168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think [Hardcover]

Laura Vanderkam (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 27, 2010

There are 168 hours in a week. This book is about where the time really goes, and how we can all use it better.

It's an unquestioned truth of modern life: we are starved for time. With the rise of two-income families, extreme jobs, and 24/7 connectivity, life is so frenzied we can barely find time to breathe. We tell ourselves we'd like to read more, get to the gym regularly, try new hobbies, and accomplish all kinds of goals. But then we give up because there just aren't enough hours to do it all. Or else, if we don't make excuses, we make sacrifices. To get ahead at work we spend less time with our spouses. To carve out more family time, we put off getting in shape. To train for a marathon, we cut back on sleep. 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. They focus on what they do best and what only they can do. When plans go wrong and they run out of time, only their lesser priorities suffer.

It's not always easy, but the payoff is enormous. Vanderkam shows that it really is possible to sleep eight hours a night, exercise five days a week, take piano lessons, and write a novel without giving up quality time for work, family, and other things that really matter. The key is to start with a blank slate and to fill up your 168 hours only with things that deserve your time.

Of course, you probably won't read to your children at 2:00 am, or skip a Wednesday morning meeting to go hiking, but you can cut back on how much you watch TV, do laundry, or spend time on other less fulfilling activities. Vanderkam shares creative ways to rearrange your schedule to make room for the things that matter most.

168 Hours is a fun, inspiring, practical guide that will help men and women of any age, lifestyle, or career get the most out of their time and their lives.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Vanderkam (Grindhopping) offers a new system of time management: if readers want to make more time to spend with their children, get fit, or write that novel, they must slash nonessential time wasters and minimize tasks that are not core competencies, a business term for what a company does best and must prioritize. She offers solid and even excellent career advice, about both how to make the most of time at a current job and how to manage time to get ahead. And there is something curiously fascinating about her bizarrely brutal approach to time management (There's little point... in spending much time on activities in which you can't excel). But given that the author seems to be targeting a very rarefied echelon of upper-middle-class working moms (like herself), the book might have very limited appeal. More alienating, though, is her insistence on pummeling the life out of life. Vanderkam's vision may yield plenty of time to pursue worthy activities, but it's a life leached of color or spontaneity. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

"Within a few pages, Laura Vanderkam''s crisp, entertaining book convinced me I had time to read it. Then it convinced me I had time to reread War and Peace. In the original Russian. Thank you, Laura, for freeing up my schedule."
-Martha Beck, bestselling author of Steering by Starlight

"We so often live our lives day by day. Laura wants us to think about doing it hour by hour. Living this mantra by example, she gets more done in a day than most of us do in a week."
-Seth Godin, author of Linchpin

"168 Hours is filled with tips and tricks on how you can be more efficient every day. By being more productive at work and home, you''ll create more free time to focus on the truly fulfilling activities in your life, rather than the simply mundane."
-Laura Stack, author of Find More Time

"In 168 Hours, Vanderkam packs mounds of real-world case studies and experience to substantiate her system-and I fully agree. You can improve your mastery of time with this invaluable book."
-Dave Crenshaw, author of Invaluable and founder of Invaluable, Inc.

"168 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."
-Sonja Lyubomirsky, author of The How of Happiness

"Laura Vanderkam shows us how to use our only real wealth-our 168 hours a week- to make our lives richer, not busier. That''s a wonderful gift, because it''s what genuine success is all about."
-Geoff Colvin, author of Talent Is Overrated

"Laura Vanderkam''s fluid style and perceptive eye are just the right tools to help create the life of your intentions. 168 Hours is the antidote to ''living for the weekend.''"
-Marc and Amy Vachon, authors of Equally Shared Parenting

"This book is a reality check that leads any reader to say, ''I do have time for what is important to me.'' Full of real life examples, Laura Vanderkam teaches how to pack what matters most into both your work and home life. A must read if you are looking for life-changing strategies to make your next minute, hour or 168 Hours more meaningful."
-Jones Loflin and Todd Musig, Co-authors of Juggling Elephants

