The Magic of 168 Hours

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Most of us think of our time in 24 hour chunks.  Which is very self-defeating every time you have an “unproductive” or “bad” day. Amiright?  

When I read Laura Vanderkam’s time management book entitled 168 Hours, I was blown away by the mindset shift she advocates.

Did you know that you actually have more time than you think (her amazing subtitle) when you consider your time in weekly 168 hour chunks instead of small daily chunks?

So, first a little math equation.

168 hours – 56 hours of sleep (that’s 8 hours a day, which might be a dream for some of you with babies, but don’t worry – it will happen!)

What are you left with? Still 113.

Okay, let’s take the next big responsibility out of the equation.  For homeschool moms, it’s probably homeschooling (assuming you don’t work full-time outside the home).

113 – 25 hours (estimating about 5 hours per day) = 88 hours

Now let’s take out the cooking and meal prep.  Because I’ve already told you that I don’t go shopping and you shouldn’t either.  At the least, start using Walmart Grocery Pick-Up to shave off several hours of errands during your week.  So, this will obviously vary widely, depending on if you love to cook and spend time  in the kitchen.  Let’s just say it’s 10 hours per week.

88 hours – 10 = 78 hours

What if you watch a movie or TV show several time a week?  Say 6 hours.

78 – 6 = you still have 72

Laundry?  You shouldn’t be doing this either!  But, okay – when you have babies and toddlers, it still does fall on your shoulders.  So maybe another 5 hours.

72 – 5 = 67 hours

You still technically have time in your schedule for a 40 hour a week job commitment with 17 hours left over in “free time.”

We could keep going, but I hope you see the point!

Even with homeschooling and all the other things on our plates, we really do have a lot of time if we learn to manage it well.

So if you’re convinced that you need a mindset shift and want to know how to do it, here’s what you need to do:

• grab Laura’s book 168 hours
• do a time study and learn about block scheduling (Get your block schedule weekly planner freebie HERE).
• be sure to read tomorrow’s post about Batching for Homeschool Moms
• follow along on Facebook so you don’t miss a thing!

Check out the other amazing posts from the Homeschool Review Crew!