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Time Smart: How to Reclaim Your Time and Live a Happier Life
There's an 80% chance you're poor. Time poor, that is.
Four out of five adults report feeling they are time-poor: They have too much to do and not enough time to do it. And the consequences are severe. The time-poor experience less joy each day. They laugh less. They are less healthy, less productive, and more likely to divorce. In one study of 2.5 million Americans, time stress produced a stronger negative effect on happiness than unemployment.
How can we escape the time traps that make us feel this way and keep us from living our best lives?
Time Smart is your playbook for taking back the time you lose to mindless tasks and unfulfilling chores. Author and Harvard Business School professor Ashley Whillans will give you proven strategies for improving your "time affluence." Sometimes you can find time lost to thoughtless activity--like mindlessly checking your phone. Sometimes you can find time by buying your way out of time-consuming, unrewarding tasks--for instance, by paying for a ride to work.
The techniques Whillans provides will free up seconds, minutes, and hours that, over the long term, become weeks of freed up time you can reinvest in positive, healthy activities.
Time Smart doesn't stop at telling you what to do. It also shows you how to do it, helping you achieve the mind-set shift that will make these activities part of your everyday regimen.
At every step, Time Smart provides assessments, checklists, and activities you can use right away. Before you've finished reading chapter 1, you'll be accounting for your time and thinking about ways to change.
Whillans knows what works. A leading voice in time and happiness research, she's worked with groups as diverse as large consulting firms, couples, the US military, and women with limited means managing vegetable stands in Kenya. The strategies she presents are proven through research and brought to life by the stories of people making the shift--or trying to make the shift--in order to create happier, more fulfilling lives.
Four out of five adults report feeling they are time-poor: They have too much to do and not enough time to do it. And the consequences are severe. The time-poor experience less joy each day. They laugh less. They are less healthy, less productive, and more likely to divorce. In one study of 2.5 million Americans, time stress produced a stronger negative effect on happiness than unemployment.
How can we escape the time traps that make us feel this way and keep us from living our best lives?
Time Smart is your playbook for taking back the time you lose to mindless tasks and unfulfilling chores. Author and Harvard Business School professor Ashley Whillans will give you proven strategies for improving your "time affluence." Sometimes you can find time lost to thoughtless activity--like mindlessly checking your phone. Sometimes you can find time by buying your way out of time-consuming, unrewarding tasks--for instance, by paying for a ride to work.
The techniques Whillans provides will free up seconds, minutes, and hours that, over the long term, become weeks of freed up time you can reinvest in positive, healthy activities.
Time Smart doesn't stop at telling you what to do. It also shows you how to do it, helping you achieve the mind-set shift that will make these activities part of your everyday regimen.
At every step, Time Smart provides assessments, checklists, and activities you can use right away. Before you've finished reading chapter 1, you'll be accounting for your time and thinking about ways to change.
Whillans knows what works. A leading voice in time and happiness research, she's worked with groups as diverse as large consulting firms, couples, the US military, and women with limited means managing vegetable stands in Kenya. The strategies she presents are proven through research and brought to life by the stories of people making the shift--or trying to make the shift--in order to create happier, more fulfilling lives.
179 pages, Hardcover
Published October 6, 2020
282 people are currently reading
4306 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 136 reviews
July 22, 2024
I wanted to like this book. I wanted to learn from this book. Instead, I feel like I wasted my time with it, ultimately defeating the book's entire purpose.
Maybe if you have absolutely NO IDEA why you constantly need more time in your life, this book can be helpful.
There is a lot of repetition and not a lot in terms of solutions.
It IS excellent at helping you track and see where your time is wasted... Unless you are clueless about that, this seems like an additional wasted time activity.
The author opens the book with a lack of time and a revolving to-do list, and she claims she has a lot of stress while writing the book. This seemed odd since I wanted to find credibility in the author. However, if she cannot reclaim her time well, how can I expect her to help me do it?
Overall, it was more disappointing than anything for me, but there were good nuggets of info here and there. Most of us are fairly cognizant of the activities we have already wasted our time on.
2 Stars.
Maybe if you have absolutely NO IDEA why you constantly need more time in your life, this book can be helpful.
There is a lot of repetition and not a lot in terms of solutions.
It IS excellent at helping you track and see where your time is wasted... Unless you are clueless about that, this seems like an additional wasted time activity.
The author opens the book with a lack of time and a revolving to-do list, and she claims she has a lot of stress while writing the book. This seemed odd since I wanted to find credibility in the author. However, if she cannot reclaim her time well, how can I expect her to help me do it?
Overall, it was more disappointing than anything for me, but there were good nuggets of info here and there. Most of us are fairly cognizant of the activities we have already wasted our time on.
2 Stars.
July 17, 2020
The target audience for this is working adults, mostly those who are employed and lead privileged lives. This book will be a wonderful read for people whose lives are struggling because they don’t know how to say no to work. However, I found the use of the words poor and poverty somewhat careless toward people who struggle financially.
I did not enjoy that right at the beginning they seemed to divide people into just two groups. As someone who did not identify with either, I felt like that disrupted my initial opinion of the book.
I liked how the book approached technology and how it explained how much time we really lose even when doing small things like texting someone back. The emphasis on being aware of your time was also interesting. I also enjoyed how varied the examples were.
Overall, I found that the information given was a bit basic and repetitive. Still, if you read this and take a few notes you may find some useful tips for improving your life and time management.
I received an eArk via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
I did not enjoy that right at the beginning they seemed to divide people into just two groups. As someone who did not identify with either, I felt like that disrupted my initial opinion of the book.
I liked how the book approached technology and how it explained how much time we really lose even when doing small things like texting someone back. The emphasis on being aware of your time was also interesting. I also enjoyed how varied the examples were.
Overall, I found that the information given was a bit basic and repetitive. Still, if you read this and take a few notes you may find some useful tips for improving your life and time management.
I received an eArk via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
December 12, 2020
I rated this book as my book of the year 2020. I love the concept of time smart by funding time, finding time, and reframing time. If you are a busy person, I strongly recommend you to read this book. It really helps.
