Laura Vanderkam’s 168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think (Penguin) has two genuine insights to offer. The first is right there in the subtitle: Many of us—especially those of us who claim to be insanely busy—probably aren’t quite as overworked as we claim, and that it is in fact possible to fit in most of what you actually want to do during the typical week. The second follows more or less directly from the first: Become more self-conscious about how you use your time, and you will both accomplish more and be happier about it.” There has to be a better way...and Laura Vanderkam has found one. After interviewing dozens of successful, happy people, she realized that they allocate their time differently than most of us. Instead of letting the daily grind crowd out the important stuff, they start by making sure there's time for the important stuff. When plans go wrong and they run out of time, only their lesser priorities suffer.

According to James Clear, the author of Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones, on average it takes about 66 days (2 months) for a new behavior to become automatic (though that number is not clear-cut and for some people it takes less or more). Give yourself enough time to do it. If you don’t manage to get it right the first time, just keep trying. Change is hard. Pros and cons of the 168 hours time management method probably my favorite part of this book was where vanderkam contrasts the reports of how people think they spend their time versus how they actually spend it. i used to have a friend who claimed that, between her actual outside-the-house job & a small side business that she ran to help make ends meet, she worked an average of 80 hours a week. & yet, she didn't come close to keeping traditional 9-5 hours (more like 11-3), & she spent enormous chunks of time sitting on her porch smoking weed & watching TV. i kind of wanted to buy a copy of this book & leave it on her doorstep. i'm sure she felt as stressed out as someone who really did work 80 hours a week, but that was probably a function of guilt over having such terrible time management skills. Hours does, indeed, contain a lot of food for thought. There are ideas in here that can truly make an immediate difference in your life, and various statistics that will put your mind to rest. And once you read it, you’ll no longer have to struggle to find an excuse for avoiding things: as author Laura Vanderkam says, if you don’t like to do something, own the truth.” I would usually give a book like this one star as it could be boiled down to fit on a 3X5 index card, but instead was bulked out into book-length form by adding dozens of examples of perfect people who “have it all.” I’ve never met anyone remotely like that. And, yes, I get it that we have 168 hours in a week and that I could do more with my time. On the other hand a lot of the really “successful” people I know bore the shit out of me and have nothing to say that I want to hear. Someone talking to me about their training for a marathon or other work-out routine stuff is at the bottom rung of conversation; it's on the same level as talking about bodily functions. So, let’s dig a little deeper into how you can go about implementing this time management strategy in your life.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.) Work rarely consumes 100% of anyone’s time. Even the people who say that they work 80 hour weeks rarely work that hard. There is always room for improvement. Do you know how you are using your time now? Or, in an average week of 168 hours, where is that time going?

Remember, while this first exercise is a good starting point, the optimism bias is probably at play and I am either underestimating or overestimating how much time I spent on each task, depending on what it entails. For example, while I might think I only sleep about 7 hours a day, I might not be taking into account, the time I take getting to sleep, or even napping. The idea that we’re under a ‘time crunch’ is a myth. The real crisis all of us are under is more along the lines of misuse of time. We spend our time doing things that aren’t very high on our real personal priority list. It’s not just the time we waste doing unimportant stuff. It’s also the time we spend being productive towards ends that really don’t mean very much in our life.” The core concept behind this time management strategy is that all of us have the same amount of time in a week—168 hours—but it’s what we do with this time that makes all the difference. Use bits of time for bits of joy. Plan on how to use your time when you are idle or when the unexpected happens. 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.”I think Laura Vanderkam has a great take on modern life, especially for women. Since reading 168 Hours for the first time, I've returned to her thoughts on managing my time with a "portfolio mindset" again and again. Vanderkam somehow manages to combine the revolutionary with the completely practical, and the result is a fresh take on time management. It’s not a time management book (though it can certainly help you manage your hours). It’s more of a ‘wake up and open your eyes, you twit,’ kind of book. Or, for those who prefer the gentler version, it’s the sort of book that says, ‘Isn’t this interesting? Look at how much time you really have. Now what are you going to do about it?’” Monitor your energy throughout the day and figure out when you'll need zone out time. You may find that you have lower energy as a result of psychological factors (not just less sleep). Even high-intensity positive emotions can be physically and mentally taxing. You don’t need to be a time management guru to appreciate the potential. If you take into account the fact that it only takes 20 hours to learn a new skill, you’ll be well on your way to planning more exciting and efficient weeks than ever before. When you focus on what you do best, on what brings you the most satisfaction, there is plenty of space for everything” Creating the Right Job