168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think

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168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think

by Laura Vanderkam (Goodreads Author)

3.56 of 5 stars 3.56 · rating details · 632 ratings · 167 reviews

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 regula...more 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.

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Hardcover, 272 pages

Published May 27th 2010 by Portfolio Hardcover (first published May 26th 2010)

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Aug 27, 2012 Gabrielle rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: time-management

As the title suggests, Vanderkam argues that each of us has 168 hours each week and how we use those hours is a personal choice. By using both research, examples of people who've accomplished an incredible amount of success in several major life areas, and her own, personal examples, this book is full of reasons why they excuse "I'm too busy" is really just a cop-out for not making tough, personal choices on how and where and on whom we spend our time.

The best part of the book was Vanderkam's a...more As the title suggests, Vanderkam argues that each of us has 168 hours each week and how we use those hours is a personal choice. By using both research, examples of people who've accomplished an incredible amount of success in several major life areas, and her own, personal examples, this book is full of reasons why they excuse "I'm too busy" is really just a cop-out for not making tough, personal choices on how and where and on whom we spend our time.

The best part of the book was Vanderkam's argument that we will be more successful and happy if we focus on our 'core competencies' and outsource the rest of our lives. She does a fantastic job of explaining how certain things in our lives can and should only be done by us and encourages people to hire others to do the things that most of us do, but that aren't part of our core competency skill set (ie: housework, laundry, making huge dinners every night, etc.).

Vanderkam provides time-tracking software on her website for this book. Her argument is that many of us 'waste' time on things that do not enrich our lives. Her statistics on how many hours Americans watch tv and spend online (and don't read to or play with their children) was pretty eye-opening.

When I tracked my own life for a week, I was really shocked at the results. I already don't watch tv to save time and consider myself a professional multi-tasker. My time charts, however, showed that I spent the majority of my days doing housework (so what if I can manage to do 3 chores at once? It's still housework) and returning unimportant emails, which was pretty disappointing to realize as I've decided to limit my working hours during the day so I could spend more time with my infant son. I shared these results with my husband who, too, agreed that we weren't maximizing our core competency areas.

After taking a long, hard look at how we spend our time, my husband and I decided to outsource more of our work to other people, spend more time as a family and give up the desire for a spotless house. This book gets four stars for inspiring me and my family to utilize our time-the most precious resource we have-much, much better.

There are a couple of major flaws with Vanderkam's arguments, however. First of all, this book seemed to be geared towards upper-middle class professionals who can easily afford to outsource their laundry, dishes, housework, etc. For us, it makes sense to pay someone $50 an hour to clean our home, because we both charge our clients almost double this for our hourly rates. Doing less housework means we can use that time to see clients. But for someone who makes less than that, or is just surviving paycheck to paycheck, some of Vanderkam's 'solutions' would be impractical.

Vanderkam also really glorifies multi-tasking. She 'brags' about how she does yogic poses while the microwave heats up her food and how she works out on the treadmill, reads and returns phone calls simultaneously to save time. I tried doing this for about three days and felt completely wiped out by the amount of mental stress it took to try to crunch everything into the least amount of time possible. There's quite a bit of research that shows that multi-tasking is actually inefficient but Vanderkam conveniently glosses over that.

Also, a lot of the studies in her book showcase women who "have it all." The woman who runs a multi-million dollar business, is raising 5 kids and hikes every week was one of the people she used as an example of someone who uses her 168 hours very wisely. The whole concept of being a woman who can 'have it all' is actually incredibly destructive and creates an enormous amount of psychological stress. Using time better IS essential to a happy and productive life. But trying to convince women that they should be able to do everything isn't healthy.

