168 Hours
It's the same for everyone and it never changes
The night before we left on spring break vacation last week, I spent some time talking with two friends of mine.
The topic of time and busyness came up. One of my friends said 168 hours. I had no idea what the heck we was talking about. So I asked him.
168 hours is how many hours we have in week. I thought to myself, no way. There can’t be that much time a week. 24 hours in a day multiplied by 7 days is 168 hours.
Where does all that time go I thought. It must all go to sleeping and working.
8 hours of sleep a night is 56 hours a week. That leaves 112 hours.
If you take out 40 hours for work, that leaves 72 hours. Even if you take out 50 hours for work, that still leaves 62 hours.
Where do all those extra hours go? How am I spending all those extra hours?
I’ve always said that we make time for what matters. But sometimes the hard part is actually finding time in your schedule to do those things that matter.
You know that person who you think must have more hours in a day than the average person. The truth is that they’re just masters at their time management.
I’ve been using the 168 hours mindset and it has really opened my eyes. I thought I was great at time management. It turns out I’m not that great at it.
To see for yourself, track your time over the course of a week. Where is all your time spent?
If you want to add something to your schedule like exercising, reading, writing, picking stocks, starting a business, more family time or anything else you’re passionate about doing, but can’t find the time, or think you’re too busy. Look at how you’re spending your time. Where is that 168 hours going? What’s eating up those hours?
Doing this really opened my eyes and it will yours also.
What would you do with another couple hours a week? Imagine the feeling that you just added another few hours to your life to do what matters most to you. I know that feeling because it happened to me. Doing this helped me do it.
Our priorities aren’t what you want to do or what you think that you’re doing. It’s what you’re actually doing. That’s your current priority because that’s where you’re time is going. It’s what you’re time is spent doing. Don’t like it? Then you have to change it.
You get 168 hours. I get 168 hours. Everyone gets that same 168 hours in a week. It never changes. What matters is how we spend those 168 hours.
The Coffee Table ☕
Barbara Corcoran was really good on The Tim Ferriss Show. She talked about her early days in real estate and growing her business from nothing. There were great tips on growing a business, sales and hiring. Some great stories as well. She’s such an admirable and inspirational businesswoman. Just a great interview by Tim.
This is an interesting chart that shows employees are signing off earlier in the workday. Monday through Thursday used to be near 6:00 and now it’s 5:00. On Fridays employees are signing off at 4:00. We may start seeing more of the 4-day work week. 3-day weekends anyone?
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