Thu_Feb_21_09:01:34_PST_2019
This blog is mostly about food and sometimes about books and crafts
I often get e-mails from readers, and the funny thing is that these e-mails are rarely about recipes or books or crafts. (Although I do get asked all the time what brand/model food processor I use). People want to know how I find the time to cook and read and indulge in my hobbies and blog. And it is a question that I never have a good answer for.
I just read a book that talks about this: Laura Vanderkam's 168 hours: You Have More Time Than You Think. Vanderkam thinks of a person's life in terms of weeks. Each week has 7 days times 24 hours equals 168 hours. That sounds like quite an impressive number of hours. So when weeks fly by in a blur, where exactly does the time go? Why is it that different people do dramatically different things with their lives even though everyone has the same 168 hours each week? Is there a way to fit everything that you want to do into these 168 hours? Here is what I took away from this book:
Chapter 1: The Myth of the Time Crunch. Vanderkam points out that we live in a culture with a strong narrative of overwork and time starvation. I agree with this. It is a mark of success to be harried and exhausted and over-scheduled. We vie with each other to say that we worked the most number of hours per week and that we have 5 meetings back to back. When I chat with a friend, the first thing we say to each other is, "How are you? Oh, super busy, you know. Things have been pretty crazy". But sociological data shows that we overestimate time spent on work and housework and underestimate time spent watching television. Vanderkam suggests that we start with a blank slate of 168 hours and very honestly and meticulously fill in how we spend our time.
Here's what she says about not doing something that you want to be doing. "...it is a choice, and not a matter of lacking time. When you say, "I don't have time," this puts the responsibility on someone else: a boss, a client, your family. Or else it puts the responsibility on some nebulous force: capitalism, society...regardless, the power slips out of your hands". Bottom line: there is plenty of time if you make good choices about how to spend it.
Chapter 2: Your Core Competencies. Know what you are good at and what you can do better than almost anyone else. Those are your core competencies and you are likely to do well in life if you spend more time focusing on them. Study your time logs and figure out exactly where you are spending your time and whether you're spending enough time on your core competencies.
Try lots of different things that you think you might enjoy to help you identify what you are actually good at. She gives an example of someone who told herself that she would love to sew if only she had the time. One day she took the plunge and took a sewing class and did not enjoy it at all. At least now she knows to cross that dream off her list and devote her mental energy to other things. Instead of just dreaming of doing something, try it in a small way and see if it actually feels enjoyable or not. "There is extraordinary power in knowing what you want to be doing with your time. When companies execute with this clarity of strategic intent, they thrive. When people do, they thrive too".
Chapter 3: The Right Job. "We spend a lot of our waking hours working...Like choosing the right spouse, being in the right job can give you amazing energy for the entirety of your 168 hours".
Chapter 4: Controlling your Calendar, Chapter 5: Anatomy of a Breakthrough. These chapters are about working smarter and in a more focused, results-oriented way rather than filling time with pointless meetings and conference calls, say. "Do not mistake things that look like work for actual work". Most of the advice is geared towards people who want to climb the corporate chain, make business breakthroughs, gain that coveted corner office. But it is adaptable to other situations as well.
Chapter 6: The New Home Economics and Chapter 7: Don't Do Your Own Laundry. The circumstances and realities of each person's life are different. The author's background is very affluent and there were things in this book that were very jarring for me. You see, Vanderkam's strong advice is to outsource housework. Laundry, cooking, cleaning and other "unnecessary domestic burdens" "take time away from activities that are among your core competencies" and should be avoided by hiring someone else to do them. Her solutions are breezy and one-dimensional- Spending too much time cooking? Hire a personal chef. Vanderkam's idea for those who don't like to wash dishes made me cringe: "...use paper plates and utensils, and then write a check to your favorite enviromental charity as atonement".
To be fair, I grew up in middle class India where having maids, cooks and gardeners was and is quite normal. The system works if we have two classes of people- the ones who make the big bucks and the one who earn small bucks doing menial chores. My own choice in this matter is to do my own damn housework my own damn self, thank you very much. (Well, we're two adults in the house so we split the housework.) How about living simply and mindfully, taking care of yourself and your home and teaching your children to do the same?
