168 Hours

168 Hours Plot Summary

Introduction

Have you ever felt that there simply aren't enough hours in the day? You rush from one commitment to the next, perpetually behind on your to-do list, while important personal goals and family time get squeezed into whatever moments remain. This common experience leads many to believe they're victims of a modern time crunch. Yet what if this perception is fundamentally flawed? The truth is revolutionary in its simplicity: we all have exactly 168 hours each week. No more, no less. The difference between feeling overwhelmed and feeling fulfilled isn't about finding more time—it's about how we choose to use the abundance of time we already have. By approaching our 168 hours with intention and focusing on our core competencies—the things we do best that others cannot do nearly as well—we can create lives of extraordinary achievement and meaning, without sacrificing what matters most.

Chapter 1: Embrace the Reality of Abundant Time

The myth of the time crunch dominates our cultural narrative. We constantly hear about overworked professionals, sleep-deprived parents, and the impossibility of "having it all." Yet research tells a different story. Time-diary studies consistently show that most people work fewer hours than they think, sleep more than they report, and spend surprising amounts of time on activities they wouldn't classify as important or meaningful. Consider Theresa Daytner, a business owner and mother of six, including eight-year-old twins. When President Obama met her and heard her dual roles, he asked incredulously, "When do you sleep?" The answer might surprise you. Daytner runs a seven-figure construction company while sleeping at least seven hours nightly. She coaches soccer and attends her children's games. She finds time to hike along babbling brooks, ride her hybrid bicycle, and get regular massages. She reads novels and watches her favorite TV shows. Daytner's secret isn't superhuman energy—it's her perspective on time. "Here's what I think is the difference," she explains. "I know I'm in charge of me. Everything that I do, every minute I spend is my choice." She focuses her time on her three core competencies: nurturing her business, nurturing her family, and nurturing herself. "If I'm not spending my time wisely, I fix it," she says. When we view our 168 hours as a blank slate rather than a series of obligations, new possibilities emerge. In 168 hours, there is time to sleep eight hours a night (56 hours), work 50 hours a week, and still have 62 hours for everything else. That's enough time to exercise regularly, volunteer meaningfully, pursue hobbies passionately, and spend quality time with loved ones. The key is recognizing that time is a choice—and making those choices deliberately. To begin mastering your 168 hours, track your time like a lawyer billing hours. Record what you're doing as frequently as possible for a full week. You'll likely discover that reality differs from your perception. This awareness is the first step toward reclaiming control of your time and designing a life that reflects what truly matters to you.

Chapter 2: Identify Your Core Competencies

Understanding your core competencies—the things you do best and that others cannot do nearly as well—is fundamental to using your 168 hours effectively. This concept, borrowed from the business world, provides a powerful framework for personal time management. Roald Hoffmann exemplifies this principle beautifully. A Holocaust survivor who spent part of his childhood hiding in an attic, Hoffmann went on to become both a Nobel Prize-winning chemist and an accomplished poet. Though these pursuits might seem unrelated, they share a common thread: Hoffmann's exceptional ability as a patient, keen observer. This core competency allowed him to excel in multiple domains rather than spreading himself thin across too many activities. In the 1990s, management experts Gary Hamel and C.K. Prahalad revolutionized corporate thinking with their concept of core competencies. They argued that in a competitive global marketplace, companies succeed by focusing on what they do uniquely well and minimizing or outsourcing everything else. The same principle applies to individuals. Rather than trying to be good at everything, focus your time and energy on activities where you can truly excel. To identify your own core competencies, Caroline Ceniza-Levine, co-founder of career coaching firm Six-FigureStart, recommends creating a "List of 100 Dreams." Write down one hundred things you'd like to do or accomplish in your lifetime—places to visit, skills to learn, goals to achieve. Don't edit yourself; aim for such a big number that you include even seemingly improbable dreams. Then, look for patterns in what energizes you. Jackie Camborde discovered her core competency this way. Initially joining a gym to lose weight after quitting smoking, she unexpectedly fell in love with group fitness. Though she continued working in nonprofit fundraising, she found herself most excited about teaching aerobics classes. Eventually, she opened Santé Fitness Studio in Santa Fe, focusing exclusively on group fitness rather than expanding into personal training, which she realized wasn't her strength. Like successful companies, you probably have no more than five or six core competencies. When you align your 168 hours with these strengths—spending as much time as possible on activities where you excel and as little as possible on everything else—you maximize both productivity and fulfillment. This doesn't mean abandoning responsibilities, but rather approaching them strategically, with clarity about what deserves your full attention and what can be minimized, outsourced, or eliminated.

