How to STOP Wasting Your Life

You won't walk around all day knowing that you could, but you didn't. Have you ever felt like your life is out of control? Almost as if it's slipping away from your grasp, and you can't do anything about it? Do you feel stuck, hopeless, tired, and unmotivated?

But let me remind you of something: nobody is going to save you. Your life is within your control. If you want a different life than you have now, then you need to act differently. Don't be mad about the results you didn't earn from the work you didn't do. We must all suffer from one of two pains: the pain of discipline, or the pain of regret. I always choose to avoid regret. What about you?

Have your core values and priorities set. We're in an era bombarded with opinions and information. If you keep listening to everyone, you won't have a direction. These days, people don't think critically. When an influencer or a famous person whom they don't like says something that they actually agree with, people disagree just for the sake of disagreeing. Just because you don't like someone or you don't believe in their core values, it doesn't mean that every opinion of theirs is wrong. It also applies in the opposite way; someone you absolutely adore and respect might have opinions that don't align with your values.

So how can we filter out the info we need? It's by having core values. Your filter should be your values. You need to have your priorities set. We lose our time on unnecessary stuff when we don't have our priorities set. You don't smoke a cigarette just to fit in if you have your health and relationship priorities. Because if you don't actually enjoy smoking, and if the people around you are the type of people who will judge you and push you away just because you don't act like them, then it's proof that your health and healthy growth-focused relationships are in your priorities.

Your priorities are set on comfort and ignorance. It's more comfortable to just smoke one to two cigarettes rather than say no to people because it feels good to fit in. It takes courage to say no to people and actually do what you believe in. It's ignorance because the people around you only accept you because you're like them. Trust me, I know how hard and uncomfortable it is to say no to people. Since I remember, even when I was 14, everybody around me was smoking. I often got offered to smoke, but I always said no.

First of all, I don't enjoy smoking and I don't see any benefit. Second of all, it goes against my values. My friends around me never judged me for that, even though the majority of my friends used to be smokers. The second I reject something, and if somebody insists on it, it's just a sign that we can never be friends.

As Ray Dalio in his book Principles for a Life and Work says, "Think for yourself to decide what you want, what is true, and what you should do to achieve number one in light of number two, and do that with humility and open-mindedness so that you consider the best thinking available to you." Ray Dalio in his book Principles for a Life and Work says that dreams plus reality plus determination is a formula for a successful life.

People who achieve success and drive progress deeply understand the cause-effect relationships that govern reality and have principles for using them to get what they want. The converse is also true: idealists who are not well grounded in reality create problems, not progress. What does a successful life look like? We all have our own deep-seated needs, so we each have to decide for ourselves what success is.

Some people want to change the world, and others want to operate in simple harmony with it and save their life. Neither is better. Each of us needs to decide what we value most and choose the paths we take to achieve it. Take a moment to reflect on where you are on the following scale, which illustrates an overly simplified choice. You should think about where you should put yourself on it.

The personal evolutionary process takes in five distinct steps. If you can do these five things well, you will almost certainly be successful. Here they are in a nutshell:

1. Have clear goals.
2. Identify and don't tolerate the problems that stand in the way of achieving those goals.
3. Accurately diagnose the problems to get at their root causes.
4. Design plans that will get you around them.
5. Do what's necessary to push these designs through.

The results. If you know my story, you'll know that my family struggled financially since I was a teenager, and one side of my family turned their faces when we desperately needed help. I remember going to my dad's side for help because I couldn't afford my school lunch fee, and my grandfather told me that "let your mom cook and work for you," while drowning my other cousins in money and giving them all their belongings. They never lent us a helping hand, but my mom's side helped us financially and emotionally during our hard times.

They pulled us out of rock bottom. Words can describe my gratitude towards them. My mom and dad work 24/7 every single day to protect my brother and me. Witnessing their struggle and resilience helped me shape my own values. My experiences told me the importance of being there for my family. I wanted to be their pillar of strength, their problem solver. I wanted an extraordinary life, not just for me, but for my family and for the generations.