Now, I completely agree that it is all too easy to spend endless hours doing housework inefficiently. But chores can be minimized and streamlined and we try to find ways to do that. We buy easy-care clothing. We have a minimum of furniture and possessions and no knick-knacks that have to be dusted constantly. (A very good essay: the true cost of stuff). I make quick and simple meals that don''t dirty every pot and pan in the kitchen. We eat leftovers for lunch. Errands are grouped together. Shopping lists help to avoid frequent trips to the grocery store. To say that there are only two choices: (a) be stuck doing endless housework or (b) hire someone is incorrect.
Chapter 8: A Full Life. "...time is too precious for us to be totally leisurely about leisure". When we do get some time away from work and chores, we tend to fritter it away in the ways that are easy but meaningless- like watching TV shows that aren't even that enjoyable. Planned TV watching is different from aimless channel surfing. Instead, Vanderkam has concrete suggestions for making leisure time both enjoyable and meaningful:
1. Think of things you've always dreamed of doing and choose one or two or three activities or hobbies. Devote your leisure time to your chosen activities.
2. One of the activities you choose for your leisure time has to involve physical activity, because exercise is non-negotiable for good health. This one, by the way, was my biggest take home message/reminder from this book. I think I'm doing a fairly good job of using my time to create the life I want except that I'm consistently failing at exercising regularly. I really need to cut out my excuses in this department.
3. Align your time: Multitasking does not work, period. But Vanderkam talks about alignment where certain activities can be combined fruitfully, for instance, catching up with a friend at a playground while your kids play together or volunteering as a family. I definitely align my TV time and crafting time and enjoy both simultaneously.
4. "Use bits of time for bits of joy". Have a few enjoyable activities for small (10-30 minute) chunks of time, like keeping a book in your car to read while you're waiting to pick up your child at school, or writing poems or letters while commuting in the subway.
Chapter 9: The Hard Work of Having it All. The author does a couple of "time makeovers" here and has tips to do this at home by logging one's time, creating a list of dreams, identifying one's competencies and devoting time to them, ignoring and minimizing things that you identify as time-wasters, and checking in with yourself regularly to see if your weeks are looking the way you hoped they would.
All in all, this book has quite a bit of interesting content. It makes me very sad when people tell me they would like to do something but they just can't find time for it. Life is too short, time does go by and it is indeed a pity if we just dream of doing things (big and little) and never get around to doing them.
I recently had a sort-of milestone birthday. The kind where even though I know that age is just a number and yadda yadda, I couldn't help feeling a teeny bit shocked- I'm HOW old?- and more importantly, I had to ask yourself: What am I doing with my life? I'm raising a child and caring for a family and while I hardly have a high-profile career, I have a humble but very rewarding part-time job. But look at the world around us- there's so much injustice and inequality. We cannot just be thinking of our own families and our career moves. I have the benefit of being educated and financially secure and I want to be doing much more with my time and with my life. (I sincerely hope the previous sentence does not end up as an empty sentiment on my blog.)
I'll leave you with this quick recipe that I tried yesterday- a pasta salad much like this one I've posted before, but with a fresh kale pesto. There's some controlled multi-tasking in this recipe!
1. Roast the veggies. Preheat oven to 400F (convection setting if your oven has one). Cut assorted vegetables into bite size chunks (I used 2 zucchini, 2 red/orange bell peppers, 1 box of mushrooms). Toss with salt, pepper and olive oil and roast until tender and slightly charred on the edges.
2. Boil and drain the pasta while the veggies are roasting. I used 3/4 of a box of whole wheat shells.
3. Make the pesto while the pasta and veggies are cooking.
a) Boil a small pot of water. Add roughly chopped kale (1 bunch) to the boiling water for 2 minutes. Drain.
b) Roast 1/2 cup walnuts for a minute or two in the microwave.
c) Blend the blanched kale, walnuts, 1 tbsp. nutritional yeast, basil (fresh/paste/dried), 2 glugs olive oil, 1 tbsp. balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper to taste in the blender to a smooth paste.
4. Toss the roasted veggies, cooked pasta, pesto together. Optionally, add jarred olives or artichokes. Taste and season with salt and pepper if needed.
