How to succeed in everything: a refutation of the theory of 4 burners

Reflecting on the work and personal life, sooner or later we come to a disappointing conclusion: success comes at a price. Someone donates health, the other devotes less time to family and friends. There is even a theory of the four burners, available explaining these principles. However, there is a diametrically opposite view. You can get everything at once. We just know how.

Make friends, build a successful business, spending time with family, stay in good shape, sleep - you can choose only three points. Randi Zuckerberg (Randi Zuckerberg) called this dilemma entrepreneur.

A similar dilemma is known as "the theory of the four burners». Life in it is compared with the cooker. On the stove, burning four burners: friendship, family, work and health. To succeed, you need to turn off one of the burners. In order to achieve great success - leave lit only two.

But whether things really are? Is it too much drama? Our life in general consists of transactions, and the majority of successful people get to combine business, family and hobbies.

You should try to keep all the burners enabled, and it will give the result. However, we will have to wait.

Can you count?

The main problem of these theories is that when you create them forgot to take into account the simple math.

For example, when we are talking about four burners, for some reason we forget that sports do not take as much time as you work. And with friends, even with the best, we do not spend as much time as paying the family. The simplest calculation shows that the exclusion of sports life will save much time in the long run.

At week 168 hours. If you work 60 hours a week, which is quite a lot, sleep eight hours a day or 56 hours a week, then you are left still for 52 hours in the different classes.

It seems there are four hours of training three hours to meet friends and spend rest of the time for a family dinner and read bedtime stories. Well, if you work less than 60 hours a week, it opens up before you even wider horizons.

This is evidenced by a Chicago entrepreneur and best-selling author Ed O'Keefe (Ed O'Keefe). He has seven children under the age of 11 years, and yet he regularly sets challenging goals and sports check yourself for strength.

No need to be a superman. You just have to be disciplined.

"First thing to do, which makes any entrepreneur - is focusing on what is important for him," - said Ed. Find out on what you never refuse, and build your schedule around it.

Leave it time for training, in order to take the child to school or to make a strategy for further action. Help yourself to stay afloat: the prohibition to take up the phone or answer letters when doing something important.

These thoughts seem logical, but it is very difficult to translate them into reality. You will be hard to accustom yourself to use effectively every minute. For example, Ed dictates new chapters of the book, while riding in the car or waiting for a child with sports activities.

What else advises Ed to optimize workflow?

• Solve all the questions online or by phone, to avoid private meetings and conferences.
• Less correspond by email, go on a date optimized business tools.
• Run as far as possible with those who you like.
• Combining burners. For example, to play sports with friends.

Over time, Ed notes, your schedule will be corrected, and it becomes clear that really matters to you. If you want to spend more time with a certain person, sooner or later change the schedule, and leave a few hours just for him.

Good old checklist

Time - a piece inexorable. Regardless of whether you plan it or not thinking about it, it still goes. So you need to concentrate on what is most important to you.

Write down all these lessons on a sheet to keep track of their performance. Write as easy as possible. Leave only the most important, most relevant, the fact that you can not delete any of the present day, neither of life. For example:

• sports;
• family dinner;
• meditation;
• a short walk;
• bedtime story for children;
• romantic evening with my wife (at least once a week).

It seems strange to make such a class in the list. How can you forget it? But when the rush job, sometimes even forget his own name, day of week and time of year. So that a check-list - a good way to control yourself.

Keep a record of everything, share information on the blocks. To do this, the system is well suited Bullet journal. But, if to create and maintain a diary you do not want, and will approach the normal checklist.

As many as 168 hours a week, strict discipline and the desire to still have time - that's how the theory breaks down four burners and allowed the entrepreneur's dilemma. And no need to be a superman. Find the pivot point and make the right choices every day.

Difficult? Highly. Maybe? It is.