I want my family to be proud of me. They believe in me, and I want to prove them right. I want to be a role model for my future kids. I want them to look up to me in every aspect of life. I want to be the type of person that I would want my kids to marry. I don't want to make Joker alive. I want an extraordinary life, and I want to provide the same for my future generations. I'm not chasing success only for myself, but also for my family and the generations that come after me.

I don't want them to face the same issues I have. Even if they encounter problems in life, I want them to have high-quality problems. If you have the same goals, same mindset as me, we need to escape the mediocrity. When it comes to creating habits, it's important to remember that your habits will be fed by your values. Depending on your core values and principles, your habits will be shaped.

I have three main categories of habits: habits for mind, for body, and for life. The first category is habits for the mind. These habits help you to keep your mind healthy and focused and include reading, writing, practicing gratitude, and visualization. I'm currently working on developing a meditation practice for my YG. One way to develop the habit of reading is to set aside time each day specifically for reading. This can be done in the morning, during a lunch break, or before bed. By the way, I prefer reading before bed. Writing can also be done on a daily basis, or maybe weekly, or maybe monthly, whether it's journaling or creative writing like writing scripts for videos.

Gratitude can be practiced by taking a few moments to reflect on what you're thankful for. Whenever something bad happens in my life, I remind myself that I'm living the dream life I was fantasizing about a couple of years ago. I remembered this quote: "We did not come this far to break down and lose. Now I'm a winner. I'm going to win." Visualization involves visualizing your goals and dreams as if they have already been achieved. This programs your brain to more readily perceive and recognize the resources you will need to achieve your dreams.

It activates the Law of Attraction, thereby dropping into your life the people, resources, and the circumstances you will need to achieve your goals. Even before knowing what manifestation is, I've been doing it naturally since I was a kid. I visualize every single one of my goals precisely, and I can totally remember every single detail of my life in the next ten years. For the past three years, every single goal I set for myself, I achieved and made them a reality.

So the second category is habits for the body. These habits help you to keep your body healthy and energized and include exercise, healthy eating, proper sleep, and how important an aspect that people in hustle culture often neglect is sleep. I want to remind my Apostle of this: I know you want to improve your life and be successful in various areas, but you should never sacrifice your sleep.

Instead of waking up at 6 a.m. and only getting 6 hours of sleep, wake up at 8 a.m. and ensure that you get enough rest. Without proper rest, critical thinking becomes difficult, creativity suffers, and efficiency is reduced. No matter what, prioritize your sleep. Investing time in it is definitely worthwhile. Don't wake up at 5 a.m. just for the sake of waking up at 5 a.m. Your routine should feed you; you should not be a slave to your routine.

Now, for the habits for life, here are the five most important habits of mine: networking and building real relationships, giving back to family, planning and setting goals, learning new skills, and managing your time. Time is your most valuable asset, and we need to know how to use it. Let's talk about the importance of a couple of habits.

Giving back to family: remember where you come from. Your family shapes you, supports you, and stands by you in times of distress. I believe in giving back their lives and care in whatever way I can. It's not about the materialistic gifts; it's about dedicating quality time, being there when they need me, and expressing my gratitude for their unwavering support.

Another very important one is learning new skills. You either evolve or die. Whether it's learning a new language, new software, or simply a new way of thinking, it's about broadening our horizons and stepping out of our comfort zone. Creating a comfort zone outside of my comfort zone is something I regularly try to practice.

Time is our most valuable asset. If you're young, you're a time millionaire. I've heard this countless times from wealthy people. When I was 20, I wanted to be a millionaire. Now that I'm a millionaire, I want to be 20. Without a proper system, if you're working hard, burnout is inevitable. Time management is a skill that should be taught in early life. For spending and exchanging our time, every minute of our day counts.

