Why You're Not As Busy As You Think, with Laura Vanderkam

#38: There are 168 hours in a week.

 

If you work 40 hours per week and sleep 8 hours per night, you’ve accounted for 96 hours. You have an additional 72 waking hours per week.

 

What are you doing with this time?

 

That’s the question today’s guest, Laura Vanderkam, tried to answer by analyzing more than 1,000 time logs kept by full-time professional workers. Our collective narrative says that Americans are overworked, sleep-deprived and don’t have enough time for family or personal lives. That’s our emotional truth. But statistics paint a different picture. When more than 1,000 professionals track their time in 15-minute increments over the course of a 168-hour week, the data doesn’t point to time deprivation. 

 

In today’s episode, Laura describes this surprising fact: we have more time than we think.

 

She also shares tactics on how to reduce chores and errands, stay focused and productive at work, and recognize the difference between efficacy and diminishing returns.