October 19, 2020
The purchase receipt email came as a surprise: "Amazon order of Time Smart by Ashley Whillans." I ordered that? Why? When? Ashley who? Then I realize: ohhh I must have pre-ordered that, meaning the book must have sounded very relevant to me when I ordered it blind. I'm pleased to report that "Time Smart" is indeed supremely relevant not just to me, a Happiness Engineer, but to all of us who somehow make the mistake of prioritizing money over time. Or inadvertently use our time for self-inflicted misery (eg commuting), versus potentially more fulfilling pursuits.
For years I've been telling people in my talks and workshops about how all the meeting, commuting and traveling required for their status-oriented, high-paying jobs are probably making them more miserable than they realize. So I am thrilled that the "6 Time Traps" framework of Prof Whillans provides the new language and robust data to back up my perennial gripes. The name of the sin is "time poverty", and the six Time Traps leading to it are:
1. Technology: Constant connection to it interferes with your leisure, shredding your time into confetti.
2. Money focus: Prioritizing making more money over having free time is guaranteed to make you miserable in the long run.
3. Undervalued time: Spending time searching for the best deal is bad use of time.
4. Busyness as status: This is huge. You think you're so special because you're busy? That is so 17th century Protestant work ethic. It's also incredibly annoying to friends and family.
5. Idleness aversion: There are places in the world where people don't feel guilty when they're not working. America is not one of them.
6. The "Yes…Damn!" effect: Don't overcommit to stuff such that you end up overwhelmed later.
At the end of each chapter, Whillans provides an implementation toolkit to help you incorporate the learnings into your life. I would encourage folks to fill in the tables and do the exercises. You won't want to miss out on the insights into your own time tendencies and the ways to improve them.
One area where this book breaks new ground is in the concept of "happiness dollars", which is "the income equivalent of the amount of happiness produced by a time-related choice." Basically, it's the money value of time, a metric especially needed in cultures obsessed with the time value of money (how else you gonna convince MBA students to change their behavior?). Armed with the concept of happiness bucks, you can figure out that outsourcing chores is worth h$18,000, vacation h$4400, and socializing h$5800+. Once you have a number attached to it, the human brain has a much easier time figuring out time-money tradeoffs and making decisions more aligned with happiness.
Weighing in at a mere 185 pages, the book packs a disproportionately strong wallop of actionable, lifestyle-altering advice. The one I intend to implement immediately is "proactive time" — time reserved for work that is important but not urgent. I also enjoyed all the fun facts, e.g. "more than 700 million vacation days go unused each year" in America. In sum, this is a timely (ha!) book that highlights time poverty as one of the supreme maladies of our era, suggesting solutions for making us more time-rich at the individual, family and societal level. Get it as a wake-up call and guide for a time-impoverished person you know, which may well be yourself.
-- Ali Binazir, M.D., M.Phil., Happiness Engineer and author of The Tao of Dating: The Smart Woman's Guide to Being Absolutely Irresistible, the highest-rated dating book on Amazon, and Should I Go to Medical School?: An Irreverent Guide to the Pros and Cons of a Career in Medicine
For years I've been telling people in my talks and workshops about how all the meeting, commuting and traveling required for their status-oriented, high-paying jobs are probably making them more miserable than they realize. So I am thrilled that the "6 Time Traps" framework of Prof Whillans provides the new language and robust data to back up my perennial gripes. The name of the sin is "time poverty", and the six Time Traps leading to it are:
1. Technology: Constant connection to it interferes with your leisure, shredding your time into confetti.
2. Money focus: Prioritizing making more money over having free time is guaranteed to make you miserable in the long run.
3. Undervalued time: Spending time searching for the best deal is bad use of time.
4. Busyness as status: This is huge. You think you're so special because you're busy? That is so 17th century Protestant work ethic. It's also incredibly annoying to friends and family.
5. Idleness aversion: There are places in the world where people don't feel guilty when they're not working. America is not one of them.
6. The "Yes…Damn!" effect: Don't overcommit to stuff such that you end up overwhelmed later.
At the end of each chapter, Whillans provides an implementation toolkit to help you incorporate the learnings into your life. I would encourage folks to fill in the tables and do the exercises. You won't want to miss out on the insights into your own time tendencies and the ways to improve them.
One area where this book breaks new ground is in the concept of "happiness dollars", which is "the income equivalent of the amount of happiness produced by a time-related choice." Basically, it's the money value of time, a metric especially needed in cultures obsessed with the time value of money (how else you gonna convince MBA students to change their behavior?). Armed with the concept of happiness bucks, you can figure out that outsourcing chores is worth h$18,000, vacation h$4400, and socializing h$5800+. Once you have a number attached to it, the human brain has a much easier time figuring out time-money tradeoffs and making decisions more aligned with happiness.
Weighing in at a mere 185 pages, the book packs a disproportionately strong wallop of actionable, lifestyle-altering advice. The one I intend to implement immediately is "proactive time" — time reserved for work that is important but not urgent. I also enjoyed all the fun facts, e.g. "more than 700 million vacation days go unused each year" in America. In sum, this is a timely (ha!) book that highlights time poverty as one of the supreme maladies of our era, suggesting solutions for making us more time-rich at the individual, family and societal level. Get it as a wake-up call and guide for a time-impoverished person you know, which may well be yourself.
-- Ali Binazir, M.D., M.Phil., Happiness Engineer and author of The Tao of Dating: The Smart Woman's Guide to Being Absolutely Irresistible, the highest-rated dating book on Amazon, and Should I Go to Medical School?: An Irreverent Guide to the Pros and Cons of a Career in Medicine
January 26, 2021
"Money protects against sadness but doesn't buy joy."
The author asks readers to identify themselves as either a Taylor (someone who values time more than money) or a Morgan (someone who values money over time). I take issue with how the author scrutinizes people who prioritize work (Morgans) over people who choose to go on vacation or spend quality time with loved ones (Taylors), but doesn't reconcile that many meaningful activities also cost significant amounts of money. This is especially true when it comes to travel, which she mentions quite often. Maybe this would work for readers who don't have to apply for visas and who aren't traveling from developing countries.
