Take Back Your Time Website
Mission
The goal of the Take Back Your Time project is to transform the time poverty culture currently pervading the United States and Canada. Take Back Your Time challenges the epidemic of overwork and over-scheduling in our countries by educating members and the media about the harmful health, family, community, environmental and social justice impacts of time poverty and seeks to promote policy ideas that can begin to give all of us more free time and less stressful lives.
Description of Work
We have worked with other organizations to promote policy change in the areas of family and sick leave. Our current policy work prioritizes the goal of paid vacation for all Americans. The United States is the only industrial country without a paid vacation law. Our policy efforts are only a small part of our work, which includes media education, public speaking, a Web and newsletter presence, national conferences, and other outreach. We have an advisory board of more than 30 prominent experts in the field of work/life balance. We have entered into partnerships with businesses and other organizations to promote a more balanced lifestyle. Each year, we hold an annual event called Take Back Your Time DAY on October 24th, encouraging a national dialogue about work/life balance.
Director's Bio
John de Graaf is the national coordinator of Take Back Your Time, an organization challenging time poverty and overwork in the U.S. and Canada and a frequent speaker on issues of overwork and over-consumption in America. He is often a guest lecturer on college campuses. John is the co-author of the best-selling Affluenza: The All-Consuming Epidemic (Berrett-Koehler, 2001/2005 - now published in eight other languages as well.). He is the editor of Take Back Your Time (Berrett-Koehler, 2003) and of the children's book, David Brower: Friend Of The Earth (Henry Holt, 1992). He also wrote the first chapter ("Childhood Affluenza") of the American Academy of Pediatrics' seminal book on childhood, About Children (2004). His articles have been published in dozens of magazines.
John has worked with KCTS-TV, the Seattle PBS affiliate, for 25 years, as an independent producer of television documentaries. More than 15 of his programs have been broadcast in Prime Time nationally on PBS. He is also the recipient of more than 100 regional, national and international awards for film-making, including three Emmy awards. He produced the popular PBS specials, Running Out Of Time, an examination of overwork and time pressure in America, and Affluenza, a humorous critique of American consumerism. His other national PBS specials include For Earth's Sake: The Life And Times Of David Brower; Visible Target; A Personal Matter: Gordon Hirabayashi Vs. The United States; Beyond Organic; Escape From Affluenza; It's Up To Us: The Giraffe Project; Circle Of Plenty; Silent Killer: The Unfinished Campaign Against Hunger; Buyer, Be Fair: The Promise Of Product Certification; And The Motherhood Manifesto.
Prior to his work in TV, John was Public Affairs Director for KUMD Radio in Duluth, Minnesota. He has taught documentary film production at The University of Washington and The Evergreen State College. He has also taught on Time, Consumerism and Sustainability issues at Evergreen. He is the founder of the Hazel Wolf Environmental Film Festival and former president of the Hazel Wolf Environmental Film Network. He is also the recipient of the Founders of a New Northwest Award for his work in environmental media. The de Graaf Environmental Filmmaking Award, named in his honor, is presented annually at the Wild and Scenic Environmental Film Festival in Nevada City, California.
He is also a member of the steering committee for the Simplicity Forum, a national think tank for the Voluntary Simplicity movement. In 2005, he was the World Food Day George McGovern lecturer at the FAO in Rome. He is a member of the Balaton Group on International Sustainability, which meets annually in Hungary, and a member of the steering committee of the Forum on Social Wealth. He currently directs another campaign, the What's the Economy for, Anyway? project (citizeneconomy.org).
Social Impact
The social impact of our work is very broad. We have more than 7,000 members. Our book has sold more than 20,000 copies and is used widely in college classes. Take Back Your Time DAY events have been held in more than 200 communities in the US and Canada. Our work has led to more than 500 separate print articles about our work. We have been featured in the NY Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times and other major news outlets. We have done more than 200 radio and television interviews promoting work-life balance. We hear constantly from members who say our effort has helped them re-evaluate and change their lives. We have assisted in the creation of a family leave bill in Washington State. We believe we are on the verge of signficant progress toward a paid vacation law in the US, which would have an enormous impact, providing more vacation time to more than half of all Americans. Our work has been reported on in the media of many other countries, including the UK, Spain, France, the Netherlands, Slovenia, Austria, Belgium, and Mexico. A Take Back Your Time DAY event has been held in Madrid, Spain.
Our work has now been featured in more than half a dozen books and dozens of magazines in the US and Canada. Of the 40,000 references to "Take Back Your Time," on Google, well over 90% refer to us and to our work. Take Back Your Time DAY has been recognized in proclamations from the Governor of Michigan and the city councils of many communities. As Executive Director of Take Back Your Time, I deliver more than 20 lectures a year to colleges, churches, high schools and community groups.