All in all, this book inspired me to take a long, hard look at how I spend my time and encouraged me to use my 168 hours wisely. But there are some major flaws in logic that Vanderkam commits to 'prove' her theories about time management that reduce the author's credibility as an expert in this field. (less)

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Aug 26, 2012 Ciara rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-in-2012, self_help_y

this book was published before vanderkam's book about personal finance, all the money in the world, but i only heard about it while i was reading the money book. i enjoyed the writing style & some of the concepts in all the money in the world, & living on a fixed income, the topic of time management is probably more relevant to me, so i decided to check this one out too.

vanderkam says that she was inspired to write this book after reading a feature in "real simple" magazine in which read...more this book was published before vanderkam's book about personal finance, all the money in the world, but i only heard about it while i was reading the money book. i enjoyed the writing style & some of the concepts in all the money in the world, & living on a fixed income, the topic of time management is probably more relevant to me, so i decided to check this one out too.

vanderkam says that she was inspired to write this book after reading a feature in "real simple" magazine in which readers were asked what they would do with an extra 15 minutes a day. the answers were things like, "relax in my hammock," "do the dishes," "read fiction," etc. vanderkam got to thinking about how unlikely it is that people would actually use a bonus 15 minutes any more wisely than they use the 24 hours they already have, & she decided to look into how people actually do spend their time, versus how they think they spend their time, & offer advice for how people can make the time to lie in their hammocks, wash the dishes, & read fiction.

this inspired a conversation between me & my partner. i asked him what he would do with an extra 15 minutes a day & he said, "tidy the house." we decided that we would each spend 15 minutes a day tidying up. as a result, our house is almost always pristine, like something from a magazine. it was eye-opening to realize how little time it really takes to do something that seems so insufferable but ought to get done anyway.

probably my favorite part of this book was where vanderkam contrasts the reports of how people think they spend their time versus how they actually spend it. i used to have a friend who claimed that, between her actual outside-the-house job & a small side business that she ran to help make ends meet, she worked an average of 80 hours a week. & yet, she didn't come close to keeping traditional 9-5 hours (more like 11-3), & she spent enormous chunks of time sitting on her porch smoking weed & watching TV. i kind of wanted to buy a copy of this book & leave it on her doorstep. i'm sure she felt as stressed out as someone who really did work 80 hours a week, but that was probably a function of guilt over having such terrible time management skills.

there are little exercises sprinkled throughout the book so that the reader can track their own time management skills & identify areas where they might like to make changes (such as watching less TV to make more time for reading fiction). my main criticism is that vanderkam occasionally goes off on bizarre tangents that didn't really make a lick of sense. i'm thinking specifically of where she wrote about maintaining her running routine throughout her pregnancy & how she was back in her pre-pregnancy jeans a week after giving birth. good for her & everything, but it read more as bragging than as helpful info that was relevant to the book. there's kind of a lot of that kind of thing in the book, like, "i had such a good day today! i took my kid to the museum & went to choir practice, but still had time to query three new editors about freelance work & write for five hours!" cool? maybe save it for your diary.(less)

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May 23, 2012 Joe Cassada rated it 3 of 5 stars

I am, admittedly, a productivity addict - which means I like to read anything and everything on productivity and time management that I can get my hands on (though this hasn't necessarily made me more productive). Vanderkam's book was enjoyable, but I felt it was geared more towards the working mother. Quite a bit of effort is spent in assuaging guilty feelings about untidy homes and take-out food. Her solutions are impractical for those on limited budgets, though she makes a good try at justify...more

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Mar 25, 2012 Courtney Baron rated it 4 of 5 stars

The author has a privileged life, as she herself admits early on in the book, and therefore you may not be able to relate to or apply her specific advice (such as, don't have time to clean? Hire a maid!) if you are not upper middle class or so (and I am not, not even close). But, even so, I have read this book twice now and find myself mentioning it over and over again. At the very least, this book will get you thinking a LOT about how you spend your 168 hours and how you can improve your time m...more

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Feb 07, 2012 Laura rated it 5 of 5 stars

Feeling stressed and pulled in a million directions? You probably have more time than you think. A week is made up of 168 hours, as Vanderkam reminds us, which is quite a lot really. After reading this book and completing some of the exercises in it, I've started to make some changes in my priorities. I probably won't be outsourcing my laundry anytime soon - though, feel free to do it if it gives you more time to play music, hang out with your kids, or write that novel! However, I have a better...more

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Sep 16, 2011 Angie rated it 5 of 5 stars

A lot of books out there discuss time management and how to achieve work/life balance. 168 hours is the best book I have read on this topic because it focuses on the core skill needed to achieve all this: prioritization. 168 hours is the number of hours in a week. The book is structured to help get the most out of those 168 hours.