This dish is wonderful hot, cold or at room temperature. Perfect for lunch boxes and picnics. Happens to be vegan. Rice or quinoa would work well in place of the pasta. Or simply skip the pasta and use the pesto-veggie mixture as a sandwich stuffing. Possibilities!
Is this time management stuff giving you a massive headache? Do you feel like you have time to do the things you love doing?
I often get e-mails from readers, and the funny thing is that these e-mails are rarely about recipes or books or crafts. (Although I do get asked all the time what brand/model food processor I use). People want to know how I find the time to cook and read and indulge in my hobbies and blog. And it is a question that I never have a good answer for.
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| Image: Goodreads |
Chapter 1: The Myth of the Time Crunch. Vanderkam points out that we live in a culture with a strong narrative of overwork and time starvation. I agree with this. It is a mark of success to be harried and exhausted and over-scheduled. We vie with each other to say that we worked the most number of hours per week and that we have 5 meetings back to back. When I chat with a friend, the first thing we say to each other is, "How are you? Oh, super busy, you know. Things have been pretty crazy". But sociological data shows that we overestimate time spent on work and housework and underestimate time spent watching television. Vanderkam suggests that we start with a blank slate of 168 hours and very honestly and meticulously fill in how we spend our time.
Here's what she says about not doing something that you want to be doing. "...it is a choice, and not a matter of lacking time. When you say, "I don't have time," this puts the responsibility on someone else: a boss, a client, your family. Or else it puts the responsibility on some nebulous force: capitalism, society...regardless, the power slips out of your hands". Bottom line: there is plenty of time if you make good choices about how to spend it.
Chapter 2: Your Core Competencies. Know what you are good at and what you can do better than almost anyone else. Those are your core competencies and you are likely to do well in life if you spend more time focusing on them. Study your time logs and figure out exactly where you are spending your time and whether you're spending enough time on your core competencies.
Try lots of different things that you think you might enjoy to help you identify what you are actually good at. She gives an example of someone who told herself that she would love to sew if only she had the time. One day she took the plunge and took a sewing class and did not enjoy it at all. At least now she knows to cross that dream off her list and devote her mental energy to other things. Instead of just dreaming of doing something, try it in a small way and see if it actually feels enjoyable or not. "There is extraordinary power in knowing what you want to be doing with your time. When companies execute with this clarity of strategic intent, they thrive. When people do, they thrive too".
Chapter 3: The Right Job. "We spend a lot of our waking hours working...Like choosing the right spouse, being in the right job can give you amazing energy for the entirety of your 168 hours".
Chapter 4: Controlling your Calendar, Chapter 5: Anatomy of a Breakthrough. These chapters are about working smarter and in a more focused, results-oriented way rather than filling time with pointless meetings and conference calls, say. "Do not mistake things that look like work for actual work". Most of the advice is geared towards people who want to climb the corporate chain, make business breakthroughs, gain that coveted corner office. But it is adaptable to other situations as well.
Chapter 6: The New Home Economics and Chapter 7: Don't Do Your Own Laundry. The circumstances and realities of each person's life are different. The author's background is very affluent and there were things in this book that were very jarring for me. You see, Vanderkam's strong advice is to outsource housework. Laundry, cooking, cleaning and other "unnecessary domestic burdens" "take time away from activities that are among your core competencies" and should be avoided by hiring someone else to do them. Her solutions are breezy and one-dimensional- Spending too much time cooking? Hire a personal chef. Vanderkam's idea for those who don't like to wash dishes made me cringe: "...use paper plates and utensils, and then write a check to your favorite enviromental charity as atonement".
To be fair, I grew up in middle class India where having maids, cooks and gardeners was and is quite normal. The system works if we have two classes of people- the ones who make the big bucks and the one who earn small bucks doing menial chores. My own choice in this matter is to do my own damn housework my own damn self, thank you very much. (Well, we're two adults in the house so we split the housework.) How about living simply and mindfully, taking care of yourself and your home and teaching your children to do the same?
Now, I completely agree that it is all too easy to spend endless hours doing housework inefficiently. But chores can be minimized and streamlined and we try to find ways to do that. We buy easy-care clothing. We have a minimum of furniture and possessions and no knick-knacks that have to be dusted constantly. (A very good essay: the true cost of stuff). I make quick and simple meals that don''t dirty every pot and pan in the kitchen. We eat leftovers for lunch. Errands are grouped together. Shopping lists help to avoid frequent trips to the grocery store. To say that there are only two choices: (a) be stuck doing endless housework or (b) hire someone is incorrect.
