University of Minnesota - UMN Executive Leadership Insights
Happier Hour
Book

Happier Hour

How to Beat Distraction, Expand Your Time, and Focus on What Matters Most

Cassie Holmes
Gallery Books, 2022
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Editorial Rating

8

Qualities

  • Applicable
  • Concrete Examples
  • Hot Topic

Recommendation

Most time management books focus on how you can squeeze more work into your day. In this encouraging text, however, award-winning teacher and time and happiness researcher Cassie Holmes shows you how and why to make time for happiness. Too often, people try to do it all and end up frazzled and frustrated. By mapping how you spend time now, identifying what matters to you, prioritizing the activities you value, and learning to be present in the moment, you can start your days with hope and enthusiasm, end them with joy and satisfaction, and get everything done in between.

Summary

Both too little and too much free time erode happiness.

If you try to do it all,you may find yourself not living in the moment or lacking time for the things you value most. 

A sense of too little time can lead to stress and depression;but too much free time can prevent you from feeling productive and purposeful.People are happiest when they have two to five hours of free time each day and spend their time well.

Everyone has enough time; the challenge is allocating it well.

Half of the people in the United States say they don’t have enough time to do things they would like to, or should, do.

Feeling time-crunched can erode health by causing you to cut down on time spent on exercise and medical care. It can make you less likely to help another person in need.And it can cause you to focus on avoiding problems rather than pursuing opportunities.

How a person perceives a block of time depends on what they think they should be able to fit into it. To perceive your available time as sufficient, examine and trim your list of ways to spend it.

Make time for activities that make you happy.

Your happiness...

About the Author

Cassie Holmes is a professor at UCLA’s Anderson School of Management, where she is an award-winning teacher and researcher. Holmes’s work on the intersection of time and happiness has been widely published in lead academic journals and featured in such outlets as NPR, The Economist, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, and more. Happier Hour is her first book.

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