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Big Time: A Simple Path to Time Abundance
A beloved productivity expert’s mind-opening and schedule-expanding guide to making the most of every hour.
Many of us have an adversarial relationship with time. We’re always trying to beat the clock—behavior rooted in a fear that time is scarce and must be obsessed over, hoarded, and ultra-optimized.
But time management expert Laura Vanderkam argues that even busy people can come to feel that time is abundant. Drawing on original research about how hundreds of real people spend their time, and her own experience of tracking her time for a decade, Vanderkam offers simple tactics for how to manage a complex life, stick with long-term projects by breaking big goals into tiny steps, and make the most of leisure time many people don’t even notice.
By turns surprising, thought-provoking, and encouraging, Big Time shows readers that the daily experience of time can be quite spacious—and that, managed well, each day’s hours can be a source of happiness and satisfaction.
Many of us have an adversarial relationship with time. We’re always trying to beat the clock—behavior rooted in a fear that time is scarce and must be obsessed over, hoarded, and ultra-optimized.
But time management expert Laura Vanderkam argues that even busy people can come to feel that time is abundant. Drawing on original research about how hundreds of real people spend their time, and her own experience of tracking her time for a decade, Vanderkam offers simple tactics for how to manage a complex life, stick with long-term projects by breaking big goals into tiny steps, and make the most of leisure time many people don’t even notice.
By turns surprising, thought-provoking, and encouraging, Big Time shows readers that the daily experience of time can be quite spacious—and that, managed well, each day’s hours can be a source of happiness and satisfaction.
224 pages, Hardcover
Published May 5, 2026
About the author
Laura Vanderkam
24 books1,221 followersLaura Vanderkam is the author of several time management and productivity books, including:
The New Corner Office
Off the Clock
I Know How She Does It
What the Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast
168 Hours
Laura is also the author of a time management fable, Juliet’s School of Possibilities and another novel, The Cortlandt Boys, which is available as an ebook.
Her 2016 TED talk, "How to Gain Control of Your Free Time," has been viewed more than 5 million times.
She regularly appears in publications including the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Fast Company, and Fortune.
She is the host of two weekly podcasts, Before Breakfast and The New Corner Office and she is the co-host, with Sarah Hart-Unger, of the weekly podcast Best of Both Worlds.
She lives outside Philadelphia with her husband and five children, and blogs at LauraVanderkam.com.
The New Corner Office
Off the Clock
I Know How She Does It
What the Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast
168 Hours
Laura is also the author of a time management fable, Juliet’s School of Possibilities and another novel, The Cortlandt Boys, which is available as an ebook.
Her 2016 TED talk, "How to Gain Control of Your Free Time," has been viewed more than 5 million times.
She regularly appears in publications including the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Fast Company, and Fortune.
She is the host of two weekly podcasts, Before Breakfast and The New Corner Office and she is the co-host, with Sarah Hart-Unger, of the weekly podcast Best of Both Worlds.
She lives outside Philadelphia with her husband and five children, and blogs at LauraVanderkam.com.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 144 reviews
May 30, 2026
Title: The Mindset Shift I Desperately Needed
This book came to me at just the right time in my life. Balancing a full-time job and launching a startup financial education business, I constantly find myself questioning how to best spend my waking hours. I often felt like I never had enough time to fully devote to my business.
Laura Vanderkam’s approach completely shifted my perspective. Her emphasis on tracking time really resonated with me—it’s just like tracking the food you eat, the steps you take, or the money you spend. You can't manage what you don't measure.
The biggest takeaway for me was the mindset shift from time scarcity to time abundance. When you change your mindset, all time starts to feel like a bonus, and those perceived limits on what you can achieve begin to vanish. Vanderkam provides highly practical advice on auditing your calendar and prioritizing tasks across three essential categories: Career, Relationships, and Self.
We all get the same 168 hours a week. This book reminded me that time is a resource to be used intentionally, and that by tracking it, we can easily make space for the things we love—whether that's building a business, exercising, or spending time with your loved one. Highly recommend the book to anyone feeling overwhelmed!
This book came to me at just the right time in my life. Balancing a full-time job and launching a startup financial education business, I constantly find myself questioning how to best spend my waking hours. I often felt like I never had enough time to fully devote to my business.
Laura Vanderkam’s approach completely shifted my perspective. Her emphasis on tracking time really resonated with me—it’s just like tracking the food you eat, the steps you take, or the money you spend. You can't manage what you don't measure.
The biggest takeaway for me was the mindset shift from time scarcity to time abundance. When you change your mindset, all time starts to feel like a bonus, and those perceived limits on what you can achieve begin to vanish. Vanderkam provides highly practical advice on auditing your calendar and prioritizing tasks across three essential categories: Career, Relationships, and Self.
We all get the same 168 hours a week. This book reminded me that time is a resource to be used intentionally, and that by tracking it, we can easily make space for the things we love—whether that's building a business, exercising, or spending time with your loved one. Highly recommend the book to anyone feeling overwhelmed!
August 22, 2026
I asked my library to buy this book because I am a big fan of Laura Vanderkam AND the library. They obliged, and I have now read through this book twice. I love that she encourages us to take a zoom out view of time and how it is spent. She notes that most people overestimate what they can do in the short term and underestimate what they can do in the long term. She also has a great chapter at the end about patience and strategies for working through hard times when success or happiness are not in the immediate future. She has lots of examples of ordinary people achieving personal goals just by not giving up and making the most of their given time. She doesn’t shame or hound, she basically presents evidence that the methods she’s advocating work and then you get to decide what and how to implement. Along the lines of James Clear and Cal Newport, Laura Vanderkam is one of those productivity gurus who reliably give good advice.
May 19, 2026
I had the opportunity to read an advance copy of Laura's latest book, Big Time, which explores the premises of what happens when you truly believe that time is abundant and that there is enough time for you to create a life you enjoy, especially when you are mindful and intentional with the many hours that you can direct. She states in the introduction that the book is about how to fall in love with your schedule and how to arrange your days where you know you have something to look forward to. Laura promised at the onset that the book would be practical.
I was simultaneously intrigued, wishful and skeptical at her premises, and by the end, I was pleasantly surprised, hopeful and inspired with the tactics, statistics and stories of those who had created joy, tackled large accomplishments, and claimed back their time through looking at time as big. Rather than looking at the 24 hours in a day or 168 hours in a week, look at time as more expansive - as 8,760 hours in a year.
Some of my highlights from the first 20 pages: "We have an incredible amount of agency over the daily experience of our time." "The long run may always be uncertain, but we can shape our lives." "When all time feels like it's a bit of a bonus, we can have a different mindset, and we ask what we'd like to do with it." "We can benefit from viewing time less as a foe and more as a friendly companion, present in enough quantities to be appreciated and savored."
"How we spend our time is how we spend our lives. I want everyone to fall in love with how they're spending their days... making smart choices with our time can enable that." What memories do you want to make?
Laura shares that "knowing where the time goes can help you rewrite your story from scarcity to abundance - and that, in turn, can make the next 8,760 hours the best of your life." Pay attention to the story you tell yourself about time. "In the absence of data, we build stories based on the moments that register.... negative moments stand out more than positive ones." Laura recommends to try tracking your time for a week and see what it looks like. "I now believe tracking your time makes you happier about your time... knowing where the time goes lets us tell ourselves a different story about our lives... there is more of it than you have probably imagined."
I found Laura's time satisfaction scales to be fascinating, and I plan to slowly implement various challenges and tactics that she referenced - along with leveraging her statements and scales to rate my own sentiments when exploring these tactics. Participants in her challenges noted that tracking made them more mindful of making better choices in the moment, that their sense of time shifted from it being scarce to it being more abundant than they realized. "When you rewrite your story from one of scarcity to one of abundance, you start to realize that what you thought were limits on possibility may not be there.... Flip that around and time simply opens up."
Laura devotes time to explore how to adopt the mindset of becoming the ringmaster of your own life and embracing the bigness of time, which requires a good plan, flexibility, and the delight of the ringmaster in creating the magic. She delves into how to limit the amount of mental energy / load that daily life requires by identifying repeatable solutions and processes or house rules. Laura also highlights the importance of having margin in schedules, which requires more open space, so that your schedule can be resilient when life is life-ng.
Laura encourages us to consider "what makes you feel in love with your life?" and to ensure you always have something you're genuinely looking forward to." She suggests "think of each weekend like a vacation." Research shows when doing that people are happier, less stressed and more satisfied.
Laura delves into Dream Big, Plan Small, sharing her year-long projects and others' long-term efforts. She shares how to assess and break down a project into doable steps / reasonable small chunks of time, and to ensure that it is something you truly want and enjoy doing. For example, reading War and Peace can be done in less than a year by reading one chapter averaging four pages a day. These longer-term efforts lead to "feeling like you have accomplished something meaningful (which) can make time feel more abundant."
While many of us may feel minimal control over our time spent on work, Laura identified three strategies at work that can enhance us feeling a sense of competence (finding meaning in what we do), a sense of belonging (relatedness), and autonomy at work. The participants in the challenge of implementing these strategies reported feeling happier and more productive at work - as well as having more energy for activities after work. I loved that she highlighted the research on taking breaks reduces fatigue and boosts energy, especially taking microbreaks throughout the day. And ensuring those are intentional breaks that are focused on maximizing rejuvenation / restoration reaped the most benefit - especially when those breaks were anticipated.