Chapter 3: Design Your Ideal Career Path

Finding the right job—work that aligns with your core competencies and brings you genuine joy—is crucial to making the most of your 168 hours. When marine biologist Sylvia Earle was interviewed underwater during a research expedition, her enthusiasm was palpable. Even after four decades studying oceans, she spoke with unmistakable delight about the "curtains of small fish" that looked "like silver coins" and the moonlight bewitching coral reefs. The right job isn't just about professional success—it's about creating energy that enhances your entire life. Research shows that happiness often precedes career achievement rather than resulting from it. In a study by Julia Boehm and Sonja Lyubomirsky, people induced to experience positive emotions set higher goals, persisted longer at difficult tasks, and performed better. When you love your work, you'll have more energy for everything else, including family and personal pursuits. What makes a job "right"? According to Harvard Business School professor Teresa Amabile, the ideal job satisfies two criteria: "You should do what you love, and you should love what you do." This means finding work that matches your expertise and intrinsic motivations (things you'd do even if you weren't paid), and working in an environment that provides autonomy, appropriate challenges, and organizational support. Consider Ilan Kroo, an aeronautics professor at Stanford who built his first hang glider from bamboo poles and duct tape as a child in rural Oregon. His intrinsic fascination with flight led him to design innovative aircraft, including a "foot-launched sailplane" that allows humans to fly silently like birds. When describing this experience, Kroo speaks with the same wonder as Earle: "Flying at the speed of birds... totally quiet, looking down, seeing the mountains and desert floor eight thousand feet below you is unlike any other kind of flying... It's absolutely amazing." To find your own ideal career path, reflect on activities that absorbed you as a child or that you'd pursue without external rewards. Then consider the conditions under which you work best. Do you thrive in collaborative environments or prefer independence? When have you felt most creative and productive? The right job combines meaningful work with a setting that allows you to perform at your best. Remember that you may need to create this ideal job rather than finding it ready-made. Lise Menn, a pioneering linguist, discovered her core competency in understanding language patterns. When caring for her young children limited her academic options, she turned this constraint into an opportunity by studying how her sons learned to speak. Her observations challenged prevailing theories and launched a distinguished career—on her own terms.

Chapter 4: Optimize Your Professional Hours

Once you're in the right job, the next challenge is using your professional hours as effectively as possible. John Anner, who runs the East Meets West Foundation, has mastered this art. His organization has equipped 95% of Vietnam's provinces with life-saving medical equipment, dramatically reducing infant mortality rates. Yet Anner and his team manage to leave the office at reasonable hours, with meetings rarely exceeding sixty minutes. "The most useful thing I've ever done in any organization is to train the staff on how to have an efficient meeting," Anner explains. His formula is simple: only essential participants attend, every meeting has a timed agenda, and each session begins with clear goals and ends with specific assignments. This discipline saves Anner approximately ten hours weekly—time he can devote to his core competencies rather than wasteful administrative tasks. The 168 Hours principle for work is straightforward: Ideally, there should be almost nothing during your work hours that isn't advancing you toward your goals for the career and life you want. This requires distinguishing between activities that look like work and actual work. Email, meetings, and administrative tasks often masquerade as productivity while contributing little to meaningful outcomes. Carol Fassbinder-Orth, a biology professor at Creighton University, understands this distinction intuitively. While earning her PhD in avian immunology as a young mother, she realized that scientists aren't judged on hours spent in the lab but on the quality of published research. Rather than chasing every possible experiment, she focused exclusively on projects likely to yield significant publications. This strategic approach allowed her to complete her doctorate in five years and secure a tenure-track position while pregnant with her second child. To optimize your own professional hours, first seize control of your schedule. Identify your most important professional goals, then block time for the activities that directly advance these priorities. Stephanie Wickouski, a bankruptcy lawyer, meticulously plans her weeks, building buffers into her schedule and protecting time for significant projects. When writing her book Bankruptcy Crimes, she calculated that completing the manuscript would require 1,000-1,200 hours over nine months—about 30 hours weekly. By blocking this time and maintaining unwavering discipline, she finished exactly as planned. Next, eliminate activities that waste your time without contributing to your goals. This might mean declining certain meetings, batching email responses, or delegating tasks that don't require your unique skills. Finally, boost your efficiency by deliberately practicing your professional craft. Just as athletes improve through focused training, you can enhance your skills through conscious effort and critical feedback.