Vanderkam ends each chapter with questions that help the reader focus on core competencies. Core competencies are the activities that give you joy, that you are really...more

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Jul 22, 2011 Missy rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction

I went up and down on this one: yes, helpful in pointing out that priorities matter and just flailing around without thinking about them means you feel like you never have enough time; but, no, admitting that you're incredibly privileged and wealthy doesn't give you brownie points for when you *completely* ignore the effects of that privilege and wealth for the rest of your premise and then insist that *everybody* else is just misguided. It's awesome that you work at home and have a flexible sch...more

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Jun 02, 2011 cat rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: 100-in-2011

2011 Book 61/100

I picked this book up because I never feel like I have enough time for all of the things that I want to do - or sometimes even for the things that I *need* to do. I expected some discussion of time management and definitely expected help re-arrranging my thinking about time. What I did not expect was the complete dismissal of differing income levels and life factors into the author's approach. In the VERY FIRST chapter she admits her class privilege (flippantly I might add) and t...more

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Jun 26, 2012 Andrea Paterson rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction

There are some great tips in this book about how to get the most out of your time. The time log exercise has been particularly eye opening. Vanderkam takes a no-nonsense approach to time management and has no tolerance for people who claim not to have the time to accomplish their goals. She outlines a detailed plan for getting the most out of your professional and personal time--TV is out, exercise must be in.

I have a few issues with her book. The first is that she believes a high powered career...more There are some great tips in this book about how to get the most out of your time. The time log exercise has been particularly eye opening. Vanderkam takes a no-nonsense approach to time management and has no tolerance for people who claim not to have the time to accomplish their goals. She outlines a detailed plan for getting the most out of your professional and personal time--TV is out, exercise must be in.

I have a few issues with her book. The first is that she believes a high powered career that makes a giant difference to the betterment of the world is a requirement for all people in order to be happy. She states that any time spent at work that doesn't advance you towards a career goal is just wasted time. I'm not sure who she expects to pick up her garbage if everyone is supposed to be moving towards a position as CEO of a company that cures a new disease every day. She also doesn't see parenthood as a real career, and doesn't seem to condone stay-at-home parenting. She puts forth stats that show that stay-at-home parents barely spend more time with their kids than everyone else and so throws that out the window as a valid option. There is also a lot about outsourcing things like laundry, grocery shopping, and cleaning your house. Apparently if you want to be successful, happy, and use your time well you shouldn't be stooping to do any actual chores around your house. I'm not sure what she thinks of the people that you're hiring to do all these things.

If you can overlook the elitist aspects of this book though there are some good, concrete ideas for getting more out of your time. Ordering your groceries online, for example, can save time (commuting and wandering the aisles), money (on gas and impulse buys), and possibly the planet (fewer carbon emissions and if you join a CSA you can get local produce easily without treking to a farmer's market). She also points out ways to maximize small blocks of available free time. Overall I recommend reading this book, though you have to take her vaguely judgemental tone with a grain of salt.(less)

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Apr 23, 2013 Anna-lisa Rich rated it 1 of 5 stars

I admit that my review might not be the best as I stopped reading this book. It's a book about how to be more responsible about your time and use it wisely however I couldn't help feeling like I was wasting my time reading it. I can figure out how to use my time wisely on my own. I also felt the author pushed her own opinions way too much; to the point where anyone who said they didn't have time to do certain things was a complete idiot. As a mom, who actually spends time with her child, the fir...more

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Aug 04, 2012 Brooke rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites

As someone who is very interested in time management and productivity, when I stumbled upon a reference to this book online, I ordered myself a copy straight away. After devouring this book in a personal best time – I can say that I was very impressed! With this work, author Laura Vanderkam has inspired me to use my time in the best possible way to be a more happy and successful individual. She even inspired me to get back into the blogging that I find so satisfying!

So, what is this book actuall...more As someone who is very interested in time management and productivity, when I stumbled upon a reference to this book online, I ordered myself a copy straight away. After devouring this book in a personal best time – I can say that I was very impressed! With this work, author Laura Vanderkam has inspired me to use my time in the best possible way to be a more happy and successful individual. She even inspired me to get back into the blogging that I find so satisfying!