Overall, I got mixed feelings (mostly negative) while reading this book. The organization was lacking, especially whenever the author l gave examples from interviews conducted. The tone was preachy. Much of it sounded like the author had a very limited point of view (i.e. privilege).
Some of the exercises might be helpful for introspection. For this reason, I feel this would have been more effective as a workbook.
The author asks readers to identify themselves as either a Taylor (someone who values time more than money) or a Morgan (someone who values money over time). I take issue with how the author scrutinizes people who prioritize work (Morgans) over people who choose to go on vacation or spend quality time with loved ones (Taylors), but doesn't reconcile that many meaningful activities also cost significant amounts of money. This is especially true when it comes to travel, which she mentions quite often. Maybe this would work for readers who don't have to apply for visas and who aren't traveling from developing countries.
Overall, I got mixed feelings (mostly negative) while reading this book. The organization was lacking, especially whenever the author l gave examples from interviews conducted. The tone was preachy. Much of it sounded like the author had a very limited point of view (i.e. privilege).
Some of the exercises might be helpful for introspection. For this reason, I feel this would have been more effective as a workbook.
February 6, 2021
It’s pretty rare that I don’t finish I book. For me, this wasn’t at all helpful - completely obvious tips or impractical/unrealistic for a large portion of the population.
I couldn’t get past how out of touch this book felt. Someone making 35k a year isn’t spending 5k to outsource something like grocery shopping 🙄 (note: I may have numbers off but the concept was so off putting to me).
I couldn’t get past how out of touch this book felt. Someone making 35k a year isn’t spending 5k to outsource something like grocery shopping 🙄 (note: I may have numbers off but the concept was so off putting to me).
May 15, 2022
I listened to this book on audible. It really challenged how I valued money over time, and made me see the real value of using time-saving services. The stuff in this book isn't just untested opinion or based only on anecdotal evidence - it is based on the author's hard research, which I find to be a huge plus. The concept of happiness-dollars is an example of a really neat research-based concept that really makes this book shine.
More than doing things like a time-audit and other taxing practical things the book asks readers to do, my takeaways were a paradigm-shift, and the less-taxing, more joyful practices the book suggests - like choosing to do more time-affluent things in my free time to have fun - like learning something new, reading a book, listening to an audiobook, meditating, or even doing nothing, rather than time-sucks and time-confetti like playing passive games like homescapes and passively watching stuff on Netflix. I am still going to indulge in those things, but I'll probably cut down on them because time-affluent activities are actually quite fun, often way more fun than passive activities! I also really liked the suggestions on how to craft a workspace which encourages time-affluence, and examples of how workspaces thrived with time-affluent practices in place.
I definitely recommend this book to become more aware of the value of time in your life. But if you're someone like me who'd fall asleep reading nonfiction that doesn't suck you in, I'd suggest you to listen to it on audible. I really felt like my time driving or doing my household chores was time well spent, because I did those things while listening to this audiobook!
More than doing things like a time-audit and other taxing practical things the book asks readers to do, my takeaways were a paradigm-shift, and the less-taxing, more joyful practices the book suggests - like choosing to do more time-affluent things in my free time to have fun - like learning something new, reading a book, listening to an audiobook, meditating, or even doing nothing, rather than time-sucks and time-confetti like playing passive games like homescapes and passively watching stuff on Netflix. I am still going to indulge in those things, but I'll probably cut down on them because time-affluent activities are actually quite fun, often way more fun than passive activities! I also really liked the suggestions on how to craft a workspace which encourages time-affluence, and examples of how workspaces thrived with time-affluent practices in place.
I definitely recommend this book to become more aware of the value of time in your life. But if you're someone like me who'd fall asleep reading nonfiction that doesn't suck you in, I'd suggest you to listen to it on audible. I really felt like my time driving or doing my household chores was time well spent, because I did those things while listening to this audiobook!
November 23, 2020
Accessible and highly practical without being obvious. Whillans is bright, enthusiastic, and engaging, and this really comes through in this style of writing. These types of behavior changes are some of the most dramatic and instantaneous enhancements that an individual can make for their own perceived quality of life.
The term “time poverty” does bother me significantly. It feels out of touch and disrespectful to people experiencing [material] poverty, and it is a flawed metaphor. Unlike [material] poverty, which is an objective lack of resources as compared to a standard or relative to other humans, people experiencing “time poverty” have the same volume of time resources (i.e., hours in a day or week) as others, but they use or perceive them differently. (In my mind, “time poverty” would be a better construct name for the decreased lifespan associated with social/demographic and behavioral risk factors.) However, she’s at HBS and not in the arts and sciences world, so having a snappy and imprecise name for the construct is both par for the course and necessary for her goals.
N.B. Deviated / rounded up on my own scale for this rating, because the ideas here are transformative if they are new to you, and they may well be new to lay audiences.
The term “time poverty” does bother me significantly. It feels out of touch and disrespectful to people experiencing [material] poverty, and it is a flawed metaphor. Unlike [material] poverty, which is an objective lack of resources as compared to a standard or relative to other humans, people experiencing “time poverty” have the same volume of time resources (i.e., hours in a day or week) as others, but they use or perceive them differently. (In my mind, “time poverty” would be a better construct name for the decreased lifespan associated with social/demographic and behavioral risk factors.) However, she’s at HBS and not in the arts and sciences world, so having a snappy and imprecise name for the construct is both par for the course and necessary for her goals.
N.B. Deviated / rounded up on my own scale for this rating, because the ideas here are transformative if they are new to you, and they may well be new to lay audiences.
