Happier Hour: How To Beat Distraction, Expand Your Time, and Focus on What Matters Most

Although Holmes (business management, UCLA) had her dream job as a research professor, her life was a rushed and repeating blur of work/commute/family. A social psychologist, she reviewed available data on how discretionary time—the amount of time in which people are able to do whatever they choose—affects happiness. Based on this research, her book urges reader to conduct a two-week tracking exercise intended to show where their limited time is going and how to rate those activities on a happiness scale. This allows readers to reduce or eliminate time wasted on unfulfilling things, such as scrolling mindlessly through social media. While there are tasks that are less enjoyable but necessary, this book encourages readers to find ways to double up on activities, such as listening to an audiobook or podcast while commuting, or combining exercise with catching up with a friend. The intended result is a less time-starved, more joyful, connected life. What distinguishes Holmes’s book from similar guides is her focus on happiness, not productivity. That’s a much-needed antidote to the hustle culture, get-more-done angle, pervasive in this genre.