Chapter 5: Create Meaningful Family Connections

In our quest to balance work and family, many of us have absorbed a troubling narrative: that professional achievement inevitably comes at the expense of meaningful family connections. Yet research tells a different story. Over the past 40 years, as women's workforce participation has increased dramatically, both mothers and fathers have actually spent more time interacting with their children. This seemingly paradoxical trend reveals what might be called "the new home economics." As parents' time has become more valuable in market terms, they've made strategic choices about how to allocate their nonworking hours. The result? A significant decline in time spent on housework (from 34.5 hours weekly for married mothers in 1965 to about 16-17 hours today) and a corresponding increase in quality time with children. Theresa Daytner exemplifies this approach. Despite running a seven-figure construction company, she coaches her children's soccer teams and attends their games. James Andersen, managing partner of a private equity company, divides his five boys into four book groups, reading classics like The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn with them in the evenings. He's even promised to take each son, upon turning thirteen, to visit a place they've read about together. To create meaningful family connections within your 168 hours, focus on your parental core competencies—the unique ways you nurture your children's development and create lasting memories. This might involve sharing your expertise and passions, whether that's music, sports, literature, or nature. Kevin Peter, training for an Ironman triathlon, sometimes has his eleven-year-old son bike alongside him during long runs, creating both bonding time and a model of healthy living. Treat your children as privileged clients deserving of your full attention during designated times. This means planning activities thoughtfully rather than defaulting to routine. If weeknights feel like a race to bedtime, shake things up with picnics in the park, museum visits, or backyard campfires. Turn off electronic devices during family time to ensure genuine connection. For working parents, creating this quality time often requires creative scheduling. Treat the hours between 5:00 and 8:00 p.m. (or whatever window works for your family) as sacred family time, blocking it on your calendar and protecting it from work intrusions. If your job demands long hours, consider a split shift—working from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., then resuming from 8:00 to 11:00 p.m. after children are asleep. This approach allows you to meet professional obligations while still being present for bedtime stories and dinner conversations. Remember that nurturing your marriage or partnership is equally important. Doug and Cheryl Chumley, parents of four who both work full-time, credit their strong relationship with giving them energy for everything else. "If I had marital problems, all my hopes and dreams really wouldn't matter," Cheryl explains. Schedule regular date nights, even if they're simply candlelit dinners at home after the children are asleep, and end each day with a "spouse conference" to reconnect.

Chapter 6: Outsource What Others Can Do Better

In our quest to maximize our 168 hours, one powerful strategy stands out: focusing on our core competencies and outsourcing everything else. This approach, borrowed from modern business practices, can revolutionize how we manage our personal lives. Sid Savara, a software developer in Honolulu, discovered he was spending up to 15 hours weekly on food-related tasks—shopping, cooking, and cleaning—without particularly enjoying these activities. Realizing this time could be better spent on his core competencies, he placed an ad on Craig's List seeking a personal chef. For $60 weekly plus grocery costs, he now receives 12-15 prepared meals, saving about 10 hours that he uses for practicing guitar and writing for his website. This outsourcing principle applies to many household tasks that consume our time without bringing proportional joy or meaning. Sarah Wagner, a Philadelphia stay-at-home mom, outsources her family's laundry to a service called We Wash It Laundry. "A lot of my friends cannot believe I don't do my own laundry," she says. They tell her it only takes a little time, but Wagner counters: "I don't want to spend less time with my children. I want to spend less time doing housework." The opportunity cost of household chores is significant. Every hour spent on tasks that aren't among your core competencies is an hour not spent on activities where you truly excel. While some household activities might bring genuine pleasure—perhaps you find gardening meditative or enjoy experimenting with new recipes—many simply consume time that could be invested more meaningfully elsewhere. To identify outsourcing opportunities, examine your time log and ask which activities you dislike or perform inefficiently. Common candidates include laundry, housecleaning, lawn care, grocery shopping, and meal preparation. For food chores, consider meal delivery services, online grocery shopping with pre-chopped ingredients, or simplified cooking strategies that require minimal preparation time. For cleaning, professional services can accomplish in a few hours what might take you an entire weekend. Beyond these routine tasks, consider outsourcing the "little things that kill you"—those miscellaneous responsibilities that create mental overhead without adding value to your life. Concierge services can schedule appointments, research travel options, or handle household repairs. Virtual assistants can manage email, make reservations, or coordinate family calendars. Some people resist outsourcing, believing it's too expensive or that managing a household is their responsibility. But this perspective often overlooks the true value of time. If outsourcing saves you hours that can be devoted to higher-earning work or priceless family moments, the investment may be well worth it. As Wagner notes, "We have all been happier ever since" she stopped doing laundry. The goal isn't to eliminate all household responsibilities but to approach them strategically, retaining those that bring genuine satisfaction while minimizing or eliminating those that don't. This selective outsourcing allows you to focus your 168 hours on what truly matters: your core competencies at work, with your family, and in your personal development.

