This post was contributed to Leisure Freak by the accomplished entrepreneur and personal finance influencer Erik Bergman. 

When it comes to retiring early, it’s all about achieving financial freedom. But what many fail to recognize is that to achieve financial freedom, you have to change habits. Some habits work against your efforts to retire early. So by saving time on these habits, you are making it easier to do that.

Achieving financial freedom before retirement isn’t easy. Not only do you need to root out some habits to save time, but you also need to prepare mentally. While it’s easy to put off your retirement plan for another year or two down the line, imagine how different things would be if you had saved that time instead. So if you want to retire early, you need to act now and not in hindsight. With the help of our tips, you can do that. So without wasting too much of your time, let’s look at how to retire early by saving time on habits.

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Go To Bed Earlier

One of the most common bad habits we all do is not getting enough sleep. We are encouraged to get anywhere between seven and eight hours of sleep each night. Are you sure you’re getting enough sleep? Sleep is an important biological function that no one can survive without. Not only does sleeping help replenish energy, but it prepares you for the next day.

All successful people get enough sleep. So to do that, you need to start changing your bedtime habits. Are you going to bed at the right hour, or are you wasting time by scrolling through social media, watching TV, or playing games on your smartphone? If the answer is yes to any of these three, then you’re not getting enough sleep. In that case, the only way to get enough sleep is to wake up later in the day.

But morning is the most important part of the day. It prepares you for the day to come, and waking up earlier makes you fresher and more productive. My simple tip is to go to bed earlier by reducing screen time. On average, you will be saving more than ten hours a week. This is one of the four habits that save time and help you retire early.

Quit Poisoning Your Mind and Body

We have all kinds of habits that negatively impact both our minds and body. These habits make it difficult for you to function the next day. Even more so, they create a downward spiral that makes you less productive. In turn, the less productive you are during the week, the less work you’ll do. This negatively contributes to your goal to retire early.

The whole point of retiring earlier is to enjoy retirement more. So with every small action, you make that will negatively impact this goal, you are losing valuable time. People have all kinds of negative habits. But some hinder your ability to achieve financial freedom. Some are so harmful that they actively work against early retirement. Drinking is one of those harmful habits. The more you drink, the less productive you are. While you’re certainly not a stranger to the idea of alcohol, having too much of it can harm your mind and body.

If things spiral out of control, then you indeed lose all control. The habits become the norm. Every morning becomes a struggle to sober up and deal with hangovers. This hinders your personal and professional development. So, you need to start thinking about changes. One of the best changes is to replace the whiskey glass with dumbbells. Exercise is your best tool to help you deal with this problem.

Many people drink to stop depressive thoughts. According to this study, exercise is the best tool to combat depression and addiction.

Save Time By Preparing Easier Meals

Much like sleep, we depend on food for energy. Without eating, we wouldn’t be able to survive. So naturally, eating is something unavoidable. But you’ll be amazed to find out just how much time you’re losing every day preparing meals and thinking about what to eat.

Meal preparation takes, on average, one hour each day. You can spend that hour more productively elsewhere. But that doesn’t take into account the process of figuring out what you’ll be eating three times a day. So what’s the solution to this problem? Like in personal finance, planning is key. By planning what you’ll be eating for the whole week in advance, you’ll save valuable time grocery shopping, preparing, and cooking.

Make this a habit, and you’ll start realizing just how much time you’re saving on average. You can invest the time saved into planning for early retirement.

Stop Watching Television

The last habit is similar to the first but different in many ways. We mentioned that to prepare for early retirement, you need to prepare your body and mind for it. Everyone owns a television. And everyone has the same habit of watching TV when back from work. But what television does is it makes you a slave to it.

You watch more just to satisfy your need for daily entertainment. That could be watching a fun game show, TV series, or even watching the news. People watch the news to know what’s happening around the world and at home. But what happens around the world doesn’t really impact you or your day in any way. You’ll still go to work and come back tired.

So instead of watching television, try to do something else that will have a positive effect on your early retirement plan. On average, quitting television can save up to four hours each day.

This informative article was contributed to Leisure Freak by Erik Bergman. We all can find ways to be more productive in reaching our early retirement financial goals. A little self  analysis goes a long way and tweaking non productive habits costs little to nothing.

  Author Bio: Erik Bergman co-founded Catena Media and helped grow it to over 300 employees and a $200 million valuation before stepping away to start Great.com, an iGaming organization that donates 100% of its profits to environmental charities. In addition to running a successful online affiliate business, Erik also hosts the Becoming Great podcast, shares entrepreneurship tips with his more than 1 million social media followers, and contributes to sites like Entrepreneuer.com, Business Insider, Foundr, and Forbes.