168 Hours by Laura Vanderkam

168 Hours by Laura Vanderkam is a time management strategy designed to help readers make the most of their week. The core concept behind this time management strategy is that all of us have the same amount of time in a week—168 hours—but it’s what we do with this time that makes all the difference.

The book starts out with a discussion of the common modern narrative about how nobody has enough time. Vanderkam strongly disagrees with this, arguing that 168 hours a week is enough time to fit in a robust career, a strong family life, exercise, hobbies, and enough sleep per night.

Throughout the book, Vanderkam shares strategies on how to get the most out of your week. Some of the tips she offers include recognizing your key competencies, finding a job you love, logging your hours, and outsourcing some tasks.

She also encourages readers to track at least a week’s worth of how they spend their time, use time-blocking and re-engineer their schedule, check for activities that can be cut or reduced in time spent on them, plan ahead, and think of their life as an integrated whole.

Overall, 168 Hours is a story of how some people manage to be fully engaged in their professional and personal lives. It is the story of how people take their careers to the next level while still nurturing their communities, families, and souls. The main themes of the book include time management, productivity, work-life balance, and self-improvement.

What I Liked

If there’s one thing to takeaway, it’s to log hours for just one week. Getting that benchmark for me was eye-opening.

I love that that she framed time, not about scarcity, but about tradeoffs.

What I Did Not Like

Nothing – it’s an actually useful productivity book.