25. Time Investment Mastery Milestones for 4-Day Work Week Apprentices

Four day work week apprentice stage is the first stage in the four day work week journey. It's where we focus on maximizing your life outside of work without even needing to change jobs. So whether you're already an entrepreneur or you're an employee, this works for you and this will apply for you. In each of these stages towards mastery as somebody who gets the most out of a four day work week lifestyle, the apprentice stage really focuses on controlling and optimizing what you already have, making the most of your relationships, the time you have, the money you have, and the things you own. Now in each of these steps, there are milestones you can achieve that really let you know you're mastering this as much as possible. As somebody who is simultaneously a student and as much as I can be a mentor, sometimes I have these things down the path, sometimes I don't. When I'm on top of these and I'm doing these, my life is much better. And when I'm not, it's not. Think you're going to find the same thing as for you. So here are the 10 mastery milestones for investing your time.

First, get enough sleep so you can be happy, energetic, energetic and wake up without an alarm. For most people, that takes eight to nine hours. Now, as asterisk at the bottom here suggests, you might be one of those people that needs a little less time. But be careful on this one. Research shows that most adults need at least 7 to 9 hours, preferably eight hours. Chronic fatigue happens over time. It's not something that just shows up one day and says, Oh, you're extra tired. It's something and sleep deprivation and not being able to be on top of your game is something that just shows its way as people being tired, irritable, cranky, but it usually doesn't necessarily let us know. It certainly lets the people around us know. So keep an eye on that. If you think you have it down, you still might not. Now, with each of these milestones, I'm going to give you a concept and there'll be a follow up worksheet you can use. And you're going to decide for each of these, hey, does this work for me? You might decide, wait, some of these ideas I like, some I don't like, or some of them I'm going to tweak.

And if I like them, what's my target date and what is my status as I'm looking to implement them? The second stage is 30 minutes a day for prayer, meditation, or whatever your spiritual practice is, or just being with yourself, your psychological health practice, if you don't believe in God or spirituality, whatever it might be. But having time to just relax and chill and be present. Also 30 minutes a day for exercise, yoga, or some physical activity. So number two, we're looking at our spiritual dimension. Number three, we're looking at our physical dimension. Number four, 30 minutes a day for personal relaxation and enjoyment. Just doing something you enjoy. This should be something that is not unbelievably growth oriented. You're not looking to take over the world. You're not looking to be a better person. You're just chilling. You're enjoying yourself. This might be watching some TV. This might be playing video games or whatever. Something that just allows you to escape for a little bit. Thirty minutes a day for reading and learning, this is an area where I think for most of us, we thrive off of learning. Research shows that when our brain stops learning, we don't do too well.

In fact, the average male in North America, if they retire within two years, they usually pass away. A lot of the research indicates that that's because their brain and the bodies just shut down and stop learning. So we want to continue to be learning at all times, even more so perhaps learning other points of view than your own. So as we as a country and a world are looking to tackle big issues politically, a lot of the times people simply only understand their side of the issue, and they might not even understand that completely. So just getting to learn more about the world around you can be something that's very valuable and, again, help you to optimize and make the most of your time and your life. Less than an hour a day of undesirable activity. They said less than an hour, less than one hour per day of undesirable activity. So that might be chores, doing dishes, that stuff. If you have too much time doing those things, you might have too much stuff. You might need to manage your possessions or do something different. But again, we're looking at what mastery looks like, where you're not spending a lot of time doing things you don't want to be doing.

At least one day per week with zero chores, zero errands, worker obligations. In the olden days, as my kids call it, we had this thing called Sunday. And Sunday was pretty cool. You didn't do this stuff. You just relaxed, hung out with family and just chill. So maybe you have that, maybe you don't. Again, this is a sign of mastery. Less than one hour per day of TV video games social media electronic devices. There is certainly a place for these devices in our world in a healthy way, but it's also something that can really drain us and sap our energy if we just sit there receiving content, receiving ideas, receiving entertainment from somebody else. I remember one of my friends who is one of the most active people I know, he's my age and he's still always either surfing or he's in Costa Rica or whatever. I remember, and he's an athlete. And one day when I was telling him I was watching different basketball games, I happened to like the Miami Heat, he just said, Wade, why are you spending so much time watching the games? Why don't you just go do more stuff?

And over the years, I've seen the wisdom of him saying that of, yeah, it's fun to watch stuff, but it's even more fun to do it. So do more stuff. Time for three relaxed meals. And again, usually if you can, 30 minutes or more without pressure or deadlines, being able to eat your lunch without pressure or deadlines, your dinner, your breakfast, and just being able to be present and enjoying space. You age a lot less quicker. I can't prove that, but I know psychologically, or at least you're a happier person when you're able to do that. And then 60 minutes a day for friends, family and romance and whatever mix of those that you like. But just again, just enjoy people to be present in the relationships and not have to have life be so serious. It's a very simple philosophy I have about life. People sometimes focus on having these epic, amazing experiences. And yes, things like getting married can be awesome. Having kids can be awesome. But if every day you're happy and if you enjoy every day, you'll probably have a happy life. And of course, there'll be a couple of days where things don't go the way you want.

But for the most part, if every day you're having fun and you're enjoying stuff and you make time for these things, you're not going to reach the end of your life thinking, Man, I just did so much. I didn't have time. I wish I'd spent less time at work. No, you have done okay. Yeah, I did my time at work, but I did this other stuff as well. So these are the 10 mastery milestones for optimizing your time. I hope you find them helpful n again, remember, we are all about helping you make more money and less time doing what you do best. But all of that is almost for nothing if when you get outside of work, you're not having fun. This is about helping you enjoy your time. I hope you find this helpful. Let me know if you have any questions on this. If you want to get the show slides and notes, you can go to 4dayentrepreneur. Com. If you want to learn more about becoming a 4 day work week apprentice, there's no title, we don't knight you or anything. But if you want to learn what we found is the best way to apply this in your life and to make the most of your relationships, your time, your money, your things, go to 4daywork with.

Com apprentice and you can learn about our training program there.