Hardcover
English language
Published May 27, 2010 by Portfolio.
There are 168 hours in a week. This is your guide to getting the most out of them.
It's an unquestioned truth of modern life: we are starved for time. 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 if we don't make excuses, we make sacrifices- taking time out from other things in order to fit it all in.
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 …
There are 168 hours in a week. This is your guide to getting the most out of them.
It's an unquestioned truth of modern life: we are starved for time. 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 if we don't make excuses, we make sacrifices- taking time out from other things in order to fit it all in.
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.
Vanderkam shows that with a little examination and prioritizing, you'll find it 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.
I have a sickness where I inhale productivity books. But they all have a sickness where they think that capitalism is good. Sigh. Yes Brenda, "we all have the same number of hours in a week." But allllll this optimization shit is running on the same false premise of individual will, even when it tries to be quaint and talk about family-relationships and not just increasing surplus labor value. why do I do this to myself?
Not meant for all. For the person who can take their week on a grid and schedule it, this book sets up a process to do just that. Touches a bit on flow. This is essentially time block planning.
Does dive into some anonymous calendars and shows how the person used her method, saying no to useless things, focusign on what's important, and how it moved their life.
[My review of the 12min summary]
Laura Vanderkam says that we're not over-worked and time deprived. There's 168 hours in a week, and you're going to use all of them, goddammit!
Yes, it's as bad as it sounds. She advocates using every scrap of slack time——the ten minutes you're in line at the store or the three minutes that you're waiting for your frozen burrito to reheat——to be doing something productive. This, of course, ignores the mountain of research that shows that constant task switching is counter-productive and also that it's just plain unrealistic.
There are a few good things in here. Keep a time diary for a week to find out where your time goes. If it shows that you're spending too much time on stuff that's not important, then reprioritize what you're spending your time on.
You should also try to get into the right line of work. …
[My review of the 12min summary]
Laura Vanderkam says that we're not over-worked and time deprived. There's 168 hours in a week, and you're going to use all of them, goddammit!
Yes, it's as bad as it sounds. She advocates using every scrap of slack time——the ten minutes you're in line at the store or the three minutes that you're waiting for your frozen burrito to reheat——to be doing something productive. This, of course, ignores the mountain of research that shows that constant task switching is counter-productive and also that it's just plain unrealistic.
There are a few good things in here. Keep a time diary for a week to find out where your time goes. If it shows that you're spending too much time on stuff that's not important, then reprioritize what you're spending your time on.
You should also try to get into the right line of work. "The right job leverages your core competencies——things you do best and enjoy——and meets certain working conditions, including autonomy and being challenged to the extent of your abilities."
Final Notes (quoted from 12min) [I mostly disagree with this] "Most of us are brought up on the idea that time is precious. Yet, rather than living this idea, we often use it as an excuse to avoid doing things that require more energy and creativity. By demystifying the ongoing cultural narrative of a time crunch, Vanderkam makes us reshape our relationship with time to live more successful and meaningful lives."
it's size is also it's affliction;
the ideas could be depicted in 100 pages or less but they couldn't sell it then, could they?
so here it comes, somewhere down the road it gets boring, repetitive and watery (I was surprised to find weird cake recipes from the 50s and it fails to remain 'an example' as it was intended, the book loses it's touch with the ground;
the ideas about saving time could be summed up better in order to save reader's time, for instance.
Would you agree, Laura?
I have a sickness where I inhale productivity books.
But they all have a sickness where they think that capitalism is good. Sigh.
Yes Brenda, "we all have the same number of hours in a week." But allllll this optimization shit is running on the same false premise of individual will, even when it tries to be quaint and talk about family/relationships and not just increasing surplus labor value.
why do I do this to myself?
I enjoyed the main approach of the book, which is to be aware of how we spend our 168 hours and identify how we can make better use of the time available for all of us. So far so good, but I found that the author addresses only a handful of life styles, specially couples with kids. I didn't agree with all the suggestions she gave. There was too much "delegating" to paid services tips and I am more into searching for a frugal or simple lifestyle. As far as I know hiring household services is usually more expensive than doing them ourselves, but the author affirms that this model could work for some people (if they have the money to afford it, of course). I think it's hard to try carve out more time out of our days if we don't reduce the excess activities and stuff we accumulate …
I enjoyed the main approach of the book, which is to be aware of how we spend our 168 hours and identify how we can make better use of the time available for all of us. So far so good, but I found that the author addresses only a handful of life styles, specially couples with kids. I didn't agree with all the suggestions she gave. There was too much "delegating" to paid services tips and I am more into searching for a frugal or simple lifestyle. As far as I know hiring household services is usually more expensive than doing them ourselves, but the author affirms that this model could work for some people (if they have the money to afford it, of course). I think it's hard to try carve out more time out of our days if we don't reduce the excess activities and stuff we accumulate over time. And I don't remember the author addressing this side of the coin. The following tips didn't really resonate with my personal style: - Get someone else to do the things you don't enjoy by delegating or hiring someone else: laundry, cooking, scheduling appointments. I don't agree with this one because I truly prefer to live an independent life, and if I can't find time or satisfaction from taking care of my stuff, I should consider minimizing. - Carve out chunks of time during our work day schedule to do the things we say we don't have enough time to do. That's the kind of tip that won't work for everyone because not all of us have a flexible schedule or a work environment that encourages "off duty" activities or arriving a bit late. The main messages of the book that stuck in my brain and that I somewhat agree with were: - Cut down TV time. And then cut some more. TV is not so relaxing as we might think. - Block out time to exercise. Then fine more exercise more. - Make a list of tasks you can do in 30 minutes. And another for 10 minutes. Remember these little things that can be done between tasks or while waiting something. For example: read a book in a waiting line, or do some push-ups or stay in plank position while you wait for the microwave. Reading while waiting or in public transport is totally okay, I do this all the time with my Kindle. Doing push-ups while the microwave: not so much because there are usually other things to take care of in the kitchen, in my case. But I think it's doable. - Identify our core competencies: that is a good exercise because we often forget our main goals amidst the various activities and responsibilities we are involved. When we know what are our core competencies we can plan out more time to develop these areas. One thing that I didn't enjoy about this book was the writing style. I thought the chapters were too long and there were too many anecdotes about other peoples lives filled with excessive and unnecessary details to prove a point. Those parts really put me off the book and made me speed read them. I think the text lacked a bit of objectivity, since it's about productivity and carving out precious time. So, the book has a couple of good ideas and tips but the overall experience of reading it wasn't fulfilling and I was disappointed in the end.
