168 Hours Book Summary - 168 Hours Book explained in key points

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168 Hours summary

Name: 168 Hours
Rating: 4.3 (458 reviews)
Author: Laura Vanderkam

Laura Vanderkam

You Have More Time Than You Think

4.3 (458 ratings)

21 mins

Topics

Effectiveness Simplify Podcast Time Management Focus

Table of Contents

168 Hours
Summary of 8 key ideas

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Key idea 1 of 8

What’s in it for me? Learn how to fit everything that matters into your life.

Do you regularly find yourself longing for more hours in the day? Do you wish you could spend more quality time with your spouse and children, regularly exercise, maybe write that novel, or even just take a break every now and then?

All too often, the demands of work and family life are so relentless that there’s no room to add anything else to your calendar. So you battle on through each week, wishing the daily grind didn’t leave you worn out and unfulfilled.

The truth is, there is a different way to run your life, one that will leave you happier and more successful without having to compromise on what’s important. But to live this way, you need to rethink your idea of time – and take control of each 168-hour week!

In these blinks, you’ll learn

how your dream job relates to your childhood;
why you should stop preparing your own meals; and
which unfathomable chores were once on every housewife’s to-do list.

You’re not too busy – you’re just not in control of your time.

Theresa Daytner leads a full life. The mother of six owns Daytner Construction Group – a company with twelve people on the payroll and a seven-figure revenue. But her life is far from all work and no play. Daytner coaches soccer, goes for regular massages, enjoys trail rides, and chills out watching the action-drama TV show 24.

You’re probably thinking, “Does she ever sleep?” That’s exactly what Barack Obama was wondering when he met her. But Daytner gets a solid seven hours of sleep, every night. Her secret to packing so much into her day isn’t Dr. Who-style time travel. It's a mindset. Daytner takes full ownership of her time, using it only on the things she values: her family, her business, and herself. Instead of thinking, “I’m too busy,” she asks herself, “Is that a priority?” If it isn’t, Daytner simply lets it go. That way, she can focus on what she does well, and on what enriches her life.

The key message here is: You’re not too busy – you’re just not in control of your time.

The pressures of modern living make many of us feel time-poor. We’re busier than ever, pulling long hours at work. Our smartphones keep us under constant pressure to be “on.” We hardly ever manage to squeeze in time for our physical and mental health, and we can forget about having a decent conversation with our spouse or kids. By the end of the week, we feel worn out, disconnected, and unfulfilled – with no hope of pursuing anything we’re truly passionate about.

But research has shown that we’re not as time-poor as we think. A study called the American Time Use Survey found that most Americans get eight hours of sleep each night, and that parents in full-time, paid employment work no more than 43 hours per week. That leaves 69 hours for everything else – ample time for chores, childcare, exercise, and hobbies. Yet somehow, few of us feel time-rich.

The good news is that you can take control of your time by changing the way you organize your life. But before you do that, you need to understand how you’re actually spending the 168 hours in your week. To find out, create a time log. Draw up grids with seven columns for the days of the week and a cell for each hour of the day. Then, spend two to three weeks writing down how you spend every hour. This will give you an accurate picture of what you’re doing with your time.

To live a fulfilling life, focus on your core competencies.

Jackie Camborde loves group fitness – a passion that led her to open the Santa Fe Fitness Studio in New Mexico. But Camborde wasn’t always into exercise. Her journey began in the 1990s, when she wanted to lose the weight she’d gained after she quit smoking. She was so enthusiastic about group fitness that her instructor encouraged her to become a certified teacher. Not long after that, she realized that teaching was her true calling. And a few years later, she left her fundraising job to launch her own studio.

The most successful businesses are the ones that focus on areas where they outshine the competition. It’s the same with successful individuals. If you invest in the skills you’re really good at and love, you’ll end up living your best life.

Choosing a job that uses your core competencies energizes your entire life.

After 40 years of working as a marine biologist, Sylvia Earle was still passionate about her job. She’d endured demanding hours, grueling travel, and blatant sexism in the science sector. But at 62, Earle was still thrilled by the prospect of living in an underwater ocean lab, 60 feet below the surface, so she could study marine life. She’d reached the average age of retirement in the US, but retirement wasn’t on Earle’s agenda. Her job was a source of intense joy.

Books like The 4-Hour Work Week might be best sellers. But in 2002, the General Social Survey found that most people would still choose to continue to work in some capacity, even if they didn’t need to. If, like Earle, you’re passionate about your job, you’ll want to work more than four hours a week. Now you just need to find that job.