Laura points out that our weekday evenings could be 16 hours of time a week, depending on your work schedule and bedtime, so putting more intention behind that time can improve your satisfaction. Embracing your golden hours is about reframing how you choose to view the time after work and before bed, setting intentions for an enjoyable 30 to 60 minute activity a few times a week outside of work, housework, or family care, and then savoring and appreciating that activity. Laura encourages us to decide our "effortful fun" ahead of time, so we can better manage our energy. Participants reported an improvement in getting enough sleep to feel well rested - because leisure time and sleep were no longer at odds. If you're already planning in weekday fun, notice the time that you're already spending and savor the things as you're doing them.
Laura believes that the stories of time stress come from taking a limited view of time and encourages us to zoom out when we are feeling overwhelmed. When we see how vast time is, "we start to feel a happy sense of possibility." Also, "when we realize that time is big and abundance, then we can afford to be generous with it." Laura calls this active patience - "You can have faith in the outcome and take steady steps toward your goal, but still hold the timeline lightly, understanding life is often about probabilities..... there is much happiness to be gained from realizing that for many types of success, time is the secret ingredient. You do what you can do, and then you let time work its magic." Laura even suggests turning active patience into a game and giving yourself Patience Points for the list of steps you are taking toward the future outcome.
Laura packs a lot of useful tactics, examples and inspiration into this 205-page book and left us with the reminder that Time will be our friend.
I highly recommend this book for anyone who has felt like there is too much on their plate, there is never enough time, and that life seems to be flying by in a haze. I'm looking forward to incorporating Laura's tactics into my life to have a more abundant and intentional view of the next 8,760 hours and beyond.
I was simultaneously intrigued, wishful and skeptical at her premises, and by the end, I was pleasantly surprised, hopeful and inspired with the tactics, statistics and stories of those who had created joy, tackled large accomplishments, and claimed back their time through looking at time as big. Rather than looking at the 24 hours in a day or 168 hours in a week, look at time as more expansive - as 8,760 hours in a year.
Some of my highlights from the first 20 pages: "We have an incredible amount of agency over the daily experience of our time." "The long run may always be uncertain, but we can shape our lives." "When all time feels like it's a bit of a bonus, we can have a different mindset, and we ask what we'd like to do with it." "We can benefit from viewing time less as a foe and more as a friendly companion, present in enough quantities to be appreciated and savored."
"How we spend our time is how we spend our lives. I want everyone to fall in love with how they're spending their days... making smart choices with our time can enable that." What memories do you want to make?
Laura shares that "knowing where the time goes can help you rewrite your story from scarcity to abundance - and that, in turn, can make the next 8,760 hours the best of your life." Pay attention to the story you tell yourself about time. "In the absence of data, we build stories based on the moments that register.... negative moments stand out more than positive ones." Laura recommends to try tracking your time for a week and see what it looks like. "I now believe tracking your time makes you happier about your time... knowing where the time goes lets us tell ourselves a different story about our lives... there is more of it than you have probably imagined."
I found Laura's time satisfaction scales to be fascinating, and I plan to slowly implement various challenges and tactics that she referenced - along with leveraging her statements and scales to rate my own sentiments when exploring these tactics. Participants in her challenges noted that tracking made them more mindful of making better choices in the moment, that their sense of time shifted from it being scarce to it being more abundant than they realized. "When you rewrite your story from one of scarcity to one of abundance, you start to realize that what you thought were limits on possibility may not be there.... Flip that around and time simply opens up."
Laura devotes time to explore how to adopt the mindset of becoming the ringmaster of your own life and embracing the bigness of time, which requires a good plan, flexibility, and the delight of the ringmaster in creating the magic. She delves into how to limit the amount of mental energy / load that daily life requires by identifying repeatable solutions and processes or house rules. Laura also highlights the importance of having margin in schedules, which requires more open space, so that your schedule can be resilient when life is life-ng.
Laura encourages us to consider "what makes you feel in love with your life?" and to ensure you always have something you're genuinely looking forward to." She suggests "think of each weekend like a vacation." Research shows when doing that people are happier, less stressed and more satisfied.
Laura delves into Dream Big, Plan Small, sharing her year-long projects and others' long-term efforts. She shares how to assess and break down a project into doable steps / reasonable small chunks of time, and to ensure that it is something you truly want and enjoy doing. For example, reading War and Peace can be done in less than a year by reading one chapter averaging four pages a day. These longer-term efforts lead to "feeling like you have accomplished something meaningful (which) can make time feel more abundant."
While many of us may feel minimal control over our time spent on work, Laura identified three strategies at work that can enhance us feeling a sense of competence (finding meaning in what we do), a sense of belonging (relatedness), and autonomy at work. The participants in the challenge of implementing these strategies reported feeling happier and more productive at work - as well as having more energy for activities after work. I loved that she highlighted the research on taking breaks reduces fatigue and boosts energy, especially taking microbreaks throughout the day. And ensuring those are intentional breaks that are focused on maximizing rejuvenation / restoration reaped the most benefit - especially when those breaks were anticipated.
Laura points out that our weekday evenings could be 16 hours of time a week, depending on your work schedule and bedtime, so putting more intention behind that time can improve your satisfaction. Embracing your golden hours is about reframing how you choose to view the time after work and before bed, setting intentions for an enjoyable 30 to 60 minute activity a few times a week outside of work, housework, or family care, and then savoring and appreciating that activity. Laura encourages us to decide our "effortful fun" ahead of time, so we can better manage our energy. Participants reported an improvement in getting enough sleep to feel well rested - because leisure time and sleep were no longer at odds. If you're already planning in weekday fun, notice the time that you're already spending and savor the things as you're doing them.
Laura believes that the stories of time stress come from taking a limited view of time and encourages us to zoom out when we are feeling overwhelmed. When we see how vast time is, "we start to feel a happy sense of possibility." Also, "when we realize that time is big and abundance, then we can afford to be generous with it." Laura calls this active patience - "You can have faith in the outcome and take steady steps toward your goal, but still hold the timeline lightly, understanding life is often about probabilities..... there is much happiness to be gained from realizing that for many types of success, time is the secret ingredient. You do what you can do, and then you let time work its magic." Laura even suggests turning active patience into a game and giving yourself Patience Points for the list of steps you are taking toward the future outcome.
Laura packs a lot of useful tactics, examples and inspiration into this 205-page book and left us with the reminder that Time will be our friend.
I highly recommend this book for anyone who has felt like there is too much on their plate, there is never enough time, and that life seems to be flying by in a haze. I'm looking forward to incorporating Laura's tactics into my life to have a more abundant and intentional view of the next 8,760 hours and beyond.
September 3, 2026
I've read a few of Vanderkam's books and was not overly impressed, yet have always been intrigued by her time tracking system, using it on occasion and following her weekly email insights. When she announced the release of her new book, I was surprised to find our small-town library actually had it available to reserve.
When I read it, I was again surprised. This one is impressive. Tying together time tracking and time prioritization, she helps those (like me) who suffer from a time-scarcity mindset to adopt a time-abundance mindset. By tracking your time, you can get a better bird's-eye view over, say, a week, and this will help you to realize that you might have more time to do the things that are important to you than you realize. By prioritizing, you can make use of what might otherwise be "dead" time (an example of this could be listening to audiobooks, lectures, or even all of Bach's works during commutes).
Many helpful practical ideas throughout.
I also appreciate the push to do big things in small increments. If you want to visit every national park with your family, read every book by Jane Austen, or learn a new language, you can make it happen by scheduling manageable goals, whether that's a couple of trips a year, or 15 minutes a day of reading.
All in all, this book helped me to realize that I don't have to live by my motto, "So many ______, so little time," (insert whatever it is you are passionate about!) but can absolutely find time in abundance for what's important.
When I read it, I was again surprised. This one is impressive. Tying together time tracking and time prioritization, she helps those (like me) who suffer from a time-scarcity mindset to adopt a time-abundance mindset. By tracking your time, you can get a better bird's-eye view over, say, a week, and this will help you to realize that you might have more time to do the things that are important to you than you realize. By prioritizing, you can make use of what might otherwise be "dead" time (an example of this could be listening to audiobooks, lectures, or even all of Bach's works during commutes).
Many helpful practical ideas throughout.
I also appreciate the push to do big things in small increments. If you want to visit every national park with your family, read every book by Jane Austen, or learn a new language, you can make it happen by scheduling manageable goals, whether that's a couple of trips a year, or 15 minutes a day of reading.
All in all, this book helped me to realize that I don't have to live by my motto, "So many ______, so little time," (insert whatever it is you are passionate about!) but can absolutely find time in abundance for what's important.
February 28, 2026
I received an ARC from W.W. Norton. Review for Verily Magazine coming in May!
August 25, 2026
This book probably has some useful advice somewhere in there but mostly it is Stupid
August 19, 2026
How I love to be in the company of a Laura Vanderkam book! She speaks directly to the experience of being a busy, achieving woman and mom and reminds us of how much autonomy we actually have over our time. As an analytical and data-loving person, I really connect with the data she shares from her time tracking focus groups and her own experience. From this book in particular I liked the advice of finding a way to do something that you love for just 15 minutes, connecting with a colleague who you enjoy to make work more enjoyable, and to plan on Friday. But really I enjoyed the entire book. It put me in a time abundance mindset and was a great read ahead of the back-to-school season.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
June 10, 2026
I love Laura’s Before Breaksfast podcast and her newsletters, but this book was just okay to me. I appreciated that she made specific shout-outs to educators and her effort to find people with somewhat inflexible jobs. So much productivity advice assumes people are mostly in control of their time. As a teacher, most of my work hours are controlled by others—even bathroom breaks! Her thoughts about 3 characteristics that make work feel fulfilling (meaning, belonging, and autonomy) are unique to this book, as far as I can tell, so I really liked those. The rest was underscoring her messages I’ve encountered before.
