A life hack is defined as a strategy or technique to more efficiently manage one’s time and daily activities.
After I quickly shook off the shock of being sentenced to two to five years in prison for a bar fight that took place seven years prior, I proactively made the decision to make my time behind bars the most productive time of my life.
Prisons have few resources and you must be resourceful if you want to be productive. Here are some methods I learned in prison to be more efficient with my time, which I still apply now. I suggest that all business owners follow these strategies:
Be an early riser
Chow comes between 4:45 to 5 a.m. every morning.
If you miss that meal you don’t eat again until noon.
Needless to say, I missed that meal one time, and never again.
I quickly adopted the early morning routine, and rather than go back to bed like all my fellow inmates, I stayed up and used the quiet time for my daily reading and writing regimens.
I still use this technique today.
My tip is to commit to something very important early in the morning.
For example, client calls, user demos, investor calls, breakfast with mom, run with cofounder, etc.
Write every day
The best piece of technology that prisoners can use is a pencil.
While I was in prison, writing down my thoughts helped me improve my communication skills.
I didn’t really like writing before, but now I enjoy it a lot since I went to prison.
If you want others to listen to you, you need to write because your written words are how people can hear your voice.
Read every day
I read 197 books in two years.
As you can imagine, there’s ample time to read while in prison.
However, it is still a decision that has to be made.
There are plenty of other ways to distract your mind vs. feeding it knowledge.
Reading is vital to building successful startups.
We can gain new knowledge, new perspective and learn from others.
Bootstrapping like an inmate
Prison is expensive.
State food rations will leave you starving, and commissary can cost you a small fortune every week.
Your outside savings won’t last long, and you have no way to make money in the real world to support your prison lifestyle.
Yikes.
Luckily for me, I learned how to make the most of my money, especially in prison.
I used to buy coffee at a low price from the commissary because it would quickly run out, and then I would sell it to people who wanted it.
I gave away my food and got books in return.
Beating the system in the system
I figured out how to bend the rules in prison.
I found out that if you claim adrenal issues you get better food.
I got a doctor’s note that said I couldn’t work, which allowed me to read and write all day.
I found out that working in the kitchen allowed me to eat better, and visiting the law library allowed me to use the typewriter to type up my notes rather than write them by hand.
As entrepreneurs, we need to release the bondage society puts on us.
If we’re trying to change the world, we need to be comfortable with living the lives we all envision without the guilty feeling of not working nine to five.
So bend the rules, learn from others who have the success you envision, design your own life and go against the norm as often as possible.
I’ve learned that when life hands you lemons, you figure out how to hack those dang lemons and be hyper productive, even in the face of a prison riot.
