The Power of 5-Hour Rule: Embrace Learning As A Lifestyle

We all know Bill Gates. But how much do we know about him?

Is Bill Gates a busy man? Or you and me?

The answer should be Bill Gates.

Did you know that Bill Gates never forgot to do one thing during his busy schedule? And that is reading books. And that's not one or two books, almost 50 books a year!!! This means that he reads one book every week.
How many books do we read in a year? For me it's not so much!

Not only Bill Gates, most of the successful and busy people follow this trend.

They all follow a rule - The 5-Hour Rule.

What is this The 5-Hour Rule?

The Five Hour Rule is created by Michael Simmons and a lot of ideas in this article will be based on the idea that he wrote about the rule. It was a concept that was used by Benjamin Franklin.

Throughout Ben Franklin’s adult life, he consistently invested roughly an hour a day in deliberate learning. I call this Franklin’s five-hour rule: one hour a day on every weekday. - Michael Simmons

Recently I was reading an article about how Warren Buffet, Oprah Winfrey, Bill Gates, Ellon Musk all follow to this five hours rule (Source at the end). They all take out 5 hours during their week to do things that help them to be more successful. You have to understand that productivity is a very important aspect in your professional life, but you have to take out some time during the week to invest in yourself and always keep learning.

Source

The basic idea is just to slice out certain times in a day so that you can focus on improving yourself. Remember, in today's world if you're not learning something new every day, you're already falling behind.

Reading

Reading is the habit of highly prosperous people. It's easy, it's cheap and you can do it on your own time. I like to read for at least thirty minutes a day. If I can cut out more time from my day, I read continuously before I go to bed. Currently, I am reading "Personal Branding For Dummies" by Susan Chritton and I am planned to finish it within 10 days.

There is really no alternative to reading. Successful people like Barack Obama, Bill Gates, Oprah Winfrey, Mark Zuckerberg, Warren Buffett read a lot and still continuing that reading trend. You will be amazed to know that Warren Buffet spend almost 80% of his time to read and think!

So read whenever you get free time. Read books on your favorite topic during breaks, before going to bed or if you don't want to read, then just download audiobooks.

Reflection

Just reading won't help you if you can't apply some of this knowledge in your life. You're spending lots of hours every week on your work. Carve out some times from your work to think about your weekly work plan, how can you improve it. Linkedin CEO Jeff Weiner spends almost 2 hours every day to think and plan his daily activities.

"Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe." -Abraham Lincoln

Well, I am not suggesting you to spend 2 hours thinking daily. You can at least spend 2 hours weekly to set your week plans and take your decision.

I think a little bit differently to motivate myself. Every day I think and tell myself -

I will be kind
I will fulfill my daily activities with perfection
I will work hard to achieve my goal
I won't show any ego
I will take suggestions from others

And somehow these types of commitments boost me up and enhance productivity.

Experiment

I truly believe that if you are sitting inside a box comfortably, your chances of gaining success are very low. Step outside of your comfort zone and start experimenting!

Think carefully about a subject. However, under the pressure of work, this trend of thinking or research may not last long. But whatever the idea comes to mind, think about it at a certain time of the day, check its feasibility.

Let me give you an example - Besides blogging and freelancing, I work in a travel agency where I mainly make reservations. But this week I planned to make some sales call which is not actually my duty. But it gave me a new experience and I learned something new!

So, build a habit of reading books on a variety of topics, carve out some time to think, and experiment with new ideas.

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