May 23, 2026
Another great book by Laura Vanderkam! She has made me look at time with a different perspective. We do time-lots of time-if we are thoughtful and focused on how we use it, rather than let time pass (because it will). I’ve read several of her other books, and this book was an interesting take about making time feel abundant and more fulfilling. I am looking forward to implementing some of the recommendations, especially around the ‘golden hours’.
June 25, 2026
It was nice to revisit Laura Vanderkam’s work. I’ve read several of her other books and this was a nice reminder as to what can be done with all my time! I may track a week or two again as I did years ago and see what pops up. There is always time, it’s just your priorities!
May 28, 2026
Time management | Inspiring | Practical
Summer Guide 2026
Summer Guide 2026
June 10, 2026
As promised, simple. But helpful and not tedious.
I was taking action to use my time better before I finished this book.
I was taking action to use my time better before I finished this book.
September 8, 2026
I really enjoy Laura Vanderkam and this one did not disappoint. Lots of great ideas and notes taken!
June 19, 2026
This was different from her previous time management books and other time management books I've read. It's not just about "how to fit everything in" but how to have a bigger life in the midst of all the things that you might need to fit in. Plan for big projects, how to make life feel bigger in the midst of a lot. Appreciated this one a lot.
July 18, 2026
I had to start laughing helplessly when I reached the “map out your day by half-hour” section. It’s always interesting to me how many of these time-management books are written by folks who don’t have a usual 9-to-5 job (with commute), and often no kids either. I’m sure it is (infinitely) easier to schedule your time with that setup, but most of us do not live in that world!
It’s not all bad advice - I do agree with the general approach of “cut out what’s not important to you, then figure out what is important to you and look for ways to squeeze it in somehow”; it’s just that there are hard limits…
It’s not all bad advice - I do agree with the general approach of “cut out what’s not important to you, then figure out what is important to you and look for ways to squeeze it in somehow”; it’s just that there are hard limits…
May 25, 2026
In Big Time: How to Build a Life That Feels Like a Life, time management expert Laura Vanderkam shifts her focus from "efficiency hacks" to the macro-strategy of life design. She argues that we often lose our sense of time because we live in the “small time”—the frantic daily grind of emails, errands, and reactive tasks—and fail to invest in the “Big Time”—the milestones, deep work, and long-term relationships that define a meaningful life. Vanderkam posits that “busy-ness” is often a symptom of misaligned priorities. Her primary framework is the “Time-Horizon Shift”: if you look at your life in weekly, annual, and decadal blocks rather than daily to-do lists, you gain the perspective necessary to say “no” to the trivial and “yes” to the transformative.
Top Stories & Examples
The “Summer of Impact” Project: Vanderkam highlights a software engineer who, feeling stuck in his career, dedicated one hour every Sunday for an entire summer to a non-work passion project. By looking at his time in a three-month block, he transformed his portfolio and successfully pivoted his career, proving that “Big Time” moves are built through small, consistent investments.
The “Parental Milestone” Audit: A common example throughout the book involves working parents who feel they are “missing everything.” Vanderkam shares the story of a father who mapped out the remaining “summers at home” for his children. By visualizing those finite blocks of time, he was able to prioritize a two-week unplugged family vacation that he had previously deemed “logistically impossible.”
The “Ten-Year Professional Vision”: She details an executive who mapped her career not by fiscal quarters, but by “career seasons.” This allowed her to accept a lower-paying, lower-stress role during a period of high family demand, knowing that her “Big Time” plan still placed her on a trajectory toward a board position in her 50s.
The “Sunday Night Reset”: A recurring practical example is the “Sunday 15,” a 15-minute weekly planning session. Vanderkam demonstrates how this brief, constrained time investment eliminates the “reactive chaos” of Monday mornings, effectively buying back hours of “Big Time” mental space.
Key Studies & Research
The “Time Perception” Study: Vanderkam cites research showing that people who participate in “novel experiences” (like traveling to a new city or learning a new skill) perceive their time as passing slower and more meaningfully than those who stick to rigid, repetitive routines. Novelty acts as an anchor for memory.
The “Opportunity Cost” Benchmark: She points to productivity studies showing that the average knowledge worker spends nearly 60% of their day on “work about work” (email, meetings, admin). Vanderkam uses this to advocate for the “Hard 3”—choosing only three high-impact tasks per day to ensure the most important work gets finished before the “small time” takes over.
The “Decision Fatigue” Research: She leans on studies of cognitive depletion to argue that our willpower is a finite resource. By automating small decisions (like meal planning or recurring weekly meetings), we preserve our peak hours for “Big Time” strategic thinking.
The “Big Time” Framework. Vanderkam concludes with a three-step method:
The Decade View: Look ten years ahead. What one “Big Time” achievement do you want to define this decade?
The Yearly Block: Break that down into annual goals. What is the one thing you must do this year to stay on track?
The Weekly Anchor: What is the one weekly recurring appointment you will never miss, which keeps you connected to your purpose?
Big Time argues that time can feel abundant when you stop treating every day as a crisis and start managing your schedule with more honesty, structure, and intention. Vanderkam’s big idea is that most people have more discretionary time than they think, and the key is using it well.
The book’s central claim is that “time abundance” is a mindset plus a set of practical habits. Vanderkam draws on her own decade of time tracking and research on how hundreds of real people spend their time to show that even busy people can reclaim meaningful hours for work, relationships, hobbies, and rest.
The ringmaster metaphor. Vanderkam frames life as a three-ring circus of career, relationships, and self, with you as the ringmaster who decides where attention goes.
The 168-hour week. She argues that looking at a week, not just a day, reveals more room for the things that matter.
The Tolstoy example. A review notes that she spent about 10 minutes a day reading Tolstoy and finished on schedule, illustrating how small daily commitments can produce large outcomes.
The golden hours idea. She highlights the weekday stretch after work and before bed as a prime time to protect for chosen pleasures rather than defaulting to screens.
TOAD, or Time Outside After Dinner. Her family’s habit of going outside after dinner is an example of building simple rituals that make leisure feel fuller.
Vanderkam repeatedly favors small, concrete experiments over sweeping life redesign. For example, she suggests spending one more hour a week on your favorite work, 15 more minutes a week with a coworker you enjoy, or taking two intentional breaks per day to improve work satisfaction.
She also emphasizes “effortful fun” before “effortless fun,” meaning that a little reading, music, drawing, or walking before grabbing a phone can make free time more satisfying. Another recurring tactic is making fewer decisions by relying on presets, so energy goes toward meaningful choices instead of constant re-deciding.
The book leans on Vanderkam’s original research tracking how people actually spend their time, along with her own long-running time logs. One of the strongest recurring empirical claims is that many people who feel time-starved still have discretionary time, but they do not always recognize it because they look only at today instead of the whole week. She also cites experiments showing that small changes in how people spend breaks, time with coworkers, or preferred tasks can significantly improve how they feel about work.
Practical takeaway
The book’s practical message is that you do not need a perfect schedule to feel less rushed; you need a more realistic one. Vanderkam’s approach is less about squeezing and more about shaping time so the good stuff actually happens.
Top Quotes
“We don’t ‘find’ time for the things that matter; we create time for them by deciding that the alternatives don't matter.”
“If you want to know what your priorities are, look at your calendar, not your intentions.”
“Small time is reactive; Big Time is intentional. You cannot live a big life on autopilot.”
“We spend our days sweeping the floor when we should be building the house.”
“Time is a finite resource, but ‘meaning’ is an infinite project. Stop trying to do it all, and start doing the right things.”
“A life of ‘shoulds’ is the fastest way to lose track of time.”
“Don’t measure your life by the length of your to-do list, but by the weight of your accomplishments.”
“The most important work you do this year will likely be the work you didn’t even put on your daily list.”
“Time abundance” is the book’s governing phrase and organizing idea.
“Your life is a circus. Be the ringmaster.”
“Think in weeks, not days.”
“Almost everyone has some discretionary time.”
“We have much more discretionary time than we often realize.”
“The daily experience of time can be quite spacious.”
Top Stories & Examples
The “Summer of Impact” Project: Vanderkam highlights a software engineer who, feeling stuck in his career, dedicated one hour every Sunday for an entire summer to a non-work passion project. By looking at his time in a three-month block, he transformed his portfolio and successfully pivoted his career, proving that “Big Time” moves are built through small, consistent investments.
The “Parental Milestone” Audit: A common example throughout the book involves working parents who feel they are “missing everything.” Vanderkam shares the story of a father who mapped out the remaining “summers at home” for his children. By visualizing those finite blocks of time, he was able to prioritize a two-week unplugged family vacation that he had previously deemed “logistically impossible.”
The “Ten-Year Professional Vision”: She details an executive who mapped her career not by fiscal quarters, but by “career seasons.” This allowed her to accept a lower-paying, lower-stress role during a period of high family demand, knowing that her “Big Time” plan still placed her on a trajectory toward a board position in her 50s.
The “Sunday Night Reset”: A recurring practical example is the “Sunday 15,” a 15-minute weekly planning session. Vanderkam demonstrates how this brief, constrained time investment eliminates the “reactive chaos” of Monday mornings, effectively buying back hours of “Big Time” mental space.
Key Studies & Research
The “Time Perception” Study: Vanderkam cites research showing that people who participate in “novel experiences” (like traveling to a new city or learning a new skill) perceive their time as passing slower and more meaningfully than those who stick to rigid, repetitive routines. Novelty acts as an anchor for memory.
