Customer Reviews

168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

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!

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.

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.

The demographic this book seems to aim at are women who either (1) are evaluating staying in the work force full-time after having a child; and (2)those who already have children and continue to work full time. Most of the anecdotes revolve around succesful women that had children and continued to work full time. Apparently most men have no time management issues.
It seems that the author never missed an opportunity, no matter how slim, to imply that time constraints could not justify a woman working less than than full-time once they became a parent. Far better to work full time, spend "quality time" with the children doing the things only you can, and then pack them off daily to a quality daycare for all of those routine needs that anyone could perform just as well as you.

As far as most of her time management tips...watch less TV. The rest were most useful to those who (1) are self employed-thus having nobody to answer to; (2) have jobs that are task driven and can be done anytime (ie-writing); (3) have enough cash to hire someone else to do all of the things they do not want to (laundry, cleaning, cooking). If you see yourself here, BUY THIS BOOK!

I had enjoyed Ms Vanderkam's periodical pieces and had high hopes for this book, but would definitely not recommend it to somebody looking for Time Management tips. It took too much time to sift through all the fluff to find the few that were useful.

I am in love with this book. Seriously. It will totally change the way you think about the concept of time - and how you spend it. If "time is money" - then reading 168 HOURS is one investment that will keep on giving. Laura Vanderkam (who I first came across when she wrote an incredible op-ed in USA Today in August of 2009 called "The Princess Problem") absolutely nails it with this book... and if you think you don't have time to read 168 HOURS, then it's all the more reason why you will be high-five-ing yourself if you do. Reading chapters 2 & 3 alone (Your Core Competencies & The Right Job, respectively) are worth the price of the book but that's just scratching the surface. Bottom line: if you've ever felt (like I sure have prior to reading this fantastic book) like a time-starved-rat-on-a-hamster-wheel, you will adore 168 HOURS. Highly recommended.

This book seems to be targeted at upper-middle class people with substantial control over their time and money to outsource. Vanderkam has some good thoughts about focusing on what is important in life. To summarize in her own words, "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."

The toughest times of my life have been being there for my 60 year old father-in-law during a complex cancer death and spending a month on my side in the hospital hoping my twins wouldn't be born too prematurely. Another friend has a severely disabled child who requires constant, complex care.

If your life is "normal", with no crises like these, the book has good advice to quit watching TV, etc. But for many of us, careers are not flexible, either by the nature of the job (oil well drilling and cardiology come to mind) or the nature of our employer (who doesn't have to be flexible in this economy). For those outside urban areas or with lower incomes, outsourcing choices are limited.

An OK book targeted at the sort of people who read the NY Times.

Seriously. You do.

When I was a programmer, I thought I worked so many hours, even up to 100. I have come to realize that while I may have sat at my computer that long, or been in the office that long, I really didn't work that long. And as much as you think that you do work a lot hours, chances are, you really don't.

If you don't buy that idea, you really need to read Laura Vanderkam's new book, 168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think. If you want to be able to train for a marathon, and don't think you have the time, you need to read this book. If you want to read the latest novel, but don't think you have the time, you need to read this book.

We all have 168 hours. The key is how you use them.

It's an unquestioned truth of modern life: we are all starved for time. With the rise of two-income families, extreme jobs, and the ability to log on to the world 24/7, life is so frenzied we can barely breathe. But what if we actually have plenty of time? What if we could sleep eight hours a night, exercise five days a week, and learn how to play the piano without sacrificing work, family time, or any other activity that is important to us? According to Laura Vanderkam, we can. If we re-examine our weekly allotment of 168 hours, we'll find that, with a little reorganization and prioritizing, we can dedicate more time to the things we want to do without having to make sacrifices.

The book's author is Laura Vanderkam. Laura is also the author of Grindhopping: Building a Rewarding Career Without Paying Your Dues. She is a member of USA Today's Board of Contributors. She is also a freelance writer and her work has appeared in Reader's Digest, Scientific American, Wired, The American, Portfolio and other publications.

Knowledge is power, and when it comes to understanding how we use our time, we often lack the knowledge. Laura opens the book with the myth of the time crunch, helping the reader realize that too often we overestimate the hours we spend on a task, whether it is work, or housekeeping or parenting. The real problem is that most of us do not have any idea how we spend our 168 hours.

To solve that, she suggests that we begin to keep a time diary. This was a real eye-opener for me. I had no idea how much time I wasted searching the internet, reading social media sites, watching television, etc. You cannot change what you do not know. I was surprised a couple of years ago when I made note of everything I ate. I was shocked at how much I ate just walking through the kitchen as I was heading to the bathroom or to the home office. A handful of chips here, another snack there. When I wrote it all down, it changed the way I thought about food, making me think about what and how I ate. By keeping track of our time, down to the minute, we get to see how much time we waste!

Once we see how much time we are wasting, we can begin to reprioritize our time to accomplish what we want to accomplish, whether its playing the piano or writing that next novel.

