How to Make Time for Everything Using the 168-Hour Framework

ProductivityHow to Make Time for Everything (Then Actually Do It)

TL;DR

There are only 168 hours in a week; making time for your goals requires strategically sacrificing non-essential activities like TV and social media while optimizing necessary tasks, as demonstrated through real data and the creator's personal experience.

Key Takeaways

1The average person's 168 weekly hours are already fully allocated to sleep (~35%), work (~31%), food, chores, and entertainment, leaving no time for additional goals without sacrifice.
2Strategic sacrifices in low-value activities—especially TV (19 hours/week average) and social media (3-35 hours/week)—can free up 20+ hours weekly for side projects.
3Double-dipping time through activities like listening to audiobooks during commutes or meal planning during breaks allows you to absorb learning without creating new time demands.
4Having children dramatically shifts the time equation, consuming 18-25+ hours weekly and making it nearly impossible to maintain the same level of side projects without significant other sacrifices.
5The key question isn't 'how do I find more time' but rather 'what am I willing to sacrifice' to make room for what truly matters to you.
6Cutting healthy cooking saves ~10 hours weekly but carries long-term health costs; most efficiency gains should come from eliminating entertainment rather than essential self-care.
7You don't need to be exceptionally productive—generating 30+ hours of free time simply requires making different choices about TV, social media, and other discretionary activities than the average person.

Notable Quotes

“There are physically not enough hours in the week. This is I think a liberating insight.”
— Ali Abdaal

“The realization that I came to is there are basically three broad things that we need to do if we want to make time to do all the stuff. just three things.”
— Ali Abdaal

“If you have kids and you spend 10 hours a week watching TV, boom, suddenly you're overdrawn and like there's just physically no hours left in the day.”
— Ali Abdaal

“Don't feel bad if you are struggling to make time for everything. Because as we've seen, there are just physically not enough hours in the week available to do all the things you want to do.”
— Ali Abdaal

Chapters

1. The 168-Hour Reality Check

Introduction to the spreadsheet framework showing that an average American's 168 weekly hours are already consumed by sleep (56 hours), work (52.5 hours), food (12 hours), chores (6.5 hours), and entertainment (29.5 hours), leaving only 4 hours for relationships—demonstrating there isn't enough time to do everything.

2. The Impact of Children

Analysis of how adding childcare (18+ hours weekly) and associated tasks creates a deficit, making it physically impossible to maintain a balanced life with a full-time job without further sacrifices.

3. The Entertainment Trap

Deep dive into how entertainment consumption—particularly TV (19 hours/week average) and social media (3.5-35.7 hours/week depending on age)—is the largest discretionary time sink for most people.

4. Ali's Personal Time Audit (2018)

Detailed breakdown of the creator's actual weekly schedule while working as a full-time doctor: 8 hours sleep, 8 hours work + commute, minimal home cooking (2.7 hours), outsourced cleaning, near-zero TV, 1 hour social media, 2 gym sessions, and 4 hours family time, resulting in 31+ hours of free time for side projects.

5. Three Core Strategies for Making Time

The three fundamental approaches to freeing up hours: (1) squeeze efficiency from necessary tasks, (2) strategically sacrifice non-essential activities, and (3) double-dip by consuming content during commutes or downtime.

6. Strategic Sacrifices Ali Made

Specific choices that freed up time: eliminated TV watching (0 hours vs. 19 average), limited social media to 1 hour/day, stopped home cooking (switched to takeaways/ready meals), outsourced cleaning, skipped breakfast, and limited gym sessions to twice weekly near his commute.

7. The Double-Dipping Hack

Techniques for getting more value from existing hours: listening to business audiobooks and podcasts at 2-3x speed during 1-hour commutes (4 hours of content daily), planning YouTube videos during lunch breaks, and combining activities like gym-on-commute.

8. Trade-Offs and Long-Term Consequences

Honest reflection on sacrifices made: healthy eating was sacrificed for 10 years to grind on business, potentially causing arterial calcification and health issues that now require reversal through zone 2 cardio and longevity practices; the creator doesn't regret cutting TV or social media but does regret the nutrition choices.

9. The Spreadsheet Tool and Ideal Week

Explanation of the free 168-hour spreadsheet that tracks current time allocation and creates an 'ideal week' template, calculating the gap between current and desired time use to identify where adjustments can be made.

10. The Core Message: It's About Sacrifice, Not Time

Final takeaway that making time for goals isn't about being more productive—it's about consciously choosing what to sacrifice. There aren't enough hours to do everything, so success comes from deciding what matters most and what you're willing to give up.

Key People & Entities

Ali Abdaal: YouTube content creator and former doctor who started a business during medical school at Cambridge University and grew his channel to 1 million subscribers while working as a full-time physician in the UK
Brilliant: Sponsor of the video; an interactive learning platform offering courses in mathematics, science, programming, data analysis, and AI
Robert Jordan: Author of the Wheel of Time fantasy book series, which Ali listened to as audiobooks during his commute
Brandon Sanderson: Author of the Stormlight Archive fantasy series, which Ali consumed via audiobooks during commutes

Glossary

168 hours: The total number of hours in a week (7 days × 24 hours), used as the framework for analyzing time allocation across all life activities.
Double-dipping: The practice of combining two activities simultaneously to maximize time efficiency, such as listening to audiobooks while commuting or planning work during lunch breaks.
American Time Use Survey: A large national dataset tracking how average Americans spend their time across different activities, providing statistical baseline data for comparison.
Time audit: The process of tracking and recording how much time is actually spent on different activities to identify patterns and opportunities for reallocation.
Strategic sacrifice: Consciously choosing to eliminate or reduce time spent on non-essential activities (like TV or social media) in order to free up hours for higher-priority goals.
Sleep hygiene: Practices and environmental factors that improve sleep quality and efficiency, allowing people to meet their sleep needs in less time or with better rest outcomes.
Childcare hours: The total weekly time spent on direct child supervision, child-related logistics (appointments, school activities), and administrative tasks associated with parenting.

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