How do I Balance Non-Work Activities and Work Now that I Time-Block?

00:00:00.000 | [MUSIC PLAYING]

00:00:03.360 | All right.

00:00:06.340 | Let's move on to a question from Kavindra, who says,

00:00:11.600 | Cal, I have been implementing ideas from digital minimalism

00:00:16.320 | in a world without email.

00:00:18.120 | And I have found that my workday has so much extra time in it.

00:00:21.840 | Aside, everyone finds this when they actually

00:00:26.200 | begin being much more intentional about their time

00:00:29.560 | allocation, when they become much more intentional

00:00:31.640 | about the processes by which they collaborate,

00:00:33.560 | they realize that I only need this much hours

00:00:36.320 | to get my work done.

00:00:37.160 | It's a little bit of a secret.

00:00:39.000 | Going back to the question, I only

00:00:41.280 | need less than 3/4 of my work hours

00:00:43.160 | to be completely on top of my duties.

00:00:45.360 | Now that I have this time, I am realizing

00:00:48.840 | that there is much in my not work buckets that I can tackle.

00:00:53.080 | However, I do not want to mix non-work things

00:00:55.200 | with being at the office for my own mental clarity.

00:00:57.680 | And I also don't want to look like a slacker.

00:01:01.880 | Do you have examples of how people

00:01:03.320 | handle this in between time?

00:01:05.520 | So Kavindra, my standard suggestion

00:01:08.280 | here is that you should take a phantom part-time job.

00:01:13.640 | So this is my terminology for the very common occurrence

00:01:17.600 | among my listeners and readers, where

00:01:19.120 | they get very intentional about their time,

00:01:22.280 | realize that end processes, time and processes,

00:01:24.440 | realize they have a lot of extra time in their day.

00:01:26.120 | They can stay on top of their job

00:01:27.560 | with a lot of extra time, which again, is not surprising,

00:01:29.960 | because most people are terrible at the mechanics of what

00:01:34.760 | they do for a living.

00:01:35.960 | So when you're not terrible, you realize

00:01:38.560 | you don't need as much time.

00:01:40.120 | And what I recommend is this idea of you really treat it

00:01:42.800 | like I have a part-time job, and that's

00:01:45.960 | what I do in that extra 1/4, in your case, 1/4 of my time

00:01:48.880 | that's free.

00:01:50.240 | And you schedule your work for this phantom part-time job

00:01:52.920 | just like you're scheduling your work for your main job.

00:01:55.280 | And it happens during the workday.

00:01:56.920 | And you can decide if you want to, let's say,

00:01:59.280 | end your workday implicitly at 3 and then switch

00:02:02.600 | to your phantom part-time job or interleave your phantom part-time

00:02:05.320 | job during the day.

00:02:06.640 | Or like a lot of people will do their phantom part-time job

00:02:09.440 | first thing in the morning, then switch over

00:02:11.360 | to their other job because there's

00:02:12.640 | lots of meetings and stuff that happen more

00:02:14.560 | in the afternoon, the morning.

00:02:15.440 | However you want to do it, but you really

00:02:16.720 | treat it systematically like I have two jobs.

00:02:19.680 | You call the second one a phantom part-time job

00:02:21.760 | because you don't make it visible

00:02:23.280 | and you don't talk about it.

00:02:25.480 | Now what do you do with your phantom part-time job?

00:02:27.640 | You have three options.

00:02:29.640 | One, you use it to move to the next level

00:02:33.240 | or open up new opportunities in your existing work.

00:02:37.480 | So you could be dedicating this time to, let's say,

00:02:39.880 | cultivating a new rare and valuable skill that's

00:02:42.080 | going to give you a lot more options or control or autonomy

00:02:46.200 | once you do it.

00:02:48.120 | Two, it could be a side hustle.

00:02:50.240 | I am starting-- I want to write a novel.

00:02:51.880 | I'm starting a business on the side.

00:02:53.440 | I'm starting a podcast, whatever it is.

00:02:55.760 | So you're working on a side hustle that

00:02:58.640 | may just be for interest or it may

00:03:00.320 | be that you want it to eventually generate enough

00:03:02.520 | income that you can renegotiate your main work situation

00:03:05.280 | to be maybe part-time itself.

00:03:06.920 | Or three, your phantom part-time job

00:03:09.800 | is a completely non-professional personal interest.

00:03:15.400 | I want to master coffee appreciation.

00:03:19.840 | I want to master a genre of fiction or whatever,

00:03:24.800 | just something high-quality leisure

00:03:28.200 | that you really want to invest in and get better at.

00:03:31.560 | The key thing here about the phantom part-time job

00:03:34.120 | is that it's focused.

00:03:35.760 | You are putting this time towards one thing

00:03:38.760 | repeatedly and carefully planning when it happens.

00:03:41.640 | That is going to get you away from this weird scattered

00:03:44.280 | feeling of just I'm slacking or doing lots of hobbies and work

00:03:48.600 | and or getting lost in rabbit holes on the internet.

00:03:50.760 | So I love the focus of the phantom part-time job.

00:03:52.880 | Choose one thing.

00:03:54.520 | I am going to do this thing over the next six months

00:03:56.920 | during my work hours in the 1/4 of the work hours I have free.

00:04:00.800 | When you're that consistent and focused,

00:04:03.800 | you can do really cool things with that time.

00:04:06.520 | [MUSIC PLAYING]

00:04:09.880 | (upbeat music)

How do I Balance Non-Work Activities and Work Now that I Time-Block?

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