
It kind of reminds me of myteenagers and the word food.
But if Thor hears the word walk, he will run and not walk to
the front door with his noseright up against the crack of it
, seemingly willing it with allof his might to open, open, open
.
And when it does, the entireworld of distractions opens up
to him.
Look, there's a tree, there's acar, there's a bush Ooh,
(01:39):
somebody peed here.
All of these distractions comecrashing in and then I bring out
the ball.
Now, when I bring out the ball,nothing else in the world
suddenly exists.
As long as I have the ball infront of him, you could set off
a nuclear bomb right beside hishead and he would not notice it.
(02:00):
As long as the ball is in frontof him, nothing else in the
world exists.
But if I hide the ball, it'sout of sight, out of mind.
Suddenly he forgets it everexisted and all the distractions
of the world come crashingright back in again, just all of
it all at once.
And we're the same way, aren'twe?
As long as we have our goalsand our action plan in front of
(02:27):
us, we can keep pretty focused.
But as soon as we look awayfrom them, the entire world of
distractions opens up to us andstarts crashing in.
We really need to check email.
There might be someone tryingto reach us with something
important.
Oh, look at that.
One of my Facebook friendsposted something.
Someone we're following tweetedsomething very important.
We better check that out.
And you know what?
There's some crazy stuffhappening in the world.
I better stay informed.
I better check on the onlinenews.
And before you know it, themorning's gone and it's almost
(02:49):
lunchtime, so you reallyshouldn't start something this
close to lunch.
In fact, it looked like acoworker was having a really bad
day, so I better talk to himand make sure he's okay.
I mean, the morale of thegroup's important.
It's also important thateveryone likes me, so I
shouldn't seem to like.
All I care about is working andanyway.
Hey, I'm about to reach a newlevel in my online game, so I
really should.
You know I can go back to thatthing and, oh my gosh, out of
(03:09):
sight, out of mind.
It's amazing how quickly we getdistracted in this fast-moving
world of ours.
We're constantly bombarded withdistractions.
Okay, check this out.
This is going to blow your mind.
It did mine.
According to a study byProvisional Living, americans
spend, on the average, 38 hoursper week on their phone.
(03:33):
Did you catch that?
38 hours per week on theirphone, that's over five hours a
day, and we wonder why we're notreaching our goals.
Let me say that again Americansspend an average of 38 hours
per week on their phone.
That's five hours a day, plusFive hours a day.
We could stop screwing aroundon our phones and put towards
(03:55):
our goals.
But how do we get sucked intosuch terrible distraction?
Have you heard the termclickbait?
This is going to be importantfor you to realize.
Clickbait is the catchyheadlines people write online to
get you to click into theircontent.
An enormous amount of time andmoney is spent on coming up with
just the right clickbait to getyou to open it and from there,
(04:18):
what you clicked on is recorded.
So more clickbait, just likethat appears next time you're
online, which for some people,is all the time.
So people are actually workingextremely hard to get you to
spend more time looking at theirmaterials.
They're actually manipulatingyou.
They're manipulating you andbecause it's content that's
(04:41):
formulated just for us, we keepwanting to see more and more and
more.
So ask yourself how many hoursper day do you spend looking at
stuff online?
Guess what your answer?
It's most likely veryunderestimated.
Just like in weight loss,people overestimate the amount
they work out and burn caloriesand underestimate how much they
(05:05):
eat, the number of calories theytake in every day.
In the same way, we greatlyoverestimate how much time we
spend working towards our goalsand underestimate the amount of
time wasted every single day Ihear so often, I just don't have
the time.
There's only 24 hours in a day.
Have you heard that one before?
That's right, there are only 24hours in a day, but we waste a
(05:29):
huge portion of those hours andwe don't leave time for the
things and the people who aretruly important.
If we better use the time wehave, we could absolutely make
progress towards reaching ourgoals every single day.
Okay, we understand we can makebetter use of our time, but how
do we actually do it?
Okay, first, never confuseactivity with accomplishment.
