Continuous learning is the minimum requirement for success in any field.
— Brain Tracy
Who invented the 5-hour rule?
Benjamin Franklin invented the 5-hour rule to set aside 1 hour each day to read, reflect, and experiment if you are interested in why the 5-hour rule is so important to become successful in life and why every successful person like Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Charlie Munger, Oprah Winfrey, devote some time to learning each day.
Objective
There is a reason why constant learners all embrace the 5-hour rule. The objective of continuous learning and improvement has been known to enhance your productivity and self-development.
I love to read about successful people, especially the auto/biographies, to learn from their mistakes and implement the strategy in my life to increase productivity. Here I will share how successful people apply the 5-hour rule.
Reading
Every successful person reads for 1–3 hours daily to learn new things. Elon Musk learned how to build rockets then built SpaceX, one of the most iconic companies. Jack Ma, the founder of Alibaba, is also a huge fan of reading. He said,
Reading can give you a good head start; this is often what your peers cannot obtain. Compared to others, readers are more likely to know other industries’ strategies and tactics. — Jack Ma
How to build sustainable reading habits?
Start small; even reading 10–15 minutes a day will help you build a sustainable habit. Here I wrote my first article on Medium to build sustainable reading habits.
I used to carry books almost everywhere, but Kindle changed my life. It is life-changing, and I am reading way more books than I used to read.
One of my friends is a huge fan of audiobooks. I personally could not develop an interest in audiobooks.
Bill Gates is famous for reading and sharing book notes on his blog, gatesnotes. He is also renowned for spending solo “ThinkWeek” in the woods to develop new ideas without the internet.
Let’s move on to the next part-reflection.
Reflection
Reflection and thought process are included in the 5-hour rule. This might be as simple as looking at the wall or scribbling down your ideas.
Some people love to write down their thoughts in a personal journal to reflect on later.
Focusing on the past allows you to learn from your mistakes and evaluate what you did correctly. Consequently, you’ll be in a better position to attain your objectives and improve your quality of life.
How to start reflecting?
Learning is a process where knowledge is presented to us, then shaped through understanding, discussion and reflection.
— Paulo Freire
I would suggest scheduling 10–15 minutes in your calendar to reflect on our mistakes and success. What did work out very well and what did not. Always start small to build a habit.
For example, you can reflect on your reading. If the author presented a case study, you could ask a couple of questions to yourself. I read somewhere that always asks 5 whys to reach a solution. The 5 whys will help you brainstorm better.
Experimentation
The true method of knowledge is experiment.
— William Blake
Experimentation is the third rule of the 5-hours. Because of his experiments, Thomas Edison reached to reputation as an outstanding inventor and genius.
Experiments are valuable because they provide facts rather than preconceptions. Experiments reveal what is effective. You may improve your skills by learning from your failures and getting feedback from others.
The majority of the time, you’re testing by doing the same things you’d do if you weren’t testing. Almost all the time, big companies do experiments before a public release.
Jack Ma even suggests implementing what you’ve learned in a real-life situation. You may, for example, take on new volunteer work after reading a book about collaboration and teamwork to put your newfound knowledge to practice.
Successful people are always looking forward to applying their knowledge from books to create new products.
Tip: Focus on building a reading habit, then reflect and experiment. A reading habit will pay in almost every track of life.
Bottom Line
In a nutshell, the 5-hour rule means to become a perpetual or lifelong learner. Productivity plays a pivotal role in success, because it’s impossible to bring more ideas to the table without continuous learning.
I always say nothing happened immediately. Like Warren Buffet says, always make a goal to go to bed smarter than you wake up. That’s how compound interest builds up.
Dedicate an hour each day to learn new things to become the best version of yourself. If the most successful people can devote time to reading, we can too. We can easily take inspiration from the voracious readers and their success stories.
Stay consistent; therefore, you don’t feel it’s a burden; instead, enjoy it.
Thank you for reading; follow me and clap a couple of times.