Here are a few signs that might indicate you're currently managing your time poorly: you're constantly late for meetings and missing deadlines so frequently; you're getting distracted and wasting time; you have difficulty saying no and repeatedly accept new demands without thinking; you have a hard time making your decisions and setting your priorities. If you're saying yes to those, we need to learn how to manage our time.

I'm not going to say the classic "we all have the same 24 hours," because I think it's a myth. We all do have 24 hours, yes, but a millionaire can delegate the majority of their tasks by hiring someone, and they can focus on what they want while you need to do everything on your own. The more money you have, the more freedom you will have.

Subtracting the time we spend sleeping, working, and doing other life maintenance chores, there is only a little time left to spend on leisure, personal growth, and side projects. An American survey showed that this spare time could be around 5 hours per day or less for adults. This 5 hours will determine whether we will succeed or not.

Never complain about your situation; only take action. Do whatever you can to change your circumstance because complaining is not going to get you anywhere. Before getting started, understand your current situation. Whenever we're trying to solve a problem, the most crucial step in the beginning is understanding where you are. Because depending on where you are, the advice you want to listen to is going to be different.

A time audit is a great way to understand how you're distributing and spending your time. Write down every activity of your days from waking up to sleeping. Track and monitor your time for a few days, and over two to three days, track each activity from start to finish. I know it might be hard, and you might be lazy, but don't be lazy. We're trying to change our lives.

To make this tracking process easy, use an app like Akiflow. Categorize activities by type to understand which groups are more demanding. When categorizing, use Akiflow's hashtag and label feature to categorize. Reflect on whether the current scenario is working for you and what you can do better.

Which activity groups take most of your time? How important are they? How do you spend your time at work? Are you deep focusing or on shallow tasks? Are your current activities aligned with your principles and goals? After reflecting on these and understanding your current situation, move on to the next step: stop doing to-do lists and set your priorities instead.

Every day set one non-negotiable task and two high-priority tasks. Nothing is a priority when everything is a priority. On the contrary, focusing on our goal is much harder when we're stuck with all possibilities. So prioritizing a few things also means cutting back on others. At the end of the day, if you have completed these tasks, then it's a win. You don't need to get everything done.

If you're struggling with deciding priorities, use Eisenhower's decision matrix and reflect on your core values. Also, you can use Akiflow's goal for the day feature. If something comes up during the day, you will be able to see your priorities. Although now you have your priorities set, it doesn't mean that you can spend your time mindlessly with them. Instead, you must allocate a time budget to each of them.

Because no matter how much we don't like it, we have things that we need to get done, even though we don't enjoy them, because that's called adult life. Whether it's a daily or weekly budget, it must be specific to the point where you know how many hours you can spend on each task or activity. Let's say you're trying to reduce your extra working hours, so you set 8 hours a day to execute everything work-related.

Starting the day without the guide can decrease your rates of successful time management. Planning the tasks for the day beforehand and setting a specific time to get them done makes it much more likely to execute everything without getting too distracted or giving in to procrastination. A daily plan is about strategy. It helps you avoid falling into the pits of endless shallow tasks, such as checking your messenger or email every minute, and keeps you on track to focus on meaningful activities.

With your time budget ready, you will then allocate each task to the period of your day that seems more fit. For example, you might want to schedule your workout session for early in the day or at the end of the day. There are many techniques to help you plan effectively, but I'm a huge enthusiast of the time blocking method.

This method requires you to lock a time slot in your calendar for each activity of the day, including breaks and buffer time for any occasional changes in the plan. You can easily time block with Akiflow. The app unifies its task list and calendar view to help you plan your tasks better and faster. Rather than saying "I'm going to finish this task in two hours," say "I will work for two hours on this task."

