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168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think (2010)

by Laura Vanderkam(Favorite Author)

3.59 of 5 Votes: 1

ISBN

1591843316 (ISBN13: 9781591843313)

languge

English

genre

Nonfiction

publisher

Portfolio Hardcover

review 1: This book is good for you only if you were a female, specially a working mom and a feminist. The writer says this book is addressed to men and women who have children or don't, but I find it addressed only to working moms (like the writer) or females who plan to be that one day.The writer talks a lot about making your breakthrough in you career and I believe this book was her breakthrough. I also believe if the description of the book says who it's aimed for, it will not be as successful as it is. I have been lied to yes, but still I sometimes manged to project the ideas of this book on my life and get the more I can of it.
review 2: So, most times when I read self improvement books, I read the first 20 pages and say to myself "this is BS", or "boring! I'm not... more going to change a dang thing" . But, this book I read cover to cover and I actually listened to some of it. And, I even took out a piece of paper and wrote stuff down when it (Laura) told me to. All self improvement books have that part when they ask me to actually do something and that's when I put it neatly back in the bookshelf and back away. Sort of ashamed that I listened this time, but not. Why? because the book boils down to a few very reasonable measurable concepts; 1) Measure and track your time 2) Your work will luxuriously fill up any time you give it and 3) Plan ahead at least some aspect in your life. Being an engineer, I like to measure things. The book asks you for two weeks to track to the MINUTE what you are doing, whether it's email, actual work, dishes, sleeping, or staring off into the space. Taking real measurements and not changing a thing? sounded like a great plan to me. What you're supposed to do with this information is see where your time is going, realize there's lots of wasted time, and realize you're actually not working as long and hard as you think are. And, all of that is right. But, what I got from it is that if I measure the tasks I hate doing (like the dishes!) I can know to the minute how long it actually will take me, and there's a lot of comfort in that. It's comforting to know that I will go through hell for exactly X minutes and then it will be over. And, since finishing this book, I've gotten REALLY good at knowing exactly how long things take me;7 minutes to unload full dishwasher and 20 minutes to wash a full sink of dirty pots and pans for instance. The second concept about work filling up every bit of time you give it is really true, so I've realized that it's really good to schedule things (appointments) that force my future self out of the office. The third concept I apply only to the things I hate doing like household chores. I plan every chore and know how long it takes me to clean an entire house down to cleaning the toilet; 5 minutes. There are some sweet heartfelt stories in there by Laura, a working mom, and some decent statistics about how stay-at-home moms actually don't spend much more QUALITY time with their kids than working moms. Again, being a young female with a engineering career, and desire to have kids, it is comforting to know, that I will likely give my future kids the same amount of quality attention as the average stay-at-home mom. And I'll be doing that all the while being a good role model, and being useful in the world. less

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