NeTime- The Best Life Hack

Everyone loves a good life hack… well this may well be the BEST!

Warren Buffet reads 500 pages a day

A few years ago some guy that I met at a property course told me a story. He said he had this ability to read over 200 books a year…

Just imagine all the things you could learn from reading 200 self-development books each year!

Of course, I was a bit suspicious so I asked him the obvious question… “How?”

His answer?…

“Use NeTime.”

What is NeTime?

NeTime stands for No Extra Time.

Rob Moore talks about it in his book “life leverage” as the best thing since the Spice Girls split up.

It is a way to use certain tasks that you do in daily life to leverage your time more efficiently and productively. Simply put you do something that you need to do and learn something new at the same time.

I am a big fan of productivity and so I thought I’d share this little humdinger with you guys!!

Mark Cuban reads for 3 hours a day

Why is it useful?

This is possibly one of the most important life hacks I have learnt in recent years.

In our busy lives, it’s so easy to sacrifice spending time exercising, reading, or doing things that we want/need to do.

NeTime is an amazing way to use your time and get double the productivity!!

You may know that it’s possible to leverage your money (get a mortgage on a rental house) or leverage other people’s experience (hire a professional to do a job for you). But I never thought it was possible to leverage your own time until a few years ago.

Bill Gates reads 50 books a year

I still don’t get it – How can we use NeTime?

There are certain tasks that we do every day that we pretty much do on autopilot.

For example:

• Driving
• Cooking
• Cleaning
• Gardening
• Shopping
• Eating
• Exercising (in the gym/ running/ HIIT etc.)

Some of these tasks may be times when you can use NeTime!

It is possible to use this time to listen to audiobooks or podcasts and gain some valuable knowledge. It’s possible to learn from somebody else’s mistakes whilst doing mundane tasks.

This is exactly what the guy that I met a few years ago did and it’s exactly what I have started doing. It doesn’t take up any extra time and it helps me to listen to so many more books than I would be able to read each year.

Whilst some of these tasks may be a social time and not suitable to stick a set of headphones on I have found that so many opportunities pop up EVERY day and often when I ‘m not expecting it. For example, I am actually on a school trip right now… I drove ahead to set up the activities. I used the time in the car to listen to a few podcasts and now I have a bit of time before the students arrive.

What Should I Read or Listen to?

Tom Corley studied successful people for 5 years and produced his book “Rich Habits“. His research discovered that rich people read for self-improvement and to learn. Poor people read to be entertained. 

I know what you’re thinking… “I like to read to relax”… or “I just don’t have the time for it”… or “I’m too tired after a busy day at work.”

I KNOW! This is exactly what I used to say to myself.

However, choosing the right books to start with changed this for me. Starting with a book about taxes is probably a BAD place to start. Getting recommendations (click here to see my recommendations) and finding a style of writing that suits you is important… once the habit is in place it’s hard to stop!

We can continue to make excuses for our daily choices but it is proven time and again that the most successful people have good habits in place. I also have one question for you…

How much time do you spend watching TV each day?

I’m not saying you have to completely stop watching your favourite shows. I’m just asking whether you really need to channel hop and watch some random series you’ve never heard of before because you need to “relax”.

Successful people learn more in their free time.

Tony Robbins read 700 books in 7 years

Top Tips for NeTime

Here are some top tips to make the most of NeTime:

• Have audiobooks or podcasts ready to listen to
• Look out for random times during the day where it is possible (walking the dog, waiting for your kids at their school, getting a haircut etc.)
• Always have headphones in your pocket. You may end up in the shops or somewhere that is perfect to use NeTime when least expect it.
• Make a list of potential books or podcasts that you want to listen to as soon as you hear them (I use Evernote – an app on my phone – to store all this information)

There is one amazing tip that you can use to really make this time even more efficient…

Listen to everything on x2 speed.

The first time you do this it will just sound like a blur and be very hard to actually take anything in. But it’s amazing how quickly your brain gets used to this! Once you are used to it you will actually find it hard to listen to them at a normal speed… it sounds like they are about to fall asleep!

The Make Time Online Summary

If you want to learn like the most successful people in the world then it is so important to leverage your time.

Using tasks to listen to books using NeTime is a great way to increase the amount of knowledge you can take in… and it literally takes up No Extra Time!

If you really want to improve your business or your life then reading or listening to books is a proven habit that will help you do this.

Keep changing for the better,

Mike

P.S. Check out the Blinkist app if you’d like a way to learn the main parts from any personal development books in 15 minutes. It’s the way that I can take in some tips from the best brains in the world even if I just have 15 minutes spare each day.