So, what is this book actually about… Well, the title refers to how many hours there are in one week. Vanderkam encourages her readers to think about their time as one hour blocks rather than days, discovering through personal experience that it is possible to have the life you want at home and at work if you manage your time well. The book provides lots of anecdotes and realistic advice about how to rearrange your life so that you are spending your time on your “core competencies” (the real “stuff” of your home and work life or tasks that are meaningful and important to you). I love that 168 Hours doesn’t really encourage people to try to become productivity machines, instead it emphasises the importance of time building relationships with family and friends, rest and exercise.

My thoughts and actions after reading 168 Hours in no particular order:

- I need to do a “time log” (Vanderkam includes a spreadsheet in the book) to record how I use my time for one week and work out where I am using time inefficiently.
- I spend a lot of time on tasks that are not my “core competencies” at home and at work. I can definitely change the way I use my time to free up hours for the things that create success and happiness for me.
- I want my husband, friends, family and colleagues to read this book! It has really changed the way I think about my time and I actually feel really excited about that!
- I have been watching waaaaaaaaaaaaaay too much television. In the book, Vanderkam cites studies that claim Americans watch the box anywhere from 18 to 30 hours each week. I am ashamed to admit that I think I would watch somewhere in this range, although I have never measured it accurately.
- Some of the strategies that Vanderkam suggests for outsourcing home tasks that may not be “core competencies” (i.e. laundry or cooking) may be very expensive in some geographical areas or people with large families. She does admit this in the book and encourages people to investigate pricing for domestic services in their own locations. I have and in Melbourne, Australia it is extremely expensive to pay for a laundry service ($7 to wash and iron one pair of jeans and $3.50 to wash and iron one t-shirt!) but more reasonable to hire a general cleaning service that will do laundry (about $65 per hour).
- Vanderkam encourages readers to create a “List of 100 dreams”. She got this idea from one the many fascinating people that she interviewed for 168 Hours and she explains that this can help people to identify the tasks that are meaningful and important to them, their “core competencies”. As a result, 100 dreams listers can focus their time on things that are meaningful and important, helping them to become happier and more successful people.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who feels like there are not enough hours in the day. Laura Vanderkam will really change the way you think about your time and how you spend it.(less)

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Oct 05, 2010 Kristen rated it 3 of 5 stars

(This book was recommended on her blog by Gretchen Rubin, author of The Happiness Project, which I really liked. So I decided to give this one a try as well.)

As more of a sociological perspective on the difference between how we think we're spending out time versus how we really spend out time, I found it really interesting. And I could really use the little kick in my behind right now to realistically evaluate how I am using my time and what I could do differently. Doing time logs have been fas...more

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Feb 05, 2011 Lauren rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: self-help

I found this book to be simultaneously inspiring and depressing. On the one hand, it's great to read stories about people who have extremely full lives and still have time to go on mid-morning hikes, just because. On the other hand, it can make you feel like a bit of a schlub for wasting time.

A large part of the book is devoted to time-management for working or stay at home parents, who admittedly have a lot to fit into their day, but since I don't have children, I had a hard time applying the...more

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Apr 25, 2013 Kayris rated it 3 of 5 stars

3 stars because, as others have already mentioned, Vanderkam comes from incredible privilege. Most of her ideas are good, but much much harder to apply to the lives of many. And I feel like the book was heavily aimed at people who either work in offices or for themselves. My job, as a vet tech, requires that I be in the hospital to work. Since the hours of the practice are 8am to 6pm, sometimes I actually at work from 730am until 7pm. It's a long day, and physically demanding. Some days I litera...more

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Jan 15, 2013 Ashleymarie6 rated it 3 of 5 stars

This is a bit time management, a bit business. I think there was some useful content in this book, but I couldn't get past a few things that bothered me, like:
- the author's obsession with being an efficiency machine. I am ALL for using time well and not watching tons of tv, but her tone and emphasis just took it to a new level.
- continually putting down stay-at-home moms as wasting their time. Look, I'm not even a stay-at-home mom and I was insulted by her continually targeting them.
- in gene...more

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Aug 24, 2010 Lisa rated it 3 of 5 stars