The “Opportunity Cost” Benchmark: She points to productivity studies showing that the average knowledge worker spends nearly 60% of their day on “work about work” (email, meetings, admin). Vanderkam uses this to advocate for the “Hard 3”—choosing only three high-impact tasks per day to ensure the most important work gets finished before the “small time” takes over.
The “Decision Fatigue” Research: She leans on studies of cognitive depletion to argue that our willpower is a finite resource. By automating small decisions (like meal planning or recurring weekly meetings), we preserve our peak hours for “Big Time” strategic thinking.
The “Big Time” Framework. Vanderkam concludes with a three-step method:
The Decade View: Look ten years ahead. What one “Big Time” achievement do you want to define this decade?
The Yearly Block: Break that down into annual goals. What is the one thing you must do this year to stay on track?
The Weekly Anchor: What is the one weekly recurring appointment you will never miss, which keeps you connected to your purpose?
Big Time argues that time can feel abundant when you stop treating every day as a crisis and start managing your schedule with more honesty, structure, and intention. Vanderkam’s big idea is that most people have more discretionary time than they think, and the key is using it well.
The book’s central claim is that “time abundance” is a mindset plus a set of practical habits. Vanderkam draws on her own decade of time tracking and research on how hundreds of real people spend their time to show that even busy people can reclaim meaningful hours for work, relationships, hobbies, and rest.
The ringmaster metaphor. Vanderkam frames life as a three-ring circus of career, relationships, and self, with you as the ringmaster who decides where attention goes.
The 168-hour week. She argues that looking at a week, not just a day, reveals more room for the things that matter.
The Tolstoy example. A review notes that she spent about 10 minutes a day reading Tolstoy and finished on schedule, illustrating how small daily commitments can produce large outcomes.
The golden hours idea. She highlights the weekday stretch after work and before bed as a prime time to protect for chosen pleasures rather than defaulting to screens.
TOAD, or Time Outside After Dinner. Her family’s habit of going outside after dinner is an example of building simple rituals that make leisure feel fuller.
Vanderkam repeatedly favors small, concrete experiments over sweeping life redesign. For example, she suggests spending one more hour a week on your favorite work, 15 more minutes a week with a coworker you enjoy, or taking two intentional breaks per day to improve work satisfaction.
She also emphasizes “effortful fun” before “effortless fun,” meaning that a little reading, music, drawing, or walking before grabbing a phone can make free time more satisfying. Another recurring tactic is making fewer decisions by relying on presets, so energy goes toward meaningful choices instead of constant re-deciding.
The book leans on Vanderkam’s original research tracking how people actually spend their time, along with her own long-running time logs. One of the strongest recurring empirical claims is that many people who feel time-starved still have discretionary time, but they do not always recognize it because they look only at today instead of the whole week. She also cites experiments showing that small changes in how people spend breaks, time with coworkers, or preferred tasks can significantly improve how they feel about work.
Practical takeaway
The book’s practical message is that you do not need a perfect schedule to feel less rushed; you need a more realistic one. Vanderkam’s approach is less about squeezing and more about shaping time so the good stuff actually happens.
Top Quotes
“We don’t ‘find’ time for the things that matter; we create time for them by deciding that the alternatives don't matter.”
“If you want to know what your priorities are, look at your calendar, not your intentions.”
“Small time is reactive; Big Time is intentional. You cannot live a big life on autopilot.”
“We spend our days sweeping the floor when we should be building the house.”
“Time is a finite resource, but ‘meaning’ is an infinite project. Stop trying to do it all, and start doing the right things.”
“A life of ‘shoulds’ is the fastest way to lose track of time.”
“Don’t measure your life by the length of your to-do list, but by the weight of your accomplishments.”
“The most important work you do this year will likely be the work you didn’t even put on your daily list.”
“Time abundance” is the book’s governing phrase and organizing idea.
“Your life is a circus. Be the ringmaster.”
“Think in weeks, not days.”
“Almost everyone has some discretionary time.”
“We have much more discretionary time than we often realize.”
“The daily experience of time can be quite spacious.”
July 1, 2026
"When we realize time is big and abundant, then we can afford to be generous with it."
I always enjoy Laura Vanderkam's books, and Big Time was no exception. A lot of productivity books focus on all the ways to cram in every single goal you want to accomplish (balanced heavily towards work). But this book is kind of the opposite. Her take is that we have lots of time, more than we realize, and that in the act of recognizing that fact, we can use it better.
What's great about her approach is that she doesn't tell you how to over-schedule your time, or teach you how to squeeze more out of the few minutes you have. Instead, she suggests just allocating 15 or 30 minutes each week or each night to do something that you really want to do. We're busy! She gets it. But in contrast to Gretchen Rubin's maxim of "the days are long, but the years are short," Vanderkam says actually, there are 8,760 hours in a year. You can bum around during a lot of that time (if you want) and still have a ton left to learn to play the violin.
As in all of her books, Vanderkam points to the different parts of our days that usually feel rushed or wasted. I particularly liked her chapter on our "golden hours" between the end of the workday and bedtime. I also loved hearing about all the things that people were able to do with this long-term mindset. Read War and Peace? It only takes a year. Visit all the national parks? You can do it in five. Big Time made me want to pick up a big, meaty project and work on it patiently over many years... because we all have the time.
Thank you to Next Big Idea Club for the advance copy. Opinions are my own.
I always enjoy Laura Vanderkam's books, and Big Time was no exception. A lot of productivity books focus on all the ways to cram in every single goal you want to accomplish (balanced heavily towards work). But this book is kind of the opposite. Her take is that we have lots of time, more than we realize, and that in the act of recognizing that fact, we can use it better.
What's great about her approach is that she doesn't tell you how to over-schedule your time, or teach you how to squeeze more out of the few minutes you have. Instead, she suggests just allocating 15 or 30 minutes each week or each night to do something that you really want to do. We're busy! She gets it. But in contrast to Gretchen Rubin's maxim of "the days are long, but the years are short," Vanderkam says actually, there are 8,760 hours in a year. You can bum around during a lot of that time (if you want) and still have a ton left to learn to play the violin.
As in all of her books, Vanderkam points to the different parts of our days that usually feel rushed or wasted. I particularly liked her chapter on our "golden hours" between the end of the workday and bedtime. I also loved hearing about all the things that people were able to do with this long-term mindset. Read War and Peace? It only takes a year. Visit all the national parks? You can do it in five. Big Time made me want to pick up a big, meaty project and work on it patiently over many years... because we all have the time.
Thank you to Next Big Idea Club for the advance copy. Opinions are my own.
June 23, 2026
Great book w/a lot of amazing tips and hits as well as encouragements!
My notes:
—big time—
Time is a gift
Time is a resource like a golden mine to use (try to track your time for a week and see on what you actually spend time: choose a week, choose where you would like to track your time, check-ins x2-3 times per day, establish categories and level of detail - if you forget, don’t to panic -move one. Plus, ask what you like or don’t like to add extra categories if needed)
Time tracking provides accountability
Plan ahead every week on Thursdays or Fridays (even sometimes during your work hours if not too much work - knowing ahead what is for Monday and how everything so to be done reduces stress about a new week and allows enjoy your weekends) plus, see if others schedules might effect yours, so you can prioritize activities for yourself (life is a circus w/main three rings:
Career - work, education or major volunteering projects
Relationships - every type applicable
Self - physical, mental, and spiritual health)
Weekly priority list has to fit on one notebook page and no longer than that
Things change all the time and it doesn’t need to be an obstacle against planning (spend extra 5-10 mins at the end of each day to plan for the next w/all possible changes that happened)
Set rules like house-rules everyone is aware and follows (for instance, pasta on Mondays, fish and rice on Tuesdays, etc. with seasonal rotations. The same with laundry and duties for each person for each step of completing laundry) - stick to the rules!
Plan for emergencies and ask questions after it happens - what to do next, so to move on?
Manage for delight: schedule as a performance. The secret to have something to looking forward to (at least one thing per day). Think about each week as a vocation!
Dream big and plan small: we are used to tell ourselves that we don’t have time because it spent for something we are not looking forward to or considered as a waist. Don’t tackle too much at once!
Side note: War and Piece consists of 361 chapter (each about 4-5pages)
If something didn’t work as you intended, you can try something new - choose wisely
Refine your steps and define your calendar: try to avoid planning for a perfect day - life happens
A good calendar is to keep you from floundering
Test drive your calendars for 3-4 days before fully committing
Persist and reward yourself and keep steps of accomplishing goals small and with a space for any backups - resist temptation to do more (don’t attempt more on easy days - make this promise the finish still would be in your calendar)
Rewards can be as obvious as they need to be. Spread your small rewards between steps to motivate you going to the completion!
Big things don’t take than 10-15 mins per day!
Work:
What can be done, what activities involved to make your daily work is something to look forward to and not wishing hours to pass faster?
3 main strategies:
1. Meaning - spend one more hour per week on the work you like the most
2. Belonging - spend extra 50 mins per week deepening friendships
3. Autonomy - take 3 breaks per day for things and activities you are really looking forward to
What is the most satisfying part of your job, identify and spend extra 1 hour per week on that
Spend 15mins more to deepening friendships (especially at work) (and it would end up to 50 extra mins per week - one person at work is enough)
Enjoying your golden hour - can be as little as 30 mins read before going to bed
Setting evenings:
1. Understanding the landscape - log evening hours at least for a few days to get a common sense (awareness is a vital first step because of know what’s going on we can make decisions)
2. Set up small intentions - what would you do to have enjoyable 30 to 60 mins in the evening of each day? Once chosen plan ahead on time (for example, what movie or board game would be plaid and what time)!
