I recently read the book “The Future is Faster Than You Think”…🤯
And it led to another interesting insight that I want to share with you.
This one is all about time.
The authors point out how, back in 2014, a researcher at the University of Michigan gave participants a list of questions to answer…❓
Then provided half of them with internet access, while the other half was given access to a library.
The result?
The researcher found that it took about 7 minutes on average to answer each question using the internet…🕘
While it took people in the library group an average of 22 minutes to answer each question.
So in this experiment…
Technology saved an average of 15 minutes per question answered…
And when you apply this to the 3.5 billion queries a day processed by Google…
That means that this search engine alone saves humans 52.4 billion minutes per day.
There are about 39 million minutes in the lifetime of a human who lives to 75…
So each day, Google is saving the equivalent of 1,500+ lifetimes.
Kind of crazy to think about right?
Plus, what this study doesn’t even take into account is the travel time that’s required to go to and from the library either…
So factor that in, and the amount of time saved is much greater.
Now, Google is just one example…
But the truth is, we’re actually saving time everywhere:
Take “labor-saving devices” – which is a term that refers to electricity, running water, and appliances.
Over the past one-hundred years…
It's estimated that advances in technology have cut the average amount of time adults spend on housework from 58 hours per week…
To an average of 1.5 hours per week.
Sounds extreme, but when you're not needing to spend time chopping firewood…tending to candles…going out to the well to draw water…etc…
Turns out, you get a lot of hours back in your day.
And then there's travel:
It's easy to take commercial flight for granted today…
But let’s not forget that just 130 years ago, traveling from New York to Chicago would have taken 4 weeks by stagecoach.
Trains reduced that time to 4 days…
Planes have reduced it to 4 hours (including time to and from both airports)…
And there’s a very real possibility that in the near future, Elon Musk's hyperloop will make that trip take less than one hour.
All of this saves time…
And these are just a few examples, but the reality is, time saving abounds.
Most of the people on my email list work from home…
And because of COVID-19, this is now true not just for freelancers and entrepreneurs…
But also many employees with normal jobs, who no longer need to go to travel to a physical office thanks to the pandemic.
The commute is dying…
And that saves you more time.
Heck, for one last example…
I'll even be so bold as to throw The RMBC Method into the conversation…
Because one of the massive promises and benefits of my copywriting system…
Is that it reduces the average time it takes people to write a sales letter by WEEKS.
That’s weeks of your life back…
And when you write a letter in a week, instead of a month…
That gives you the opportunity to bring on more clients, if you want, and triple or quadruple what you “take home” each month…
Or, it gives you the time to achieve consistent cash flow in your life, while still pursuing other passions and interests.
Anyways though, here's the big point:
Despite how people may feel…
The truth is that we have more time available to us than ever before…
And while we often think that we don’t have enough hours in the day…
Our real issue is less with the availability of time…
And more with how we’re utilizing that time.
Smartphone notifications distracting us…
Hours on social media…
Netflix binges…
Getting worked up while watching cable news for three hours straight…
Nobody is forcing us to do that stuff…
But that’s what eats up those hours.
So, I just wanted to share these thoughts with you…
Because maybe it’ll help shift your mindset around your time…
And how you spend the hours in your day.
– SPG
P.S. This post originally came from an email I sent to my private list. If you want to see more stuff like this from me, you can apply to join my list using this link