To double your time off, you need the power of decisiveness more than any other single quality or attribute. Your ability to decide to take time off and then to stick to your decision is the key to doubling your time off and spending more time in your personal relationships.

Many people are convinced that they have so much to do that they have no real choice about whether they can take time off. They often feel that they have to sacrifice their personal lives for their work. But this is seldom true. It would not be an exaggeration to assert that as much as 80 percent of a person's time at work is spent in activities that contribute very little to the work the person is being paid to do. Half of the average person's working time is simply wasted. It is consumed in idle socializing with coworkers, personal telephone calls, and personal business. It is eaten up by arriving late and leaving early and by taking extended coffee and lunch breaks.

Hard time drives out soft time. In other words, if you waste time at work by socializing or engaging in low-value activities, the work itself does not go away. The work remains. It still has to be done. As it is delayed and left undone, it begins to build up like an avalanche overhang. The undone work begins to crowd out nonwork activities. This hard time of essential work eventually drives out the soft time of home life and recreation.

Consider the story of the little girl who goes to her mother and asks, "Mommy, why does daddy bring home a briefcase full of work every night and work all evening and never spend any time with us?"
Mommy replies, "Honey, you have to understand. Daddy can't get all his work done at the office during the day. That's why he has to bring it home and work on it in the evening."
The little girl looks up at her mommy and says, "Why don't they just put him in a slower class?"

Most people who are not taking enough time for their families and their personal activities have fallen into the bad habit of working inefficiently and ineffectively during the work day. They get less and less done in more and more time. They socialize with their coworkers, and they work on low-value tasks. Meanwhile, the critical jobs on which their success depends build up, causing them enormous stress and giving them the feeling of being harried and overworked.

One advantage highly productive people have over average people is that they have learned how to think and act more effectively than others do. And whatever anyone else has done or is doing, you can do as well, with practice.

Six Steps to Doubling Your Income and Doubling Your Time Off

1. Identify the few tasks that contribute the greatest value to your work. Think your work through carefully. Discuss it with your boss and your coworkers. Identify your key tasks with absolute clarity so that you know without a shadow of a doubt what you can do to make the greatest contribution.
2. Identify the routine tasks and activities that consume so much time but contribute little or nothing to your long-term goals at work. Begin today to delegate those tasks to others, one at a time. Eliminate them altogether wherever possible. Outsource anything that can be done by any other person or company. Reduce the amount of time you spend in low-value, time-consuming activities. Be adamant about discontinuing tasks and activities that are of little importance.
3. Use the Grand Slam Formula to dramatically increase your output and your results. Simplify, leverage, accelerate, and multiply your talents and abilities through others.
4. Decide today to take at least one full day each week off work during which you spend time exclusively on your personal pursuits. During this time off, refuse to do anything associated with work. Do not read, make telephone calls, catch up on your correspondence, work on your computer, or do anything else work related. Let your brain completely recharge and rejuvenate by turning your attention to something apart from the work you do during the week.
5. Once you are comfortable taking one day off each week, expand your time off to two days, a full weekend, every week. Begin to schedule a three-day vacation every three months and eventually every two months. Begin to schedule two to four weeks of vacation every year. Reorganize your life so that time off becomes a major priority. The more you get your time and your life under control, the more you will get done and the more enjoyable your work will be. The more you get done, the more free time you will have. The more free time you have, the more rested you will be. The more rested you are, the more alert and productive you will be when you are working, thereby getting even more done.
6. Start today to pay closer attention to the things you do. Be more conscious and aware of yourself and your actions. Think about your tasks carefully before you begin. Identify your most important tasks and concentrate on them single-mindedly. The very act of continually thinking through your activities before you begin will develop within you new habits of thought and action that will lead to greater levels of productivity and performance. You will be amazed at the improvements that take place in every part of your life, and they will take place far faster than you can imagine.