3. Notice and savor - record your feelings and what you experienced during those activities that you chose to enjoy in the evenings each day!
To help to enjoy your evening even more:
1. Set a bed time - it gives you an option to plan your evening plans
2. Try outside time - like time outside after dinner (nothing crazy but fun activity)
3. Have a little adventure - one night a week do something more memorable to make it different than others
4. Do one evening for you (w/commitment to other ppl of possible)
5. Do effortful fun - reading a book or calling a friend, or paint, etc.
Press on pleasure
Be open to serendipity
Practice thoughtful accessibility (say yes to things as well as no thoughtfully)
You not waiting time if you chose that to see in a good way, especially when you leave enough time for your basics
Practice and magic to say yes to things:
1. Clear the clutter - remove things that drag you away from new things (making you overwhelmed, don’t keep stuff in your head - line things up ahead of time, do urgent not urgent stuff in benches; don’t be cheap in things that can help you as well as don’t care too much on things that not that important, so to reorganize mental space for yourself)
2. Plan for thoughtful for accessibility (it means having boundaries but stripping yourself off new possibilities)
3. Make little beds (don’t expect too much from things and plans - so small investments and can lead to a bigger life)
A flexible approach to life
App: time locker
What you wanna achieve in the next year (starting today) as professionally and personally (remember to look at life more broadly)?
Patience and generosity w/time is crucial - active patience
Time does bad things more tolerable, if you do your part and leave the rest to the time
Tactics:
1. How to track your time - time block (as simple as excel sheets or apps, or even simple paper and pencil). Start any day of the week and include at least one weekend! Having cues on how to remember your time logs to document (3-4 time per day)
Prompts:
What do you like most about your schedule?
How much you spend on what - categories!
What do you want to spend more time on/less?
Plan ahead for the next week!
1. How to run a weekly planning sessions? - regular planning session (choose a day and time to plan ahead; before also consider looking at your week “landscape” to see what’s ahead; PRIORITY LIST for each week: 1-work, 2-relationships, 3-self. It shall be short to be able to do it 100%)
My notes:
—big time—
Time is a gift
Time is a resource like a golden mine to use (try to track your time for a week and see on what you actually spend time: choose a week, choose where you would like to track your time, check-ins x2-3 times per day, establish categories and level of detail - if you forget, don’t to panic -move one. Plus, ask what you like or don’t like to add extra categories if needed)
Time tracking provides accountability
Plan ahead every week on Thursdays or Fridays (even sometimes during your work hours if not too much work - knowing ahead what is for Monday and how everything so to be done reduces stress about a new week and allows enjoy your weekends) plus, see if others schedules might effect yours, so you can prioritize activities for yourself (life is a circus w/main three rings:
Career - work, education or major volunteering projects
Relationships - every type applicable
Self - physical, mental, and spiritual health)
Weekly priority list has to fit on one notebook page and no longer than that
Things change all the time and it doesn’t need to be an obstacle against planning (spend extra 5-10 mins at the end of each day to plan for the next w/all possible changes that happened)
Set rules like house-rules everyone is aware and follows (for instance, pasta on Mondays, fish and rice on Tuesdays, etc. with seasonal rotations. The same with laundry and duties for each person for each step of completing laundry) - stick to the rules!
Plan for emergencies and ask questions after it happens - what to do next, so to move on?
Manage for delight: schedule as a performance. The secret to have something to looking forward to (at least one thing per day). Think about each week as a vocation!
Dream big and plan small: we are used to tell ourselves that we don’t have time because it spent for something we are not looking forward to or considered as a waist. Don’t tackle too much at once!
Side note: War and Piece consists of 361 chapter (each about 4-5pages)
If something didn’t work as you intended, you can try something new - choose wisely
Refine your steps and define your calendar: try to avoid planning for a perfect day - life happens
A good calendar is to keep you from floundering
Test drive your calendars for 3-4 days before fully committing
Persist and reward yourself and keep steps of accomplishing goals small and with a space for any backups - resist temptation to do more (don’t attempt more on easy days - make this promise the finish still would be in your calendar)
Rewards can be as obvious as they need to be. Spread your small rewards between steps to motivate you going to the completion!
Big things don’t take than 10-15 mins per day!
Work:
What can be done, what activities involved to make your daily work is something to look forward to and not wishing hours to pass faster?
3 main strategies:
1. Meaning - spend one more hour per week on the work you like the most
2. Belonging - spend extra 50 mins per week deepening friendships
3. Autonomy - take 3 breaks per day for things and activities you are really looking forward to
What is the most satisfying part of your job, identify and spend extra 1 hour per week on that
Spend 15mins more to deepening friendships (especially at work) (and it would end up to 50 extra mins per week - one person at work is enough)
Enjoying your golden hour - can be as little as 30 mins read before going to bed
Setting evenings:
1. Understanding the landscape - log evening hours at least for a few days to get a common sense (awareness is a vital first step because of know what’s going on we can make decisions)
2. Set up small intentions - what would you do to have enjoyable 30 to 60 mins in the evening of each day? Once chosen plan ahead on time (for example, what movie or board game would be plaid and what time)!
3. Notice and savor - record your feelings and what you experienced during those activities that you chose to enjoy in the evenings each day!
To help to enjoy your evening even more:
1. Set a bed time - it gives you an option to plan your evening plans
2. Try outside time - like time outside after dinner (nothing crazy but fun activity)
3. Have a little adventure - one night a week do something more memorable to make it different than others
4. Do one evening for you (w/commitment to other ppl of possible)
5. Do effortful fun - reading a book or calling a friend, or paint, etc.
Press on pleasure
Be open to serendipity
Practice thoughtful accessibility (say yes to things as well as no thoughtfully)
You not waiting time if you chose that to see in a good way, especially when you leave enough time for your basics
Practice and magic to say yes to things:
1. Clear the clutter - remove things that drag you away from new things (making you overwhelmed, don’t keep stuff in your head - line things up ahead of time, do urgent not urgent stuff in benches; don’t be cheap in things that can help you as well as don’t care too much on things that not that important, so to reorganize mental space for yourself)
2. Plan for thoughtful for accessibility (it means having boundaries but stripping yourself off new possibilities)
3. Make little beds (don’t expect too much from things and plans - so small investments and can lead to a bigger life)
A flexible approach to life
App: time locker
What you wanna achieve in the next year (starting today) as professionally and personally (remember to look at life more broadly)?
Patience and generosity w/time is crucial - active patience
Time does bad things more tolerable, if you do your part and leave the rest to the time
Tactics:
1. How to track your time - time block (as simple as excel sheets or apps, or even simple paper and pencil). Start any day of the week and include at least one weekend! Having cues on how to remember your time logs to document (3-4 time per day)
Prompts:
What do you like most about your schedule?
How much you spend on what - categories!
What do you want to spend more time on/less?
Plan ahead for the next week!
1. How to run a weekly planning sessions? - regular planning session (choose a day and time to plan ahead; before also consider looking at your week “landscape” to see what’s ahead; PRIORITY LIST for each week: 1-work, 2-relationships, 3-self. It shall be short to be able to do it 100%)
June 14, 2026
I love that this self-help book encourages us to see that we actually have a lot of time and to do lots of things with it. This is a contrast to all the voices telling us to pare back and that we can only do so much. Very inspiring.
May 19, 2026
Anecdotes and practical suggestions
May 28, 2026
We've all felt it: the anxiety about the week ahead, the sense that time is slipping away, the nagging feeling that we're not spending our hours on what truly matters. Laura Vanderkam's “Big Time” offers a practical framework for using the hours you have with intention and without regret.
I'll be honest: the early chapters felt slow. The opening stories didn't immediately grab me the way I expected from a well-known time management authority. But midway through, the book shifts. As Vanderkam moves from diagnosis to framework to practical implementation, the value becomes clear.
The central insight is deceptively simple: if you want to own your time, you must first see it clearly. Everything flows from there. I scribbled this framework as the thesis, as I read through the book : Measure > Plan > Align > Execute
Vanderkam builds her approach in distinct phases:
1. Measure your time: The first step is tracking your time in 30-minute increments. This practice reveals the gap between how you think you spend your time and how you actually spend it.
2. Plan your week: Anxiety about the week ahead is often worse than the week itself. Vanderkam emphasizes planning at the weekly level, by intentionally designing your week.
3. Align time with values: One of the book's most insightful elements is its approach to tracking time as a function of three categories: your relationships, your career, and yourself. The key recognition is that this balance shifts with seasons of life.The framework helps you ask: “Given where I am right now, am I allocating time appropriately to what matters?”
4. Build in joy: This is where Vanderkam moves beyond typical productivity advice. She advocates for deliberately building small pleasures and surprises into your week instead of following a grim schedule.
Vanderkam's toolkit is concrete and implementable:
1. Create rules to simplify your life, because, rules create freedom by eliminating decisions.
Think like a project manager: choose your destination, break it into actionable chunks, resist the urge to do everything at once, and stick to the schedule. Incremental progress over heroics!
2. Protect three dimensions of wellbeing: Build time for autonomy (choice and agency), belonging (connection with others), and competence (mastery and growth) to maintain joy.
3. Subtract, don't just add: In a culture obsessed with productivity hacks and optimization, Vanderkam's advice to subtract is refreshing. She advocates for regularly asking: What am I doing that doesn't add value? What's left over from a previous season of life? What can I eliminate? This practice of subtraction often yields more time than any optimization hack.
