A Lot of Littles Makes A Lot
How Looking at the Cumulative Effect of Time Can Help You Make More of Your Life
On occasion, after my wife and I have consumed way more of an unhealthy treat than two people should consume (way faster than we should consume it), I sadistically read off the nutrition label. Though it’s mostly in jest, zooming out to process that those 5 individual bowls of Blue Bell Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough ice cream adds up to 3,000 calories and 276 grams of sugar can be rather sobering.
For many things in life, the cumulative effect is what matters.
One million pennies equals $10,000.
Ten pages of a book every day equals 3,650 pages (or War & Peace twice).
The same cumulative maxim is true of our time: a lot of littles makes a lot.
What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. — James 4:14
Zooming Out On Your Time
Years ago, I had entered a Master’s program, and in the pursuit of being a better student, I made a “rule” for myself that I would only play 30 minutes of videos games per day. It was an extremely helpful practice for me, forcing me to reprioritize my time to my studies.
One day after shutting down my console, I had an unintentional “nutrition label” realization: if I zoomed out to a wider scope of time, these 30-minute daily chunks were really adding up.
By doing some extremely simple math, I figured out that if I played 30-minutes of video games every day for a year, over the course of that year, I would play 7-days worth of video games. Seven. Full. Days.
To show some other “littles” make a lot:
- 1 hr/day → 2 weeks
- 2 hrs/day → 4 weeks
- 5 hrs/day → 2 months (76 days to be exact)
(Brace For Impact) How Long You’re On Your Phone Every Year
Did you know the average user is on their phone for 2.5 hours a day? And the number for millennials is actually twice that, 5 hours a day. At that rate, the average millennial will spend 76 days on their phone per year. That’s 2 whole months (!!) per year spent looking into the glowing magic box. That means every 6 years the average millenial will spend an entire year on their phone. One year. And that’s not like a year of workdays, or weekends, or whatever you have in your minds eye about a day, but every 6 years, you will spend one whole year (24/7/365) on your phone.
Okay, so maybe you don’t spend 5 hours on your phone, but, my daily average of 2 hours, makes me a little squeamish when I sit long enough with the fact that I’ll spend 2 weeks this year looking at my phone.
A lot of littles makes a lot.
How to Harness This Knowledge For Good
Trying to use this knowledge to cut down your phone use—or cut down any unproductive habit (Netflix binges anybody?)—will only go so far. The time needs to be filled with things that are “good” (however that’s defined for you).
Think about how the cumulative effect could be used in beautiful ways.
- Spend 30 minutes a day in prayer, you’ll spend 7 days praying
- Play guitar 1 hour a day, you’ll spend 14 days playing
- Read 2 hours a day, you’ll spend 28 days reading
- Play with your children for 30 minutes a day, you’ll spend 7 days playing.
As I think about the brevity of my life, there are a lot of things I’d rather be doing than looking at my phone.
Remember that a lot of littles make a lot. Make those lots of little count.