Chapter 7: Build a Life of Purpose and Joy

Time is too precious to be leisurely about leisure. While we need unstructured hours for relaxation and creativity, most of us approach our free time haphazardly, allowing television and other passive activities to consume hours that could be invested in more meaningful pursuits. Alexi Panos, a model and television host, demonstrates a more intentional approach. Between photo shoots and filming for Sportsnet New York's Beer Money, she runs a nonprofit called E.P.I.C. (Everyday People Initiating Change) that builds clean water wells in Tanzania. After witnessing poverty during a concert tour in South Africa, Panos could have simply donated to established charities. Instead, she and a friend conducted field research, interviewing families in Tanzanian villages to identify their most pressing needs. Learning that water-borne diseases were the primary concern, they devoted themselves to well-drilling projects. Panos carves out time for this work amid her busy schedule, rising an hour early each morning to handle E.P.I.C.'s administrative tasks before her phone starts ringing with modeling assignments. "No one's going to give you that hour," she says. "You have to make it for yourself." The result is deeply rewarding: five wells providing clean water to communities that previously had none. "Every time I go out there," she reflects, "I kind of question why I come back." To build a similarly purposeful life within your 168 hours, start by choosing a small number of activities—ideally no more than two or three—that bring you the greatest happiness. One of these should be exercise, which the Centers for Disease Control recommends for at least 150 minutes weekly. Beyond this non-negotiable health investment, select activities aligned with your core competencies and deepest interests. Next, create a block schedule for these priorities. Just as you wouldn't hope to meet an important client "someday," don't leave meaningful leisure activities to chance. Identify specific times in your weekly calendar for exercise, volunteering, artistic pursuits, or whatever matters most to you. Michael Schidlowsky, a Google software engineer, trains for Ironman triathlons by blocking 15 hours weekly for swimming, biking, and running—all while maintaining a full-time job and mentoring his younger sister. Commit enough resources to make these activities meaningful. Justin Honaman, who works for Coca-Cola Customer Business Solutions, wanted to reconnect with music after years focused on his corporate career. Rather than treating singing as a casual hobby, he took voice lessons, wrote original songs, and eventually hired a Nashville producer to record his album. This serious investment transformed what could have been a dilettante's pastime into a source of profound satisfaction. Use the principle of alignment to build more connection into your leisure time. Combine activities that utilize different parts of your brain, such as exercising with friends, volunteering alongside family members, or discussing books during meals. This multitasking works because the activities complement rather than compete with each other. Finally, prepare for those small chunks of time that inevitably appear throughout your day. Create two lists: activities that take about 30 minutes (reading a chapter, writing in a journal, practicing an instrument) and those requiring less than 10 minutes (meditation, stretching, sending a thoughtful message). Having these options ready prevents defaulting to social media or other low-value fillers. By approaching leisure with the same intentionality you bring to work, you transform free time from an afterthought into a powerful force for purpose and joy. As Panos demonstrates, even the busiest life can accommodate meaningful pursuits when you recognize that every hour is a choice—and choose wisely.

Summary

The fundamental truth at the heart of this journey is both simple and profound: we all have the same 168 hours each week, and how we choose to fill them determines the quality of our lives. The difference between feeling overwhelmed and feeling fulfilled isn't about finding more time—it's about recognizing that "I don't have time" is never the real issue. As Theresa Daytner wisely observed, "Everything that I do, every minute I spend is my choice." Your path to mastering your 168 hours begins with a single step: tracking your time for one full week. This simple exercise will reveal the gap between perception and reality, showing where your hours actually go rather than where you think they go. Armed with this awareness, you can begin aligning your time with your core competencies—focusing on what you do best at work, at home, and in your personal life. Start today, not with the goal of squeezing more activities into already-full days, but with the intention of filling your hours with what truly matters. In the mosaic of moments that make up your life, you have the power to set the tiles.

About Author

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Laura Vanderkam

Laura Vanderkam is the author of several time management and productivity books, including:The New Corner OfficeOff the ClockI Know How She Does ItWhat the Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast168 HoursLaura is also the author of a time management fable, Juliet’s School of Possibilities and another novel, The Cortlandt Boys, which is available as an ebook.Her 2016 TED talk, "How to Gain Control of Your Free Time," has been viewed more than 5 million times. She regularly appears in publications including the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Fast Company, and Fortune. She is the host of two weekly podcasts, Before Breakfast and The New Corner Office and she is the co-host, with Sarah Hart-Unger, of the weekly podcast Best of Both Worlds. She lives outside Philadelphia with her husband and five children, and blogs at LauraVanderkam.com.

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