Saving Time

Discovering a Life Beyond the Clock

By: Jenny Odell

Narrated by: Kristen Sieh

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “The visionary author of How to Do Nothing returns to challenge the notion that ‘time is money.’ . . . Expect to feel changed by this radical way of seeing.”—Esquire

“One of the most important books I’ve read in my life.”—Ed Yong, author of An Immense World

A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: Harper’s Bazaar, Esquire, Chicago Public Library, Electric Lit

In her first book, How to Do Nothing, Jenny Odell wrote about the importance of disconnecting from the “attention economy” to spend time in quiet contemplation. But how can we reclaim our time?

In order to answer this seemingly simple question, Odell took a deep dive into the fundamental structure of our society and found that the clock we live by was built for profit, not people. This is why our lives, even in leisure, have come to seem like a series of moments to be bought, sold, and processed ever more efficiently. Odell shows us how our painful relationship to time is inextricably connected not only to persisting social inequities but to the climate crisis, existential dread, and a lethal fatalism.

This dazzling, subversive, and deeply hopeful book offers us different ways to experience time—inspired by pre-industrial cultures, ecological cues, and geological timescales—that can bring within reach a more humane, responsive way of living. As planet-bound animals, we live inside shortening and lengthening days alongside gardens growing, birds migrating, and cliffs eroding; the stretchy quality of waiting and desire; the way the present may suddenly feel marbled with childhood memory; the slow but sure procession of a pregnancy; the time it takes to heal from injuries. Odell urges us to become stewards of these different rhythms of life in which time is not reducible to standardized units and instead forms the very medium of possibility.

Saving Time tugs at the seams of reality as we know it—the way we experience time itself—and rearranges it, imagining a world not centered on work, the office clock, or the profit motive. If we can “save” time by imagining a life, identity, and source of meaning outside these things, time might also save us.

An Interdisciplinary Masterpiece

Odell’s meditative tone continues to blossom in this beautifully woven tapestry of perspectives concerning our most ephemeral medium.

A beautiful meditation on life

This book was a joy to listen to. The prose was so poetic, especially in the second half of the book. The author brought up so many big questions and issues and explored them in such an interesting, nuanced and inspiring way. It inspired me reexamine my ideas and assumptions about time, purpose, the present moment, the natural world, death, and ultimately, our collective experience of life.

exactly what I needed

this was a fabulous exploration into taking back your time and feeling free of the capitalist grind. I loved this book.

Two for Two

Jenny Odell is 2 for 2 in my book. Both of her books are incredibly inspiring and show an intentional and organized way of guiding us towards more holistic ways of being through an incredible ability to seek the right sources and historographic records to share meanings from her unique perspective and experiences

Pulling together stories from the world too few see

I would recommend this book to anyone willing to indulge and awaken their own senses. You will see the ordinary as anything but. You might also extend your life.