And after these two hours, give yourself feedback. Especially, people with ADHD struggle with estimating how much time it's going to take to do each task. So rather than saying "I'm going to finish it," say "I'm going to work on it for two hours, and we're going to see whether I can finish it or not." Maybe I could finish it in an hour; maybe I'll finish it in four hours. Who knows? Don't set yourself these limits.

If you constantly find yourself doing low-priority tasks, or if you have ADHD, set a timer whenever you're doing something. People with ADHD lack a sense of time. Oftentimes, when the timer goes off, and if it's a low-priority task, allow yourself to stop midway through and pick up later. This will allow you to focus on high-priority tasks.

If the timer goes off during a less motivating task and you happen to be in the zone, quickly check what your next task is, and as long as it's not a major priority, ignore that timer and get as much done as you can. Although this chunk of motivation is useful, when people use methods like the Pomodoro technique, they become slaves to the method. But you can always change the rules depending on your situation.

If you want to get things done, you need to learn to focus and keep distractions away. For some of us, it's harder to focus, and we might get distracted more easily. But we can always practice and get better at it. Using Akiflow's Focus mode can help you stay on track and avoid distractions, leading to a more productive workday.

The last step is to pick a few tools that can make the whole process much more practical. Let's talk about the to-do list. I know I said I don't like to-do lists, but I'm talking about the traditional to-do list that I don't like. The problem I have with the traditional to-do list is that they don't allow you to set priorities. You just write all the tasks that are in your head, and if you're really good at prioritizing, that shouldn't be a problem.

But whenever I have a pile of to-do lists, I just do whatever I feel like, and I'm not focusing on the priority I should focus on. Prioritize things, get them done, and then I can work on the other things. Of course, you can always start by working on low-priority tasks, and if you feel like it, you can do the higher-priority tasks. But the thing with me is that if I don't get the high-priority thing done, I just procrastinate on low-priority things, and then the deadline comes, and I'm cramming and hustling.

That's why maybe using a program like Akiflow, which has the priority feature in its to-do list, will help you to create better to-do lists. It solves the problem with the traditional to-do list, which lacks prioritization. Also, because of the natural language processing, it makes things easier to sort in the program, categorize, and schedule.

Another essential tool is a calendar or planner. It is vital to help you create a realistic time budget and plan when to execute each task and activity. Much like a to-do list, a digital calendar makes creating and editing your daily plan much more seamless. Choose an option that supports task and event creation and sends you reminders before every activity so that you don't forget.

With Akiflow's calendar, you can integrate many apps, including Google Calendar, and view yesterday's completed tasks and pending tasks. You can also view completed and pending tasks, customize a calendar by hiding weekends, and set different time zones. You can share your calendar's availability and create recurring time bookings.

If you have access to other people's calendars, you can add meetings with them and plan together. Native integrations and IFTTT are available with support for popular platforms like YouTube, Fiverr, iOS reminders, Evernote, TickTick, Telegram, Spotify, Discord, and more. You can track your progress, such as how many hours you have worked or tasks you have completed.

Also, Notion is popular among founders and developers and works best on the web, although a mobile app is also available. You can mark tasks done on Akiflow, and they will automatically sync with Notion. Last but not least, have a Kaizen mindset. Kaizen is a Japanese word for good change and describes a continuous improvement of all corporate functions at all levels of the hierarchy.

The core flows behind Kaizen are simple: you can always make or do things better, even if they seem to work well in a particular moment. All problems should be seen as opportunities to improve. In Kaizen, it doesn't matter whether the change happens at once or is a constant. Whether the change is big or small, as long as it's a change for the better.

Also, in the book Atomic Habits, James Clear tells us that improving by just one percent is not always noticeable but can be extremely significant in the long run. The overall concept is that if you can become one percent better every day for one year, you will end up 37 times better than you were at the beginning of the year.

When you look yourself in the mirror every single day, ask yourself, "Did I get better today?" If the answer is yes, keep continuing doing it. If the answer is no, then we need to reflect back and figure out what we're doing wrong. See you next time.