Customer Reviews

The Other 8 Hours: Maximize Your Free Time to Create New Wealth & Purpose

5 star:		(29)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I'm pretty shocked at the generally high reviews of this book. While I found there to be some vaguely useful tips, in general it's pretty long winded and short on usable info. In particular the folksy story that started each chapter were useless. The frequent references to church and the bible are fairly annoying and borderline preachy. How is it that he manages to incorporate faith in almost every chapter of a book on how to maximize your time??

In short I would say that if it hasn't occurred to you that watching less television would be a good way to increase productivity in the other 8 hours of your day, then you could probably benefit from reading this book. If you're already somewhat analytical about how you're spending your time, then this book might be a waste of your time.

I'm giving it a star for some useful websites that could be helpful in starting a business, but even then his treatment of how business are started isn't particularly thorough. He frequently mentions angel investors vs. VC investors without describing the important differences between the two. Is the author assuming his audience who doesn't know video games are a time suck already aware of the differences in these two important funding sources for getting their business off the ground?? Throughout the book the author recommends putting together an e-book to test the waters for your business idea, and in the end this book reads like a bunch of 20 page e-books compiled in to a collection of tips, not a comprehensive study on time management.

DO NOT PAY FOR THIS BOOK. Get it from your local library. The small amount of useful information is not worth the space it will occupy on your bookshelf.

I think this book is well written, and it certainly explores a VERY interesting concept. What it doesn't provide is a roadmap for folks whose lives don't fit nicely into the 8 hour pie - 8 hours work, 8 hours sleep and 8 hours to develop your life. I'm over-simplifying but you can get the point.

My 8 hours to develop my life go about like this: 2 hours commuting, daily, watching my two toddlers after work, dinner, laundry, cleaning, and then there's shopping, car maintenance. So, I watch TV - EXHAUSTED at 9 pm for 1 hour while I wait for the sleeping meds to work and the dryer to finish. And I am back at it again, starting at 4:45 am. I am so damn wiped by 9 pm - it was kind of insulting to me to be told to work on my life. And I don't even watch TV every night - a lot of nights I read for a bit.

On my commute - I make sure the ipod is packed with lots of great learning materials - that's a no-brainer. Anyone with an hour commute has figured this out, usually their first week. That was a useful tip - but everyone already knows it.

The chapter on swapping off time for other people doing your tasks - like I cook three meals - and my one neighbor does something for us and then the other neighbor does something else for us - for the meal. OMG - WHAT FRIGGGGIN world is the author living in???

I guess the book left me kind of outraged. And desperate - because I thought this could be a bit of a roadmap, or at least I get some ideas. I didn't.

Although a lot of other people did. And if you are watching 5 hours of TV EVERY night - this book had better speak to you - and loudly.

But on the other hand,if you have kids, are pretty much carrying the entire world on your back and commuting quite a bit - and really need your job - this might not be the best book for you. I was kind of annoyed, felt preached at and now feel pretty bad that I should be doing more.

When I first heard of the book I thought. Oh no, now a time management system that figures out what to do instead of sleep - which for me would be the other 8 hours (well actually, I would rarely sleep that long).

But the gist of The Other 8 Hours discussed in the book are the hours that you're not sleeping and not working. So it's the time after work essentially.

I think the book would be more appropriately targeted to those who have a job. To those who, like myself, work for themselves or are serious executives, working much more hours than full time jobs, the book is not as appropriate.

The gist of the message I completely agree with and that is get off the couch and learn something or do something with the other 8 hours. That's the best and easiest way to get ahead. One of the reasons this works for getting ahead is so many other people simply sit on the couch with the channel changer.

In addition to that basic thesis, the book is chock full of time saving ideas, like use two monitors. I learned this from my years at SYNNEX and it's very tough to work with just one monitor after you've used two.

The book talks about the things that steal productivity, listing a huge long list of things that maybe don't need to be done.

One reason might be appropriate for people who have a job is much of the talk is about money and how to make more or save more money, with lots of tips. It's a good book, well written, well organized, easy to read.

Whenever I give my Time Management presentation, my goal is always to have people leave with two or three habits that they continue doing and are doing six weeks after the presentation. I don't consider my presentation to be a success unless this happens.

This book has so many ideas I would think only people who use the most polished of systems wouldn't be able to get a few ideas they could use. I found the book very reinforcing.

I have thorough enjoyed Robert's books and articles. He has great insight into how to be successful and he focuses on long-term investments rather than quick hits. I am encourage to build a plan that will motivate me to stay focused on my career, development and family to drive my purpose and ensure success! I highly recommend this book for those of us that want to move to the next level.