September 19, 2021
เป็นครั้งแรกที่ได้ยินคำว่า "ความฉลาดทางเวลา" และคิดว่าเหมาะกับคนที่จัดการเวลาไม่ค่อยดีนักแบบเราจึงลองอ่าน - พออ่านจบจึงพบว่าเป็นหนังสือที่เหมาะกับยุคสมัย บอกเล่าถึงการตีค่าเวลาเมื่อเทียบกับเงินซึ่งเป็น pain point สำคัญ และแนะนำวิธีมีความสุขมากขึ้นจากการจัดการ 'เวลา' ให้อยู่หมัด
>จุดด้อยของเล่ม อ่านค่อนข้างยาก ไม่แน่ใจว่าเกิดจากผู้เขียนหรือจากการแปลเพราะเราอ่านเล่มภาษาไทย และสำนวนการเขียนออกแนววิชาการทางสังคมศาสตร์ ไม่ได้อ่านสนุกแบบติดหนึบมาก<
>จุดด้อยของเล่ม อ่านค่อนข้างยาก ไม่แน่ใจว่าเกิดจากผู้เขียนหรือจากการแปลเพราะเราอ่านเล่มภาษาไทย และสำนวนการเขียนออกแนววิชาการทางสังคมศาสตร์ ไม่ได้อ่านสนุกแบบติดหนึบมาก<
October 7, 2020
"Time Smart" is a great reminder that money isn't everything. And it is an even better reminder that time is much more precious than most of us realize.
When our time is well-spent, it can actually bring us greater joy than money can.
Speaking of joy, I'm probably happier now than I've ever been because I am making the time to read. You might say I've become much more "time affluent" in the past few years. Really all that means is that I am more intentional. Case in point: I barely consume TV. I canceled Netflix. I've slowed my scroll. I say "no" way more often. And I'm working less (by choice).
The key is that it's taken me decades to get to the point where I value time over money. These days, I'm much more of a "Taylor" than a "Morgan" (you gotta read the book to learn why).
"Time Smart" is a quick, yet interesting read by Ashley Whillans, who earned her PhD as a behavioral psychologist. When she's not teaching negotiation classes to her Harvard students, Whillans studies how people navigate trade-offs between time and money.
This book is for you, if you:
--Find yourself in a constant state of "busyness."
--Currently value money way more than time.
--Wish to track how you spend your time.
--Might benefit from overcoming personal time traps.
--Think it would be cool to calculate the time cost of your daily decisions.
--Could benefit from building a time-centric mindset and time-smart routines.
--Wish you had more free time to read books.
--Want to create some intentions around reading more books.
There are nifty worksheets and end-of-chapter summaries so there's work to do if and when you're ready to dig in. Enjoy your time!
Special thank to Harvard Business Review Press (via NetGalley) for an advanced copy of the ebook in exchange for my honest review.
When our time is well-spent, it can actually bring us greater joy than money can.
Speaking of joy, I'm probably happier now than I've ever been because I am making the time to read. You might say I've become much more "time affluent" in the past few years. Really all that means is that I am more intentional. Case in point: I barely consume TV. I canceled Netflix. I've slowed my scroll. I say "no" way more often. And I'm working less (by choice).
The key is that it's taken me decades to get to the point where I value time over money. These days, I'm much more of a "Taylor" than a "Morgan" (you gotta read the book to learn why).
"Time Smart" is a quick, yet interesting read by Ashley Whillans, who earned her PhD as a behavioral psychologist. When she's not teaching negotiation classes to her Harvard students, Whillans studies how people navigate trade-offs between time and money.
This book is for you, if you:
--Find yourself in a constant state of "busyness."
--Currently value money way more than time.
--Wish to track how you spend your time.
--Might benefit from overcoming personal time traps.
--Think it would be cool to calculate the time cost of your daily decisions.
--Could benefit from building a time-centric mindset and time-smart routines.
--Wish you had more free time to read books.
--Want to create some intentions around reading more books.
There are nifty worksheets and end-of-chapter summaries so there's work to do if and when you're ready to dig in. Enjoy your time!
Special thank to Harvard Business Review Press (via NetGalley) for an advanced copy of the ebook in exchange for my honest review.
August 27, 2021
I had high hopes for this book. As someone struggling with time management because of being overworked and all my time being lost to work, caring for family, and a move, I was desperately looking for some ideas on how to efficiently and smartly garner some free time in the midst of my chaos.
Unfortunately, this book makes it painfully clear that getting free time is for the wealthy. Just toss some money at Uber or a housekeeper, or get take out! Wow! Why didn’t I think of that?!
Oh yeah, that’s right. I’m poor. Extremely poor. The just-got-out-of-homelessness kind of poverty working a backbreaking job so I can put it all towards rent. I don’t even have money for groceries, how am I going to pay for any of these services?! The author continuously says that everyone can do these methods, but, I’m sorry, no, we can’t all pay for convenience.
The book is incredibly condescending about it as well. I barely got through the first quarter of the book because it made me feel extremely depressed and hopeless. I never, ever start a book I won’t finish, but I was done with it before I got much further. Brought it back to the library within a week.
Unfortunately, this book makes it painfully clear that getting free time is for the wealthy. Just toss some money at Uber or a housekeeper, or get take out! Wow! Why didn’t I think of that?!
Oh yeah, that’s right. I’m poor. Extremely poor. The just-got-out-of-homelessness kind of poverty working a backbreaking job so I can put it all towards rent. I don’t even have money for groceries, how am I going to pay for any of these services?! The author continuously says that everyone can do these methods, but, I’m sorry, no, we can’t all pay for convenience.
The book is incredibly condescending about it as well. I barely got through the first quarter of the book because it made me feel extremely depressed and hopeless. I never, ever start a book I won’t finish, but I was done with it before I got much further. Brought it back to the library within a week.
January 7, 2021
I found some valuable information about assessing the way I am using some of my time. For instance if you consider what you are doing in the light of 'Is it productive/Unproductive' and 'Is it a Positive or Negative experience', I found that some of the things I do, like scanning the morning headlines, to really be neither and something to limit.
This book, like many of the self-help variety, is one idea stretched and padded in order to become book sized. It also brings to mind the adage "If all you have is a hammer everything looks like a nail." Reframing how you think about time is a useful and productive shift but hardly panacea and some of the Author's recommendations border on the ludicrous. As an example managers when assigning projects should make known that the deadline is flexible so as not to stress the employee too much.
