This article is an excerpt from the Shortform book guide to "Can't Hurt Me" by David Goggins. Shortform has the world's best summaries and analyses of books you should be reading.
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Do you want to know how to organize your time? How can David Goggins’ strategy for compartmentalizing help?
Ad one way for learning how to organize your time, David Goggins suggests compartmentalizing. This means dedicating different chunks of time solely to one tasks, and making sure those tasks stay separate.
Keep reading for advice on how to organize your time from David Goggins.
How to Organize Your Time According to David Goggins
People often think they need to have special talents to succeed in life. However, you often won’t be naturally talented at something. Instead, you need to schedule time every day to practice and hone your skills. This is the best way to learn how to organize your time.
For example, the number-one excuse people have for not exercising is that they don’t have enough time. But most people waste 4-5 hours a day doing things like watching shows or looking at social media. Doing this challenge will help you make time for working toward your goals.
Goggins’s life got extra busy once he started getting attention for his ultra racing. He learned to compartmentalize his time to work and train.
Becoming a Recruiter
After his success in Badwater 135, Goggins got recruited into doing a race known as the Ultraman—a three-day event consisting of a 6.2-mile swim, 261-mile bike ride, and a double marathon. Despite some difficulties with his bike—he blew out a tire on a downhill—he managed to finish second in the race.
Shortly thereafter, a Navy admiral contacted him. It’s uncommon for the upper leadership in the military to talk with enlisted people, so Goggins worried he’d be reprimanded for drawing undesired attention to the Navy by participating in ultras. In fact, the admiral was impressed with Goggins’s achievements and wanted him to recruit more black people into the Navy SEALS to work on operations against Taliban forces in northern Africa—they needed SEALS that would blend into the local population.
Goggins was only the 36th black person to become a SEAL in the Navy’s history, and the Navy realized it needed to do more outreach in communities of color. When he accepted the role, he learned a lot of important lessons about how to organize your time.
Balancing Recruitment With Life
To recruit more people of color, Goggins traveled to colleges and high schools across the country to speak.
He learned that using himself as a prop was one of the most effective strategies to get students interested in his message. He’d run 50 miles to his speaking engagement and show up sweaty, or spend the first five minutes of his speech doing push-ups. He’d practice with the sports teams and invite students to work out with him before or after school and crew for him on weekends when he competed in local ultra races. He’d also run between cities he was visiting to garner local news coverage.
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Here's what you'll find in our full Can't Hurt Me summary :
- What a Navy SEAL says about pushing yourself to achieve greatness
- How to put in more effort to realize your potential
- The 10 challenges you can take on to reach your goals