What does your average workday look like? If waking up and falling asleep rim a day full of commuting, working, and TV, watch out. You just might be a zombie. At least that's what Robert Pagliarini would call you, in a most endearing and well-meaning way possible.

Pagliarini, a CFA, entrepreneur and author, wants you to stop frittering away your life on mindless tasks. He encourages you to streamline and harness those precious eight hours you have between work and sleep. Once you do, your life and financial situation will markedly improve.

In "The Other 8 Hours: Maximize Your Free Time to Create New Wealth & Purpose," Pagliarini gives you detailed instructions on how to replace your zombie habits with life-affirming creative ones. His new book shows you how to chop out all the activities and people who drain you. You learn to manage and prioritize your time, so that new income streams and a newfound sense of being alive result.

Sound like a tall order? Taken in aggregate, it is. But if you bite each piece off in digestable pieces, The Other 8 Hours can give you the tips and tricks you need to turn your wasted time into something personally and financially rewarding.

Content

Pagliarini starts off The Other 8 Hours by explaining why those eight hours we're not working or sleeping are so important. He tells you why it's common to feel stuck in a rut, and how to "jump out of" your staid state.

Freeing up your time is part strategy, part slash-and-burn. Pagliarini's tips range from intuitive-get rid of unnecessary commitment--to innovative, like getting yourself a "boost job" that allows you to make money while spending your time accomplishing something else (think midnight tollbooth operator writing a novel). He also lists and gives solutions for 24 common "LifeLeeches" that suck your time away.

Now that he has shown you how to stop wasting time, Pagliarini gives you buiding blocks for transcending the rat race. A thirst for more status, money, and life than the consumer treadmill offers is an implicit requirement here. Assuming you have that, Pagliarini says to spend your other eight hours creating new moneymaking channels such as a business, an invention, or a book. You become what Pagliarini, in a swoop of marketing, calls a Cre8tor.

He gives you a chapter full of tips on getting your mind, support network, and systems set up to nurture a Cre8tor lifestyle. Then he shares 8 rules Cre8tors needs to follow, like limiting risk, keeping your day job, and owning the way you make your income.

Next, he goes into the top 10 Cre8tor channels for making income. These are basically side projects that can have good monetization potential. They are: Blogging, inventing, writing a book/screenplay/music, starting a company, reselling/licensing/affiliating, taking advantage of fads, working for stock, advancing careers, freelancing, and turning hobbies into income. He breaks each down into its own detailed chapter with rules, tips, resources, and diagrams.

After reading about each channel, you enter the Get a Life section of the book. Here, you find a handful of tips for rebuilding your life. These include uncovering your passions, learning about the characteristics you need to live a more fulfilled life, building good habits, making goals, and scheduling your day to accommodate your Cre8tor commitments, and more. He concludes the book with a helpful list of resources.

Thoughts

As a CFA, entrepreneur, media personality, and author, Robert Pagliarini is quite the multitasker. The book multitasks, too. It attempts to tutor you on self-improvement, goal-setting, starting your own business or side moneymaking gig, addressing deficiencies in your life, making more money, building healthier habits and relationships, and more.

As someone who values focus and simplicity, I found the content distracting at times. It's not an easy, step-by-step guide on improving your life. Instead, it's a tome of scattered tips-use them as you will. The value comes from the number and diversity of tips more than the overall trajectory of the book.

I most enjoyed Part I, which described the Great American Rut and gave useful tips on making your time work for you. I was already familiar with the idea of being a Cre8tor, as well as a few of the Cre8tor channels featured in Part II. In my experience, there's a good amount of crapshoot involved in actually monetizing your book, blog, or freelance career. Pagliarini does emphasize that success is more of a batting average than a one-hit wonder. It helps to bear that in mind while reading through descriptions of Cre8tor channels.

Part III, which tells you how to get a life, almost sounded forced to me. Sure, repeating a mantra and setting goals are good ideas, but this section was missing the depth required to truly do life-building activities justice.

In terms of writing style, The Other 8 Hours is entertaining, and funny at times. Pagliarini incorporates tips and stories from real-life Crea8tors like Seth Godin. Its action-oriented tips give you solid starting points for improving your situation. It's a fun, easy read.

I recommend it for anyone who feels stuck, wants to be more enterprising, and/or needs a kick in the butt in general.

