Putting a limit on things in life
We are not used to timeboxing but it might be one of the most useful things we can do. Lots of issues in the modern world are related to how much time is spent doing certain activities like work, entertainment, eating, drinking, etc… Putting a limit on these can help alleviate most of the negative effects of these activities.
Entertainment is a good example, if we don’t put a limit on how much we would like to spend on entertainment per day, it can easily occupy most of our day because it is very addictive. Easy, non-stop dopamine release for no effort on our side.
Schedule it
The next step is to schedule activities in our calendar, from work to leisure. Most people focus on scheduling work hours, but it is equally important to have a rough idea, a plan, on how to spend the after-work hours. Instead of going with the flow, taking time to actively think about the after-work time can yield a much different plan than we usually do.
Revise and update
Every couple of weeks it is good to revisit and update the time limits and the daily schedule. Little tweaks are simple to make and can produce very different results in the next couple of weeks. A minimum ratio of consumption vs creation activities is to have a 51/49 split in favor of creation activities. Very productive people tend to have an 80/20 or 90/10 split where most of their days are spent in creation.