(05:53):
Activities are things that keepus busy, things like checking
social media, checking emailsmore often than necessary,
playing online games,researching in quotes on the web
and they're not all online.
I can't tell you how many timesI've had people tell me but I
had to clean my desk.
I just can't concentrate with amessy desk.
I can't tell you how many timesI've heard that one.
(06:14):
And chatting with coworkers isanother big one.
The list goes on and on and on.
Now I'm not saying to work allof the time I don't think that's
healthy but I am saying torecognize everything for what it
is.
Be honest with yourself.
There's a great story to helpillustrate this.
A professor walked into aclassroom one day and went up to
(06:36):
a table at the front of theroom that had a large bucket on
it and several other items,including some large rocks.
He placed several of the largerocks in the bucket until they
protruded over the top and askedthe class have I now filled the
bucket?
The curious class answered inthe affirmative yes, you've
filled the bucket.
Hearing this, the professortook a smaller bucket filled
(06:58):
with pebbles and poured it intothat larger bucket, filling in
the gaps around the large stonesuntil they reached the top.
No, he announced, the bucketwas indeed not filled to begin
with.
I could fit considerably moreinto it and I have done so.
I have now filled the bucket,have I not?
The class confirmed Okay, thebucket wasn't actually filled to
(07:19):
begin with, but yes, now it is,you've filled the bucket.
Fine, said the professor.
And then he pulled out yetanother smaller bucket filled
with sand and he poured it intothe large bucket as well,
filling all of the space betweenthe pebbles.
As you see, said the professor,even then the bucket wasn't
filled, but now it is.
There's finally no more room inthe bucket.
(07:42):
The class again agreed, but theprofessor went on, took another
small bucket filled with waterand filled the large bucket to
the top.
Now, what is the lesson, heasked.
Several answers came back likethere's always room for more.
You can always fit more in youlike tricking us.
All of those are true, hereplied.
(08:02):
But to get to the main point,let's reverse the process.
So he started again with newmaterials, this time adding the
water first, followed by thesand.
Okay, no big deal.
But as he began to add thepebbles, something began to
become apparent.
They were almost to the topalready with just those items,
(08:24):
and by the time he got to thebig rocks, there was room for
very few.
The smaller items had taken upall of the space before the big
rocks could be added.
Now he asked what's the lessonhere?
Put in the big rocks first, wascalled out.
That's exactly right.
Put in your big rocks first.
(08:45):
Now, perhaps you've heard thisstory before or perhaps you've
already made the analogy, but Ifind it's one that bears
repeating to remind us every day.
We all have the same amount oftime in every day.
The question is what we do withit.
If we focus on the mostimportant things first, then we
(09:05):
can fill in the gaps with thosethings that have lesser
importance, then lesser, thenfinally time wasters.
But if we do the time wastersand less important things first,
we don't leave enough room forthe things that are truly
important.
That's when we feel likethere's not enough time of the
day to get to the things thatare most important, because we
filled our bucket first witheverything else.
(09:27):
So let me ask you and this is areal question, think about this
one what are your big rocks?
What are the most importantthings in your life?
Okay, let me be real with youonce again.
If you only talk to thingsyou'd like to accomplish, you
have your priorities way screwedup.
(09:48):
Wow, didn't expect to hear thatfrom like a motivational guy.
Huh, listen, this is important.
This is yet another place whereI believe, differently than a
lot of people out there in thisrealm, this is important.
When you die, youraccomplishments, they're not
going to care.
Your job isn't going to care.
(10:08):
Your job isn't going to care.
Your stuff isn't going to care.
Your toys aren't going to care.
Your money isn't going to care.
Your fans and followers?
Well, they will for a few shortmoments.
Then they'll go on to someoneelse.
When you die, you know who'sgoing to care your family and
close friends.
That's who's going to care yourfamily and close friends.
(10:32):
And yet all too often we get sowrapped up in accomplishments
that we forget that our mostimportant accomplishment of all
is the difference we make inpeople's lives that we care
about the most and who care themost about us.
