DO I HAVE ENOUGH TIME TO CREATE A GREAT LIFE?
A GREAT QUESTION!
[Nobody ever on earth has succeeded in creating a great life without spending a good chunk of time learning, devising, planning, and creating that which makes life work wonderfully! And, no, wishing for it to happen without devoting the time to creating it does not work. Just look at your life so far...
"Set aside for creating a greater life at least 5-7 hours a week and pretend like all of your weeks are actually 161 hours (instead of 168). You will never miss the hours - and, seemingly miraculously, you will find you actually seem to have more hours left over each week to live that greater life, besides feeling you're living at a higher level of life."
The BuddhaKahuna]
If you just dumped all but one hour of tv or useless reading of the newspaper, you would have time to develop all the areas of your life plus learn 7 languages to good fluency.
There is no question about whether you have the available time. Of course, there is the question of whether you will be smart enough to be committed to setting aside the time to develop your being smart and productive in life.
I recommend you consider the following - and that you make the official commitment.
BECOME AN 80/20 PERSON
If we focus on "the vital few" and toss out the low payoff areas in life, we will have plenty of time for it all, plus plenty of leisure time. How and what you'll do is covered in the sister site Living The 80/20 Life.
FREEING UP BLOCKS OF TIME AND SCHEDULING BLOCKS
Although you will have spare time every evening, not every evening will be used. And one tends not to be alert at that hour, at least sometimes. The reading is, however, not that difficult - just go through it in the order listed in the program or in the contents/links page for the subject.
The best way to make significant progress is by setting aside whole days to study through the material on this site, including the links, until you've arrive at "good" proficiency in the key areas, where you know and understand the key factors involved and how to use them and have implemented them.
I would also recommend that you set aside almost all Saturday mornings for study.
Early morning for a half an hour, to do some of the reading.
Take a whole week and really get alot of this under your belt. If you merely get down the part about critical thinking and then the part about prioritizing things, you will be off and running, IF you've also set aside (and do it) time for planning every week. And, of course, setting up that master schedule, as suggested in the Quickest Life Improvers, will have a marvelous effect.
Remember, please, that taking time to learn the critical high payoff items will actually cause you to have alot of time being freed up, as you'll be operating more effectively, plus you'll be saving alot (!) of time by not having to repair problems and/or cope often with problems.
