It sounds deceptively simple, but Rubin makes an insightful argument. She says that one of the biggest roadblocks to happiness is lack of time for something personal, like exercise, reading for pleasure, or working on a novel. But the truth is, many of us do have that free time—we just misallocate it and waste it away at the end of the day instead.

One example: I “don’t have time” to go to the gym as much as I’d like to, but I inevitably spend an hour at night online shopping or playing around on Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest.

And if you think an hour isn’t long enough to accomplish your goals, think again. You can complete more than you’d think, says Rubin, who notes that “we tend to overestimate what we can do in the short term (say, one afternoon) and underestimate what we can get done in the long term if we do a little bit at one time.”

A 5:00 a.m. wake-up sounds a little brutal, even for a morning person like me, but I think I may give it a try next week and see what happens. How about you?

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