Your big rocks must includespending time with those people.
(10:52):
They absolutely must.
That's the important thing.
That's your big rocks.
There's never been a person ontheir deathbed who wished they'd
spent more time at the office.
They do wish they'd spent moretime with their family and close
friends.
They'd spent more time withtheir family and close friends.
(11:13):
Prioritize time with the peopleyou love.
And, speaking of your deathbed,that brings us back to your
next big rock your health.
If you work yourself to deathaccomplishing things, you're
still dead.
Take care of yourself mentallyand physically.
You'll accomplish more ifyou're healthy, both mentally
and physically, and you'll havea lot more fun doing it.
So take care of yourself.
(11:34):
Schedule in you time.
Yeah, actually schedule it.
It's a big rock.
Now.
Next in the realm of big rockscan be the accomplishments you
really care about, the thingsyou really want and even need to
get done more than anything.
Then you can decide what yourpebbles are, and so on.
(11:54):
Now, to help you do this, I'vegot an exercise for you.
This is what I call my gradeschool system of prioritization.
It's a simple A, b, c, d and Fsystem.
Hey, it's something we're allfamiliar with and it's something
we can relate to.
So here's how it works.
Prioritize your activities withan A, b, c, d and F.
So take the time to write out alot of what your priorities are
(12:17):
.
Write them down on a list andyou're going to actually give
them a grading system like this.
A priorities are your big rocks.
These are the most importantactivities that you must do on a
daily basis to help you reachthose goals that are most
important in the world to you.
You don't just make these agoal, you make them an absolute.
(12:38):
You will absolutely do theseevery single day.
In fact, you'll complete all ofyour A priorities before you'll
allow yourself to do anythingelse.
If it's not an A, it doesn'tget done until all the A's are
completed.
Now, when you've completedeverything on your A list, then
you can move on to your B's.
(12:58):
The B's are lesser importanttasks that you want to be done
today but don't have to be done.
You don't have to answer everyemail that's sent to you.
If the house isn't perfectlyclean, that's okay, you're going
to have to be done.
You don't have to answer everyemail that's sent to you If the
house isn't perfectly clean,that's okay.
You're going to have toprioritize which of your goals
you want to be done and whichneed to be done to get you where
you want to be.
C items are those that may beon your to-do list, but it's not
(13:23):
that critical at all.
They could actually be donetomorrow.
It's interesting If you stickto this plan, you'll find
yourself getting more C-listitems done that you would expect
to, because you're wasting lesstime and getting more done.
The D-list items are those thatare on your long-term list.
They need to get done sometimethis month or sometime this year
(13:45):
, but not right now.
And F well, those are the timewasters and get this.
These are actually okay.
Let's say you've reached all ofyour A, b and C list priorities
.
You still have some D listpriorities, but you're making
progress on those as well.
Every once in a while, cut loose, go crazy, do an F list thing.
(14:07):
Hey, reach that next level onthe silly online game.
That's okay.
Gossip with your coworkers, alittle Sleep in a day, or take
an extra long lunch.
Now, don't get me wrong.
You don't do these every day.
You really shouldn't do themevery week, but every once in a
blue moon, enjoy a guiltypleasure and feel good about it.
(14:29):
The trick is to make sure youdon't do it too much and, again,
most people do it way more thanthey think they do, so how do
you know for sure?
How do you know how much timeyou're actually spending on your
A's, b's, c's, d's and F's?
All right, here we go.
There's a roll up your sleevestime.
There's a gut check time,because I've got an exercise for
you that you might not like atfirst, but when you do it, you
(14:53):
find it's going to be one of themost powerful exercises that
you can do to stop wasting timeand prioritizing your life.
I need to emphasize this becauseI'm concerned, honestly, that
you're not going to do it.
Okay, listen again.
You want me to be honest withyou, right?
You're listening to this so youcan get through the things that
have held you back in the past.
(15:14):
You didn't pay good money, soyou could just go.
Well, that was nice.
You want to change?
Right.
