168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think

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If you haven't done any reading on mindful time management, then I suppose this book is a decent place to start, as long as you remember that Vanderkam wrote it for people *exactly like her*, and take her advice with a pinch of salt. But you'd be better off reading Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity or The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change and working those systems into a lifestyle that's meaningful for *you*.

Get rid of non-core-competency tasks by ignoring, minimizing, or outsourcing them. Always seek work that improves your core competencies, and minimize the rest. Having practiced this strategy for a week, I can safely say that while it is very hard to maintain an accurate log—I am not good at remembering to write down what I’ve done every half hour—it was insightful, and has made me think much more about the activities I don’t want to spend time on, as well as the goals I want to accomplish, and how I might now, build time into my week (not day) to move in a positive direction. In total, I logged 115 hours against 7 core weekly activities. That means I have 53 (168 - 115) hours of remaining time to do with it what I will, including possibly taking time from things like “watching T.V.,” or “social media” to do tasks of higher value. Most of us are used to thinking about time in terms of only a handful of hours—eight hours of work a day, seven hours of sleep, 24 hours in a day. We plan our lives around these small time slots, becoming ever more harried and stressed as we struggle to do the things we say we will do, or want to do, in the allocated time. This is what happens when you treat your 168 hours as a blank slate. This is what happens when you fill them up only with things that deserve to be there. You build a life where you really can have it all.We see and hear that number often enough, but does anyone ever do the math? 24/7 adds up to 168 hours—one week—and, according to Laura Vanderkam, author of 168 Hours, it is the ideal unit by which to examine our lives. Most of us complain about not having enough time to do what it takes to feel successful at home or at work. 168 Hours posits that if we look at the data objectively—how we really spend each hour in an average week—we all have “enough.” After keeping a log for one week, readers can conduct their own Time Makeover: identify dreams and the “actionable steps” they require, optimize “core competencies” and, my favorite, outsource or minimize all the stuff left over. With allowances for downtime and “bits of joy” thrown in, time can finally be on our side, 24/7.”

You should now have a good understanding of why thinking about your time in 24-hour increments is not always the best solution. After all, I don’t mow my lawn every 24 hours, and therefore wouldn't normally think about reducing the frequency of mowing. I’m willing to go out on a limb and bet you’re either overestimating or underestimating what you’re doing with your time.

I might not be the best at all of these skills but nobody else can do them for me seeing as they are things that fulfill me, or that I want to get better at doing (photography and microscopy). In Bill Gates' words, “Most people overestimate what they can do in one year and underestimate what they can do in ten years.” If you answer “no” to these questions, look for what you can change this week and this year. Controlling Your Calendar

The first couple of chapters were insightful and interesting and useful. Many other parts of the book had great ideas and fascinating case studies. I went up and down on this one: yes, helpful in pointing out that priorities matter and just flailing around without thinking about them means you feel like you never have enough time; but, no, admitting that you're incredibly privileged and wealthy doesn't give you brownie points for when you *completely* ignore the effects of that privilege and wealth for the rest of your premise and then insist that *everybody* else is just misguided. It's awesome that you work at home and have a flexible schedule and don't have to factor commute-time in, but HI, THE REST OF THE WORLD MAY NOT WORK THAT WAY. And I say that as someone who enjoys many of those same privileges. (And if reading/listening to music is not one of your priorities, listening to books/music while spending 2 hours each day in the car isn't going to help with that feeling that there's not enough time.) To better manage your time, create a spreadsheet and log all 168 hours of the week. That way, you will have a clear understanding of where your hours are going.

Vanderkam shows how most of us have enough time to do everything that is really important to us. The most successful people manage their time by prioritizing the things that matter most to them and letting other things (e.g., perfectionism, what other people think they should be doing in their stage of life with their time, the things they aren’t that good at) go. She encourages you to list your 100 dreams and core competencies and then arrange your schedule to reflect your aspirations, values, and strengths. Use bits of time for bits of joy. Plan on how to use your time when you are idle or when the unexpected happens. As the title suggests, Vanderkam argues that each of us has 168 hours each week and how we use those hours is a personal choice. By using both research, examples of people who've accomplished an incredible amount of success in several major life areas, and her own, personal examples, this book is full of reasons why they excuse "I'm too busy" is really just a cop-out for not making tough, personal choices on how and where and on whom we spend our time. Hours should be an eye-opener for every one of us who leads a busy, hectic life. Reading it made me appreciate how much “true” amount of time I really have and how to use it wisely and optimally to boost productivity, efficiency, and joy.” This is not just a time management book like the name implies. This really is a book about people living their dream lives and dream jobs and accomplishing their goals, and fundamental to all of that is first taking control of your time.”

Have the kids stay a few extra hours in day care or hire a babysitter for more free time after work - if you spend too much time with your kids it won't be quality time.The best part of the book was Vanderkam's argument that we will be more successful and happy if we focus on our 'core competencies' and outsource the rest of our lives. She does a fantastic job of explaining how certain things in our lives can and should only be done by us and encourages people to hire others to do the things that most of us do, but that aren't part of our core competency skill set (ie: housework, laundry, making huge dinners every night, etc.). Examples of things that are not core competencies for most people are laundry, cleaning the house, or making food (unless of course those things are part of your job, or a fulfilling hobby). Those are tasks you can either outsource, not do at all, or spend less time doing. In the first section of the Reports I see how many hours I scheduled (104) and how many I logged (115). I will note that I only scheduled time for sleep, work and eating. Your children need to be treated as commodities so that you can rank yourself alongside other hyper-successful people. If your offspring disappoint you, drop them off at the adoption agency and start over.