Time Smart: How to Reclaim Your Time and Live a Happier Life

by Ashley Whillans

Overview

There's an 80 percent chance you're poor. Time poor, that is.

Four out of five adults report feeling that they have too much to do and not enough time to do it. These time-poor people experience less joy each day. They laugh less. They are less healthy, less productive, and more likely to divorce. In one study, 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." The techniques Whillans provides will free up seconds, minutes, and hours that, over the long term, become weeks and months that 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 mindset shift that will make these activities part of your everyday regimen through assessments, checklists, and activities you can use right away. The strategies Whillans presents will help you make the shift to time-smart living and, in the process, build a happier, more fulfilling life.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781633698369
Publisher:	Harvard Business Review Press
Publication date:	10/06/2020
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	208
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Ashley Whillans is an assistant professor at Harvard Business School and a leading voice in time and happiness research. Whillans has worked with groups as diverse as consulting firms, couples, the US military, and women managing vegetable stands in Kenya. She is part of the Global Happiness Council and the Workplace and Well-Being Initiative at Harvard University. Her research has appeared in numerous outlets, including the New York Times, the Washington Post, CNN, BBC, the Atlantic, and the Economist.

You can find Ashley Whillans at awhillans.com and on Twitter @ashleywhillans.

Editorial Reviews

08/17/2020

Whillans, a professor of negotiations, organizations, and markets at Harvard Business School, explores in her insightful debut ways to shift one’s perspective away from making money and toward prioritizing one’s time. Whillans uses the terms “time rich” and “time poor” to measure how much time a person has created in their daily routine for things that matter to them. Asking readers to “calculate trade-offs between time and money, and see that many of the decisions we make are suboptimal,” Whillans cautions against “time traps”—such as spending too much time on the internet, habitually checking email, or reflexively saying “yes” to invitations—that prevent one away from using time to its fullest potential. She recommends questions for finding one’s time management “default setting,” documenting the use of one’s time, and “hacking work time” by working from home and roping together necessary but unfulfilling activities. She also shares strategies such as listening to audiobooks during commutes to increase study time, and budgeting which chores to outsource to third-party services. (Granted, many of the tips will need to be reevaluated for a post-covid world.) Anyone looking for novel strategies to make better use of their time will love this. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

Named one of Behavioral Scientist's "Notable Books of 2020"

Named one of the Globe & Mail's "Best Business Books of 2020"

"Whillans, a professor of negotiations, organizations, and markets at Harvard Business School, explores in her insightful debut ways to shift one's perspective away from making money and toward prioritizing one's time." — Publisher's Weekly

Advance Praise for Time Smart:

"Why are so many of us so stressed? In this smart and accessible book, Ashley Whillans delivers a surprising answer: we overvalue money and undervalue time. And she shows us simple, practical ways to recalibrate the balance. Time Smart is an essential book for anyone who wants to create more time for the things that really matter." — Daniel H. Pink, #1 New York Times bestselling author, When, Drive, and To Sell Is Human

"Time Smart is an eye-opener. Combining rigorous science with an accessible style, Whillans offers scores of suggestions for how to use our time in ways that boost productivity, efficiency, and joy." — Sonja Lyubomirsky, Distinguished Professor of Psychology, University of California, Riverside; author, The How of Happiness

"What a fantastic read. I advocate for the four-day week to gain more time for the things that are important to us. Ashley Whillans delves into the detail of why time is so important. In our post–COVID-19 world we have a chance to reset how we construct our lives. This book comes at a perfect time." — Andrew Barnes, founder, Perpetual Guardian; author, The 4 Day Week

"Time is the one thing you can't get more of, and Time Smart will help you make the most of yours. Drawing on the latest science, Ashley Whillans lays out practical steps that will make your life happier and more meaningful." — Laszlo Bock, cofounder and CEO, Humu; former Senior Vice President, People Operations, Google; and author, Work Rules!

"Time Smart is not a self-help book. It is a no-nonsense analysis of how to spend your time and your money. Instead of a series of snake-oil mantras and quick fixes, Whillans gives you a road map to better organize your life." — Scott Galloway, Professor of Marketing, NYU Stern School of Business; author, The Algebra of Happiness

"Ashley Whillans is my hero. Welcome to the practical guide you need to protect the most important resource you'll ever have: time. Whillans provides the handbook every busy person needs." — Laurie Santos, Professor of Psychology, Yale University; host, The Happiness Lab podcast

"In Time Smart, Ashley Whillans gives us a practical road map to use this precious resource better, and in so doing, live happier, healthier lives." — Arthur C. Brooks, Professor of the Practice of Public Leadership, Harvard Kennedy School; Arthur C. Patterson Faculty Fellow, Harvard Business School

From the Publisher