Avoid Time Wasters That Cost You a Billionaire's Life Style

Good morning, Live Better than a Billionaire-a-Holics!

Are you feeling motivated this morning? I certainly hope so. I know that I am!

When students start taking courses with me, most choose to have me help them review how they spend their time to make some better choices.

I ask them to start by writing down everything they do in detail and how long it takes, 24 hours a day, for 14 days. They then summarize how much time is spent in various activities. The results are often shocking. It's like seeing a stranger's life rather than your own.

Students next decide what they want their priorities to be and how much time they want to spend each week on those priorities. Often, these priorities include more time with family and friends, creative activities and of course their studies with me.

Although no two people find the same lessons, here are some typical ones:

1. Too much time spent sleeping -- some people are in bed 11 hours a day!

2. Too much television -- the count that people admit to can exceed 30 hours a week. That's like another full-time job.

3. Too much commuting -- many are spending over 10 hours a week in this state of suspended animation.

4. Too many meetings that serve little purpose -- this may take up 20 working hours a week.

5. Too much time at home and work doing tasks that others could and should do. My favorite is picking up after teenagers. Have the teenagers learn to pick up after themselves!

From there, many people begin to realize that they have poorly scheduled their day. For instance, a morning person who has lots of energy then may be only working on routine matters rather than important ones. Other people may need quiet to concentrate on creative tasks ... but don't provide themselves with that environment. Others go for endless stretches without breaks and feel tired and bored. A five minute break every half hour or so can make an enormous difference.

Finally, people are only doing one task at a time. For instance, they read books for their courses at home. They don't do anything while they commute. They do writing just for fun. Instead, a student could listen to audio tapes of course books while commuting and dictate drafts of papers and ideas for work at the same time. In some cases, job-related activities can be the source of case histories for course studies so that some 9-5 time can be applied to student work.

By the time they are done, most people are able to free up 20-30 hours a week to do more of what they really want to do. That's almost like getting an extra 20 years of life while you are in your prime!

Could a billionaire do better? I doubt it.

Most billionaires are stuck with lots of time wasters. Charities vie for their attention. Benefit dinners fill their evenings. Reporters want details. People bring them crazy ideas. They often have to use security to travel from one place to another which slows things down.

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N.B. As you can tell, I'm experimenting with color. Let me know what you like and what I should change about my use of color. Many thanks to Linda Grace for her suggestions which I am following!

Please let me know what else you would like to learn, and I'll do my best to help in future blog entries.

Here are some upcoming subjects:

Tomorrow, the post will look at bad advice that you are receiving from billionaires that you should ignore or forget.

Thursday, you and I will explore how to make weekend plans better than a billionaire at the last minute for beautiful living.

On Friday, let's look at how sharing your knowledge and experience with others can bring you beautiful living.

Saturday, we'll look into how indoor gardening can beautify your life.

Sunday, you will read about how to forgive your enemies to live a more beautiful spiritual life.

On Monday, we'll travel to Jolly Old England to plan your visit to dozens of mansions.

If you are new to this blog, be sure to check out the updated table of contents entry that I posted on November 23. The table of contents will help you find earlier entries that may be of interest. I'll update this table of contents every week or so for your convenience.

August 31 was the most frequently read blog entry to date. Be sure to check it out!

Thanks so much for your support of this blog. I'm delighted that so many tens of thousands of people have made this blog part of their regular reading habit!

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Check out the latest index at http://livebetterthanabillionaireon5dollars.blogspot.com/2005/11/latest-table-of-contents-to-this-blogs_23.html to pick out your choice.

Thank you to my many friends, students, clients and blog readers who are spreading the good word about this blog.

If you are visiting today because someone invited you, I'm delighted to meet you! Let's stay in touch.

Remember to also visit

Live Spiritually Better than a Billionaire at http://livespirituallybetterthanabillionaire.blogspot.com/,

Be More Successful than a Billionaire at http://bemoresuccessfulthanabillionaire.blogspot.com/,

Create Your Own 2,000 Percent Solutions at
http://2000percentsolutions.blogspot.com/,

Enjoy Mansions Better than a Billionaire at http://enjoymansionsbetterthanabillionaire.blogspot.com/,

Enjoy Football Better than a Billionaire at http://enjoyfootballbetterthanabillionaire.blogspot.com/ and

Be a World Hero Better than a Billionaire at http://beaworldherobetterthanabillionaire.blogspot.com/.

I offer individual on-line tutorials and in-person seminars on living better than a billionaire on five dollars extra a day, creating 2,000 percent solutions (20 times the results with the same effort), developing more profitable business models and designing strategies that work regardless of the business environment. For information, contact me at ultimatecompetitiveadvantage@yahoo.com.

I am available to you as a speaker on these subjects. You can find my background at http://livebetterthanabillionaireon5dollars.blogspot.com/2005_08_30_livebetterthanabillionaireon5dollars_archive.html/.

May God bless you.

Donald W. Mitchell, Your Dream Concierge

Copyright 2005 Donald W. Mitchell