Great book! So inspiring! So many terrific ideas and my favorite has to be that we all have 168 hours every week in which to sleep, work, play, eat, go out, stay in, exercise, go on dates, hang out with family, hang out with friends, take classes, take trips, whatever we choose to include in that time – we all have it and no body gets to say, “I don’t have time to do that,” because we all have the same amount of time, it’s all in how we allocate it and our priorities are where we burn up the most of our time. Looking at all those hours on a grid, which the author provides free on her website and also in the book, gives you such a sense of “wait a minute, maybe I’m not spending my time as well as I could.” She takes several participants on a one week time journaling journey. When you see how folks utilize their time on paper right there in front of you, it is easy to see just how susceptible we are to eating up time in less than efficient, less than productive and less than making you happy ways. The computer age has allowed information to be gleaned in mere seconds – the world is virtually at our fingertips, but, instead of lightening our load as it was supposed in the early stages, it has increased our need for information, for speed in getting it and cluttered us up with more paper from all the amazing things we are able to access and hold onto. Everyone is busy, their lives are full and so often we say no to things we might like to do (or maybe not J) but can’t because of all the things going on in our lives. Laura Vanderkam shows the reader how to keep track of one entire week in their life to give them a visual perspective on just how they allocate their time. It’s an eye-opener. She also points out that all of those weekends when we can’t find the time to add one more thing – if one actually looks at the amount of time between 6:00p.m. on Friday and 8:00a.m. on Monday there are honestly enough hours to schedule in catching up with friends and loved ones and still having time to sleep, eat, read/have me time, do whatever your priority project is, meditate, exercise and still have time left. We just have to allocate our time better to accomplish all we want out of it. And what do the most successful people do before breakfast? First of all they get up at least an hour earlier than usual to give themselves an extra hour per day to achieve their goals. That may be exercising, have quiet time away from the kids to do a load of wash before breakfast, school and work, it may be getting up and giving yourself an hour to devote to writing, journaling, getting in that letter/personal email you want to for fun, not work, whatever it is you truly desire – taking time for self – that is an extra 7 hours you are paying yourself every week to do something important to you. It doesn’t have to be work, it can be fun. It doesn’t have to be sewing a costume for the kids plays or finishing that report you have been stressing over. This is time for you to do whatever makes you happy and starts your day making you feel good. Extra time in the shower before your significant other uses all the hot water? Completing that craft project you have been dying to start but have too many distractions during the day to bother with and too many chores when you get home to feed the family and pets, clean up and get to bed. Maybe you would love to learn a foreign language but can’t eke out the time to spend really getting it or would like to take a class online but can’t carve out the time – BAM! Now that is what the most successful people do before breakfast – they do whatever makes them happy.
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