Laura Vanderkam Books

It all begins with changing the way we think about time. We often talk about 'spending' time, as though it were a scarce currency slipping through our fingers. But time is steady. There will always be 168 hours in a week; you cannot lose or gain more. The real question is: how do you choose to fill ...

From 168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think

When people tell me they feel too busy, what they often mean is that their schedules are filled with activities that don’t align with what they truly care about. In '168 Hours,' I emphasize identifying your core competencies—the handful of things you do best, that matter most, both professionally an...

From 168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think

To uncover the realities of women’s time use, I began with something deceptively simple: asking them to keep time logs. Each participant—143 women with annual incomes over $100,000 and children under 18 living at home—recorded every half hour of a full week. The result was a factual, minute-by-minut...

From I Know How She Does It: How Successful Women Make the Most of Their Time

When I studied the logs, one of the first patterns that struck me was the vast gap between how women *feel* about their time and how they actually *use* it. Many of us believe we’re perpetually short on time, yet when we look closely, we find slivers of unclaimed hours hidden within our days. Perce...

From I Know How She Does It: How Successful Women Make the Most of Their Time

One of the first truths I uncovered is that nearly everyone feels busier than they actually are. This paradox fascinated me—the more data I reviewed from people’s time diaries, the clearer it became that our subjective sense of busyness rarely matches reality. People who claimed they worked sixty ho...

From Off the Clock: Feel Less Busy While Getting More Done

Early in my research, I invited dozens of participants to track their time for a week, recording every activity in half-hour increments. I did the same myself. The first insight was transformative: most people vastly underestimate how much free time they actually have. When you write down your hours...

From Off the Clock: Feel Less Busy While Getting More Done