Chapter 8: A Full Life. "...time is too precious for us to be totally leisurely about leisure". When we do get some time away from work and chores, we tend to fritter it away in the ways that are easy but meaningless- like watching TV shows that aren't even that enjoyable. Planned TV watching is different from aimless channel surfing. Instead, Vanderkam has concrete suggestions for making leisure time both enjoyable and meaningful:
1. Think of things you've always dreamed of doing and choose one or two or three activities or hobbies. Devote your leisure time to your chosen activities.
2. One of the activities you choose for your leisure time has to involve physical activity, because exercise is non-negotiable for good health. This one, by the way, was my biggest take home message/reminder from this book. I think I'm doing a fairly good job of using my time to create the life I want except that I'm consistently failing at exercising regularly. I really need to cut out my excuses in this department.
3. Align your time: Multitasking does not work, period. But Vanderkam talks about alignment where certain activities can be combined fruitfully, for instance, catching up with a friend at a playground while your kids play together or volunteering as a family. I definitely align my TV time and crafting time and enjoy both simultaneously.
4. "Use bits of time for bits of joy". Have a few enjoyable activities for small (10-30 minute) chunks of time, like keeping a book in your car to read while you're waiting to pick up your child at school, or writing poems or letters while commuting in the subway.
Chapter 9: The Hard Work of Having it All. The author does a couple of "time makeovers" here and has tips to do this at home by logging one's time, creating a list of dreams, identifying one's competencies and devoting time to them, ignoring and minimizing things that you identify as time-wasters, and checking in with yourself regularly to see if your weeks are looking the way you hoped they would.
All in all, this book has quite a bit of interesting content. It makes me very sad when people tell me they would like to do something but they just can't find time for it. Life is too short, time does go by and it is indeed a pity if we just dream of doing things (big and little) and never get around to doing them.
I recently had a sort-of milestone birthday. The kind where even though I know that age is just a number and yadda yadda, I couldn't help feeling a teeny bit shocked- I'm HOW old?- and more importantly, I had to ask yourself: What am I doing with my life? I'm raising a child and caring for a family and while I hardly have a high-profile career, I have a humble but very rewarding part-time job. But look at the world around us- there's so much injustice and inequality. We cannot just be thinking of our own families and our career moves. I have the benefit of being educated and financially secure and I want to be doing much more with my time and with my life. (I sincerely hope the previous sentence does not end up as an empty sentiment on my blog.)
I'll leave you with this quick recipe that I tried yesterday- a pasta salad much like this one I've posted before, but with a fresh kale pesto. There's some controlled multi-tasking in this recipe!
Kale Pesto Pasta Salad
1. Roast the veggies. Preheat oven to 400F (convection setting if your oven has one). Cut assorted vegetables into bite size chunks (I used 2 zucchini, 2 red/orange bell peppers, 1 box of mushrooms). Toss with salt, pepper and olive oil and roast until tender and slightly charred on the edges.
2. Boil and drain the pasta while the veggies are roasting. I used 3/4 of a box of whole wheat shells.3. Make the pesto while the pasta and veggies are cooking.
a) Boil a small pot of water. Add roughly chopped kale (1 bunch) to the boiling water for 2 minutes. Drain.
b) Roast 1/2 cup walnuts for a minute or two in the microwave.
c) Blend the blanched kale, walnuts, 1 tbsp. nutritional yeast, basil (fresh/paste/dried), 2 glugs olive oil, 1 tbsp. balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper to taste in the blender to a smooth paste.
4. Toss the roasted veggies, cooked pasta, pesto together. Optionally, add jarred olives or artichokes. Taste and season with salt and pepper if needed.
This dish is wonderful hot, cold or at room temperature. Perfect for lunch boxes and picnics. Happens to be vegan. Rice or quinoa would work well in place of the pasta. Or simply skip the pasta and use the pesto-veggie mixture as a sandwich stuffing. Possibilities!
Is this time management stuff giving you a massive headache? Do you feel like you have time to do the things you love doing?
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