TIPS #5

FIVE. Take ownership of your free time.

• Why it matters: Let's face it - at some point in our lives we have all let television, commercials, mass media, or social media control the way we spend the little free time that we have in the evenings. Instead of just giving in to passive forms of entertainment and then finding ourselves hours later wondering where the time went, why not plan what we want to do with our free time?

• How to use it daily: Reclaim your evening hours to do what's important to you. Here's what evenings can be great for:

• Use an hour after dinner to do some strategic thinking. Since this is the time of day when the brain slows down and is freed from the deadlines you impose on it earlier in the day, use the time for creative thinking. For example, if you're thinking of setting a particular goal for yourself, outline the steps you'll need to take so that you can get there in 6 months or a year. If you're working on a creative activity such as writing, composing music, painting, or on developing another craft, this is a great time for being bold, dreaming, and letting your creative mind take over.

• Watch documentaries on the ancient worlds. YouTube is full of them (use "BBC documentaries" and "History Channel documentaries" to search the topics that interest you). To get started, check out British historian Bettany Hughes and her series called The Ancient Worlds to learn about everyday life in ancient Alexandria, Rome, Athens, and about the way society was organized among Minoans, Spartans, and the Moors. Another excellent 3-part series by the BBC isIbn Battuta: The Man Who Walked Across the World.

• Read books. It doesn't matter if they're fiction or non-fiction. What's important is that you feed your brain, learn new things, time travel, and absorb the life experiences of other people. If they're excellent storytellers, you will soon be drawn into their world so that you cannot put the book down. To start, check out recommendations on the best books of all time on Quora. Or download theGoodreads app to get recommendations, add books to your bookshelf, and track your reading progress.