Take Back Your Time

Fighting Overwork and Time Poverty in America
Edited by John de Graaf, with essays byVicki Robin, Juliet Schor, Anna Lappé, Cecile Andrews, David Korten, and Many More...

"If you only have time to read one book this year, then this is absolutely the book to read!"

Did you know the vast majority of Americans are putting in longer hours on the job now than they did in the 1950s, despite promises of a coming age of leisure before the year 2000? (In fact, mandatory overtime is at near record levels, in spite the languid economy.) Did you know that most Americans are working more hours than the medieval peasants of Europe? And, did you know that most Americans work 350 hours per year more---nearly nine full weeks---than our peers in Western Europe?

These questions and more are examined in Take Back Your Time: Fighting Overwork and Time Poverty in America due to be published by Berrett-Koehler Publishers this Labor Day (September 1, 2003). Take Back Your Time is the official handbook for "Take Back Your Time Day," a national (and first annual) event scheduled for October 24, 2003. A day when it is hoped that most Americans will take time out from work and stay home to spend time with their families or participating in community-building events.

In Take Back Your Time , well-known experts, academics, and opinion makers-including Vicki Robin, Juliet Schor, Anna Lappé, Cecile Andrews, David Korten, and many others-examine the problems of overwork, over-scheduling, time pressure, and stress in America, and they propose personal, corporate, legislative, and citizen-led solutions to these time and work related problems. Take Back Your Time is divided into nine sections showing how our overwork and lack of time impacts issues such as families, civil society, health, the environment, public policy, and more. Also included is practical information for activists on organizing local Take Back Your Time Day events, publicizing the day to local media, and a how-to on conducting teach-ins. The book contains numerous illustrations, which can also be downloaded from www.timeday.org and turned into flyers for activists to use to promote the day.

There are well over 70 groups involved in Take Back Your Time Day including the Simple Living Network, the AFL-CIO, the Center for a New American Dream, the Alliance for Sustainable Jobs and the Environment, the Shalom Center, the Unitarian Universalists Association, the National Council on Family Relations, and educational institutions such as Harvard University, Stanford University, the University of Maryland, Brandeis University, the University of Minnesota, the University of Michigan, USC, UCLA, UC-Berkeley, American University, the University of South Carolina, and many others.

These groups are certain to make this day an event of growing importance over the next few years. And, as the handbook for this movement Take Back Your Time is destined to become a classic guide to be referred to and read whether in conjunction with the day itself or as a stand alone piece examining one of the most universal and profound issues of our era.

John de Graaf, the National Coordinator for Take Back Your Time Day, has been a documentary television producer for the past 25 years. He produced the popular PBS specials Affluenza and Running Out of Time, and he co-wrote the book Affluenza: The All-Consuming Epidemic. He has taught at The Evergreen State College and is co-chair of the Public Policy Committee for the Simplicity Forum, a leadership group for the Voluntary Simplicity Movement.