I read this book with the hope that I would learn how to better manage my time. It did motivate me to want to do better and prioritize stuff, but overall this book is for working parents. There was a bit for stay-at-home parents, and it was good advice, but none that I really needed to apply to my life. What this book did do was almost make me feel guilty for not being a working parent. The part that applied to me that I got from this book was that parents stop working to be home with their kids...more

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Apr 16, 2013 Kris rated it 3 of 5 stars

Pretty good book on making more time, eliminating time-wasting activities, setting priorities, achieving goals, etc - generally being productive. Difference between 3 and 4 stars for me is that there weren't too many actionable items I took from it. Not that there weren't lots of great suggestions and ideas, but I personally only took a few things. Part of that is probably that my schedule is already somewhat organized, but moreover that I don't face nearly as many obstacles (less structured wor...more

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May 22, 2013 Tess rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: pop-culture, productivity

This book presents a fantastic way of looking at organizing your life, though I admit that mostly it was just feel-good affirmations for me since I'm already an insane taskmaster about how I spend my time. I think you can spend time doing the things you really want to do by (1) planning ahead and then (2) sticking to the plan and not getting derailed by crap like sleeping in, watching TV, etc. To sum it up -- live intentionally.

Best quotes:

"While we think of our lives in grand abstractions, a li...more This book presents a fantastic way of looking at organizing your life, though I admit that mostly it was just feel-good affirmations for me since I'm already an insane taskmaster about how I spend my time. I think you can spend time doing the things you really want to do by (1) planning ahead and then (2) sticking to the plan and not getting derailed by crap like sleeping in, watching TV, etc. To sum it up -- live intentionally.

Best quotes:

"While we think of our lives in grand abstractions, a life is actually lived in hours."

"You'll need to figure out what you want to do during your 168 hours. Many of us have no idea; one of the benefits of claiming to be overworked or starved for time is that it lets you off the hook for dealing with the burden of choice."

"An uncluttered house looks clean with less effort than one overflowing with piles. Every professional decorator will tell you this. No matter how much time you spend vacuuming your ceilings and washing your windows, what makes a house look clean is clear horizontal surfaces. That means having almost nothing on the counters, coffee table, dining room table, desks, and so on. Your drawers, cupboards, and closets can be as stuffed as you want. Feel free to throw the pile of mail in there if company's coming over! But when you have clear surfaces, you can make your house look tolerable between biweekly scrubbings with a madcap 15- or 20-minute blitz per day."

"If you want to use your 168 hours effectively, once you make a commitment to yourself to spend a certain number of hours on a task, keep it. Never miss a deadline. Follow through on anything you say you’ll do as a matter of personal integrity. If you lose 4 hours because of a blackout, make it up somewhere else as soon as possible. If someone else doesn’t turn in their part of a project, proceed without them and find an alternative solution. It doesn't matter if you have a good excuse. Many excuses and emergencies are, in the broad scale, foreseeable. Yes, you and your children are going to get sick for a certain number of days per winter, and their schools will be closed for snow, too. There will always be traffic jams on Friday afternoons and when it rains. Build it in. Make backup plans for working at home, for getting to the airport if your first method falls through, and for people you can call on to help."(less)

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Susan Howson Fascinating. I'm totally reading this. I've figured out that the reason I cannot bring myself to get to a movie a minute before it starts is because t...more
May 23, 2013 03:32am

Tess I relate to that; I mean it is NOT relaxing for me to take a bubble bath if I know that the house hasn't been cleaned up and I'll have to stay up that...more
May 23, 2013 05:52am

Lianna Hooray, this book!! Both of you should let me know about babysitting -- I've learned that unscheduled free time means laziness and anxiety for me, whe...more
May 23, 2013 07:10am

Mar 16, 2013 Kari rated it 2 of 5 stars

This author impressed me with her ability to pose questions that made me ask questions in her book "All the Money in the World." I had high hopes for this book, too.

But the book's title is misleading. It's less about thinking creatively about your limited time and more about self-fulfillment. Some may argue that those are the same thing, but I think there's a subtle difference. Trying to make the best use of your time might include doing some things you don't really want to do. Self fulfillment...more This author impressed me with her ability to pose questions that made me ask questions in her book "All the Money in the World." I had high hopes for this book, too.