To become time-rich you must control your work calendar.

Biologist Carol Fassbinder-Orth makes a habit of excusing herself from meetings. Many of us would be too nervous to speak up, but Fassbinder-Orth takes another view. If she realizes a meeting isn’t relevant to her, she recognizes that it’s a waste of her time. And that time would be better spent pursuing activities that advance her career.

Fassbinder-Orth is a master at effectively using time to achieve goals. She earned her PhD in avian immunology without putting in the usual 80 hours a week. Since she’d had her first child during her first year at graduate school, she simply couldn’t spend every hour in the lab. Instead, Fassbinder-Orth learned how to structure her schedule to maximize her progress. Within five years, she’d completed her PhD, secured a professorship, and was eight months pregnant with her second child.

To achieve a career breakthrough, combine strategy with story.

Leah Ingram is the author of Suddenly Frugal, a book that explains how American families can save $25,000 a year. To an outsider, her journey of getting published may look sudden. In November 2008, her agent pitched her book to publishers; by the end of the month, she’d landed a contract and attained the breakthrough she wanted.

But this “breakthrough” came after two years of blogging every day about living frugally. Back when her family moved to their dream home in New Hope, Pennsylvania, they discovered they were facing huge maintenance costs and had to tighten their belts. Bored of her usual gig covering weddings and etiquette, Ingram decided it was time for a change and committed to blogging about living on a budget.

You can improve your relationships with your children by focusing on your core competencies.

In the 1950s and 60s, chores like “iron electric blankets” and “vacuum ceiling” appeared on the to-do lists of everyday women. During this time, most American mothers spent 34.5 hours a week cleaning. Thankfully, today this figure is closer to 16 hours.

With many mothers now also in paid work, there simply isn’t time to clean with the same vigor. And while parents spend more time with children now than they did in the 1950s and 60s, it might surprise you how little time that actually is. In the US, full-time stay-at-home moms spend about 22.5 hours a week caring for children under the age of six. This amounts to just over three hours a day. So if that’s all the time you have to nurture your child, you’ll probably want to make the most of it.

Outsource housework that doesn’t align with your core competencies.

Software developer Sid Savara is great at playing the guitar. What he’s not great at is grocery shopping and cooking. The health-conscious 30-year-old was doing his best to avoid the pitfalls of takeout. But because he wasn’t planning ahead, he was wasting hours after work going to the store or waiting for chicken to defrost.

So Savara came up with a plan. He posted an ad in Craig’s List for a personal chef. A mom who’d recently quit her day job responded, and they agreed she’d make him 12 to 15 basic meals for $60 per week, plus the cost of groceries. While this added another item to his budget, Savara’s credit card bill decreased because his chef knew how to shop economically and didn’t impulse buy. More importantly, Savara won back almost ten hours of time per week! That’s ten hours he could use to play the guitar.

Plan your leisure time to increase its value.

Take a moment to estimate how many hours of leisure time you have each week. For some, this figure may be zero. For others, maybe it’s just one or two. Most people will say they don’t have enough – that with the pressures of work, parenting, and chores, there’s barely any time left to socialize, let alone follow a dream or volunteer for a cause.

But studies have shown that the average American has 30 hours of leisure time a week. That’s four whole hours a day! The problem is, it doesn’t feel that way. Because we don’t plan our leisure time carefully, we end up slumped in front of the TV. And we do this for an average of 20 hours a week. Imagine what you could achieve if you invested even half that time in doing something you love.

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What is 168 Hours about?

168 Hours (2010) provides a revolutionary strategy to manage your time. Author Laura Vanderkam has discovered that successful people have a unique mindset, one that helps them fit everything they value into their week. By learning to time-manage like they do, you can free yourself from the daily grind and focus on what really matters.

Best quote from 168 Hours

Any work that is not advancing you towards the professional life you want should not count as work. It is wasted time.

—Laura Vanderkam

Who should read 168 Hours?

Employees trapped in demanding and unfulfilling jobs
Parents who want more quality time with their kids
Creatives struggling to pursue their dreams

About the Author

Laura Vanderkam is an author and productivity specialist whose work has appeared in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Fast Company, and Fortune. She is a co-host of the podcast Before Breakfast, which features ideas from her other books on time management including What Successful People Do Before Breakfast, Off the Clock, and I Know How She Does It.

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