The Other Eight Hours

Maximize Your Free Time to Create New Wealth and Purpose

By Robert Pagliarini

St. Martin’s Press, 2010

Hardcover $25.99

Reviewed by Chris Wendel

4 out of 5 Stars

Think of it this way. As a busy working person, you generally work at least eight hours a day and sleep (if you’re lucky) eight hours a night. But what about those other eight hours we have more control over? As its title suggests, the book “The Other 8 Hours” focuses in on the time in your day which can be used to “carve out more time in your day and find inspiration to spend that free time in a more productive way.”

The book’s author, Robert Pagliarini is convinced that this elusive but critical eight hour timeframe is not just what we use for relaxing and fun but it can be leveraged to pay off debt, make more money, start a business, develop a hobby, write a blog, or author that great American novel. Pagliarini explains that most of the important moments in our lives take place during those “other eight hours” (IE falling in love, birth of children, vacations, spending with friends with loved ones). In order to be true we we need to take control of those eight hours to do things that are creative, fulfilling, productive, and profitable.

For several days, my copy of “The Other 8 Hours” sat idle on a coffee table at home, while I kept wondered when the demands of work, family, and sleep would relent enough for me to read it. Eventually the whirlwind subsided enough for me to read and find this book you’ll likely find entertaining. Paglarini understands that although we’re all busy, there is still time to do things that really count in our lives. One key is to avoid a long list of time sucking activities that most of us participate in every day, including endless TV news cycles, addictions to internet and social media, obsessing over celebrity drama, video games, and watching sports. These guilty pleasures are termed “lifeleetches” which Pagliarini just doesn’t describe but provides useful strategies for eliminating.

“The Other 8 Hours” is part self-improvement book and part small business start-up guide, with some motivational speaking narrative thrown in for effect. The book isn’t just Pagliarini preaching though. Don’t know the first thing about marketing an invention, writing a blog or a screen play, publishing your own music or book? The chapter entitled “The Top 10 Cre8tor Channels” offers comprehensive and practical advice for each of these areas. To drive home his sometimes lofty talk of fulfillment and financial independence, Pagliarini provides relevant examples of others who have succeeded using his philosophy with practical, easy to follow flow charts for many of the process steps.

The promise of riches may still seem like a tremendous leap but Pagliarini is persuasive in his presentation. Like a salesperson who smoothly overcomes customer objections, Pagliarini provides plenty of arguments for people rationalizing with themselves (or a skeptical spouse or family member) the idea of doing more with their spare time to improve themselves personally and if perhaps financially.

“The Other 8 Hours” goes beyond just talking about people creating their own financial destiny and not settling for a regular 9-5 paycheck. The book is a true guide full of useful extras including a companion web site and downloadable templates for time management, both of which are legitimate facilitators for personal and professional growth.

Some of the resources mentioned in “The Other 8 Hours” may be already be a bit dated (the book was published in 2010), but essential for someone wanting to start a small micro-enterprise to generate additional income. In a genre of “reinventing one’s self to generate income” books that have developed since the 2008-09 economic downturn (IE “The Four Hour Work Week” and “Click Millionaires”), “The Other 8 Hours” is a book you’ll want to take time to read right today rather than tomorrow