But the book's title is misleading. It's less about thinking creatively about your limited time and more about self-fulfillment. Some may argue that those are the same thing, but I think there's a subtle difference. Trying to make the best use of your time might include doing some things you don't really want to do. Self fulfillment is trying to only do things that fulfill you - which is what the author advocates. She argues that you "outsource, minimize, or ignore" anything you don't like doing, and that you focus your time exclusively on things that you do better than anyone else. I felt this left little wiggle room for exploration or growing underdeveloped skills.

Without meaning to, the author created an ideal person through the people she chose to describe (at length) as having used their time well. I never appreciate one-size-fits-all approaches to anything, but I think the author inadvertently spent 230 pages advocating her own lifestyle by describing people who had achieved her lifestyle. She didn't seem to leave room for the idea that not everyone wanted her life, or that they might have genuine limitations to achieving that even if they wanted it.

There were also several insulting references to families that chose to have the wife/mom stay at home, which admittedly made continuing to read more difficult for me (I'm a stay-at-home mom). I also felt that, while she's clearly devoted to nurturing her children and advocated that strongly, the references made to nurturing one's spouse/partner were a nod-and-wave at best.

It was hard to see myself and my priorities in this book when her's were so different and her opinions on what was best so strong. In "All the Money in the World" I felt she was truly non-judgmental and merely asked questions that got you thinking - I highly recommend that book. Here, she seemed almost arrogant in her assertions of what was best.
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Mar 11, 2013 Lianna rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: self-help

I'm a productivity/self-help junkie, but I'm so much more interested in this book than many others that are way too lofty and become a 2nd job all on their own!

Yes, the author is privileged, but I never got the sense that she looks down on stay-at-home parents or people who don't have enough money to outsource everything, as so many other reviewers claim. Rather, she points out that stay-at-home parenting is about PARENTING, not the number of loads of laundry one can do in a day, and that someti...more

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Dec 19, 2012 Dorothy rated it 4 of 5 stars

The basic premise of this book is that we are all given the same 168 hours each week and it's up to us to figure out how to prioritize our activities in those hours to get the most from them.

The author has the reader chart exactly how you spend your day-from sleep to making lunch, to playing on Facebook, and then has you sit back and analyze what you find. She suggests that we each have "core competencies" and that we shouldn't waste our time doing things we don't love to do or aren't talented...more

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Mar 16, 2012 Marissa Morrison rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book has a lot of useful info, and I appreciate Vanderkam's optimism about the fact that there really is enough time to do the important stuff. A few brilliant points: parenting is about nurturing kids, not doing housework; regular exercise is worth sacrificing some sleep; and whatever you need to accomplish in the evening can happen after the kids have had your attention and gone to bed.

However, the advice here won't apply to everyone: Vanderkam finds time to write profitably and pursue s...more

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Jun 20, 2011 Renee rated it 4 of 5 stars

Excellent book! Basic premise - You have the time you need to get everything done, you just need to re-examine how you are spending that time.

My stock answer when people ask me how I am is 'busy!". I'm sick of that, so for the past few months I've been on the lookout for how to streamline my life (work, home, marriage, finances - ALL of it) and this book was exactly what I was after. I've taken a few pages of notes on ideas I want to implement. I'm looking forward to tracking my time and seeing...more

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Mar 19, 2012 Paula J. rated it 3 of 5 stars

Enjoyed but did not love this book, as the author could have offered more practical advice and repeats herself a bit. However, it's a quick read and it has inspired me to prioritize and be aware of how I'm really spending my 168 hours each week. Caveat: she focuses mainly on professional workers with some flexibility and the self-employed, so I fit her target audience. She gives some good examples of people claiming little bits of time for their priorities by making small changes. Her main advic...more

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Jul 30, 2012 notyourmonkey rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012-read, nonfiction, library

Competently executed and reasonably engaging, but the nods to people in life situations different from the authors are just that - nods. Well. I say "nod." I probably mean "slightly uncomfortable head jerks when you see your boss in the mall with a much younger girlfriend who's not his wife." If you're not (straight and) married, with kids, (probably Christian), and middle/upper middle class, well, good luck with that, 'cause you're pretty much on your own with that.