"We predict that 168 Hours will fly off the shelves and into the hands of anyone who has ever uttered the words: ''I''m SO busy!'' or ''If only I had more time!'' Vanderkam''s approach is incredibly powerful and resonant given the average American watches 4 hours of television. A day!"
-Cali Ressler and Jody Thompson, Co-Creators of Results-Only Work Environment (ROWE) and Co-Authors of Why Work Sucks and How to Fix It

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Portfolio Hardcover (May 27, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1591843316
• ISBN-13: 978-1591843313
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #573,311 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Laura Vanderkam is the author of All The Money In The World: What The Happiest People Know About Getting and Spending (Portfolio, March 1, 2012), 168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think (Portfolio, 2010), and Grindhopping: Build a Rewarding Career Without Paying Your Dues (McGraw-Hill, 2007).

She is a member of USA Today's Board of Contributors, writes the "168 Hours" blog for CBS MoneyWatch, and her work has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, City Journal, Scientific American, Reader's Digest, Prevention, Fortune.com, and other publications. She has appeared on numerous television programs, including The Today Show and Fox & Friends, hundreds of radio segments, and has spoken about time, money and productivity to audiences ranging from the Healthcare Businesswomen's Association to MTV's employees to graduating seniors at her high school, the Indiana Academy, who brought her back as their commencement speaker in 2006.

A 2001 graduate of Princeton, she enjoys running, writing fiction, and serving as president of the Board of Trustees for The Young New Yorkers' Chorus, an organization which specializes in commissioning new music from composers under age 35. She lives outside Philadelphia with her husband, two young sons and baby daughter.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

86 of 93 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars How to make the most of "the 168-hour mosaic of our lives", May 29, 2010

By 

Robert Morris (Dallas, Texas) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: 168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think (Hardcover)

There is no shortage of books on the subject of time management. In fact, the last time I checked, Amazon offers 11,229 of them but not one of them explains how to increase the number of hours within a seven-day period: it is 168, no more and no less. What sets this book apart from the dozens of other books on time management that I have read is the fact that Laura Vanderkam rigorously follows what Albert Einstein recommends: "Make everything as simple as possible...but no simpler." For example, in the first chapter, she suggests, "Picture a completely empty weekly calendar with its 168 hourly slots." She then helps her reader to document his or her (the reader's) current allocation of time. She achieves that objective as well as each of her other primary objectives such as disabusing her reader of major misconceptions about how much time (on average) people spend on sleep, work, and leisure time components. While doing so, she cites real-world examples (i.e. real people in real time) that both illustrate and confirm basic strategies that produce more and more enjoyable as well as better, and achieved sooner, in less time. She also identifies the core competencies that her reader must develop and then leverage to achieve that same objective. She is at her best when explaining how to determine what the "right job" is, what it requires, and how to obtain it.

[She cites Teresa Amabile's admonition, "You should do what you love, and you should love what you do." If that doesn't suggest what a "right job" is, I don't know what does.]

Vanderkam also explains how to control investment of time so that "there should be almost nothing during your work hours - whatever you choose those to be - that is not advancing you toward your goals for the career and life you want"; how to determine what the "next level" of personal and professional development looks like and how to "seize control" of the schedule while completing a transition to that level; and what a "breakthrough" is and how to achieve it to expedite the transition process. Vanderkam believes, and I fully agree, that our lives proceed through a series of levels above or below, better or worse than where we were previously; the journey to each should be one of personal discovery; and that it is important to know what we value most but we must realize that priorities change at various points in our lives as circumstances, relationships, obligations, and aspirations change. Each life is, quite literally, a "work in progress."

At the outset of this review, I noted that Amazon now offers almost 12,000 books on time management. Several of them are outstanding. In my opinion, 168 Hours is less about time management than it is about self-management (especially self-discipline) as well as decision-making (especially setting priorities). Laura Vanderkam provides about as much information and counsel as anyone needs to alleviate a real or perceived time crunch, leverage core competencies, define and then locate or create the "right jib," control rather than be controlled by a calendar, achieve breakthroughs to greater understanding higher-impact performance, and in all life domains (career, family, personal, community, and society) be happier and more productive.

