We all have the same number of hours each day, and it’s up to us to decide how we spend them. According to “the 5-hour rule,” how we choose to spend those hours might mean the difference between success and mediocrity. There are 24 hours in a day. The average person sleeps around eight hours, with the Dutch sleeping the most and the Singaporeans the least. After we subtract 7 hours of working time, we’re down to 9 remaining hours. Much of those 9 hours are taken up by shopping, housework, unpaid labor (e.g. care work), eating and drinking. Of course, there are massive cultural differences. For instance, people in France, Greece, Italy and Spain report spending more time eating than people in most other European countries. The country where people spend the least time eating and drinking is the USA (63 minutes). Most people have at least a few hours to do with what they want. For more than half of the population, those hours are wasted away on non-work-related phone worship. But these are not the people who will become the entrepreneurs, innovators, and success stories of tomorrow. The “5-hour rule” is the rule where we spend one hour a day learning, reflecting, and thinking. We do this five times a week, which makes up the “5-hour” rule. The rule dates to Benjamin Franklin, who would devote an hour each day specifically to learning something new. Today, Elon Musk, Oprah Winfrey, and Bill Gates all employ some version of the 5-hour rule. So, why not give the 5-hour rule a go? At worst, it will make you a bit more interesting at the next family gathering. At best, it might make you a few million dollars.