The basic concepts: spend a...more

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Apr 03, 2013 Ann rated it 3 of 5 stars

Wow, do I have mixed feelings about this book.
The first couple of chapters were insightful and interesting and useful. Many other parts of the book had great ideas and fascinating case studies.

But there were huge sections where her suggestions and reasoning were based on underlying assumptions that I just don't agree with at all. If she doesn't come right out and say it, she strongly implies that a woman who doesn't have a career aside from mothering and home-making is wasting her time and life...more Wow, do I have mixed feelings about this book.
The first couple of chapters were insightful and interesting and useful. Many other parts of the book had great ideas and fascinating case studies.

But there were huge sections where her suggestions and reasoning were based on underlying assumptions that I just don't agree with at all. If she doesn't come right out and say it, she strongly implies that a woman who doesn't have a career aside from mothering and home-making is wasting her time and life. I don't agree. Several other things she writes about here just rubbed me the wrong way. For example, I'm not sure how bragging about fitting into your pre-pregnancy jeans one week after your baby was born fits into this book. And I suspect that once the author actually has school-age children, she might not be so gung ho about feeding them school lunches to save time. She claims the hot lunch offering in school are now "healthy." Hmm.

More importantly, though, I just have to say something about the value of unstructured, unplanned time where mom is not focused on the children but is physically present. Ms. Vanderkam would have us believe that if we aren't engaging with our children then we might as well not be with them. This is so false. It's also false to say that we should outsource all our housework so that we can spend quality time with our kids. I'm not terribly good at it, but what about having your work time BE the quality time? How about showing your kids that grown-ups and families have work and that work--whatever honest work it happens to be--is worthwhile. I'm not saying it's wrong to outsource any and all work. Sure, hire the neighbor boy to mow your lawn. Whatever. I'm just saying that you'll actually be doing your kids a disservice if you structure your time so that all time you spend with them is recreational or even educational. All play and no work makes Jack a very lazy boy, as I see it.

And this is all not to mention that I think she just emphasizes career too much. For anyone. Of course, that reflects her audience, I suppose.

Now, having said all that, I am still thinking about this book, and I finished it a few weeks ago. I am thinking about how I use my time and why. I am thinking about things on my "dream list" that I want to make time for. I am thinking about whether I spend any quality time with my children at all or whether it's just quantity. So I suppose her book, despite many irritating elements, is successful.(less)

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Aug 09, 2012 Alicia rated it 3 of 5 stars

General premises were good, such as looking at your time as in 168 hours/week, documenting your time, analyzing where it is spent and re-negotiating and prioritizing what you want to spend it on. I like that the author makes you take responsibility for yourself and your time-decisions instead of participating in the cultural whining. HOWEVER, as a stay at home mom I could not really relate ... this was clearly written by a professional, working woman/mother with a high income and lots of resourc...more

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Feb 13, 2013 Caya rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction, organization-time-management

This book is a decent read. I think, in theory, the idea of balancing your time in the concept of hours in a week is an alright one. However, I think that it's easier said than done. In my undergraduate program I took a really easy course one semester, just to make the full-time credit hour requirement. The class was Stress Management. In that class we worked on time management one week. We kept a time log for 5 days just to see where we really were spending our time. Laura Vanderkam suggests do...more

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Aug 08, 2012 Danielle rated it 3 of 5 stars

I really liked how eye opening it is to realize that yes, I do have time. It was refreshing to be reminded that I do have more time than I think, and I took 2 days to track what I did. It was challenging to label these times though, since full time mommying is multi faceted. I couldn't relate to much of it- although it was nice to dream about saving time by shopping for grocceries on line, paying for laundry service and hiring a personal chef. :) She is for sure pro mom, but highly condones that...more

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Nov 30, 2010 Amy rated it 3 of 5 stars

Interesting book with an interesting premise. The first couple of chapters were very good, sadly the other chapters were not as relatable to people outside working moms, which I am not. I also found planning the 168 hours on a spreadsheet like the author did not work for me; nor do I think all her examples plot out their schedule in a similar manner. Things happen and our priorities can change at a moment's notice.

My overall concern with this book is there is too much emphasis on creating a prof...more

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