Laura Vanderkam How to gain control of your free time
And then -- this is key -- we treat our priorities as the equivalent of the broken
water heater, by putting them into our schedules first. We do this by thinking
through our weeks before we are in them. I find a really good time to do this is
Friday afternoons. Friday afternoon is what an economist might call a "low opportunity
cost" time. Most of us are not sitting there on Friday afternoons saying, "I am
excited to make progress toward my personal and professional priorities right now."
(Laughter) But we are willing to think about what whose should be. So take a little
bit of time Friday afternoon, make yourself a three-category priority list: career,
relationships, self. Making a three-category list reminds us that there should be
something in all three categories. Career, we think about; relationships, self --
not so much. But anyway, just a short list, two to three items in each. Then look
out over the whole of the next week, and see where you can plan them in. Where you
plan them in is up to you. I know this is gonging to be more colmplicated for some
people than others. I mean, some people's lives are just harder than others. It is
not going to be easy to find time to take that poetry class if you are caring for
multiple children on your own. I get that. And I don't want to minimize anyone's
struggle. But I do think that the numbers I am about to tell you are empowering.
There are 168 hours in a week. Twenty-four times seven is 168 hours. That is a lot
of time. If you are working a full-time job, so 40 hours a week, sleeping eight
hours a night, so 56 hours a week -- that leaves 72 hours for other things. That
is a lot of time. You say you're working 50 hours a week, maybe a main job and a
side hustle. Well, that leaves 62 hours for other things. You say you're working
60 hours. Well, that leaves 52 hours for other things. You say you're working more
than 60 hours. Well, are you sure? (Laughter) There was once a study comparing
people's estimated work weeks with time diaries. They found that people claiming
75-plus-hour work weeks were off by about 25 hours. (Laughter) You can guess in
which direction, right? Anyway, in 168 hours a week, I think we can find time for
what matters to you. If you want to spend more time with your kids, you want to
study more for a test you're taking, you want to exercise for three hours and
volunteer for two, you can. And that's even if you're working way more than full-time
hours. So we have plenty of time, which is great, because guess what? We don't even
need that much time to do amazing things. But when most of us have bits of time,
what do we do? Pull out the phone, right? Start deleting emails. Otherwise, we're
puttering around the house or watching TV. But small moments can have great power.
You can use your bits of time for bits of joy. Maybe it's choosing to read something
wonderful on the bus on the way to work. I know when I had a job that required two
bus rides and a subway ride every morning, I used to go to the library on weekends
to get stuff to read. It made the whole experience almost, almost, enjoyable. Breaks
at work can be used for meditating or praying. If family dinner is out because of
your crazy work schedule, maybe family breakfast could be a good substitute. It's
about looking at the whole of one's time and seeing where the good stuff can go.
I truly believe this. There is time. Even if we are busy, we have time for what
matters. And when we focus on what matters, we can build the lives we want in the
time we've got. Thank you. (Applause)