168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think

by Laura Vanderkam

Here is the process for doing your own “time makeover”: Log your time. Use the spreadsheet at the end of Chapter 1 (downloadable at My168Hours.com if you borrowed this book from the library), or a word-processing document or a little notebook if you want, and keep as complete a record as possible of 168 consecutive hours. Tally up the time spent on the major categories (sleep, work, interacting with children, and so on). If you think your totals are unusual, go ahead and record another week. But keep in mind that when things are important to us, we tend to find ways to fit them in. People who really value exercise take their running shoes along on business trips and stay in hotels with treadmills. People who really value interacting with their children set up times to call them, and write individual e-mails to each of them about their days. Keep a time log until you are satisfied that you have a complete picture of how you spend your time. Create your “List of 100 Dreams.” This was the exercise from Chapter 2 that the career coach Caroline Ceniza-Levine does with her clients. Come up with as many answers as possible to the question of “What do I want to do (or do more of) with my time?” Sometimes the answers are profound—for example, win a Nobel Prize—and sometimes they’re more basic, such as “cook dinner for my family two nights per week.” For the longer projects, create a list of actionable steps, and how long each might take, in terms of hours if you can. A lifetime is ...