When you think about it, 24 hours in a day doesn't seem like nearly enough time to accomplish everything we want. I mean, how are we supposed to put in a full day of work, eat three nutritious meals, hit the gym, stay connected with friends and loved ones, volunteer for the causes we care about, meet our clients' last-minute deadlines, and sleep the recommended 7-8 hours a night? Not to mention those who do all that with kids or elderly parents to worry about. According to Laura Vanderkam, author of 168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think, it's doable, especially when you start thinking in terms of 168-hour weeks rather than 24-hour days. I know what some of you are thinking: who is this Laura Vanderkam? A Super Mom or a Tim Ferris* wannabe? Actually, she's a journalist and a mom who was fascinated by how people manage their time, so she started a weekly time log and asked others to keep their own logs, then turned the research into a book. Overall, Vanderkam (and the studies she referenced) found that while most people say they don't have enough time, they're actually spending more time than they realize watching TV or checking Facebook or doing unnecessary housework. Even those who claim to work 60+ hours a week aren't actually spending all that time productively. The book's usefulness is based on the reader completing a personal time log, so it's not a one-size-fits-all approach. Instead, it's more of an ala carte menu of tips designed to help readers prioritize the important and minimize, delegate, or ignore the unnecessary.
Freelancers may already track their time for billing purposes, but Vanderkam recommends tracking everything: sleep time, social time, meal time, work time, email time. (Technically, you're supposed to log weekends, too, but I let myself off the hook, because I'm already hyper-conscious of trying to maximize every second of my leisure time and I didn't want to make myself even more time-focused on weekends.) Since we're usually paid by the hour or by the project and thus can't afford to waste time, freelancers are in an especially good position to benefit from the book.I consider my time management skills to be above average, but until I actually sat down and studied how I spent each 30 minute block, I didn't realize there were a few places where I'm wasting precious time. For instance, I'm terrible at parallel parking, so sometimes I pull up on time but enter late because I've spent 15 minutes maneuvering into a spot! And I tend to make lots of little grocery trips instead of consolidating my list into one trip because I only plan meals for a few days at once (but hey, at least I can shop during weekdays when there are no lines). Neither one is directly related to work, but once I fix those time sucks, I'll have more time for work or relaxing. Here's my breakdown for one work week in early March: Work Misc. computer time (social media time, plus a computer glitch mentioned earlier; ironically, my time log file was also corrupted so I spent time recovering the file that's supposed to save me time) – 3.5 hours Email – 7 hours Reading (mainly Google reader and magazine articles for inspiration, some of which I read on the subway) – 4.5 hours Tax prep (for all my dread, it only took about 4 hours to pull together all the paperwork for my accountant) – 4 hours Phone calls (I had a LOT of phone interviews during this particular week!) – 8 hours Actual writing time – 8 hours Misc. other work time – 2.5 hours Total work time – 37.5 Personal Errands – 4 hours Food prep & consumption – 8.5 hours Misc. personal time (watching Glee, reading for fun, showering, etc.) – 7 hours Social (Gchatting or hanging out with Mr. Muse, catching up with a friend over dinner, rehearsing for a community theater production I'm doing) – 15 hours Working out (yeah, I know I should do more) – 2.5 hours Total personal time – 37 hours Sleep time – 41 hours (I don't function well on less than 8 hours per night) Some of you math whizzes may notice that this doesn't add up to 120 hours (24 hours x 5 days = 120 instead of the 168 in the book). Vanderkam says that's normal, because people sometimes forget to track a few hours or they spend a half hour block doing a few different tasks or some other glitch throws off their log. Download a black time log from Vanderkam's website if you'd like to try the exercise yourself. All in all, I found 168 Hours to be a practical guide for those who think they don't have enough time or simply want to be more productive. It's not about multi-tasking, it's about rethinking how you spend your time and challenging preconceptions about what you "should" or "must" do. *Tim Ferris is the "productivity guru" who wrote The 4-Hour Work Week, which for the record, I couldn't finish because I found it completely out of touch with my personal reality.