I’ve spent four years of my life in Bombay – The city that never sleeps. I remember taking the local train every morning and I quickly understood the workings of the city. “Work hard, Party Hard”, a great mind once said, and the people of this city have taken the former way too seriously. The latter part is seemingly forgotten as the former part pays its bills and therefore carries more importance. If you’re not making the money, how do you think you’ll party?
Now, before you get me wrong, by “party” I mean spending time with yourself, finding pleasure and happiness among other things. We’re living in a time where we’re also working over the weekends and with this, we’re contributing almost a hundred hours a day (this includes the time we spend travelling on the road). In the past, I’ve also been told that I’m not working enough and after all the hours I put into it, it gets me furious. We’re all losing ground, the connection we have formed with our bodies. When I work too hard, my mother often tells me that my body didn’t sign up for this “ludicrous pettifoggery that’s going to guarantee no mental peace but turn us into dumb slaves”. I cried at work then. Yes, I’m the girl who cries at work because somewhere I’m convinced that I’m not doing more. There’s no balance, no discipline, no well-being in simply existing and/or surviving, or just “getting by”, because of how pressured we feel.
More importantly, what’s the damn point? We only have ourselves to look after ourselves. A little over a week ago, a close friend and I got on call after 8 months. It was a breath of fresh air – I needed to hear from him and tell him things myself. The conversation lasted for an hour, where he only explained to me the need to maintain balance in life. That it was okay for our systems to unwind and “take it easy”. He implored that I read about the “888 (triple 8) rule”. I decided to get to it right away.
It ascertained that we must spend 8 hours with ourselves and how our “overworked up” generation needed this balance. The serious health risks like issues in sleep, heart-related problems, obesity, increased use of alcohol, and substances were all because we maintained no balance whatsoever. The 8-8-8 rule has helped many people to bring about a certain degree of imperturbable tranquility. We need to split the 24 hours of the day into three parts-
8 Hours of Work (1/3)
This initial rule states spending 8 hours a day on working, no more no less. This can be easily achieved by managing your time well.
- The 80/20 rule known as the Pareto Principle tells us that most of the outcome amounting to 80% is achieved from 20% of activities. We must learn about the activities that derive great results and focus on them, and conveniently ignore the rest.
- If an individual is aware of his/ her weaknesses, it solves half the problem for them. Measuring your effectiveness is cardinal. We must test and try to work with new tools to overcome our weaknesses and do spend one hour doing something that can improve that hour and when we reach the most effective hour, we apply it to the remaining 7 hours.
- While we’re at it, we must try to rid ourselves of all kinds of distractions. We must keep our phones away because once if we go down that road, we will end up spending multiple hours aimlessly staring at our mobile phones.
- Learning how to say, No. Simple? Not really. Rejecting an offer that’s tempting can be upsetting in the short term but guarantees major results in the long term. Try it, you won’t regret it.
8 Hours Only For You – The Me-Time
You’ve worked for 8 hours and you’re done working. The second instalment of this concept requires you to do something that you like to do. Read, take a walk, watch something, work out, paint- anything that gives you pleasure and assures that “me-time”. Trust me, this may seem like a lot, but it flies by when you’re reconnecting with yourself.
8 Hours of Sleep – It helps
When you sleep for 8 hours you’re fully present in the moment and the next day is more regulated and balanced. You’re rested and so have your senses and your brain. If it doesn’t cooperate, you’re more likely to fail at a certain given task. Just sleep, that’s all you really have to do. Plus, it’s believed that individuals that don’t get enough sleep gain 33% more weight than individuals who do. In the future when a coworker brags about not sleeping at night and getting work done, don’t feel like you’re not giving enough, understand that you’re doing it just right.
Millionaires follow this mantra and you should too. Live this life, drop the overdoing. It’ll do you some good. Also read: Are You Not Sleeping Well? Find Out What You Can Do About It!
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