The 5 hour rule
The 5-Hour Rule: How a Few Intentional Hours a Week Can Transform Your Wellbeing and Weight Loss
Have you heard of the 5-hour rule? It’s the idea that some of the most successful people in history — Benjamin Franklin, Oprah Winfrey, Bill Gates — dedicate five hours a week to deliberate learning and personal growth. That’s just five hours out of 168.
When I first came across this idea, it made me stop and think. I had been spending hours every week doing paperwork, racing between commitments and prioritising everyone else's needs … but almost no intentional time on myself. In addition, I felt drained, directionless, drab, and stuck. The pattern was clear: I wasn’t investing enough time in me.
When I learned about this 5-hour principle (I don't like 'rules') I realised that it was really how I had lost weight and kept it off. Because I wasn't focussing on weight loss, I had shifted my focus to my wellbeing. And improving your wellbeing isn't about grand gestures or short-term fixes, it's about small, consistent deliberate actions that help you grow — not just physically, but mentally and emotionally too. And weight loss is a natural side effect.
What if you adopted the 5-hour principle and dedicated five hours a week to you, your wellbeing, your personal growth? Even if that’s just 15 minutes a day on some days, you’ll start to see changes that last. And if you use that time to dig into your patterns, habits, and mindset — the very things I explore in The Mindset Diet — the transformation is even more powerful.
Why the 5-Hour Rule Works for Weight Loss
When you commit to those 5 hours a week, you’re doing three powerful things:
Creating consistency — small, repeated actions add up to lasting change.
Building self-awareness — noticing your patterns gives you the power to change them.
Investing in yourself — you’re saying, “My wellbeing matters as much as everything else.”
That’s the mindset shift that sustains weight loss. Not going on a diet. Not an injection. Not a quick hack. But an intentional choice to dedicate time to your personal growth.
Why It Doesn’t Have to Be an Hour a Day
The phrase “5-hour rule” can sound intimidating. But here’s the thing: it doesn’t have to mean an hour every day, let alone all at once.
You can:
✨ Spread your time across the week
✨ Break it into 10–15 minute chunks
✨ Fit it around your energy levels and schedule
This is what makes it sustainable because you make it bespoke to you, your schedule, your lifestyle. A 15-minute walk at lunchtime, 20 minutes of journaling in the evening, 30 minutes on one coaching activity one evening a week, one hour on Sunday to plan your week and prep your food. Each choice counts.
The goal isn’t perfection. It’s building a rhythm of intentional time for you.
How to Use the 5-Hour Rule for Weight Loss
Here’s one way to break down your five hours each week and how The Mindset Diet can guide you through each step.
🕐 Planning & Preparing
Decide on meals, shop for ingredients, or batch cook something simple. Reducing daily “what’s for dinner?” stress makes healthy eating easier.
👉 In The Mindset Diet, the “Observe” stage helps you notice your food habits so you can plan with awareness, not autopilot.
🕐 Moving Your Body
Walk, dance, stretch, lift weights or play a team sport — choose whatever feels good to you. Movement should give you flexibility, physical and emotional strength and energy — it shouldn't drain you.
👉 Use the book’s "Declutter" activities to explore the beliefs that keep you stuck and shift them.
🕐 Mindset Journaling
Reflect on your habits, triggers, and the emotions tied to food. Ask: What went well this week? Where did I wobble? What can I learn?
👉 My book gives you 36 coaching activities to build your self-awareness and you can deepen these reflections and become an even more empowered eater through journalling.
🕐 De-stressing
Protect time for rest: meditation, yoga, reading, or a bath. Stress is one of the biggest drivers of weight gain through cortisol, lack of mental clarity and emotional eating.
👉 The Mindset Diet shows you how to “Thrive not Survive” so you can create routines and rituals that support you long term.
🕐 Nourishing You
Learn to reframe your thinking, listen to your body and eat for a purpose. When you're in alignment you can let your inner world guide you, not your environment.
👉 The Mindset Diet shows you how to “Maintain”, how to master your mindset so you're not relying on motivation and willpower to achieve your goals.
🕐 Learning & Growing
Read, research or revisit a section of The Mindset Diet. Growth is about curiosity and expanding your perspective. Increased understanding of your mind and body work will fuel your progress.
👉 Each section of the The Mindset Diet builds on the last, helping you move from observing your patterns to maintaining new habits long-term. I guide you through the four stages of learning so you can go from disillusioned dieter to an empowered eater with grace and ease - without going on a diet.
Your Next Step ...
What would it look like if you gave yourself five hours this week?
It doesn’t have to be perfect. You just have to start.
My invitation: Use one of those hours to read The Mindset Diet. Let it be your guide as you build new habits, uncover your patterns and design a way of living that supports your health for the long term while achieving your career goals.
Even better, book a one-hour coaching session with me to make sure you make the most of your good intentions.
Because 5 hours a week isn’t just an investment in weight loss — it’s an investment in you.