While “ Big Time” is strong, a few gaps remain - The early narrative structure could tighten. The stories that ground the early chapters are meant to illustrate problems and possibilities, but they read slowly compared to the actionable material that follows.Additionally, the book would benefit from more explicit guidance on the emotional or psychological barriers to implementation.
“Big Time” is essential for anyone struggling with the feeling of never having enough time. It's particularly valuable for professionals and managers who want to protect space for what matters while still delivering results. Parents, educators, and anyone juggling multiple roles will find the framework for thinking about seasonal shifts helpful. I recommend.
I'll be honest: the early chapters felt slow. The opening stories didn't immediately grab me the way I expected from a well-known time management authority. But midway through, the book shifts. As Vanderkam moves from diagnosis to framework to practical implementation, the value becomes clear.
The central insight is deceptively simple: if you want to own your time, you must first see it clearly. Everything flows from there. I scribbled this framework as the thesis, as I read through the book : Measure > Plan > Align > Execute
Vanderkam builds her approach in distinct phases:
1. Measure your time: The first step is tracking your time in 30-minute increments. This practice reveals the gap between how you think you spend your time and how you actually spend it.
2. Plan your week: Anxiety about the week ahead is often worse than the week itself. Vanderkam emphasizes planning at the weekly level, by intentionally designing your week.
3. Align time with values: One of the book's most insightful elements is its approach to tracking time as a function of three categories: your relationships, your career, and yourself. The key recognition is that this balance shifts with seasons of life.The framework helps you ask: “Given where I am right now, am I allocating time appropriately to what matters?”
4. Build in joy: This is where Vanderkam moves beyond typical productivity advice. She advocates for deliberately building small pleasures and surprises into your week instead of following a grim schedule.
Vanderkam's toolkit is concrete and implementable:
1. Create rules to simplify your life, because, rules create freedom by eliminating decisions.
Think like a project manager: choose your destination, break it into actionable chunks, resist the urge to do everything at once, and stick to the schedule. Incremental progress over heroics!
2. Protect three dimensions of wellbeing: Build time for autonomy (choice and agency), belonging (connection with others), and competence (mastery and growth) to maintain joy.
3. Subtract, don't just add: In a culture obsessed with productivity hacks and optimization, Vanderkam's advice to subtract is refreshing. She advocates for regularly asking: What am I doing that doesn't add value? What's left over from a previous season of life? What can I eliminate? This practice of subtraction often yields more time than any optimization hack.
While “ Big Time” is strong, a few gaps remain - The early narrative structure could tighten. The stories that ground the early chapters are meant to illustrate problems and possibilities, but they read slowly compared to the actionable material that follows.Additionally, the book would benefit from more explicit guidance on the emotional or psychological barriers to implementation.
“Big Time” is essential for anyone struggling with the feeling of never having enough time. It's particularly valuable for professionals and managers who want to protect space for what matters while still delivering results. Parents, educators, and anyone juggling multiple roles will find the framework for thinking about seasonal shifts helpful. I recommend.
Read
July 26, 2026Thinking about time more broadly - “shifting everything left” ie getting things done long before needed like doing assignments when assigned, builds margin if for example you have young children
Couple having shared Google Keep note called “docket of items to discuss”
Think about weekly goals for career, relationships, self
Make house rules ex. menu for days of the week
Can get together with friends or do other things you enjoy early in the morning
Make sure you always have something you are genuinely looking forward to
Long road trip - kids can use tablets only when driving
DeCou family multi-year project visiting all the national parks. You can meet a big goal if you plan it in doable parts over the long haul. Connecting the dots of discretionary time can make big things possible. “Anywhere is walking distance if you have the time”
People often don’t stick with long-term projects because they don’t actually want to do them. They sound good in theory but don’t appeal when you’re actually doing them. Test-run them. Try a month etc.
Projects tend to be more compelling if they have a true destination, a finish line. By December 31 can be a good endpoint. Or a specific outcome. Like to be able to converse conversationally in French on a trip. Etc.
Cumulatively, the difference between nothing and just a little more than nothing turns out to be huge (p. 64).
You can use an existing calendar or create your own.
Identify the time of day when you will take your small step. Early is good. Identify a backup slot in case the first doesn’t work out.
It is human nature to be most excited at the beginning and at the end. It’s the steps in the middle that are hard. Just walk the mile you’re in.
Have interim celebrations and rewards.
Set a bedtime. The day needs an ending in addition to a beginning.
Have a little adventure in the evening.
Preparation and thinking through pain points can help you enjoy your time much more. Ex if you have to wait in the car for a kid at lessons, bring snacks, have a program for yourself.
Clear your schedule as much as possible so you can say yes to serendipitous opportunities. Batch tasks, write things down so you’re not ruminating and keeping everything in your head, embrace vertical ownership in the household, care less about things that don’t have to matter
“Make little bets.” You don’t have to enjoy everything you try but if you try lots of things you’ll find some winners.
Think in 8,760 hours and not 24. A year has many hours of discretionary time when you subtract work, sleep, and other obligations. Think about what you want to accomplish and how long it will take, and when you can plan it in and how to work backwards to make it possible.
“Time is good at its job.” Do what you can, and let time works its magic.
Couple having shared Google Keep note called “docket of items to discuss”
Think about weekly goals for career, relationships, self
Make house rules ex. menu for days of the week
Can get together with friends or do other things you enjoy early in the morning
Make sure you always have something you are genuinely looking forward to
Long road trip - kids can use tablets only when driving
DeCou family multi-year project visiting all the national parks. You can meet a big goal if you plan it in doable parts over the long haul. Connecting the dots of discretionary time can make big things possible. “Anywhere is walking distance if you have the time”
People often don’t stick with long-term projects because they don’t actually want to do them. They sound good in theory but don’t appeal when you’re actually doing them. Test-run them. Try a month etc.
Projects tend to be more compelling if they have a true destination, a finish line. By December 31 can be a good endpoint. Or a specific outcome. Like to be able to converse conversationally in French on a trip. Etc.
Cumulatively, the difference between nothing and just a little more than nothing turns out to be huge (p. 64).
You can use an existing calendar or create your own.
Identify the time of day when you will take your small step. Early is good. Identify a backup slot in case the first doesn’t work out.
It is human nature to be most excited at the beginning and at the end. It’s the steps in the middle that are hard. Just walk the mile you’re in.
Have interim celebrations and rewards.
Set a bedtime. The day needs an ending in addition to a beginning.
Have a little adventure in the evening.
Preparation and thinking through pain points can help you enjoy your time much more. Ex if you have to wait in the car for a kid at lessons, bring snacks, have a program for yourself.
Clear your schedule as much as possible so you can say yes to serendipitous opportunities. Batch tasks, write things down so you’re not ruminating and keeping everything in your head, embrace vertical ownership in the household, care less about things that don’t have to matter
“Make little bets.” You don’t have to enjoy everything you try but if you try lots of things you’ll find some winners.
Think in 8,760 hours and not 24. A year has many hours of discretionary time when you subtract work, sleep, and other obligations. Think about what you want to accomplish and how long it will take, and when you can plan it in and how to work backwards to make it possible.
“Time is good at its job.” Do what you can, and let time works its magic.
May 21, 2026
A Productivity Book That Made Me Feel Calmer, Not Busier
I had the opportunity to read this book through the First Look Club at the Next Big Idea.
The subject is one I think most people can relate to: how do we do more with the time we have available, while also feeling more accepting of the demands already on it? That framing alone made this book stand out to me from the many “optimize every second” productivity books out there.
The basic premise is deceptively simple. First, check your reality through a time audit. Then think about what changes you can make based on the insights that brings - what gets removed, what gets added, and what matters enough to intentionally make space for. Laura Vanderkam also encourages readers to think across multiple buckets of life at once: career, relationships, and self.
One of the ideas that really resonated with me was the challenge to think “Big Time” rather than getting trapped in the next day, week, or meeting. I’ve always felt pressure to identify one grand purpose in life - the single thing I’ll have achieved or left behind that will matter in the end. What I took from this book is that maybe it doesn’t have to be just one thing. Maybe a meaningful life can be built through multiple strands that evolve over time.
I also loved the idea of stretching growth over longer periods instead of only relying on intense bursts of reinvention. I already try to do one thing each year that scares me or develops me in some way, but the book made me think differently about how to sustain those changes over time rather than treating them as isolated experiences.
Before reading this, I honestly assumed the people who “fit everything in” must secretly sleep three hours a night and be utterly exhausting to be around. This book shifted that perspective. Instead of feeling cynical about those people, I found myself curious. What systems are they using? What choices are they making? Which techniques could genuinely help me build a life that feels fuller without feeling frantic?
I haven’t fully put the book’s recommendations into practice yet - I read it while on vacation - but that may actually be one of the strongest endorsements I can give it. Before I’d even finished reading, I had already sent myself notes for changes I want to make when I get back to work.
Most importantly, the suggestions feel doable. A combination of low-effort, high-impact activities, alongside a consistent reminder to zoom out, take a step back, and enjoy the life you are actively building.
I had the opportunity to read this book through the First Look Club at the Next Big Idea.
The subject is one I think most people can relate to: how do we do more with the time we have available, while also feeling more accepting of the demands already on it? That framing alone made this book stand out to me from the many “optimize every second” productivity books out there.
The basic premise is deceptively simple. First, check your reality through a time audit. Then think about what changes you can make based on the insights that brings - what gets removed, what gets added, and what matters enough to intentionally make space for. Laura Vanderkam also encourages readers to think across multiple buckets of life at once: career, relationships, and self.
