Today’s Book of the Day – and my first book of 2023 – is Happier Hour, written by Cassie Holmes and published in 2022 by Gallery Books.
Cassie Holmes is a professor at UCLA’s Anderson School of Management and an award-winning teacher and researcher of time and happiness. This book is her debut as an author.
A new year has begun and I had to choose my first book of the year.
My choice was quite easy.
I heard of this book when it was published, three months ago, and I was curious to read it as time management is one of the topics I am most interested in.
The core idea of the book is that, as an antidote to the hectic schedules one is often called to have today, we can change our perception of time and immediately improve our lives by having moments that are happy and fulfilling.
We live in a time where time, for many of us, seems always just not to be enough. This sense of scarcity causes stress and makes people feel as if they were lacking something.
Cassie Holmes in her first book shows the readers how to quickly and effectively change this mindset. The point is to start implementing a few easy-to-apply changes in how we perceive and use our time daily.
These changes will then allow us to create moments of happiness and joy, that we will be able to fully enjoy, redesign our daily schedules and chores so that our use of the time becomes more purposeful, and create moments for us when to have free time for what we like to do.
The book is packed with many practical tools that Holmes developed and tested in her professional practice and research. Everyone, using these tools, can start living better by creating time for what really matters, so as to design a healthier, happier life.
What the author suggests is to analyze how we use our time now and how much we like doing what we have in our schedules. Once we have done this, she gives the readers evidence-based suggestions on how to have a different look at time so as to expand and dilate our sense of it. Then, she suggests how to start using our time more wisely, specifically by reducing our addiction to technology, creating space for activities we like doing, looking for meaningful personal relationships, and also developing awareness, gratitude, and mindfulness.
I found this book excellent as it directly gives the readers the tools to change their approach toward time and this writing in a pleasurable and knowledgeable way.
I definitely recommend this book, while waiting for the author’s next book!
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