Where Are You Placing Your Bets? 🃏

Estimated reading time: 3 minutes, 39 seconds

Allow me to introduce you to The 8-8-8 Rule.

This is the idea that our 24-hour day should be broken into three equal 8-hour chunks.

When I first shared this visual online, I was challenged at the oversimplification of one’s life or the unrealisticness about it.

I can totally respect both of these arguments.

Most visuals I create are overly simplified and not every visual will be appropriate for everyone, but this is a great starting point to get you thinking about what your 24-hour allocation could look like.

The reality is, your day probably isn’t balanced as 8-8-8.

Maybe it’s 9-9-6?
Or 10-8-6?
Perhaps it’s 12-4-8?

Or even something completely different.

Take a moment to reflect:

📝 How much time do I devote to work, leisure and sleep?

You may have seen the 8 hours of sleep suggested in The 8-8-8 Rule and thought “That won’t work for me!”

Before you dismiss it, let’s take a moment to reflect on why sleep is important:

And this is just scratching the surface of studies on sleep.

As there are so many benefits of getting more sleep, ask yourself:

📝 Do I get enough sleep?

The purpose of this question isn’t to shame you if you’re getting less than the recommended amount, but it is meant to be challenging.

We’re here to get wiser, right?

Part of that will having the humility to recognise areas that we can grow in.

So how can we get more sleep?

Bryan Johnson has invested millions into understanding how to live healthier and prolong your life.

Even though I wouldn’t endorse his desire to live forever, he’s certainly discovering ways that we can all take better care or ourselves.

Here’s a few ideas that he has to improve your sleep:

You can hear more from him in this YouTube video:

The real reason I’m reflecting on this principle is because of an Annie Dillard quote that I’ve shared a lot recently:

“How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.”

The reality is that many people travel through life not consciously thinking about what they’re meant to be doing, what they find fulfilment in and ultimately how they want to spend their lives.

I believe that slowing down and trying to answer these tough questions will help you to live a more purposeful life.

So the final question I encourage you to sit with today is:

📝 How do I want to spend my life?

For those of you that missed last week’s newsletter, I announced that I am creating a self-paced journaling course.

I’m keen to make the best journaling resource available, and I’d love your input into what you’d like to see included.

Next week I’m going to start emailing my waitlist to see what questions they would like answering in the course, so if you want to help shape the course, tap “✅ Join the waitlist!” below.

Do you enjoy this newsletter? If so, please share it with someone! Forward this to a friend, or share it on social media!

If you’ve just received this as a forwarded email, subscribe here:

Thanks for checking out this issue of the WISER Newsletter. If you have any feedback, I would love to hear it!

Simply reply to this email, and I will get back to you.

Alternatively, just DM me on social media. You can find me here:

Catch you in the next issue!

Thanks,
Michael

If you are interested in starting your own newsletter, consider using beehiiv to make it happen.

Using my link helps me to continue to deliver the WISER Newsletter for free.

Start your newsletter for free here: