Quotes from Laura Vanderkam

You don't build the life you want by saving time. You build the life you want, and then time saves itself. Recognizing that is what makes success possible.

Time is elastic. It stretches to accommodate what we need or want to do with it.

Successful people know that small things done repeatedly have great power.

Before the rest of the world is eating breakfast, the most successful people have already scored daily victories that are advancing them toward the lives they want.

In life, you can be unhappy, or you can change things. And even if there are things you can't change, you can often change your mind-set and question assumptions that are making life less goof than it could be.

The best morning rituals are activities that don't have to happen and certainly don't have to happen at a specific hour. These are activities that require internal motivation.

This is what happens when you treat your 168 hours as a blank slate. This is what happens when you fill them up only with things that deserve to be there. You build a life where you really can have it all.

You need to hit Monday ready to go ... To do that, you need weekends that rejuvenate you, rather than exhaust or disappoint you. Cross-training makes you a better athlete, and likewise, exercise, volunteer work, and spiritual activities make you a better worker.

I don't have time' means 'It's not a priority.' We always have time for what matters to us.

Ultimately, self-control lets you relax because it removes stress and enables you to conserve willpower for the important challenges.

Getting adequate sleep is a sign that the world doesn't need your attention for seven to nine hours each day. It keeps spinning as usual in its orbit. Who wants to admit that?

Even if you don't have kids at home, morning time can be great for nurturing your relationship with your spouse, other family members, or your close friends. One of the most disturbing "statistics" I read while researching how people use their time was that dual-income couples could find only 12 minutes a day to talk with each other.

In 168 hours, there is plenty of space to nurture yourself alongside your career and your relationships.

You have fewer than 1,000 Saturdays with each child in your care before they're grown up.

I can accomplish more before breakfast than I used to do in a day.

It is a metaphor for life, perhaps, in that everything is a metaphor for life. The berry season is short. So how full, exactly, do I intend to fill the box? Or, if we slice away the metaphor, we could just ask this: what does the good life look like for me?

If you wait until the end of the month to save what you have left, there will be nothing left over. Likewise, if you wait until the end of the day to do meaningful but not urgent things like exercise, pray, read, ponder how to advance your career or grow your organization, or truly give your family your best, it probably won't happen, If it has to happen, then it has to happen first.

Fortunately, being mindful of family time—making a commitment to be there physically and mentally and enjoy life while doing so—makes memories possible. We control a lot less about our children's outcomes in life than we think. They are their own people. But one thing parents do shape is whether kids remember their childhoods as happy. Creating a happy home is a conscious choice, as is creating a happy marriage.

You don't build the life you want by saving time. You build the life you want, and then time saves itself.

you can choose how to spend your 168 hours, and you have more time than you think.

go back through your "List of 100 Dreams" and choose elements of a few to incorporate into your days. Make two lists: one of activities that take half an hour or less, and another of activities that take less than 10 minutes. Then, figure out ways you can make these two sets of activities as easy as lighting up a cigarette or turning on the TV any time a bit of leisure shows up on your schedule.

The discipline of joy requires holding in the mind simultaneously that this too shall pass and that this too is good. This alchemy of mind isn't easy, but the good life is not always the easy life. Happiness requires effort. It is not just bestowed; it is the earned interest on what you choose to pay in.

Sometimes life is hard for a good reason. Sometimes narratives serve no purpose beyond keeping you from the life you want.

If you choose your life's work well, something bewitching can happen through your labors. Each hour you log can be a source of joy.