One of the ideas that really resonated with me was the challenge to think “Big Time” rather than getting trapped in the next day, week, or meeting. I’ve always felt pressure to identify one grand purpose in life - the single thing I’ll have achieved or left behind that will matter in the end. What I took from this book is that maybe it doesn’t have to be just one thing. Maybe a meaningful life can be built through multiple strands that evolve over time.
I also loved the idea of stretching growth over longer periods instead of only relying on intense bursts of reinvention. I already try to do one thing each year that scares me or develops me in some way, but the book made me think differently about how to sustain those changes over time rather than treating them as isolated experiences.
Before reading this, I honestly assumed the people who “fit everything in” must secretly sleep three hours a night and be utterly exhausting to be around. This book shifted that perspective. Instead of feeling cynical about those people, I found myself curious. What systems are they using? What choices are they making? Which techniques could genuinely help me build a life that feels fuller without feeling frantic?
I haven’t fully put the book’s recommendations into practice yet - I read it while on vacation - but that may actually be one of the strongest endorsements I can give it. Before I’d even finished reading, I had already sent myself notes for changes I want to make when I get back to work.
Most importantly, the suggestions feel doable. A combination of low-effort, high-impact activities, alongside a consistent reminder to zoom out, take a step back, and enjoy the life you are actively building.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 9, 2026
Worthwhile time management books are, imo, not only motivational but also have the potential to actually change behavior. Laura Vanderkam begins by advocating an abundance mindset with how we view time. There are approximately 8,760 hours in a year, and despite one’s job, stage in life (e.g., having young children) or socioeconomic status, for most of us an inordinate amount of discretionary time is lost or at least unaccounted for. Chapter One of this book therefore compels an audit of such time through the use of a timelog* and subsequent review that puts us in a better position to ask “Is this worth my time?” Doomscrolling, for example, is a behavior which has become a huge timesuck for many, and even wasting 20 minutes a day in this way “relaxing” no longer seems benign when we realize that it is equal to 120 hours a year, or a 3 week vacation. Framed in a more positive light, consider what can be achieved if those daily 20 minutes were spent on a fun hobby, physical activity, or furthering an important interpersonal relationship. More specifically, Ms. Vanderkam points to what she calls the “Golden Hours”, those 1-2 hours after work that most people have (which already account for quotidian tasks), and contends that most, if not all, of us are indeed in the position to utilize that time productively. To be clear, if one chooses to doomscroll or watch TV, that’s fine so long as we are intentional (and honest with ourselves) about how rewarding that is. Another point Ms. Vanderkam makes is that complexity is not the enemy; chaos is. In such vein, a certain level of joy and satisfaction in life requires us to go big - be the ringmaster of your circus. As such, while most time management books teach us to say No, Ms. Vanderkam instead recommends that we see invitations as a form of optionality and to thoughtfully say Yes when doing so has significant upside potential. What gets measured gets managed, and so in addition to timelogs, schedule planning is also important. This involves mapping out each coming week, both professionally and personally, preferably on Friday (for work), Sunday evening, or first thing Monday morning. In sum, we can and must be in control of how we spend our time
*Ms. Vanderkamp has timelogs available on her website: LauraVanderkam.com
*Ms. Vanderkamp has timelogs available on her website: LauraVanderkam.com
June 3, 2026
I chose how I wanted and needed to spend my time one morning while reading Big Time. I skipped a meeting that wasn’t producing much value, got my marketing campaign launch knocked out, and then my husband popped into my office and asked if I wanted to go shopping.
We were supposed to be looking for a suit jacket, but mostly we wandered, got lost because we have no idea how malls work anymore haha, tried some good food, laughed, and enjoyed spending the afternoon together. It felt like a tiny example of what this book is really about.
A few ideas that stuck with me:
• Picking recurring meals for certain nights of the week to reduce decision fatigue.
• Giving each family member their own laundry basket so there’s no sorting afterward.
• Having a weekly planning conversation with your partner before the weekend arrives instead of spending Sunday dreading Monday.
• Treating weekends like mini vacations rather than catch-up sessions.
The idea I’ve thought about most since finishing the book is her suggestion to stop wishing time away and start deliberately adding things you genuinely enjoy. A walk. Lunch with a friend. Fifteen minutes writing. Time in the garden. Small things that make a regular day feel a little richer.
I also loved her examples of tackling big goals in tiny increments. One person read a chapter of War and Peace every night. Not because they were racing to finish it, but because they wanted to enjoy the experience. It made me wonder what my own version of that might be.
Another strong section was the time log exercise at the end. It’s practical, eye-opening, and gives you something tangible to do rather than just another idea to think about. It’s one thing to say time matters; it’s another to actually see where yours is going.
Overall, Big Time isn’t really about getting more done. It’s about paying attention to the life you’re already living and making small adjustments so it looks a little more like the one you want. One of the book’s central ideas is that our lives are built in hours, not years. After reading it, I found myself looking at those hours a little differently and thinking less about productivity and more about attention, joy, and how I actually want to spend an ordinary week.
We were supposed to be looking for a suit jacket, but mostly we wandered, got lost because we have no idea how malls work anymore haha, tried some good food, laughed, and enjoyed spending the afternoon together. It felt like a tiny example of what this book is really about.
A few ideas that stuck with me:
• Picking recurring meals for certain nights of the week to reduce decision fatigue.
• Giving each family member their own laundry basket so there’s no sorting afterward.
• Having a weekly planning conversation with your partner before the weekend arrives instead of spending Sunday dreading Monday.
• Treating weekends like mini vacations rather than catch-up sessions.
The idea I’ve thought about most since finishing the book is her suggestion to stop wishing time away and start deliberately adding things you genuinely enjoy. A walk. Lunch with a friend. Fifteen minutes writing. Time in the garden. Small things that make a regular day feel a little richer.
I also loved her examples of tackling big goals in tiny increments. One person read a chapter of War and Peace every night. Not because they were racing to finish it, but because they wanted to enjoy the experience. It made me wonder what my own version of that might be.
Another strong section was the time log exercise at the end. It’s practical, eye-opening, and gives you something tangible to do rather than just another idea to think about. It’s one thing to say time matters; it’s another to actually see where yours is going.
Overall, Big Time isn’t really about getting more done. It’s about paying attention to the life you’re already living and making small adjustments so it looks a little more like the one you want. One of the book’s central ideas is that our lives are built in hours, not years. After reading it, I found myself looking at those hours a little differently and thinking less about productivity and more about attention, joy, and how I actually want to spend an ordinary week.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
In this time-management manifesto, the author argues for a more expansive approach to time. By looking not at the 24 hours in a day or the 168 hours in a week (yes, those 168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think) but at the 8760 hours in a year, she says, we can find space for serious work, creative leisure, family and friends, and projects of all varieties.
Vanderkam begins by acknowledging that busy readers are investing a couple of hours of their time in the book on making the most of that time. In return, she promises Big Time will be "practical", "new", and "entertaining. She keeps these promises to a significant, but variable, degree.
The book's strong point is its entertainment value. The text is a mix of the author's ideas, supporting research (some of which she conducted herself), case studies, and personal anecdotes. The writing is engaging, and the book is a quick and interesting read.
Less obvious is the book's practicality. One of Vanderkam's favorite bits of advice is to track one's time, but this seems designed more to scare off the casual reader than to actually help. Other ideas are more solution-oriented, including discussions of how to plan a complicated life to keep from losing sight of any important areas; breaking down big projects into small steps; and improving one's workdays and weekday evenings by focusing on manageable but meaningful activities.
Big Time's weak point is newness. Most of the major ideas are repeated from Vanderkam's earlier books, with some updated details or supporting information. While it can be useful to read the information synthesized differently, with a different emphasis, loyal readers will not find any unforeseen revelations.
Despite the fact that I don't find all of its advice revelatory or useful, I enjoyed reading Big Time and found its perspective on time and life-management helpful.
[I received a complimentary ARC from NetGalley and the publisher. Opinions are my own.]
Vanderkam begins by acknowledging that busy readers are investing a couple of hours of their time in the book on making the most of that time. In return, she promises Big Time will be "practical", "new", and "entertaining. She keeps these promises to a significant, but variable, degree.
The book's strong point is its entertainment value. The text is a mix of the author's ideas, supporting research (some of which she conducted herself), case studies, and personal anecdotes. The writing is engaging, and the book is a quick and interesting read.
Less obvious is the book's practicality. One of Vanderkam's favorite bits of advice is to track one's time, but this seems designed more to scare off the casual reader than to actually help. Other ideas are more solution-oriented, including discussions of how to plan a complicated life to keep from losing sight of any important areas; breaking down big projects into small steps; and improving one's workdays and weekday evenings by focusing on manageable but meaningful activities.
Big Time's weak point is newness. Most of the major ideas are repeated from Vanderkam's earlier books, with some updated details or supporting information. While it can be useful to read the information synthesized differently, with a different emphasis, loyal readers will not find any unforeseen revelations.
Despite the fact that I don't find all of its advice revelatory or useful, I enjoyed reading Big Time and found its perspective on time and life-management helpful.
[I received a complimentary ARC from NetGalley and the publisher. Opinions are my own.]
