Laura Vanderkam

This review is based on the Blinkist version of the book...thus a summary and my review needs to be qualified as such. Presumably the original full text has much more details and research.....but it also takes much longer to read. If I like the Blinkist version, I might seek out and read the full book. Meantime here are a few nuggets that particularly struck me:
In 2011, a study by the Bureau of Labour Statistics found that people claiming to work more than 75 hours a week were typically overestimating by around 25 hours. If we’re not working as much as we think we are, where is our time really going?
Although rigorous time tracking provides a deeper understanding of how you’re actually spending each week, many of us are resistant to the idea...Despite these potential downsides, the author found time tracking allowed her to recalibrate her life. Armed with greater knowledge, she was able to make positive changes in how she spent her time.
For instance, once she discovered she was spending almost 327 hours per year on reading trashy magazines, she became motivated to carve out time to plan her reading habits more carefully...
In general, the more memories we make, the more time we’ll feel we’ve had. The reason comes down to how the human brain processes its environment and archives what happens in it....For instance, if you take the same work commute 235 days of the year for around four years, then your brain will typically decide to store all these commutes–approximately one thousand of them–as a single trip! And just like that, one thousand of your precious hours have been whittled down to one.
So how can you stretch your perception of time and avoid losing the hours to your routine? The key is to create memories that are intense or novel in some way. Taking vacations, for instance, is a surefire way to generate such memories. Our brains make memories out of novel experiences because they can’t be sure what they’ll need to remember in the future. As a result, they store everything that’s new. Therefore, if you want to stretch time, have an adventure.
When pressed on how he managed to keep blank spaces in his schedule, despite working in corporate America, Jeff replied that it was all thanks to his mind-set. Crucially, he avoids the mental trap that so many other professionals get caught up in. Jeff thinks that despite their lamentations about not having enough free time, most professionals actually don’t like having white space on their calendar. Why? Because having a jammed schedule gives people mental reassurance that they’re doing something productive with their time....Avoid this detrimental mind-set by ignoring the temptation to fill all your spare time. You don’t have to value busyness just because the world does.........the dirty secret about meetings is that, more often than not, they take up more time than is justified by the issue they’re addressing.
A smart way to manage your time is to make friendships your priority. Why? Because devoting more time to your important relationships not only makes you happier; it can actually create a perception of having more time.....in an experiment where people were asked about how much time they had; those with the least amount of time on their perception scores didn’t actually have less time than any other respondents; rather, it’s that spending time with friends and family is usually a relaxing, feel-good experience, and it therefore makes you feel as though you have all the time in the world. Time spent on, say, Twitter, won’t produce this feeling.
Importantly, making time for those you care about may not only stretch your perception of time, but may also, in the long run, literally stretch your time. How? Well, research has shown that people with stronger social connections tend to have a longer life expectancy than those without such social connections.
Once the author made a conscious effort to lower her expectations about how much she should accomplish, she seemed magically able to achieve more in the little time she did have.........How did this miracle happen? Well, when we lower our expectations of how much we can achieve, we no longer waste time worrying that we should be doing more.....The key to long-term success is to consistently set and meet low expectations.
We each have an equal amount of time allotted to us–168 hours a week to be exact.....Money can boost happiness if you use it to buy things that facilitate pleasant experiences.......These experiences later become fond memories–continuous wells of pleasure.......If you buy a tent and then use it to go camping, that tent may bring you lasting happiness. Why? Because you will forever remember the starry nights and campfires of that trip.......Indeed, your moods are often much more driven by your hour-to-hour experiences than by your overall life satisfaction.
Research has shown that commuting to work is often the unhappiest time of a person’s day. If this is true for you, too, then you could use your money to move closer to the office, thus reducing that commute and boosting your mood......A few simple strategies can make the time we have feel richer and fuller.
• Figure out where the time really goes.
• Plan in little adventures.
• Be careful with “yes.” If you want to have time for adventures, you can’t pack your schedule with things you don’t want to do.
• Slow down. Rushing just makes you feel rushed.
• Put friends on your calendar.
• A dinner party takes effort, but it’s more rewarding than looking at photos on Instagram of other people’s dinner parties.
The key message: We all have the same amount of time each week, but our mind-set can greatly influence our perception of that time. Spending time with family and friends, and making fond memories, makes us feel as if we have more time. In contrast, worrying about our productivity and going through the motions of a boring routine can make us feel like we have less. In order to make the most of our time, it’s important to stop worrying, ditch the routine and start having adventures with those we love.
My take on the book? Well as I was reading, I thought that it was rather superficial and ther was mot much new to me....but gradually I was won over. Yes...probably not much that’s new or innovative there but good advice.....especially the bit about planning little adventures. Four stars from me.… (more)

An older book, so the links/anecdotes can be a bit dated; but the concept is still sound. Unfortunately, it seems to be more stories and anecdotes than concepts most of the time. I found myself skimming chapters because I didn't care so much HOW somebody else applied a concept as wanting more information/data to back up a concept. I read "Off The Clock" last year and remember thinking the same thing. My guess is that because Vanderkam is/was a journalist first and then an author that that style carries over? It's not bad, just wasn't for me. Many people will find the stories more helpful than I did, which is why this gets three stars.… (more)

Book title and author reviewed 2/17/2024: 168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think by Laura Vanderkam

Why I picked this book up: This was the next book on the Ad for headway. I have never read it so chose to read it.

Thoughts: 
Full Book Name: 168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think
* Author Name: Laura Vanderkam
* Book Genre: Business, Nonfiction, Personal Development, Productivity, Self Help
* ISBN # 9781591843313
* Date of Publication: 2010-5-26
Vanderkam wrote this after establishing a blog about using her time efficiently. It starts an exercise: List 100 things you want to do with your time. I often have the list that goes on and on and on. The second exercise keep a time log. It helps me be aware of my thoughts and what I do. Sometimes my mind runs-jumping from one thing to the next. I get distracted at times.

Why I finished this read: I finished it because I enjoyed what she was saying. For me it was not a demand, it was about developing an awareness of what I fill my 168 hour of my week with. Time is highly elastic and time stretches to accommodate what we choose to put into it.” Everything I do is my choice.” What I learned is I can look at the whole of time I have and I can put the important things I want to into the time I have. In the end it is about being mindful of the time I have and put into it what I want.

Stars rating: 5 of 5 stars.… (more)

I really enjoyed the book and found some helpful strategies for time management m. However, I feel that the pool she researched was limited and may have lacked generalizability to the majority of the female population. The female executives she chose to include in her pool of data all have expendable income to spend on outsourcing a variety of daily tasks that consume a large chunk of the lay female’s time, such as laundry, cleaning, grocery shopping, etc. it would be interesting for her to do another Mosaic project study on females with low SES, as I am sure they would be very grateful to hear her analysis of their time logs and give them feedback.… (more)