(Review by Drea Knufken)

This Book was very timely and relevant for me....it allowed me to truly stop and reflect on how i was spending my time, let alone my 'other 8 hours'. Prior to meeting Robert and learning about his killer concept , I hadn't given much consideration to what had occupied my time other than the traditional work, family and the occasional personal time. I embraced the book with a clear mind only to discover a renewed sense of inspiration that my happiest moments were fulfilled during those 'other 8 hours'...That was a huge insight for me and really made me realize that happiness is a fundamental choice and is the catalyst to everything else we do in life. When you see how smart, progressive companies, like Google and Apple, build their cultures, you immediately notice the emphasis they place on inspiring their teams to embrace the principles that Robert advocates in 'The Other 8 Hours' - So, whether you're stuck in a career or simply looking for more passion in your life, this book is a refreshing look at how it's one simple decision away...

I finished this book just last week and it has already helped me. FYI - Robert's tip on "specialization" really works! For years I have wanted to find out where my grandparents from Italy were from. I work with someone who does this as a hobby and who is an expert at it. I happened to know that she loves my cakes (my hobby), so I suggested that she do the research for me (I spent hours on it and come up with nothing), and I would make her favorite chocolate cake. I got my geneology questions answered (finally!).

After reading "The Other 8 Hours", I have made a list of concrete things I am going to do (and not do) to maximize my free time (school, invention idea, thinking of ways I can turn my hobbies into income) - at one point, these would have seemed like huge, overwhelming tasks, but Robert has a way of making them seem manageable. Robert's writing style and sense of humor makes this book very motivational and FUNNY!

I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is feeling in a rut and wants to have a renewed sense of purpose in their lives.

The opening of the book was somewhat annoying, as the author presented as a surprise finding something that is inherently obvious - you can only do things other than what you can do at work during the "other 8 hours", a very tautological definition. Once you get past this, he does have good advice on what to do during those other hours, like working on your plans to escape cubicle hell, although most of this has already been written elsewhere, especially the motivation bits and most of the "how-to's" - he even includes the tired "two ends of the roast beef cut off" and the "God sent various people to help you from the flood" stories. He does have a novel suggestion as he advices getting a "boosting" job, which is essentially a moonlighting job that has so little responsibility that you can get away with working on your personal projects. (Even here though, I wonder about the ethics of this.) His list of how to make money outside of work, or what he refers to as the top 10 "Cre8or" channels are also standard fare - blogging, start your own business, turn a hobby into income, etc. The only thing here I found new was the idea of working for stock in a start-up, although my reservation here is that I can't imagine doing as an adjunct to your day job - the entrepreneurial lore has folks working on start ups devoting all their time to it.

The best part of the book has to be the resources that Pagliarini sprinkles throughout the book, like web sites for inventors, getting a literary agent and the like. It would have been better if he had collected these at the end in a comprehensive resources section, rather than the scaled down section he has showing only a handful of resources. I may need to go to his website to access the full list of resources, but maybe that's the strategy.

In sum, the book is a quick read for those of us who have read these types of motivational, "get out of your 9-5 job" books. As such it is a good summary of most of the concepts, with a few new twists in certain areas, and a bunch of very good resources scattered throughout.

I'm a full-time college student with a job and a social life. A lot of times I find there just aren't enough hours in the day. I started reading "The Other 8 Hours" to find inspiration to help balance my busy schedule. After reading the book, I found not only inspiration for young achievers, but also a guide to literally freeing up more time in the day.

As a busy student, this book gave me a refreshing new perspective on why the hours you spend away from work, school, and sleep are so vital to maintaining health and happiness in everyday life. It literally provides a guide to creating free time out of chaos!

Through using the Other 8 Hours of my day, I've been able to balance school and work with a social life. I've even started blogging and working on a clothing company in my free time!

For anyone who is overworked, over-scheduled, and looking to find more in life, I highly recommend this book!

I'm a stay-at-home mom to three kids ages 5 and under. At first glance I didn't think this book would apply to me because my 24-hour days are not segmented into 8 sleeping/8 working/8 other. It's more like 6 sleeping + 24 hour on-call duty. My focus is certainly not on maximizing wealth or furthering my now non-existent career. I intended for my husband to read this book rather than myself.

However, the book grabbed me in the first chapter where the story told of what happens when preparation meets opportunity. From there on, page after another, I kept learning something new on how to use my time more effectively and efficiently (definitely applicable to my crazy days juggling 3 kids schedules on top of neverending household responsibilities!). The book is easy to read with many engaging and thought-provoking stories, and tools like internet websites, that help to organize and manage my "life clutters". I have been able to glean from practically every page a new idea/concept that I can immediately apply to my days.

Thank you, Robert, for sharing your wisdom and passion! You are inspiring!