June 9, 2026
Overall I found this book to be very well organized and structured, with concrete and actionable suggestions and processes to not only better understand where your time goes (and how to get better control over it) but also how to really reframe your thinking about how much time you really have. The old adage that we "all have the same 24 hours" somewhat applies here, but Vanderkam takes it a bit further and encourages zooming out more and thinking bigger - and then truly understanding where your hours go. I found her section on the "better workday challenge" to be particularly interesting and applicable for me personally, and am going to work to implement some of these practices into my normal routines...and track that I'm doing them. I found some of the data she shared to be surprising on the surface (such as how many people in her studies did not work a full 40 hours), however in reflecting on it I can't say that it flies in the face of reality - I suppose there is a lot of fluctuation in different industries. I just know my coworkers and myself are all regularly pushing 40+ hours week over week, but that may be specific to healthcare and the current landscape we are operating in.
I feel that much of this book can really make a positive impact on my own life and that of many of my friends and colleagues; where I'm struggling a little is thinking about encouraging some of the people I work with in the social services department to consider this reading given a bit of what felt a little privileged in some of the examples used. I do believe the lessons are very applicable, but I don't know that they would land as easily for someone that has very complicated situations or extremely limited resources. To be clear, I believe the steps outlined are applicable to anyone, just that some of the specific examples cited may inadvertently obstruct the opportunities here. Overall, I feel this is a book that just about anyone would benefit from reading and making use of the tactics, and that there are very useful tools and lessons here making this a very worthwhile read.
I feel that much of this book can really make a positive impact on my own life and that of many of my friends and colleagues; where I'm struggling a little is thinking about encouraging some of the people I work with in the social services department to consider this reading given a bit of what felt a little privileged in some of the examples used. I do believe the lessons are very applicable, but I don't know that they would land as easily for someone that has very complicated situations or extremely limited resources. To be clear, I believe the steps outlined are applicable to anyone, just that some of the specific examples cited may inadvertently obstruct the opportunities here. Overall, I feel this is a book that just about anyone would benefit from reading and making use of the tactics, and that there are very useful tools and lessons here making this a very worthwhile read.
May 18, 2026
Many of us feel like we have too much to do and too little time to do it in. What if we could view time as an abundant resource that we just need to allocate in a way that works better for us? That’s the premise of Laura Vanderkam’s Big Time. Through a combination of stories and tactics, she lays out a philosophy and approach to help you feel like your schedule is less of a treadmill to survive and more of an open territory in which to discover opportunities.
The first step is understanding how you spend your time by doing a time-tracking exercise. Tracking your time can give you a chance to step back and get beyond the impressions we have (it may feel like you work too much, but the numbers don’t say that. It can also be an incentive to avoid multitasking as that makes the time tracking overhead greater.
Vanderkam’s approach integrates work and personal life, but she also offers some very helpful guidelines for managing your workday.
There are important ideas in the book, and the stories and examples might especially resonate with those trying to balance work and family without abdicating self-care. You’re likely to find some that resonate, though you may also find some that seem superfluous, and I found myself skimming through some stories that didn’t seem relevant to me.
Did the book meet its goals? There is a concise summary of tactics section at the end of the book that is a helpful guide to implementing the practices, and which captures the core ideas in the book, and the stories have the potential to inspire. But I felt the book could have been a bit tighter without giving up its conversational tone.
It’s worth thinking about how we use our time—both in and out of work. Working well, working in small increments and finding something valuable to do in the gaps gives us opportunities to accomplish what we want as long as we don’t let the desire to be busy and a sense of futility consume us. Big Time, while not perfect, can be a guide to learning how to do that.
The first step is understanding how you spend your time by doing a time-tracking exercise. Tracking your time can give you a chance to step back and get beyond the impressions we have (it may feel like you work too much, but the numbers don’t say that. It can also be an incentive to avoid multitasking as that makes the time tracking overhead greater.
Vanderkam’s approach integrates work and personal life, but she also offers some very helpful guidelines for managing your workday.
There are important ideas in the book, and the stories and examples might especially resonate with those trying to balance work and family without abdicating self-care. You’re likely to find some that resonate, though you may also find some that seem superfluous, and I found myself skimming through some stories that didn’t seem relevant to me.
Did the book meet its goals? There is a concise summary of tactics section at the end of the book that is a helpful guide to implementing the practices, and which captures the core ideas in the book, and the stories have the potential to inspire. But I felt the book could have been a bit tighter without giving up its conversational tone.
It’s worth thinking about how we use our time—both in and out of work. Working well, working in small increments and finding something valuable to do in the gaps gives us opportunities to accomplish what we want as long as we don’t let the desire to be busy and a sense of futility consume us. Big Time, while not perfect, can be a guide to learning how to do that.
June 17, 2026
If you feel like there is never enough time in the day to get things done, juggling busy schedules, then this book would be helpful. Having a mindset that views time as abundant can be developed by implementing the tools and strategies that Laura Vanderkam provides. Using research, her own experience tracking her time, as well as experiences of others, she provides practical, actionable tactics which when implemented, elicits a feeling that there is enough time. She states that "time stress comes from taking a limited view of time." Instead of viewing time in 24-hour or weekly blocks, she states that we should view time in terms of 8760 hours (the number of hours in a year).
Tracking your time can be eye-opening and you can use time more efficiently and effectively if you are aware of how you're spending it and change so that you spend time on what truly matters to you.
Among the suggestions the author makes, I found the following to be useful:
1. Determine in advance what you would do if something goes awry, so that when it does, you view it as a blip rather than a catastrophic event.
2. "Manage for delight by ensuring that you always have something in your calendar to look forward to." Thinking about this one evoked a feeling of lightness and joy and helped me get through the mundane parts of the day.
3. "Reframing golden hours – know what your evenings look like." The author provides strategies that you could implement so that you can savor the time rather than rush through it such as going on a "little adventure". When we feel strapped for time, we tend to neglect self-care. It doesn't have to be anything elaborate. I find that if I set small intentions and carve out 30-60 minutes each day as she suggests, to do something I enjoy, it makes a positive difference to my day.
4. Doing "effortful fun" - this sounded like a lot of time-consuming work but when you put in the effort to make what you enjoy easier to do, fun becomes doable.
If you are yearning to have "more" time, or manage your time more effectively, give this a read.
Tracking your time can be eye-opening and you can use time more efficiently and effectively if you are aware of how you're spending it and change so that you spend time on what truly matters to you.
Among the suggestions the author makes, I found the following to be useful:
1. Determine in advance what you would do if something goes awry, so that when it does, you view it as a blip rather than a catastrophic event.
2. "Manage for delight by ensuring that you always have something in your calendar to look forward to." Thinking about this one evoked a feeling of lightness and joy and helped me get through the mundane parts of the day.
3. "Reframing golden hours – know what your evenings look like." The author provides strategies that you could implement so that you can savor the time rather than rush through it such as going on a "little adventure". When we feel strapped for time, we tend to neglect self-care. It doesn't have to be anything elaborate. I find that if I set small intentions and carve out 30-60 minutes each day as she suggests, to do something I enjoy, it makes a positive difference to my day.
4. Doing "effortful fun" - this sounded like a lot of time-consuming work but when you put in the effort to make what you enjoy easier to do, fun becomes doable.
If you are yearning to have "more" time, or manage your time more effectively, give this a read.
July 4, 2026
I really liked this book. Time management is a struggle for most of us. So many of us live extremely busy lives, and it seems like we can’t get everything done or have no time to pursue things we enjoy. Whether it’s work, school, family, or other obligations, time seems scarce. In this capitalist world we live in, always talking about how busy you are is also a form of status signaling, so I think many of us stay busy just so we can use it as a way to brag to others. Fortunately, this book has some solid advice for people who want to live better lives.
I believe Laura Vanderkam said she’s a productivity coach and influencer, and this book is just a ton of advice about how to manage your time better. Since getting a promotion back in March, I’ve felt busier than ever, dreading work and feeling like I have no free time outside of work. I’ve also been the type of person who regularly helps others with time management. This book helped me snap back to reality and remember tips I often give others, and I’ve legitimately been a bit happier since reading this book because it helped me take back how I manage my time.
Big Time will help you take an honest inventory of where your time is being spent and provide you with tips for how to get everything done while also doing things you enjoy. The author is clearly a workaholic, and when you see how she breaks down how she manages her time, it makes you believe you can find time to do the things you want to do as well. One of the best tips in the book is just tracking your time. After doing this for a week or two, you’ll see how much time you spend doing mindless things like scrolling social media feeds or doomscrolling the news. Once you have it tracked, you realize you can substitute that time with something that brings you more joy.
I absolutely recommend this to anyone who feels like they have no control over how they’re spending their time. If you can find the time to read this book, it’ll definitely help you get things on the right track.
I believe Laura Vanderkam said she’s a productivity coach and influencer, and this book is just a ton of advice about how to manage your time better. Since getting a promotion back in March, I’ve felt busier than ever, dreading work and feeling like I have no free time outside of work. I’ve also been the type of person who regularly helps others with time management. This book helped me snap back to reality and remember tips I often give others, and I’ve legitimately been a bit happier since reading this book because it helped me take back how I manage my time.
Big Time will help you take an honest inventory of where your time is being spent and provide you with tips for how to get everything done while also doing things you enjoy. The author is clearly a workaholic, and when you see how she breaks down how she manages her time, it makes you believe you can find time to do the things you want to do as well. One of the best tips in the book is just tracking your time. After doing this for a week or two, you’ll see how much time you spend doing mindless things like scrolling social media feeds or doomscrolling the news. Once you have it tracked, you realize you can substitute that time with something that brings you more joy.
I absolutely recommend this to anyone who feels like they have no control over how they’re spending their time. If you can find the time to read this book, it’ll definitely help you get things on the right track.
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