168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think by Laura Vanderkam

168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think by Laura Vanderkam is a self-help book published in 2010.

Americans have a cultural narrative of too little time, but that’s statistically false. With the inherent time in American schedules, there is enough time to go back to school, write a novel, or do plenty of other things you would think impossible.

By efficiently planning your 168 hours (amount of time in one week), you can have enough space for full-time work, intense involvement with your family, rejuvenating leisure time, adequate sleep, and everything else that matters. Vanderkam provides actionable strategies for optimizing time, even writing this while working a full-time job, caring for newborns, leading volunteer efforts, and handling other responsibilities in the middle of New York City.

Purchase the book by clicking this link!

Enjoy!

The Myth Of The Time Crunch
Your Core Competencies
The Right Job
Controlling Your Calendar
Anatomy of a Breakthrough
The New Home Economics
Don't Do Your Own Laundry
A Full Life
The Hard Work of Having It All

The Myth Of The Time Crunch

American cultural narrative that we can’t “have it all”
Average American (from scientific studies) (even moms with toddlers)
- Work: 35-43 hours per week
- Sleep: 8 hours
- Household Activities: 1-4 hours
- Playing With Kids: 11-25 minutes (unemployed – 30-50 minutes)
- TV: 3 hours
We claim we suffer from lack of time
- Over/underestimate due to social pressure
- Underestimate sleep & leisure consistently
Problem → not overworked but don’t consciously plan our time
- Waste time on slight pleasure that don’t develop careers, families, personal lives
- “I don’t have time” → “That’s not a priority for me”
We have the time
- Sleep 56 hours (8 per night)
- Work 50 hours
- Childcare 18 hours
- Exercise 5 hours
- Time for eating, showering, cooking, cleaning, transport, etc
- Still multiple hours a day for other passions

Your Core Competencies

Core Competencies → Meaningful abilities we do best
People who get the most out of life spend as much as possible on core competencies
- Minimize, outsource, ignore everything else
To find your core competencies, try lots of things (recommended in Range)
Make a list of “100 Dreams” and start to do them
- You’ll discover some you don’t actually like

The Right Job

Job has a large impact on quality of life
- Each hour can be a joy or drain
Without the right job, you won’t have energy / desire to maximize free time
Find work that matches expertise & intrinsic motivations
Better for financial purposes too
- Happy → more productive & more motivated to improve → more money
- Unhappy → won’t do it well + spend extra money trying to make yourself happy

Controlling Your Calendar

Anything not advancing you to life goals is wasted time
Make it clear what you want to get out of every job (based on career goals)
- Break down into actionable tasks
Busyness is usually just a false sense of productivity
Get rid of non-core competencies → Ignore, Minimize, Outsource
Boost efficiency by getting better at what you do
- Ultralearning

Anatomy of a Breakthrough

Breakthroughs are just unnoticed work – Atomic Habits & The Slight Edge describe the process of a breakthrough in life
Picture where you want to be & act like it NOW
Figure out what you need to get to that next level
Open More Opportunities
- Step outside your comfort zone – plant more seeds, open more doors

The New Home Economics

Over time, time allocation has shifted
- Decrease in housing standards – Increase in parenting standards
Personal time is available even with kids
- Many at school 35 hours a week – almost full-time
Find opportunities to connect
- Do mutual activities
- Make breakfast a family meal
- Discuss how their day went
Organize your work life reflecting your children
Invest time in your partnership
- Has multiplier effect on the rest of your life

Don’t Do Your Own Laundry

Many chores can be outsourced, from cooking to laundry
Chores have an opportunity cost
- You aren’t spending time on core competencies
Might be better financially
- More time freed → more time developing career
Working couples spend 9.24 hours on groceries, prepping, and cooking but only 3 hours playing with kids

A Full Life

Many don’t know what to do with free time
- Gets filled with frictionless activities – chores & TV
- Americans (even with little kids) have 30 hours free a week (4 per day)
TV doesn’t make us as happy or rejuvenated
- Reading, sports, kids, walks, sleeping, art / music, and more were ranked higher
Actively plan free time
- Figure out what you’d like to be doing
- Block times
- Use any free time (even 30 min) – read, write, instrument, call friend, research
Adults need unstructured time to relax and rejuvenate
- Sometimes the best ideas spring from these times
Commit enough, time, energy, and resources to make your activities meaningful

The Hard Work of Having It All

There is time for anything that matters
Time Makeover
- Log your time
- Create list of dreams activities
- Identify core competencies
- Start with a blank slate
- Fill your 168 hours with blocks of time
- Ignore, minimize, or outsource everything else
- Fill bits of time with bits of joy
- Tune up as necessary

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