The 5-Hour Rule
As you know, we have been busy with our lives. We work. We watch TV. We browse on our phones. We read a book or newspaper. Then at the end of the day, our eyes may be worn out by screens/reading all day!
I work in front of the computer dealing with data entry, reporting, auditing, and proofreading for 8 hours daily. I try to keep up with news, social media, RSS feeds, and emails periodically throughout the day and read a book for at least 30 minutes.
It can be exhausting.
There are other things I want to do other than working and reading. I want to do blogging, and novel reading like I used to back in the late 1990s and 2000s.
Technology and the internet have boomed fast since it started in 1997.
Now, I have 22,771 unread emails. I have 638 RSS feeds and counting as I am typing. God knows how many posts I may have yet to read on Twitter, Facebook, Mastodon, and Tribel. I am sure hundreds are waiting for me to read by now. There is so much news happening worldwide, and I couldn’t read it all. I also have over 130 articles that I want to write a blog about. Lastly, I have over twenty books waiting to be read!
It is hard to keep up with everything these days.
Everyone knows that we have 24 hours a day. We sleep an average of 7–8 hours a night. Most of us are working 8 hours a day. We take a break from work for 30 minutes to an hour a day. According to Our World in Data, Americans spend 63 minutes eating and drinking. So, that would leave us around 6–8 hours to spend our free time doing something we enjoy.
We would prioritize the free time for 6 hours of our time. Some people would find time to exercise. Some people would find time to read a book or/and watch a TV show or a movie in the evening.
But, after a long day of working and reading tons of articles throughout the day, my ideal evening would be just sitting on the couch and watching some TV show or movie without overthinking! But I want to do it differently in my evenings.
I missed the old days when there was no internet or phones; I spent more time reading books. I missed that. Since then, I have been too tired to read a book. Not because I do not want to, but because my eyes are exhausted after staring at the screen 8–10 hours a day!
I learned a bit more about the 5-Hour Rule. Michael Simmons, the founder of “Empact,” first coined the 5-hour rule, though Benjamin Franklin might have started this idea how he did in his time. He was a busy man in his time. Benjamin said, “An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.” His golden rule guided him to a prosperous entrepreneurial career, resulting in several innovations to his glory.
In short, this is the rule that we spend one hour a day learning, experimenting, and reflecting. That means five times a week doing all that will help you become a better person, know what is happening worldwide, and make the world a better place. Most famous people like Bill Gates, Elon Musk, and Oprah Winfrey practice this rule, and what makes them successful today.
I am jealous that Bill Gates reads fifty books a year! He created Microsoft, and he is now a philanthropist and owns a foundation. I am sure he is busy, yet he was available to read those books. There it goes; the 5-hour helped him accomplish what he wanted and needed to do.
This 5-hour rule may not apply to me because I am not an owner or entrepreneur, successful or rich like Bill Gates or Elon Musk. I am not trying to be successful or rich. However, this is something that I can do to help me be productive, and I want to start reading a bit more often. I am talking about books; besides books, I have always been reading everywhere, and on every site, I visited. I also want to write them in my blog, which will help me reflect on what I have read. Doing that will be a lot, especially writing and editing, but I should be more proactive. I hope that will help me accomplish the goal.
Today, with technology, there are many ways to speed up reading and learning. There are podcasts, audiobooks, and spoken radio. That is beneficial for many people, but to me, not so much. See, you might not know me, but I am Deaf. I envy them because they can easily sit, close their eyes, and listen to them with headphones.
I had to get up and get a book, laptop, phone, or tablet and sit down and read them. They can be heavy to hold for an hour if I lay on the couch. BTW, using a laptop may be uncomfortable. It will exhaust my eyes quickly, especially with the bright light on devices. But I am glad that most of them can turn on to dark mode; it is necessary.
There is one great tool I use when there is a long article; you would want to know what they talk about before you read it. It is called Summari. It will summarize important parts that you need to know from that article. I find that helpful. It would help me understand better while reading it. It works on Chrome. It even has its app on iOS. You should try it sometimes.
I will start reading a book for at least 30 minutes every night since I haven’t read many books lately. On the other hand, I can keep up with email, RSS feeds, and social media well, but I will only be able to read some of them, unfortunately! But I try to keep up with most things happening worldwide.
I will start reading a few articles for an hour, then dwell on them for a bit, and then start reflecting on my thoughts on my blog. My goal is to write at least three blog entries a week.
It will be a bit challenging for me, considering all the things I have done throughout the day, because I may be exhausted, and my eyes may be tired from reading/or working too much. Not to mention that I get sinus headaches from time to time, which is not fun!
Speaking of books, I am currently reading Uniquely Human: A Different Way of Seeing Autism by Barry M. Prizant. I am helping my friend try to build his organization, the Organization of Unique Learners for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Community. It is currently a work of progress. I am the Webmaster of this website.
Anyway, he asked me to write about Autism, which I know a little about. So here I am, reading this book, and I have learned quite a lot about it. I look forward to writing about it and posting it on the blog about what Autism is all about!
Not only this book above, but I am also trying to finish the books, The Book Eaters and The Wild Robot.
