In the time it took you to log on to Facebook and discover that your high school friend forgot to put on deodorant this morning, you could have strengthened your core, dashed off a long-overdue thank-you note and read the first few pages of that new time-management book.
We, as a nation, are clearly conflicted about time. We work longer hours than any other industrialized country, but we also watch more TV -- a lot more. We overschedule our kids, but they still average more than seven hours of screen time a day.
So are we pressed for time or drowning in it? Maybe both.
In her new book, "168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think" (Portfolio, $26), Laura Vanderkam argues for keeping a time log for 168 consecutive hours (the number of hours in a week). If you work 50 hours and sleep 56 (eight hours a night), you're still left with 62 hours, she points out. Sure, some of those are taken up by housework and other drudgery, but it's hard to argue that you can't find a couple of hours, say, to hit the gym.
"We live in a very distracted world," Vanderkam says. "If you don't think through how you want to spend your time, you lose it to things that aren't very meaningful."
Vanderkam and other time-management experts offer these five steps to make the most of your hours:
1. Check your supply. Not unlike budgeting your money, taking control of your time requires first taking stock of it. Vanderkam provides a spreadsheet in her book (and at www.my168hours.com) to log your hours for a week.
"We spend massive amounts of time on things -- television, Web surfing, housework, errands -- that give a slight amount of pleasure or feeling of accomplishment," Vanderkam writes, "but do little for our careers, our families or our personal lives."