I found her discussion of outsourcing household tasks (and the associated stigmatism) fascinating, particularly the opportunity costs of hiring someone and the concept of specialization (disguised as “core competencies”) in the assignment of household tasks or in choosing to support local task-specific businesses. We plan our lives around these small time slots, becoming ever more harried and stressed as we struggle to do the things we say we will do, or want to do, in the allocated time. The best part of the book was Vanderkam's argument that we will be more successful and happy if we focus on our 'core competencies' and outsource the rest of our lives.

Nevertheless, she has good principles everyone can benefit from, and the overall message of the book is that we have more time than we think we do. And, if you know how you spend your time when you’re not thinking about it, you’ll be able to make more conscious and informed decisions. Prioritization is a little iffy: While I’d love to be able to prioritize all my tasks around my core competencies, the truth is I can’t.I did not worry too much about “scheduling time” for other tasks because I first wanted to see where the majority of my hours were going, not how accurately I was estimating them—though that too is fascinating and is obviously how you will finesse your schedule over time.

These are not questions from Vanderkam’s book, but they serve the same purpose; they hopefully prompt you to think about what you want your life to look like. Easily identify tasks that eat time: This is an especially effective way to determine which activities are taking up more time than perhaps you realized. Where Vanderkam goes astray is when she advises you to spend time in ways which are congruent with *her* values, and her lifestyle.Even if you sleep 49 hours a week (seven per day), and work 40 hours a week, that still leaves you with a whopping unallocated 79 hours. Put down the Twinkie, turn off the professional wrestling program on TV, pick your big ass up off the sofa, and start training for a marathon. What I did not expect was the complete dismissal of differing income levels and life factors into the author's approach. Most people don't have money to spend on a personal chef, and I think it's really shallow to think that the only way to live a successful, happy life is to have an amazing career that gets you lots of money.