Every week you’ve got 168 hours. 

It’s simple math and I personally love when I can work with formulas.

How about you? 

Imagine what you’d learn if you tracked every hour you spent in a week. 

A lot.

I did this exact exercise a few years ago because I was curious to find out what was the truth.

How did I actually spend my time?

Because I was not happy and I wanted to know why.

And, I felt the answer lied in time. 

Like if I was looking at my bank account, what would it say about me and what I valued (or prioritized). 

A lot of my original inspiration came from a book written by Laura Vanderkam called 168 Hours. 

This is what she has to say about the matter. 

If you want to lose weight, you keep a food diary. If you want to get out of debt, you record your spending. Likewise, if you want to use your time better, you should keep track of your time.

And on I went to discover how to do this.  I used her simple approach to track my 168 hours.

Go here to see how. 

My time review led to many insights like…

• What I did wasn’t in line with what I valued in my life 
• I overbooked myself which caused a lot of overwhelm 
• I had very few time boundaries which affected my sleep and mindset
• There was no time set aside to create a foundation for a happy mind

I realized that I always had an adversarial relationship with time. There was never enough. 

What I found is taking a step back and looking at it gave me clarity and a sense of empowerment.

And, my anxiety around it went down. 

There comes a point when you realize you’ve got choices about time.

1. You can feel like you don’t have enough and constantly be caught in that spin. 
2. You can accept you’ve got your 168 hours a week. 
3. You can own your 168 hours and create what you want with them. 

I felt relieved to find I had a choice. It had always been my choice.

So, what did I do? 

I chose the third option and that’s when life became a lot more peaceful and productive. 

Can you imagine.

You can create whatever you want in your 168 hours.

In fact, you can create something you love in those hours.

You don’t have to be whipped around in the wind like a balloon.

Time can be your friend if you allow it to be. 

Makes sense doesn’t it. 

Getting clear on how you use your time leads you to the next step.

How would you love to use your 168 hours? 

Think of the general activities you care about and what must happen. And, start dreaming about how you want to allocate your time. This is meant to free your mind. This is not meant for you to try to force things into your schedule. 

What this will do is trigger your sub-conscious mind to start doing some work for you. 

Go here for a creative activity to get this process moving. 

Know the gap between what you’re doing and what you really want to do. 

Then, you’ll naturally start moving to a better place….where time actually works for you. 

And, you’ll see how your happiness follows the same trend. 

Enjoy the process and getting clear. 

I’d love to hear about a decision you made or insight you had.

You can write me back or leave a comment in the blog. 

And, feel free to share this with anyone else you feel it might help. 

Warmly, 

Jennifer