You want to improve, you wantto move forward in a better way?
Well, that's going to take somework.
It's not just going to happenon its own.
Just because you decide youwant it doesn't mean you're
going to get it.
You're going to have to workfor it.
You're going to have to takethe steps necessary to make it
(15:36):
happen.
Even if they're not fun, yougot to do them.
So here's your exercise for thissection.
For at least an entire week,you need to write down
everything you do in 15-minuteincrements.
That's right.
Everything you do in 15-minutemaximum increments.
Wait a minute.
(15:58):
You might say You're telling menot to waste time, but you want
me to take the time to writedown everything I do.
That's what I call a colossalwaste of time.
That's right it is.
It's a short-term sacrifice fora long-term gain.
I promise you it's not a wasteof time.
And, by the way, attorneys dothis every single day.
(16:18):
They bill in 15-minuteincrements, so they attorneys do
this every single day.
They bill in 15-minuteincrements, so they're writing
this down every single day.
So you're going to spend alittle time now to complete an
exercise that's going to saveyou hours and hours and hours
and hours.
In the future, this one exercisecould actually be the
difference between reaching yourgoals and failing.
Why is that?
(16:39):
Because it's going to focus youfor an entire week.
For an entire week, you'regoing to be focused on doing the
things you really should bedoing.
Now here's another fun partabout it.
I'd like to say that anotherbenefit is that it's going to
show you how much time thatyou've been wasting.
But to tell you the truth,because you're focused on it,
(17:00):
you're not going to be wastingso much time.
Just watch.
Instead, you're going to noticehow much more you're actually
getting done, even though you'retaking the time every 15
minutes to write it down.
Now, why is it so important youtake the time right now to
analyze everything you do?
This is important.
If it doesn't take you towardyour goal, it's taking you away
(17:23):
from your goal.
Let me say that again If itdoesn't take you toward your
goal, it takes you away fromyour goal.
And why is that?
Because you only have a certainamount of time each day to
reach your goals.
You only have a certain numberof years, and those years start
screaming by and are gone beforeyou know it.
Anything that takes away thattime takes away your ability to
(17:46):
achieve those goals.
Here's the funny thing the moreyou do this, the more you're
going to feel better aboutyourself.
Think about it for a minute.
How do you feel when youfinally get something done
you've been wanting to get donefor a while?
It feels pretty good, doesn'tit?
Especially if you've beenputting it off or feeling like
(18:06):
you really wanted to get it donebut you could just never seem
to get to it.
It keeps nagging and naggingyou, doesn't it?
Until you finally have thatsense of relief and
accomplishment when you get itdone.
Until you finally have thatsense of relief and
accomplishment when you get itdone.
What if you could feel likethat each and every day?
What if you could set those bigrock goals and check them off
(18:28):
as you did them?
How would that feel?
And if you could spend lesstime with time wasters, how much
more do you feel like you couldget done?
How much more quality timewould you spend with family and
close friends?
How much more could you getdone on that goal, that dream
that was feeling like it was outof reach.
(18:49):
Okay, let's make it happen.
Take the time to write out yourgrade school system of
prioritization.
What are your A items, your bigrocks?
What are your B, c, d and Fitems?
What are your A items, your bigrocks?
What are your B, c, d and Fitems?
What are your time wasters?
Each and every day, fill thatbucket of yours with your big
rocks first, followed by yourpebbles and so on, and enjoy the
amazing success that comes withit.
(19:10):
Listen, you have one life onthis earth.
Don't just take action.
Take the right action.
Reach your goals, whatever theyare, and make it count.
Blow that bolt.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
So that's it for today's episode of the Comeback
Chronicles.
Head on over to Apple Podcastsor wherever you listen, and
subscribe to the show.
If you're ready to get overyour fears, self-doubts and past
failures and break through yourcomfort zone to reach the
pinnacle of success in everyarea of your life, head over to
terrielfawesomecom to pick upyour free gifts and so much more
(19:52):
.
We'll see you next week on theComeback Chronicles podcast.
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