The 1440 principle: Highly successful people experience time differently

Time is the most abundant tradable currency of life.

Used well, you will experience a long and fulfilling life. Used badly, you would think life is short.

Everyone starts a new day with 1440 minutes or 24 hours to trade. That’s more than enough to spend or invest.

Ralph Waldo Emerson was right, “This time, like all times, is a very good one, if we but know what to do with it.”

How are you spending the most important currency of life? Who and what gets your attention determines how you spend it.

You have only 1440 minutes today to make a difference in your life: how are you using it?

“In every day, there are 1,440 minutes. That means we have 1,440 daily opportunities to make a positive impact.” Les Brown said.

Don’t spend the next 1440 minutes of your life doing things that have no real and practical value to your life.

If you were to pay a dollar per every minute spent on low-value work or time spent doing things that have no real impact on your life, how much would you have to pay out every day? Would you be in time debt?

In a rapidly changing world, we all need to define the few essential things that can advance our lives. The real question that can help you experience time productivity is: how am I using, spending or investing my next 1440 minutes?

For every successful person, every minute must be significant.

Time is what ultra-successful people want most to do more of what makes them come alive or delivers the most value.

Self-made millionaires, top performers, successful entrepreneurs, Olympic athletes and high achievers experience time differently. What they do in 1440 minutes is very different from what ordinary people do.

“Saturday I take off. I hike. And then Sunday is reflections, feedback, strategy and getting ready for the rest of the week,” says Jack Dorsey, co-founder and CEO of Twitter & the founder and CEO of Square.

Warren buffest spends 80% of his day reading. He likes to be informed before he makes a business-changing decision.

He once said this about defending his time: “The difference between successful people and very successful people is that very successful people say ‘no’ to almost everything.”

Marcus Lemonis, a self-made multimillionaire, relies on a daily “knockout list” to get things done daily. Elizabeth Grace Saunders, a time-management coach blocks off time in the morning for high-value work.

“I find that it helps immensely to not have meetings to start my day,” Saunders once said. “I have one day a week where I don’t have coaching calls,” she said.

24 hours is more than enough to build a remarkable life. Give your time a dollar value and exchange it for meaningful experiences and activities.

Time compounds. You don’t need a whole year to make an impact in your life. One thousand four hundred and forty minutes is all you need to kickstart a good habit.

In 24 hours, you can start reading a few pages of your favorite book and make it a habit. You can work on your high-value work first thing in the morning every day. You can make time to learn timeless skills. You can learn in public to build your body of work.

You can check off essential tasks on your to-do list. You can start building an exercise routine to improve your health. And you can choose to spend quality time with your family.

Randy Pausch once said, “Being successful doesn’t make you manage your time well. Managing your time well makes you successful.” Twenty-four hours can help you build a better foundation to improve every area of your life.

Time is what we all want most to build a better life, but why are so many people so bad at using time. If you don’t think enough about how you use your time, you will probably spend it anyhow.

If you don’t know what you want in the next 1440 minutes, you will spend it advancing someone else’s goals. Successful people “think about values, priorities, and consistent habits, writes Kevin Kruse in his book, 15 Secrets Successful People Know About Time Management.

Kruse says, “Time is the lowest common denominator.”

The 1440 rule is a reminder to think about time differently every day. It’s a call to invest your most valuable tradable currency wisely.

1440 is valuable — however, you decide to use it, remember to invest some of it for your future self. Think more about time. Do you freely give it away? 1440 can change your life if you experience it differently.

“Wasted time means wasted lives.” Robert R. Shannon said. Don’t waste the next 1440. Your success depends on it. Anyone who dares to waste one thousand four hundred and forty minutes of their life does not value time.

This article originally appeared in Medium.