I congratulate her on a brilliant achievement. Bravo!

255 of 287 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Don't Waste Any Of Your 168 Hours On This Book, August 30, 2010

By 

Karen Hall (Northeast Ohio) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: 168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think (Hardcover)

I usually try to be fair and tactful in any review, but the only honest thing I can say about this book was it was a horrible waste of time.

For starters, the suggestions the author makes really only apply to people who are (a) professionals in corporate environments who have subordinates and flexible schedules, or people who are self-employed, either way making probably at least $100,000 a year; and (b) people who are married with children. I guess the author assumes if those criteria don't apply to you, you must not be busy enough to worry about.

She certainly shouldn't have needed an entire book to state her suggestions, which can be summed up simply: for every thing you don't want to do in your life, either get someone else to do it, or just ignore it.

The 'getting someone else to do it' involves delegating (at work, to subordinates; at home, to other family members) or hiring someone to do it for you. To be fair, delegating at work is a great idea if there are reasonably people you can delegate to; I knew that wouldn't apply to me, but there's not much I can change about my job, and I got the book more for suggestions of how to create more free time in my home life.

That's the chapter that really bombed for me. If I followed this author's advice, I'd have a maid, a cook, a lawn & garden service, and a laundry service - all on my legal secretary's salary. She blithely talks about the $2,500 a year one of these services costs, or recommends a personal shopping assistant like the one she used - at a cost of $400, all she had to do was "try on clothes and hand people my credit card."

Yeah, because all of us have that kind of cash to throw around. This author often made me feel like those of us making 'average' wages (less than $40,000 a year) are just peasants who, since we can't afford a single one of her suggestions, apparently don't deserve more leisure time. Maybe in her world, only the upper class citizenry deserve that luxury.

I think the dumbest thing I read in this book was this: she suggested that to save hours making dinner night after night, you should either go out to eat, or purchase pre-cooked, frozen meals to heat up (not TV dinners, heaven forbid, she's talking about using some type of catering service or expensive online service that ships you meals) ... and then she graciously says that if you can't afford that option, you might consider taking a second job to pay for it.

Really? That gives me MORE time to myself? I stop cooking to save a few hours a week, and then have to take a second job to pay for this "time-saving suggestion"?

And she got paid to come up with these? Obviously I AM in the wrong line of work.

I realize no one book is perfect for everyone, but this author doesn't even appear to try to offer any useful suggestions to anyone who doesn't fit into her tiny category of people who could afford to do what she suggests. That's fine, but the book really ought to be re-titled so that the rest of us know there's nothing there of use to us. Something like "168 Hours: How To Buy Yourself Some Free Time On Over $100K A Year" might about do it.

I am an avid reader, and have read a LOT of books. Not all of them have been good, but I realize no author can please everyone, and I'm usually pretty forgiving. But I just couldn't do it for this author's elitist attitude and absolutely useless suggestions.

Don't waste your money or time on this book - if you're looking for inspiration, get a good book on 'simplifying your life' instead - real world suggestions that generally cost little to no money (in fact, often save money) and provide tangible results for anyone, regardless of status or income.

24 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars How Real People Accomplish Their Dreams in 168 Hours A Week, May 27, 2010

By 

Siddartha Savara "SidSavara.com - Personal De... (Honolulu, HI) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: 168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think (Hardcover)

I read this book cover to cover in one sitting on a plane ride, and I love it. Laura divides the book into a few different sections, and discuses strategies for making/finding time at work as well as at home. The end of the book has a number of "time-makeovers", which shows step by step how the strategies in the book were applied to actual people's lives to improve them.

One thing I really enjoyed about this book is how the author backs everything up with research. All the statistics have references, which I'm a bit of a stickler for, I hate seeing a statistic thrown out there as fact with no reference to back it up - thankfully, this book does back everything up.