168 Hours: You Actually Do Have the Time

Carl Sandburg said it better than I ever could, but – to be fair – he was a celebrated poet and three-time Pulitzer Prize winner:

“Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you.”

If there’s one sentiment the modern American can understand, it’s that of your time being spent for you instead of being spent by you. “I don’t have time,” is a phrase we utter so often that it almost becomes an automatic response, a shrug against the endless pressures of modern life. But here’s the thing: that’s almost universally untrue. There are 168 hours in every week – so why are we rushing and still behind on everything?

There’s plenty of time. We just need to use it smarter.

This is the central insight of Laura Vanderkam’s 168 Hours, and it’s a principle I’ve seen hold true time and again in my own life and the lives of those I work with. Time isn’t something that happens to us; it’s a resource we control. Every minute is a choice, whether we acknowledge it or not.

Seeing Time Clearly

I remember when I started to realize that my weeks had become a blur. I was running from meetings to meals to errands, convinced that I had no time for anything outside of work. Yet I still found myself scrolling endlessly through news feeds at night, wondering why the hours seemed to vanish. Something didn’t add up – my priorities were off.

The Entrepreneurial Operating System® (EOS®) has a great exercise called “Delegate and Elevate” that helps you identify tasks that can and should be delegated and which should be prioritized. I used it to list out my “typical” tasks for a week and placed them in four buckets, based on (a) whether each was something I was good at or not, and (b) whether I enjoyed each task.

From there, it was a lot easier: by identifying what I was good at and enjoy doing, I was able to prioritize those tasks by either delegating them, or by realizing that they weren’t necessary.

Then I decided to track my time meticulously for one week. I wrote down every hour, every transition, every “small” task. By Friday, the numbers told a surprising story. Even accounting for work, sleep, commuting, and chores, I had roughly 50 hours left that could have been used for projects I cared about, for my family, for my own growth.

I had the time. I was just wasting it.

If you operate a business and find yourself in need of a framework to hang your time management (as well as your process development, goalsetting efforts, and more) from, EOS provides a powerful and flexible system that can be transformational for your business.

The Passivity of Modern Life

As modern Americans, we are wayyyyyy too eager to give up our agency. Even for something as personal and controllable as how we spend the 24 hours we’re given each day, we’re happy to be passive passengers on our voyage through the day.

We think of time as something that happens to us. “I ran out of time.” “I just didn’t have the time.” We think back on time we wasted and think of that time being “taken away” from us.

We forget one simple fact: we control how we spend our hours. “Time management” is almost a misnomer. You can’t manage time – time just is. But we can control what we do with that time – we have complete agency over what we prioritize. Yes, some of it may be spoken for, but we ultimately are responsible for choosing what we do in each second of each minute of each day.

The 168 Hours exercise isn’t about reclaiming time so much as it’s about reclaiming agency.

The 168 Hours Framework

Breaking the week down mathematically is straightforward: 24 hours × 7 days = 168 hours. That’s all we get. Vanderkam’s genius is in reframing how we think about these hours. Most people operate under the assumption that work and obligations naturally consume all of our time except for a few leftover minutes each day. But when you treat time like a fixed budget, suddenly the choices become clearer.

Sleep, for example, often gets shortchanged. Many of us sacrifice it to “fit everything in,” not realizing that skimping on rest erodes every other activity we try to cram into our week. For a full-time worker sleeping eight hours a night, that’s 56 hours gone. Work might take 40–50 hours. Commutes and chores could claim another 15. Even so, you’re still left with roughly 50–60 hours that could be consciously allocated.

Aligning Time With Priorities

Tracking my week forced me to confront a hard truth: much of my free time was evaporating into habits that didn’t align with my goals. I love reading, writing, and spending unhurried time with my family, yet I wasn’t making room for any of them. Instead, I was defaulting to low-value distractions.

The solution wasn’t more hours, it was a strategic approach to priorities. The first step is identifying what matters most to you. For me, that meant defining what is most important to me; family, clients, community and self. Once these priorities are clear, the next step is trimming what doesn’t serve them.

I began experimenting with small changes: batching errands to free up entire afternoons, delegating minor tasks I had stubbornly kept, and creating boundaries around email and social media. Gradually, I noticed a shift. What once felt impossible suddenly fit into my week naturally.

Delegating Gives an Executive More Time for Professional Development

One client of mine, a senior executive, was convinced she had no time for professional development. She worked 60-hour weeks, slept only six hours a night, and felt perpetually behind.

When we mapped her 168 hours, she was shocked to find she spent more than ten hours a week on low-value administrative tasks she could delegate. By restructuring her schedule, prioritizing key projects, and outsourcing certain responsibilities, she reclaimed time for a certification program she’d been postponing for years. The sense of accomplishment and renewed energy she gained was palpable.

Finding Meaningful Family Time for a Busy Father

Another friend, a father of three, struggled to carve out meaningful family time. Weekends were a blur of errands, sports practices, and screen time. By applying the 168-hour mindset, he started scheduling “big rocks” first: Friday night dinners, Saturday morning hikes, and weekday bedtime routines that were non-negotiable. The difference wasn’t that he gained extra hours; it was that he reclaimed existing ones for what mattered most.

The Pillars of a 168-Hour Life

From experience, the most effective time management strategies revolve around four pillars:

Work Smarter

High-leverage work beats endless busywork. Ask: Will this task move me closer to my goals? If not, it may be a candidate for elimination, delegation, or delay.

Invest in Relationships

Quality time with family and friends is essential. Treat it like a non-negotiable appointment. The energy and satisfaction this generates will ripple across all areas of life.

Protect Health and Renewal

Sleep, exercise, and downtime are not indulgences but investments in your capacity to function at your best. Cutting corners here is a false economy.

Make Space for Growth

Reading, learning, creative pursuits, and volunteering are what enrich life. Time for personal development should be treated as core, not optional.

Practical Steps to Reclaim Time

How can you implement this mindset today? Start with these strategies:

• Track Your Week: Write down every hour. Awareness is the first step to mastery.
• Schedule Big Rocks First: Your most important priorities should go on the calendar before other demands.
• Batch and Delegate: Group errands, automate what you can, and hand off tasks others can handle.
• Leverage Hidden Pockets: Commutes, waiting rooms, and transitional periods can be used for reading, reflection, or micro-tasks.
• Limit Time Drains: Social media, television, and unnecessary meetings can quietly consume hours. Set firm boundaries.

Shifting Your Mindset

The deepest change is mental. When you stop saying, “I don’t have time,” and start saying, “I have 168 hours. How will I spend them?” you reclaim agency. You recognize that every choice, even small ones, is a deliberate allocation of your weekly budget.

This perspective transforms your relationship with work, relationships, and self-care. Time becomes a resource to wield, not a tide that sweeps you along. The stress of endless busyness gives way to intentionality.

The 168-hour mindset isn’t about cramming more into your week. It’s about recognizing that your time is finite and precious and making conscious choices about how to use it. By tracking your hours, identifying priorities, and aligning actions with values, you’ll find that those “impossible” hours are waiting for you.

You actually do have the time. The question is whether you will claim it, and what you’ll choose to do with it.