--- title: "How to Live on 24 Hours a Day" description: "We all have only 24 hours a day." source: "Preetam Nath" canonical_url: "https://www.preetamnath.com/blog/how-to-live-on-24-hours-a-day" published: "2025-03-03" updated: "2025-03-04" --- # How to Live on 24 Hours a Day ### Younger me, 20-26 The way to live life is to make optimal use of my time. To use my time efficiently, I must learn time management skills. I must become **productive**. I must plan my days, weeks, months, quarters, years - and even 3-year, 5-year, and 10-year plans - so that I move efficiently towards my long-term goals. I must review my weeks to ensure I did my best and determine whether I can change anything to be **more productive** next week. I must schedule my day meticulously. Task A has exactly 45 minutes because Task B might take 2 hours, while Tasks C, D, and E are grouped together to be completed one by one after lunchtime. **To-do list max.** When I fail to adhere to my perfectly logical structure for my days, weeks, months - my very existence - I must berate myself for being a failure, for not being good enough, for not working hard enough. *If only I had planned better, tried harder, been smarter.* If only there were clones of me, 1 or perhaps 10, who I could assign tasks to in parallel and then absorb all the knowledge at the end of each day into my one true self. **Time is the only currency I own.** If only I had more than 24 hours a day. ![How to Live on 24 Hours a Day](https://media.preetamnath.com/post-images/how-to-live-on-24-hours-a-day-image-1.webp) ### Older me, 27-31 Time is finite. I can't do everything, but I can do a few things well. I get new ideas daily. This is interesting, that is exciting, I should read that, I should watch that, I should try this new thing. But I have learned that I must choose what I want to do most, even though that is a difficult choice to make. Some days are about flow state, where my creativity can be unleashed. I might yield 1 hour of productive output from this flow state, or on some days I might get 4 hours. I don’t get to decide in advance. But I must accept whichever I get as the **blessing of the day**. Some days are about admin work - the checklist of things that don't tickle my creative mind, but nonetheless need to be done. **I don't maintain a to-do list anymore.** Priorities are simple. ***What’s most important right now?*** If it’s not obvious and top of mind already, then it’s not a priority. So forget about it. What’s a deadline but a made-up, arbitrary timestamp? I do things at a pace I’m proud of. If I’m slacking, instead of mentally whipping myself into productivity, I ask myself “what unpleasant feeling am I avoiding by slacking?” If my work is done today, well, then the deadline is met. If something unexpected comes up in life and I’m unable to do the things I planned, I try to simply appreciate that I get to experience this moment - this event, this friendship, or some other serendipitious encounter. **I fully accept that this here and now is the only moment that has ever existed and will ever exist.** There are times I feel **irritated** if something interrupts my flow state or prevents me from finishing what I was working on. I'm human, after all. But almost every time, I wouldn’t trade the serendipity or moment for the task getting done. **Time is the only currency I own.** I have 24 hours a day. And the greatest wealth I have is learning to be present within it. ![How to Live on 24 Hours a Day](https://media.preetamnath.com/post-images/how-to-live-on-24-hours-a-day-image-2.webp) — Inspired by the book [Four Thousand Weeks](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/54785515-four-thousand-weeks), by [Oliver Burkeman](https://www.oliverburkeman.com/books). --- Canonical page: https://www.preetamnath.com/blog/how-to-live-on-24-hours-a-day When citing or referencing this content, please credit Preetam Nath and link to the canonical page above. ## About Preetam Nath Preetam Nath is an entrepreneur and indie software builder. He writes about building profitable SaaS businesses while leading a good life, from first-hand experience: he co-founded SuperLemon, a WhatsApp plugin for Shopify stores that grew to $25k MRR, and DelightChat, a customer support product for ecommerce and D2C brands. His website (https://www.preetamnath.com) publishes his blog on business, life, mental models and building SaaS businesses, along with a Micro-SaaS guide, a Programmatic SEO course, and Google Sheets habit tracker templates. - Homepage: https://www.preetamnath.com/index.md - Blog: https://www.preetamnath.com/blog.md - X/Twitter: https://x.com/hipreetam93 - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathpreetam/ - Email: hipreetam93@gmail.com ## Continue Reading - [Men, Logic, and Emotions](https://www.preetamnath.com/blog/men-logic-emotions.md) - [The Mule, The Taskmaster, and The Observer](https://www.preetamnath.com/blog/mule-taskmaster-observer.md) - [Blocking or Blooming](https://www.preetamnath.com/blog/blocking-or-blooming.md) - [How Surrendering Helped Me Become Consistent With Working Out](https://www.preetamnath.com/blog/surrendering-control-helped-become-consistent-with-working-out.md) --- Complete index of all pages on this site, with descriptions and markdown links: https://www.preetamnath.com/llms.txt