This book, like many of the self-help variety, is one idea stretched and padded in order to become book sized. It also brings to mind the adage "If all you have is a hammer everything looks like a nail." Reframing how you think about time is a useful and productive shift but hardly panacea and some of the Author's recommendations border on the ludicrous. As an example managers when assigning projects should make known that the deadline is flexible so as not to stress the employee too much.
August 28, 2021
There is nothing new in this book regarding time management. There are lots of impractical advises. Simple example, the author suggested outsourcing housework will increase your happiness. Everybody knows this. However, it might be cheap to do so in US but it's very expensive and impractical in countries with no cheap labor. Wanting to outsource but not able to do so can only increase stress and decrease happiness. It's hard to believe this is the kind of research done in one of the most prestigious university. People with no degree can write the book with the same amount of message and advises. Reading this book decreased my happiness because I feel the time being wasted on something that does not add value to my life.
February 3, 2022
This is a very weak book, which would make a decent 5-page HBR article but has been stretched to 100+ filler pages. The key idea is that we often choose money over time for all the wrong reasons (including the fact that value of free time is hard to measure) and we would be much happier if we prioritized time more often. The underlying research is solid and some of the research snippets are interesting. However, after the initial chapter or two the book degenerates into quite a disjointed set of actions to implement the principle. A lot of them are well known, eg. Importance-Urgency matrix, have not we read 7 Habits of highly successful people before? Examples are basic and the approach is not systematic.
Are you thinking of reading this book cover to cover? Not time smart!
Are you thinking of reading this book cover to cover? Not time smart!
December 9, 2020
This has a novel concept or two and is built on a long citation list of research, but it's definitely still 90% one of those "use your vacation days and convince your employer to let you work from home" books.
January 1, 2021
I was very intrigued by the title of this book, as finding time is one of the struggles in my life. I was hoping to find working strategies on how to think, treat and find time - and that’s what I got.
First of all, I liked how the author explains why we are time-poor: “it results from how we think about and value those hours”, “valuable free time arrives; we are unprepared to use it and so we waste it”.
Then she describes 5 time traps, and first one “Technology” really spoke to me. It’s the time confetti that we have due to endless notifications that breaks our free time and does not allow us to be time-affluent (that’s the term used in the book to describe state of having and using time meaningfully).
After describing all the traps, author continues to talk about ways to find or fund time to be time-affluent. Here you won’t find a lot of new things, as I guess that’s pretty well-known. What I liked though is the strategies to become time affluent in long term. Again, quite some known things well put together, but I liked this idea of knowing your calendar mindset - whether it’s clock or event-oriented. That helped me to understand why my strict scheduling never worked.
Last chapter is dedicated to systemic change, which is nice if you like to think about the big picture.
So in general I definitely recommend to read this book, as it’s well put together and contains quite some useful ideas.
First of all, I liked how the author explains why we are time-poor: “it results from how we think about and value those hours”, “valuable free time arrives; we are unprepared to use it and so we waste it”.
Then she describes 5 time traps, and first one “Technology” really spoke to me. It’s the time confetti that we have due to endless notifications that breaks our free time and does not allow us to be time-affluent (that’s the term used in the book to describe state of having and using time meaningfully).
After describing all the traps, author continues to talk about ways to find or fund time to be time-affluent. Here you won’t find a lot of new things, as I guess that’s pretty well-known. What I liked though is the strategies to become time affluent in long term. Again, quite some known things well put together, but I liked this idea of knowing your calendar mindset - whether it’s clock or event-oriented. That helped me to understand why my strict scheduling never worked.
Last chapter is dedicated to systemic change, which is nice if you like to think about the big picture.
So in general I definitely recommend to read this book, as it’s well put together and contains quite some useful ideas.
January 31, 2021
I picked up this book after hearing about it on The Happiness Lab podcast. One of the things that really caught my attention in both the podcast and the book was the idea of "time confetti," or the little bits of time devoted to things other than leisure that interrupt our leisure time. So answering quick texts or emails when you're supposed to be sitting and reading a good book for an hour, for example, cuts into your concentration and makes that nice chunk of time feel like it's not enough. There are other things that contribute to making us feel time poor as well. This short book lays out the problems as well as some solutions. I admit, I didn't fill out any of the worksheets or make detailed notes about what I do during my day. I just started implementing some of the ideas, and I feel better about my time already.
April 23, 2023
Lol, a book on time management that took me two years to read. The strongest parts are upfront with the perspective shifts [time vs. money, time affluence & time poverty]. There are some practical activities and worksheets towards the middle which I didn't do as they are straight forward but I can see the value in them. At the end are some interesting ways for leaders and policy makers to reduce time poverty.
May 21, 2021
I liked this, but it was occasionally more academic than I prefer my self-help. Regardless, so many excellent points (old and new to me) about using time well, including outsourcing, saying no, and prioritizing time over money.
December 27, 2022
Visai nebloga knyga apie laiko psichologiją su akcentu į mūsų santykį su pinigais ir laiku. Grandioziškai suvokimą keičiančių dalykų gal ir nesutikau knygoje, bet joje tikrai yra gerų minčių, įdomių tyrimų apžvalgų ir pavyzdžių bei tips and tricks.
January 10, 2021
This is an interesting concept we should all think about, sometimes its worth spending money to free up time. If you feel like you’re always busy I would recommend reading this book
November 3, 2021
I like books based on a good research, and this is one of them. It is not a book about how to plan your day so that you do your daily tasks, but about how to plan your life and do what matters, so that by the end of it you do not regret about the choices you've made and how you spent your time.
In this book time is a resource, it has a proven £££ value, and the author gives good tips on how you can be time smart (e.g. choosing where you work vs where you live, commute time etc). Thought-provoking: think about the purpose of your life; make it strategy for it; be deliberate; don't expect money and professional success to make you happy.