Link:
☛ https://themakingofamillionaire.com/the-5-hour-rule-practiced-by-bill-gates-elon-musk-and-jack-ma-647e82270708
☛ https://bigthink.com/smart-skills/5-hour-rule/
I work in front of the computer dealing with data entry, reporting, auditing, and proofreading for 8 hours daily. I try to keep up with news, social media, RSS feeds, and emails periodically throughout the day and read a book for at least 30 minutes.
It can be exhausting.
There are other things I want to do other than working and reading. I want to do blogging, and novel reading like I used to back in the late 1990s and 2000s.
Technology and the internet have boomed fast since it started in 1997.
Now, I have 22,771 unread emails. I have 638 RSS feeds and counting as I am typing. God knows how many posts I may have yet to read on Twitter, Facebook, Mastodon, and Tribel. I am sure hundreds are waiting for me to read by now. There is so much news happening worldwide, and I couldn’t read it all. I also have over 130 articles that I want to write a blog about. Lastly, I have over twenty books waiting to be read!
It is hard to keep up with everything these days.
Everyone knows that we have 24 hours a day. We sleep an average of 7–8 hours a night. Most of us are working 8 hours a day. We take a break from work for 30 minutes to an hour a day. According to Our World in Data, Americans spend 63 minutes eating and drinking. So, that would leave us around 6–8 hours to spend our free time doing something we enjoy.
We would prioritize the free time for 6 hours of our time. Some people would find time to exercise. Some people would find time to read a book or/and watch a TV show or a movie in the evening.
But, after a long day of working and reading tons of articles throughout the day, my ideal evening would be just sitting on the couch and watching some TV show or movie without overthinking! But I want to do it differently in my evenings.
I missed the old days when there was no internet or phones; I spent more time reading books. I missed that. Since then, I have been too tired to read a book. Not because I do not want to, but because my eyes are exhausted after staring at the screen 8–10 hours a day!
I learned a bit more about the 5-Hour Rule. Michael Simmons, the founder of “Empact,” first coined the 5-hour rule, though Benjamin Franklin might have started this idea how he did in his time. He was a busy man in his time. Benjamin said, “An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.” His golden rule guided him to a prosperous entrepreneurial career, resulting in several innovations to his glory.
In short, this is the rule that we spend one hour a day learning, experimenting, and reflecting. That means five times a week doing all that will help you become a better person, know what is happening worldwide, and make the world a better place. Most famous people like Bill Gates, Elon Musk, and Oprah Winfrey practice this rule, and what makes them successful today.
I am jealous that Bill Gates reads fifty books a year! He created Microsoft, and he is now a philanthropist and owns a foundation. I am sure he is busy, yet he was available to read those books. There it goes; the 5-hour helped him accomplish what he wanted and needed to do.
This 5-hour rule may not apply to me because I am not an owner or entrepreneur, successful or rich like Bill Gates or Elon Musk. I am not trying to be successful or rich. However, this is something that I can do to help me be productive, and I want to start reading a bit more often. I am talking about books; besides books, I have always been reading everywhere, and on every site, I visited. I also want to write them in my blog, which will help me reflect on what I have read. Doing that will be a lot, especially writing and editing, but I should be more proactive. I hope that will help me accomplish the goal.
Today, with technology, there are many ways to speed up reading and learning. There are podcasts, audiobooks, and spoken radio. That is beneficial for many people, but to me, not so much. See, you might not know me, but I am Deaf. I envy them because they can easily sit, close their eyes, and listen to them with headphones.
I had to get up and get a book, laptop, phone, or tablet and sit down and read them. They can be heavy to hold for an hour if I lay on the couch. BTW, using a laptop may be uncomfortable. It will exhaust my eyes quickly, especially with the bright light on devices. But I am glad that most of them can turn on to dark mode; it is necessary.
There is one great tool I use when there is a long article; you would want to know what they talk about before you read it. It is called Summari. It will summarize important parts that you need to know from that article. I find that helpful. It would help me understand better while reading it. It works on Chrome. It even has its app on iOS. You should try it sometimes.
I will start reading a book for at least 30 minutes every night since I haven’t read many books lately. On the other hand, I can keep up with email, RSS feeds, and social media well, but I will only be able to read some of them, unfortunately! But I try to keep up with most things happening worldwide.
I will start reading a few articles for an hour, then dwell on them for a bit, and then start reflecting on my thoughts on my blog. My goal is to write at least three blog entries a week.
It will be a bit challenging for me, considering all the things I have done throughout the day, because I may be exhausted, and my eyes may be tired from reading/or working too much. Not to mention that I get sinus headaches from time to time, which is not fun!
Speaking of books, I am currently reading Uniquely Human: A Different Way of Seeing Autism by Barry M. Prizant. I am helping my friend try to build his organization, the Organization of Unique Learners for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Community. It is currently a work of progress. I am the Webmaster of this website.
Anyway, he asked me to write about Autism, which I know a little about. So here I am, reading this book, and I have learned quite a lot about it. I look forward to writing about it and posting it on the blog about what Autism is all about!
Not only this book above, but I am also trying to finish the books, The Book Eaters and The Wild Robot.
Link:
☛ https://themakingofamillionaire.com/the-5-hour-rule-practiced-by-bill-gates-elon-musk-and-jack-ma-647e82270708
☛ https://bigthink.com/smart-skills/5-hour-rule/