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

I want to say I started taking my time more seriously about a decade ago. This, as it happened, coincided with the arrival of my first child. It was the sudden lack of freedom and personal time, compounded with the stark realization of my own mortality. I realized I had spent so much time without intention, and there were still a lot of things I wanted to accomplish before I left this plane of reality. Although I optimistically hope science will allow me to live a high quality of life for three hundred more years, the truth is, I am not immortal. 

My personal journey with time management began with journaling, as my emotional state was a mess and needed attention. I then gradually layered in skills and activities aligned with my longer-term goals. I found a path that resonated with me, and as it turns out, it’s backed by science. By slowly introducing these changes, I feel like I’ve reached a highly productive state, juggling multiple projects, exercising five days a week, holding down a job, and enjoying a very active family life with three kids. I even embraced the 5 am wake-up club. Over the years, I’ve worked hard to maximize every minute of efficiency, even planning my downtime to avoid burnout. It’s all about sustainable productivity; I’ve learned the hard way that intense bursts followed by a crash are counterproductive. 

I’m not entirely sure how Laura Vanderkam’s 168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think landed on my reading list, though I believe it was a recommendation from a friend during a conversation about productivity books. Anyway, it finally reached the top of my stack, and I must say, I found it both interesting and valuable. 

The fundamental premise of 168 Hours is that everyone has the same 168 hours in a week. The challenge isn’t a lack of time, but rather how we choose to allocate it. By making conscious and intentional choices, we can dedicate our time to the things that truly matter to us. Vanderkam shares her own journey toward greater productivity, blending research with personal anecdotes and outlining practical strategies for daily life. She begins by presenting statistics, which I found surprisingly refreshing, on the discrepancy between people’s perceived work hours and their actual tracked time. The myth of the workaholic is debunked, revealing that many exaggerate their 60-hour work weeks, with the gap between claimed and actual hours widening the more time they say they work (a term I’ve mentally dubbed “brag time”). I could actually feel a sense of ease wash over me as she presented these statistics, reassuring me that the time I dedicate to my projects is likely sufficient. Of course, there’s always room for optimization, which is why I was reading the book, but knowing that most people aren’t the superhuman productivity machines they claim to be was surprisingly comforting. 

Vanderkam advocates for a time-logging experiment, tracking your activities in 15-minute increments over a week. This practice helps uncover unconscious patterns in your behavior, revealing blind spots that can then be optimized. I’m eager to try this, my only hurdle being finding an efficient way to capture this data consistently. A spreadsheet on my phone seems like the current best option, but I’m curious if an app exists that allows for easy, time-stamped task logging. Surely, something like that must be out there? I suspect I might find some time-wasting patterns in my evening routines. 

Another compelling idea in the book was the concept of trading money for time – strategically using finances to offload undesirable tasks or chores. Vanderkam illustrates how this can actually gain you time and even save money, using the example of hiring someone for meal prep. In this scenario, the individual saved on impulse grocery buys and enjoyed healthier, more cost-effective meals prepared in bulk by a chef they hired. As someone who naturally leans towards frugality (bordering on stinginess, perhaps), the realization that I could use money more effectively to free up my time was eye-opening. It shifted my perspective on these expenditures, suggesting that using money to increase my time and energy in ways that enhance my overall happiness could be a worthwhile investment. 

At its core, 168 Hours champions the power of intentionality in how we spend our most precious resource: time. Vanderkam offers a wealth of insights to help readers become happier and more productive, ultimately living a more fulfilling life. I believe reclaiming time from distractions, chores, and unfulfilling tasks is a common struggle in our modern world, and I would highly recommend this book to anyone feeling that pressure. It offers both hope and actionable advice. What are your go-to productivity techniques? Share them in the comments below!