"If something makes us happy or gives us purpose, we need to hold on it. All of us are living lives that are slowly slipping away. In an era of constant distraction, without careful planning our seconds will pass easily, and unhappily".
In this book time is a resource, it has a proven £££ value, and the author gives good tips on how you can be time smart (e.g. choosing where you work vs where you live, commute time etc). Thought-provoking: think about the purpose of your life; make it strategy for it; be deliberate; don't expect money and professional success to make you happy.
"If something makes us happy or gives us purpose, we need to hold on it. All of us are living lives that are slowly slipping away. In an era of constant distraction, without careful planning our seconds will pass easily, and unhappily".
October 20, 2024
Video Review : @YouTube Time Smart by Ashley Whillans
This book Time Smart by Ashley Whillans, starts with identifying the time traps and the reasons for time poverty. It suggests some steps, habits and strategies to become time affluent. The book also talks about how to fund the time to get rid of the activities that we do not like.
The author also lays out strategies that can keep us time affluent in the long run and how the government and private companies can help to increase the time affluence of common people and their workers respectively.
Let's start by asking this question, Which is more important between time and money ?
The author says, both are valuable, scarce and measurable. It’s also difficult to gain as much of both as we want. We are often choosing between them and making trade-offs. Vacation or no vacation ? eat at home or go out ? are some of the situations where we have to make a choice. And most of the time we end up taking decisions which favor money.
Since childhood we are told or we see that Money is very important. if one is poor then the only thing he wants is money. Many of us learn that time is money and nobody sees anything wrong if you spend every second of your available time to earn more money. Though, even after earning a significant amount of money you do not stop there, you continue to want to earn more and more and
spend countless hours at work ignoring your loved ones assuming that you will make time for them someday and that someday never comes. We do not realize that sitting at home idle or talking to loved ones or spending time with kids is as important as going out and working in an office.
As per the book, We also don't understand that time is finite and is our most valuable resource. Money is valuable to a point, the author says, but it’s an infinite errand which never stops.
This focus on money can cause stress, unhappiness, and loneliness. The cost of getting out of these problems is huge and sometimes you never overcome it.
The book talks about six traps that make us time poor. These traps are -
Trap #1 Constant connection to technology - Cell Phones, Laptops, emails, messages and other technologies constantly interrupt us. This happens both at home and office. It stops us from doing any deep work at the office or complete relaxation at home.
Trap #2 Obsession with work and making money - People wrongly believe that if they work and make money now they will have more time to relax in future. But in reality, making money only leads to an increased interest in making more money.
Trap #3 Limited value placed on time - People often give up large amounts of time to save a very little money. People don’t correctly value their time.
Trap #4 Busyness as a Status Symbol - In many cultures people use their busyness at work as status symbol and are considered of higher status and rich wealthy people.
Trap #5 Aversion to Idleness - People don’t want to sit idle. They simply don’t see any value in being mindful and doing nothing.
Trap #6 Over commitment - people often over commit and then spend extra hours to meet those commitments. They often make over-commitment a habit and they end up working extra hours every day. At the end of the day it doesn’t add any value to their life.
This book has a diagnostic tool which can help you measure how time poor you are and it makes you aware of the traps that are causing your time poverty.
After you have identified your time poverty this book suggests Five ways to alleviate your time poverty and improve your time affluence -
Step 1 - Know your default setting - After doing the exercises suggested by the author you would know where you stand when it comes to giving importance to money and time. if you value money more than time and you are not struggling to meet ends then start moving towards respecting your time more.
Step 2 - Document your time - Be mindful about the activities that you do whether it is productive or unproductive, Pleasurable or purposeful, does it add meaning to your life or not. Identify the Unproductive activities that make you stressed. Once the activities are grouped, reflect on them. Now you should ask yourself if it’s possible to spend less time on the activities that make you unhappy and stressed ? If not, is it possible to make them pleasurable. Think about it.
Step 3 - Find Time - Sometimes we get stuck in activities that we do not like and can’t control. Such activities are the biggest causes of time poverty.The solution for this is that Deliberately spend more time on the tasks that bring you joy and less time on activities that bring misery. The author suggests following activities to find more time or steal more time from your daily routine -
Transform Bad Time - Identify the time that you don’t like and look for ways to improve it.
Augment good time - Knit multiple positive activities together.
Hack Work time - if possible, work from home more often, Take all your paid leaves and vacations and utilize them.
Practice Active Leisure time - the author says that free time spent on active-leisure activities like volunteering, socializing, and exercising promotes happiness far more than free time spent on passive leisure activities like watching TV, napping or online surfing.
Meet New people and help Others
Step 4 - Fund Time
Instead of doing everything yourself you can outsource the activities which can save you time . For example you can order home delivery of groceries, take Uber for office and use that time to read or listen to your favorite music. If you find these expenses are high then you can try to outsource the tasks which you dislike the most and that outsourcing will not cause any big hole in your pocket. If you think you will always find ways to save time.
Step 5 - Re-frame Time
If we change how we feel about our time that can also make us time affluent. The author has given some examples here - if we treat an upcoming weekend as a holiday it can change the mindset of a person how he spends the weekend. One more example is that in physically demanding jobs if one considers them as “Exercise” then he can start liking the job more and feel more physically fit.
Accounting for time and writing down how long you are spending on tasks shows your respect for time.
Ashley WhillansTime Smart: How to Reclaim Your Time and Live a Happier Life
In this book, the author says that the people who value time are happier, healthier and more productive than those who value money over time. The author suggests to account your time. Spend your time more proactively rather than just let it pass. Daily Reflection on how the day was spent by you can give you ample ideas about what you can tweak in daily routine to make yourself time affluent.
Overall this book is a good book. The book comes with strategies and tool kits to help you build good habits and break away from bad habits to manage the time better. I had been following some of the techniques suggested in this book unknowingly which my family always made fun of and called me lazy. Now I can tell them that I am not lazy. Awesome !
