Jellybeans Illustrate The Importance Of Maximizing Our Lives

How do you spend your time?

There are many demands on our time these days and those demands only seem to be increasing in terms of both quantity and intensity. The Time You Have Left (In Jellybeans) by Ze Frank takes an interesting approach to breaking down how the average American will use their limited time: 28,835 jellybeans are used (one bean is one day) to illustrate your life and put your time in perspective. Slowly beans (and your living days) are raked away, destined to be spent sleeping, working, eating, traveling, cleaning the house, cleaning yourself, engaging in civil responsibilities or planted in front of the television (where the average American will spend 2,676 days of their life, despite the fact that there have been only two seasons of House of Cards).

In the end Frank concludes that you have 2,740 days all to yourself in which to pursue your passions – that’s less than ten percent of your entire life.

Steal Back Beans And Make The Most Of The Beans You Have

The takeaway here ties right into the thesis of Toward Vandalia – all of our time must be fully maximized! You’ll spend 3,202 days at work, so make sure you’re doing something you love or at least find some way to love what you’re doing. Prepare meals with loved ones to steal some precious moments. Take two minute showers to get even more beans back. Take public transport so travel time becomes leisure reading time. The numbers don’t lie, sure, but Frank has painted a picture of the average American and I’m betting you’re not interested in being merely average.

As we move forward, I aim to help you steal back precious beans and ensure that you’re allocating them toward the most satisfying life you can imagine for yourself. In the end, though, the hard work will be left up to you.

As Frank asks at the end of his video:

What are you going to do today?

5 thoughts on “Jellybeans Illustrate The Importance Of Maximizing Our Lives

  1. It’s really spooky to look at life in that perspective. My favorite part was, “find a way to love what you do.” I don’t know how many days I’ve come home cursing my job and how many after hours complaining about it when I have just been wasting precious time! And even though there have only been 2 seasons of House of Cards, there have been 5 of Breaking Bad and 8 of Dexter! :-p

    1. That’s it! At some point we will all find ourselves stuck in a job that we don’t love but that we have to stick with for one reason or another. I’ve always got a lot out of my workplace relationships, which got me through some unsavory situations. Just as important is to leave all of your work worries at the door – our free time to spend with friends, family and working on our own stuff is too precious to spend worrying about things we can’t change.

      As for Breaking Bad – I haven’t gone down that rabbit hole yet, haha.

      Good to hear from you, Janice! I hope you’re well 🙂

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