The main idea of the book is: we all have the same hours in a week (168).  How come some people can achieve so much more and balance so much more than the rest of us?

168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think

There are two main points.  First, take a cold hard look at how you are using the 168 hours.  Don’t “think” or “guess” it.  Be brutally honest.  Record your activities every hour for a whole week and review it.  Chances are we waste way more time than we expect (TV/chatting/chilling).  Chances are we do real work a lot less than we claim.  Chances are we do not spend most of our times doing things that fall within our core competencies. 

Laura argues that there is enough time to achieve everything we want, if we really want to.  But, we cannot leave our hobbies or pleasure to happen by chance.  We have to actively plan and manage these activities if we want to get the most out of it.  And to maximize, we should focus on our core competencies.  Companies have been doing that for decades, but we have not brought that into our daily lives.  If you don’t like a task and it does not fall under your core competencies, the suggested route is to: ignore it, minimize it, or outsource it. 

The second part basically says no matter what job you are doing, there is always someone that could do it for a lower pay.  The hyped saying of “doing what you love” is not enough anymore.   For true security, you have to do what you love AND love what you do.  Only then will you be able to excel at the job. 

Few questions were asked to help find your true calling:

• If you did not have to work anymore, what would you still be doing? 
• If someone paid you a lot of money away from a job, what job would be really hard to walk away from? 

Through these questions, I realized my true calling is to be a porn star.  I remember years ago, there were articles mentioning the porn industry lacks Asian guys.  Not sure if they are still hiring.  Not sure if my wife would be supportive of this career…