Time Smart: How to Reclaim Your Time and Live a Happier Life by
Ashley Whillans
This book Time Smart by Ashley Whillans, starts with identifying the time traps and the reasons for time poverty. It suggests some steps, habits and strategies to become time affluent. The book also talks about how to fund the time to get rid of the activities that we do not like.
The author also lays out strategies that can keep us time affluent in the long run and how the government and private companies can help to increase the time affluence of common people and their workers respectively.
Let's start by asking this question, Which is more important between time and money ?
The author says, both are valuable, scarce and measurable. It’s also difficult to gain as much of both as we want. We are often choosing between them and making trade-offs. Vacation or no vacation ? eat at home or go out ? are some of the situations where we have to make a choice. And most of the time we end up taking decisions which favor money.
Since childhood we are told or we see that Money is very important. if one is poor then the only thing he wants is money. Many of us learn that time is money and nobody sees anything wrong if you spend every second of your available time to earn more money. Though, even after earning a significant amount of money you do not stop there, you continue to want to earn more and more and
spend countless hours at work ignoring your loved ones assuming that you will make time for them someday and that someday never comes. We do not realize that sitting at home idle or talking to loved ones or spending time with kids is as important as going out and working in an office.
As per the book, We also don't understand that time is finite and is our most valuable resource. Money is valuable to a point, the author says, but it’s an infinite errand which never stops.
This focus on money can cause stress, unhappiness, and loneliness. The cost of getting out of these problems is huge and sometimes you never overcome it.
The book talks about six traps that make us time poor. These traps are -
Trap #1 Constant connection to technology - Cell Phones, Laptops, emails, messages and other technologies constantly interrupt us. This happens both at home and office. It stops us from doing any deep work at the office or complete relaxation at home.
Trap #2 Obsession with work and making money - People wrongly believe that if they work and make money now they will have more time to relax in future. But in reality, making money only leads to an increased interest in making more money.
Trap #3 Limited value placed on time - People often give up large amounts of time to save a very little money. People don’t correctly value their time.
Trap #4 Busyness as a Status Symbol - In many cultures people use their busyness at work as status symbol and are considered of higher status and rich wealthy people.
Trap #5 Aversion to Idleness - People don’t want to sit idle. They simply don’t see any value in being mindful and doing nothing.
Trap #6 Over commitment - people often over commit and then spend extra hours to meet those commitments. They often make over-commitment a habit and they end up working extra hours every day. At the end of the day it doesn’t add any value to their life.
This book has a diagnostic tool which can help you measure how time poor you are and it makes you aware of the traps that are causing your time poverty.
After you have identified your time poverty this book suggests Five ways to alleviate your time poverty and improve your time affluence -
Step 1 - Know your default setting - After doing the exercises suggested by the author you would know where you stand when it comes to giving importance to money and time. if you value money more than time and you are not struggling to meet ends then start moving towards respecting your time more.
Step 2 - Document your time - Be mindful about the activities that you do whether it is productive or unproductive, Pleasurable or purposeful, does it add meaning to your life or not. Identify the Unproductive activities that make you stressed. Once the activities are grouped, reflect on them. Now you should ask yourself if it’s possible to spend less time on the activities that make you unhappy and stressed ? If not, is it possible to make them pleasurable. Think about it.
Step 3 - Find Time - Sometimes we get stuck in activities that we do not like and can’t control. Such activities are the biggest causes of time poverty.The solution for this is that Deliberately spend more time on the tasks that bring you joy and less time on activities that bring misery. The author suggests following activities to find more time or steal more time from your daily routine -
Transform Bad Time - Identify the time that you don’t like and look for ways to improve it.
Augment good time - Knit multiple positive activities together.
Hack Work time - if possible, work from home more often, Take all your paid leaves and vacations and utilize them.
Practice Active Leisure time - the author says that free time spent on active-leisure activities like volunteering, socializing, and exercising promotes happiness far more than free time spent on passive leisure activities like watching TV, napping or online surfing.
Meet New people and help Others
Step 4 - Fund Time
Instead of doing everything yourself you can outsource the activities which can save you time . For example you can order home delivery of groceries, take Uber for office and use that time to read or listen to your favorite music. If you find these expenses are high then you can try to outsource the tasks which you dislike the most and that outsourcing will not cause any big hole in your pocket. If you think you will always find ways to save time.
Step 5 - Re-frame Time
If we change how we feel about our time that can also make us time affluent. The author has given some examples here - if we treat an upcoming weekend as a holiday it can change the mindset of a person how he spends the weekend. One more example is that in physically demanding jobs if one considers them as “Exercise” then he can start liking the job more and feel more physically fit.
Accounting for time and writing down how long you are spending on tasks shows your respect for time.
Ashley WhillansTime Smart: How to Reclaim Your Time and Live a Happier Life
In this book, the author says that the people who value time are happier, healthier and more productive than those who value money over time. The author suggests to account your time. Spend your time more proactively rather than just let it pass. Daily Reflection on how the day was spent by you can give you ample ideas about what you can tweak in daily routine to make yourself time affluent.
Overall this book is a good book. The book comes with strategies and tool kits to help you build good habits and break away from bad habits to manage the time better. I had been following some of the techniques suggested in this book unknowingly which my family always made fun of and called me lazy. Now I can tell them that I am not lazy. Awesome !
Time Smart: How to Reclaim Your Time and Live a Happier Life by
Ashley Whillans
April 25, 2022
Every month, I read at least one book for professional or personal development. I am part of a “LeaderBooks” club, so I read one book as part of a community each month. Sometimes the books chosen speak to me and other times, they don’t, but I always read slowly and take lots of notes and try some action items to implement some of the ideas discussed. I also read some professional or personal development books on my own or as a buddy read with my mom, but this book was the January 2021 choice for LeaderBooks.
