Quotes from Laura Vanderkam

by trying lots of things you think you might enjoy, you will learn more about yourself, and what you are actually good at, what might be your core competencies, and which of the biggies are worth going for. You may be shocked by what you discover. This is why you just have to keep an open mind and try things.

Being off the clock implies time freedom, yet time freedom stems from time discipline. You must know where the time goes in order to transcend the ceaseless ticking.

Conscious fun takes effort. This seeming paradox—Why should fun be work?—stops us in our tracks. So we overindulge in effortless fun (scrolling through Instagram . . .) It is the effortful fun that makes today different, and makes today land in memory. You don't say "Where did the time go?" when you remember where the time went.

Planning a few anchor events for a weekend guarantees you pleasure because—even if all goes wrong in the moment—you still will have derived some pleasure from the anticipation.

the right job leverages your core competencies—things you do best and enjoy—and meets certain working conditions, including autonomy and being challenged to the extent of your abilities.

Reading fiction as you commute to a job you don't like will make you feel somewhat more fulfilled; being in the right job will make you feel incredible.

You don't become a better parent or employee by not enjoying your life.

As adults, overall, in two-parent families have spent more time working for pay, the time they spend interacting with their kids has also increased.

Since life comes up and emergencies happen, making success possible hinges on two things: being choosy about each day's priority list, and developing an accountability system that works.

I believe that consciously choosing to create such memories will stretch the experience of time.

Exercise doesn't take time, it makes time. Afew years ago, I gave a talk at a rather vast corporate campus. Teams aimed to cluster together, but as you might imagine with a big organization, this did not always happen. One woman told me that she had recently started working with a group located several buildings away. This meant that at least

SECRETS OF PEOPLE WITH ALL THE TIME IN THE WORLD Tend your garden. Make life memorable. Don't fill time. Linger. Invest in your happiness. Let it go. People are a good use of time.

The "before 3 p.m." part requires a little more explanation. Some research has found that people who exercise regularly are more likely to do so in the morning—because, as we discussed in the morning routine section, mornings tend to be more regimented in people's lives. If you build exercise into your morning routine, it will happen, whereas a planned 5 p.m. workout might be foiled by a meeting that runs late or a kid needing a ride home. Yet

the force of the water drop that hollows the stone. A small daily task, if it be really daily, will beat the labors of a spasmodic Hercules.

The key to this is realizing that life isn't lived in epiphanies, and that looking for lessons and the necessity of big life changes in dark moments profoundly limits our lives.

If you do have a job you like, if you're happy in life, you don't need those materialistic things to make you happy," he says.

Getting things down to routines and habits takes willpower at first but in the long run conserves willpower," says Baumeister.

Productivity, we are discovering, is a function of joy. Joy comes not from free M&Ms, but from making progress toward goals that matter to you.

Am I making progress toward things that are important to me?

What do I like about my schedule? What would I like to spend more time doing? What would I like to spend less time doing? How can I make that happen?

We have plenty of time. Averaged over the entire American population, people watch almost as much television as they work. If people don't exercise, it's because they don't want to exercise. Time becomes the scapegoat. Time becomes the scapegoat for all sorts of things, which explains the phrase "If you want something done, ask a busy person.

when you focus on what you do best, on what brings you the most satisfaction, there is plenty of space for everything. You can build a big career. You can build a big family. And you can meander along a Maryland creek on a weekday morning because the day is too wild and beautiful to stay inside.

when it comes to daily life, the time-crunch narrative doesn't tell the whole story. The problem is not that we're all overworked or underrested, it's that most of us have absolutely no idea how we spend our 168 hours.

people were happiest when they were completely absorbed in activities that were difficult but doable, to the point where their brains no longer had space to ruminate about the troubles of daily life.