Vanderkam offers some very practical advice for helping you find your core competencies, which are often the things you love to do. And if you love what you do, you will have more energy for the rest of your life as well. If you are trying to build a career while raising a young family, you will have more energy for your children if you work 50 hours a week in a job you love than if you work 30 hours in a job you hate. Therefore, you need to be in the right job. While the book is not a book on career advice, Laura does offer thoughts on finding the perfect job for you, and it is often a job that does not have a traditional job description.

In addition Vanderkam offers suggestions for creating a calendar that allows you to accomplish your core competencies, be more productive, and achieve what you want. In a competitive work environment, we think we need to be in the office late. But is it possible to leave at 5 pm and have time with the family and then work later, after the kids have gone to sleep? And still get the eight hours of sleep we need? And the exercise we need? Yes, it is possible, and Laura shows you how.

Vanderkam then offers suggestions on managing your time at home. There was a very interesting stat I came across as I read this section of the book: more parenting takes place today than in the 1950's by both mother and father. In the 1950's stay at home mothers spent less time with their children, despite the fact that they were home, than mothers do today. Why? More housework. Today's parents, and mothers in particular, are willing to let the housework go so they can spend more time with their children.

That does not mean that your house needs to be dirty and messy. It means that if you prioritize your time toward parenting, then you need to be willing to forego you doing the cleaning. The same with laundry. She suggests that you outsource those tasks by finding people who will do it for you. Often the monetary cost is less than we think and the time savings it provides us allows us to do more of the things at which we are most effective and love.

Creating a full life and aligning your time is not an easy task. But if you do, you can have the time to achieve what you want to achieve out of life.

I really enjoyed this book. It is extremely practical while being more than just challenging you to count your minutes and hours. The author helps you understand how you are best motivated, employing the ideas from Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, the Hungarian psychology professor and author of Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience. At the end of each chapter, she challenges you through questions that cause you to consider the possibilities rather than being stuck in the box you create for yourself. At the end of the book, she provides a look into real case studies of how people used their time, how they changed their time usage, and the impact this had on their life. Finally, this is a book of experience. Laura provides interviews of people who have achieved much through their core competencies, time management, and outsourcing. It is not a book of facts, though it includes some potent ones, but a book of experiences. It empowers you to say, "I can do this!" And you can.

With a little work and a little change, you can make the best use of your 168 hours.

The subtitle to Laura Vanderkam's "168 Hours" is You Have More Time Than You Think. Indeed, that is the thesis she carries very convincingly throughout the book. Vanderkam tracks people's activities by the half-hour (real time diaries are included) to demonstrate that people fritter away more time than they think. The upside, therefore, is now that you know this, you can choose your activities more consciously and get this time back.

I loved this book. Full disclosure: Vanderkam cited one of my coaching exercises in this book. But I shared the exercise in the first place because when Vanderkam and I connected, I loved the thesis of the book. I have used time diaries for myself since the 1990's and have recommended them to my coaching clients for 10 years now. Like tracking your food intake or spending habits, tracking your time is very powerful in reshaping your self-awareness and priorities.

Vanderkam tackles both work and home activity as she looks at time spent. She offers a lot of concrete examples and practical suggestions. If you don't have a high degree of flexibility and professional autonomy some of the strategies may be hard to implement. But the intended reader is likely not in that boat so this is a small downside. The book is inspirational and a great time management and productivity resource. It is not structured as a how-to like a David Allen or Stephen Covey book, but it delivers a deeper message: "168 Hours" is about making conscious choices, wise and meaningful choices about what we do with our time. It's not about doing more, but about doing what matters.

The biggest advantage of this book is that it gets you thinking about your 168 hours, but beyond that, I'm not sure it's very practical. I have to agree with another reviewer - it is a very upper-middle-class targeted book. While I may not agree with many things (paying for things you can do yourself in just a few minutes and making your kid eat school lunch - ugh! - being the top two), the first chapter or two was useful, as it had me taking a log of what I *actually* do during the week. Seeing where my time goes was pretty helpful. You can do that for free, or with the aid of her website, though... Also useful was thinking about "I don't have time to do X" in terms of "it's not a priority to do X", but, again, free. I guess the "case studies" might be useful, too, but I didn't find them to be a significant aid.

I write for much of my living (management professor), and so I have less time than I would like to read books, which is one of my passions. Nonetheless, when a book comes around that gets me to reassess my priorities and manage my life better, then I am glad I read it. Laura Vanderkam's 168 Hours is just such a book. I agree with other reviewers that it is less about time management than life management. Her book not only provides great suggestions for getting more out of each week, it also informs and justifies why one should make the effort to prioritize one's waking hours. I will be applying what I've learned from 168 Hours to once again lead a more fulfilling life.

Aneil Mishra, Ph.D.
Co-Author of Trust is Everything: Become the Leader Others will Follow
[...].