Laura Vanderkam’s 168 Hours is a must read for folks about to begin an MBA program as well as those already knee-deep in financial accounting. The premise of the book is simple—there are only 168 hours in anyone’s week and many of those hours are not used well. As a result, maxed-out professionals (and perpetually time crunched MBAs) often have more time available to pursue their interests than they realize.
A few of the big takeaways from the book are that people rarely work as much as they think. If you’ve spent any time with a management consultant or banker recently, you no doubt have been regaled with fascinating (what is the emoticon for dripping sarcasm?) tales of 60-80 hour workweeks. But, Laura has worked with dozens of professionals to track their time and the universal takeaway is that people do not work nearly as long as they think.
So, what’s the time culprit? Laura’s perspective is that television watching saps more time out of a week than most people realize. But, that’s not likely your case as someone who is preparing to begin an MBA program or already in the throes of your curriculum. You likely are busy with club commitments, job searching, and even going to class from time to time. As such, one of the best actions you can do (in addition to reading the book) is to keep a time log. Track what you are doing each hour of the day for a week. Be honest. If you spend 60 minutes a day reading celebrity blogs, mark it down. And then at the end of the week see where your time went. You’d be surprised at what small actions are leaching out precious time from your life every week.
I realized that my time bugaboo was Google News. I am a news junkie and my time log revealed that I was spending 30-45 minutes a day on the site, albeit in small time increments. I recognized that when I found myself reading Google news my brain was partly interested in the stories, but usually just aching for a break from whatever Microsoft Office application I would cranking on at that moment. So, I started taking short walks instead. I’m more recharged and therefore more productive which has led to leaving work at more reasonable times. Indeed, it is not a coincidence that I picked up this blog again in May shortly after reading 168 hours.
So, carve out 4-5 hours to read the book and track your time. You’ll no doubt end up being able to put a lot more quality time into your MBA program.
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