The audience for this book is narrow. The words “poor” and “affluent” were used somewhat carelessly regarding time. The “money isn’t everything” theme was good but would be less well-received by people struggling financially. This is a book written for working adults leading somewhat privileged lives and I do not think that other audiences would receive this book well. However, the identification of various time traps and suggested actions to help eliminate those obstacles was useful. I also enjoyed that all of these traps and suggestions were backed up with studies and data. In the end, I took some good things from this book that I can move forward with, but it is also another “talk your boss into letting you work from home” book. I agree with the concept and am fortunate enough to be able to work from home now, but even when working from home, my time is still limited. Time IS a precious resource and I do need to learn to manage my time better. I am hopeful that by avoiding some of these traps, I will be able to reclaim some of my time.
I do not give star-ratings for non-fiction books anymore, but I would recommend this book to people in the target audience who seem to be unable to shut off work and enjoy life. It is not a bad book, but the scope is narrow, and the language chosen is somewhat inconsiderate of people with true financial struggles.
Read in Print - 184 Pages
The audience for this book is narrow. The words “poor” and “affluent” were used somewhat carelessly regarding time. The “money isn’t everything” theme was good but would be less well-received by people struggling financially. This is a book written for working adults leading somewhat privileged lives and I do not think that other audiences would receive this book well. However, the identification of various time traps and suggested actions to help eliminate those obstacles was useful. I also enjoyed that all of these traps and suggestions were backed up with studies and data. In the end, I took some good things from this book that I can move forward with, but it is also another “talk your boss into letting you work from home” book. I agree with the concept and am fortunate enough to be able to work from home now, but even when working from home, my time is still limited. Time IS a precious resource and I do need to learn to manage my time better. I am hopeful that by avoiding some of these traps, I will be able to reclaim some of my time.
I do not give star-ratings for non-fiction books anymore, but I would recommend this book to people in the target audience who seem to be unable to shut off work and enjoy life. It is not a bad book, but the scope is narrow, and the language chosen is somewhat inconsiderate of people with true financial struggles.
Read in Print - 184 Pages
June 18, 2021
I listened to an interview with the author on a podcast and it was great. She's really engaging and enthusiastic, and explains the concepts really well.
The book was a bit disappointing, though. It didn't really add much to what I learned in the podcast.
The concepts are interesting and important, and I agree with a lot of the philosophy here, but I just didn't find the book so engaging.
I was particularly disappointed by chapter 5, which is the section about systemic change. It read like an expanded list of bullet points, with lots and lots of information about different studies and outcomes. I was especially disappointed by oversights like the story on pg 140. It's about a woman who does 15 trips to the grocery store each month by cab, which costs $8 each way. Then they calculate the total cost as 30 trips x $16 = $480 - this is one-third of her monthly rent! (except of course, it should be 15 round trips x $16 or 30 one-way trips x $8 = $240)
Another section of that chapter is called "Make Vacations Mandatory" - in which there is no discussion of mandatory vacation, only studies showing that time-focused societies/cultures are generally happier.
These oversights made me think the writing, editing and production were rushed... not a good look for a book on reclaiming time.
Still, I like the concepts. Find a podcast interview and listen to that! (e.g. Brainfluence episode from Oct 2020 - that's where I heard it)
The book was a bit disappointing, though. It didn't really add much to what I learned in the podcast.
The concepts are interesting and important, and I agree with a lot of the philosophy here, but I just didn't find the book so engaging.
I was particularly disappointed by chapter 5, which is the section about systemic change. It read like an expanded list of bullet points, with lots and lots of information about different studies and outcomes. I was especially disappointed by oversights like the story on pg 140. It's about a woman who does 15 trips to the grocery store each month by cab, which costs $8 each way. Then they calculate the total cost as 30 trips x $16 = $480 - this is one-third of her monthly rent! (except of course, it should be 15 round trips x $16 or 30 one-way trips x $8 = $240)
Another section of that chapter is called "Make Vacations Mandatory" - in which there is no discussion of mandatory vacation, only studies showing that time-focused societies/cultures are generally happier.
These oversights made me think the writing, editing and production were rushed... not a good look for a book on reclaiming time.
Still, I like the concepts. Find a podcast interview and listen to that! (e.g. Brainfluence episode from Oct 2020 - that's where I heard it)
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 23, 2022
Ashley is brilliant in how she’s simplified critical economic analysis on the value trade offs between time and money into actionable steps for daily life. If you want to make tons of money in life, this may not help. But if life has forced you to value your time differently, the book will further usher you into the right direction, lifestyle and choices in life
July 21, 2020
I have a lot of realizations on how I use my time as a result of reading this book. It provides compelling reasons why choosing to value time more than money in itself results to greater happiness in the long run.
I was amused and at the same time felt the sense of urgency to improve the way I use my time due to several stories provided in this book. While money is important to acquire our material needs, it does not guarantee happiness.
The strategies provided by the author are really helpful. You can either find time, fund time, or change the way you look at your time.
Fascinating book for me, defitely recommended for all people who wants to improve the use of their time.
I was amused and at the same time felt the sense of urgency to improve the way I use my time due to several stories provided in this book. While money is important to acquire our material needs, it does not guarantee happiness.
The strategies provided by the author are really helpful. You can either find time, fund time, or change the way you look at your time.
Fascinating book for me, defitely recommended for all people who wants to improve the use of their time.
September 18, 2021
By putting into words (and supporting with research) a lot of what we already know is true (engaging in meaningful, productive, or pleasurable activities instead of working all the time, and reducing distractions like your smartphone, makes you happier), this book inspired me to improve my time management choices. She gives examples from a study of how time-affluent decisions benefitted a group of African women who didn’t have much money, so her concepts aren’t just for the privileged, though that’s generally the target audience for this book.
January 30, 2021
As someone who definitely values money over time -- and wants to not do so -- reading this was a good reminder that wasting an hour of your life to save $5 probably isn't worth it. The writing was approachable; so much so that it sometimes felt a little condescending (parentheses! everywhere!). All in all, I think it could've been an article, but I feel that way about most self-helpy business books.
February 11, 2021
I hate finished this book. I'm sure it will be valuable for someone, but it isn't me. The author's tone comes off as condescending and instead of discussing how to implement some of the strategies in depth, the ideas are then hurled at the reader as a "simple fix". I was very dissapointed in this book.
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