The Rule of One Third
Just one third of your day can and does impact the other two thirds of your day.
The Parts
Many of us sleep one third of our day, create value for society one third of our day, and pursue other interests one third of our day.
Sleep
The one third of our day that we sleep, certainly, impacts the other two thirds of our day. As we have all experienced from time to time, our quality of sleep affects our mental acuity, physical energy, and emotional balance.
Creating Value for Ourselves – Through Self Development & Living Life
The one third of our day, in which we pursue what is most important to us, our relationships, our passions, our personal development, can and does affect our general performance, including when we are creating value for others. It can also affect how easy it is for us to rest and recharge.
Creating Value for Society – Through Business or Work
The one third of our day, in which we create value for society, provides the resources to pursue our other interests. As you may have already experienced, the errors or failures in this part of our day can and does affect our quality of sleep. It can also cause frustration when we are creating values for ourselves.
Personal Experiences
During intense periods of personal development, I have allowed the quality of my sleep to suffer. I have stayed up late and woken up early too many times. How many times have you slept 3 to 4 hours? Have you been your best during those times?
Unfortunately for me, this was too common in the early part of my life.
I would swing back and forth between sleeping poorly and sleeping well. When I slept poorly, all I wanted to do was rest and recharge. My thoughts lacked clarity and my attention span was way too short. As a result, my personal development suffered during that time. Simple improvement activities seemed to require twice the time and effort, back then.
During that time, I remember being frustrated with my day-to-day experiences and the lack of resources in my life.
Thought and Reflection
I knew that in order to achieve my goals, I needed to be prepared and be my best. I had just started my career. I wanted to increase my income 15% within 12 months. Therefore, I had to protect the one third of my day that allowed me to rest and recharge. I committed to getting a full night’s rest.
So, I stopped going to sleep late and started allowing myself enough time to sleep well.
That decision required for me to figure out (1) the best time in my schedule to wake up, (2) how many hours of sleep my body needed, (3) how long I would need to fall asleep, and (4) when to actually go to bed.
What Happened Next?
As I followed my plan, my physical energy was getting back to normal. I was, also, more effective with my self development. I balanced my time better. My performance, at work, quickly improved.
I also recognized that there was a mismatch between my personal strengths and what my employer valued. I decided to change employers. Within 90 days, I had a new job and was earning 30.2% more than before.
This is but one example of how making a few changes in one part of our day, can impact each of the other parts of our day. There are other examples that I’ll share in future posts.
What About Your Own Experiences & Thoughts?
- Have you, yet, discovered how important it is to establish a good bed time routine to sleep well and really recharge yourself?
- Have you, yet, discovered the impact that regular investments of time and money can have in expanding your capabilities to create value for society, and in exchange receive the resources you want to create value for yourself?
- Have you, yet, discovered how important it is to balance your life, so that you may fully live and creating meaningful experiences?
Conclusion
What changes do you need to make to in your life, so that you can sleep better, improve the value that you create for yourself, and increase the value that you create for society?
Below is a list of 8 self-reflective questions, in no particular order.
- Do you need to sleep earlier or longer?
- Do you need to research a better bedtime routine?
- Do you need to increase your self development?
- Do you need to increase your productivity?
- Do you need to invest more time and money into expanding or improving your skills?
- Do you spend enough time engaged in recreation?
- Do you spend enough quality time with those who matter to you?
- Do you need to enjoy your life more?
Initially consider making changes in as a few, or as many, areas as you feel comfortable. For me, I prefer fewer and smaller changes that compound and support each other over time.