How to Beat Distraction, Expand Your Time, and Focus on What Matters Most
Starred review from July 4, 2022
“How can each of us make the absolute most of the time we have?” asks social psychologist Holmes in her enlightening debut. Adapting her UCLA business school course, Holmes pulls from behavioral economics, marketing, and psychology research to offer wisdom on how to optimize one’s time “to live a better, happier, and more fulfilling life.” She recounts how burnout from her professional and parenting duties spurred her to conduct research that found survey respondents who had two to five hours of free time per day reported being happier than those with more or less time, suggesting that while discretionary time is important, feeling productive also pays happiness dividends. The author recommends “bundling” chores with fun activities, such as listening to an audiobook while folding laundry, and encourages readers to outsource chores when financially practical. She also includes exercises to help readers reflect on their priorities, track how they spend their time, and deepen their appreciation for activities they enjoy. The extensive surveys and studies cited lend Holmes’s contentions an intellectual heft that puts this a notch above similar volumes, and her presentation remains accessible and remarkably unstuffy throughout. As thorough as it is practical, this one’s well worth readers’ time.
August 1, 2022
We all have just 24 hours each day. How we use it is up to us. Holmes, a professor at UCLA and a researcher on happiness, examines life's components and ways to make daily lives happier. Based a course she teaches to graduate students, Holmes' book is filled with personal anecdotes, research results, and exercises to help readers examine and evaluate their use of time. One assignment is tracking two weeks and listing activities and happiness levels by the half-hour. Another is gaining perspective by figuring out just how much time is left in our lives to enjoy those everyday routines and encounters. A third is writing our own eulogy, highlighting how we want to be remembered. Holmes stresses living in the moment, unplugging regularly from our devices, meditating, and taking time to enjoy ourselves. Designating time for the important people in our lives, allowing time for joy, and using a bird's-eye view are all vital. Her thoughtful exercises and commonsense advice is just what people need in a world reeling with COVID-19, wars, mass shootings, and inflation.
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October 1, 2022
Although Holmes (business management, UCLA) had her dream job as a research professor, her life was a rushed and repeating blur of work/commute/family. A social psychologist, she reviewed available data on how discretionary time--the amount of time in which people are able to do whatever they choose--affects happiness. Based on this research, her book urges reader to conduct a two-week tracking exercise intended to show where their limited time is going and how to rate those activities on a happiness scale. This allows readers to reduce or eliminate time wasted on unfulfilling things, such as scrolling mindlessly through social media. While there are tasks that are less enjoyable but necessary, this book encourages readers to find ways to double up on activities, such as listening to an audiobook or podcast while commuting, or combining exercise with catching up with a friend. The intended result is a less time-starved, more joyful, connected life. What distinguishes Holmes's book from similar guides is her focus on happiness, not productivity. That's a much-needed antidote to the hustle culture, get-more-done angle, pervasive in this genre. VERDICT Readers looking for a research-based approach to making their days happier will want to take a look.--Nanette Donohue
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