You all know I love Mel Robbins. Recently she had Laura Vanderkam on her podcast, and the conversation was pretty awesome.
Laura has written several great books on time management. Her latest is 168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think. It’s also available on audio on Spotify, which makes it an easy listen on a walk or in the car. I highly recommend it. It’s time management made simple.
People love to say they’re busy 24/7.
But if you actually do the math…
24 hours × 7 days = 168 hours.
That’s how much time every single one of us gets each week. Now let’s break that down.
If you work a typical 40-hour work week ( yes I know realtors work more than 40 hours a week but let’s just use this for as an example) and sleep 8 hours a night, that’s 56 hours of sleep.
- 56 hours sleeping
- 40 hours working
Which means…
You still have 72 hours left in your week.
Now before anyone says, “Jeana, I don’t have 72 free hours,” — I know. Neither do I.
Life has responsibilities. Families. Errands. Laundry, life.
But here’s the shift in thinking that Laura talks about that I love:
Instead of saying “I don’t have time,” start asking:
“Could I find two hours for something that matters to me?”
Two hours to read.
Two hours to have dinner with friends.
An hour for a walk.
An hour to learn something new.
When you start looking at your week as 168 hours instead of an exhausting blur, something interesting happens. You can design a new narrative. You stop feeling like time is something happening to you…and start realizing time is something we can control.
It doesn’t mean we suddenly have endless free time. It means we begin to make space for the things that bring us joy.
And sometimes that’s the difference between feeling overwhelmed by life…and actually enjoying it.
So this week, look at your calendar a little differently. I know I am.
As 168 opportunities.
And maybe—just maybe—find one or two hours to do something that simply makes you happy.
Because life isn’t just about filling time.
It’s about living inside of it.