How did I not know this book? I wrote this 168 Hours book review in a frenzy after devouring it like a maniac.
This might literally be the most revolutionary book on time management for busy women that I have EVER read. Review after the jump.
Discovery
I was rereading some articles on Get Bullish, which is the best no-nonsense advice website for women. Even though I have read one of my favourite articles ‘Maybe Work-Life Balance Means You Should Work MORE’ a bunch of times, this was the first time the book recommendation ‘168 Hours’ by Laura van der Kam caught my attention.
“In 168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think, Laura Vanderkam points out that, of the 168 hours each of us has every week, spending 56 hours sleeping and 60 hours working still leaves 52 hours left for other activities — over 7 hours per day. So, cut out all the fucking around, and you can easily step up your career and life.”
I decided to buy the Kindle version the title above links to, but I might splurge on the physical copy that’s 17 bucks and well worth it* – I might buy it for everyone in my life.
*Affiliate link for bol.com! If you buy it through me, I get a small fee so I can buy more self help books to review for you.
Subject
Laura van der Kam takes a factual, friendly but unamused approach to the time we have in a full week. She doesn’t claim it’s easy, or always fun, but she does put into perspective that with some prioritising and discipline? There is SO much you can do with your week.
168 Hours takes up the delicious premise that instead of not having enough time as we are always telling ourselves and each other; there IS enough time.
And if you take a good hard look how you spend the 168 hours of your week, you might you can, in fact, find time for all the things that truly matter. In the 168 Hours book review I hope the quotes will give you the general feel of the book (and why I really think you should get it)
Kookiness (1-10)
Oh, solid 1. But if you don’t want to hear someone tell you that you do in fact have time (as long as you make the hard and important choices aka really set your priorities) than you’re going to hate this book.
Which to me would be a sign you’re just really resistant to prioritising and a little discipline but hey. Trust your own journey.
My Favourite Quotes
- “I have learned that yes, there is enough time in my 168 hours to build the life I want.”
- “While we think of our lives in grand abstractions, a life is actually lived in hours.”
- “In short, if you want to do something or become something — and you want to do it well — it takes time.”
- “The weekly 168-hour cycle is big enough to give a true picture of our lives. Year and decades are made up of a mosaic of repeating patterns of 168 hours.”
- “But getting the most of your 168 hours takes discipline in a distracted world.”
- “If you choose your life’s work well, something bewitching can happen through your labours. Each hour you log can be a source of joy.”
- “Any ‘work’ that is not advancing you towards the profession life you want should not count as work. It is wasted time.”
- “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 four 4 hours because of 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 the party on the other side of the deadline doesn’t care, and it doesn’t matter if you have a good excuse. Many excuses and emergencies are, in the broad sense, foreseeable.”
- “The world is not going to make it easy for you to stick to your priorities. Don’t let your own weakness contribute to the problem.”
- “You cannot remove randomness from the universe. You an, however, use your 168 hours to stack the odds in your favour. To do tis, you have to place many bets, and leave nothing you can control to chance.”
- “If taking your career to the next level will require your fairy godmother to tip her wand, make sure the wand is pointed at you, and that you’re standing as close to her as possible, so all sh has to do is nudge the thing like a bored barfly fiddling with a cocktail glass.”
Self Help Hipster Stamp of Approval
Hell yeah. This is the best, most positive and yet take-no-shit self help book I’ve read in a long time about time management. None of that ‘oh god there is no time’ (don’t get me wrong, I still totally experience this) but a complete overhaul of how you look at time and how much you actually have of it.
It can be a great paradigm shift for a lot of us out here trying to do too much in too little time (aka not sifting the real priorities out of the white noise).
Plus, I’m excited: Laura has six more books that I can start reading.
Have a lovely Sunday guys and BUY THIS BOOK. If this 168 Hours book review doesn’t convince you, I honestly don’t know how more strongly I could put it!!
