The silly question that leads to smart insights

One way to give your leisure time more purpose

Many years ago, when I was writing 168 Hours (my first time management book — published 15 years ago this week!), I started collecting examples of what one might call “silly claims of time poverty.” Think online polls where people claim to have no free time whatsoever. Were they required to take that poll for their jobs? Or there was the article in Real Simple where “time-starved” readers were asked what they’d do with an extra 15 minutes in the day. One woman wrote in that 15 minutes of uninterrupted writing time would be a priceless gift — which left me wondering where she found 15 minutes to read Real Simple, and write in about this elusive dream of hers.

It’s funny — but even though the Real Simple question was kind of ridiculous, it does touch on something that can help us spend our time better (even without getting an extra 15 minutes in the day).