Big Time: A Simple Path to Time Abundance

by Laura Vanderkam

A beloved productivity expert’s mind-opening and schedule-expanding guide to making the most of every hour.


Most of us have an adversarial relationship with time. We’re constantly trying to beat the clock—behavior rooted in a fear that time is scarce and must be obsessed over, hoarded, and ultraoptimized. But what if there is a different way to view time, one that could make our hours feel abundant? What if we believed that we had enough time to advance our careers, enjoy meaningful relationships, pursue hobbies, and more? In Big Time, time management expert Laura Vanderkam shows us how to make this our reality.


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 shows how even busy people can come to feel that time is abundant. Big Time offers simple, tested tactics with high impact, such as developing a “ringmaster” mindset; breaking big goals into daily, bite-sized pieces; and making little bets within a schedule to increase the odds of a breakthrough. Through actionable advice for managing a complex life, Vanderkam demonstrates how we can feel liberated by the time we have, instead of restrained by it.


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.

Genres: Nonfiction, Self Help, Productivity, Audiobook, Personal Development

219 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 5, 2026

About the author

Laura 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.

Reviews

[Emily Starr · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received an ARC from W.W. Norton. Review for Verily Magazine coming in May!

[J · Rating 5 out of 5]

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.

[Dena Gilmore · Rating 5 out of 5]

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!

[Iris Snyder · Rating 5 out of 5]

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’.

[Morton Public Library · Rating 5 out of 5]

Time management | Inspiring | Practical

Summer Guide 2026

[Aaron Mikulsky · Rating 4 out of 5]

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.”

[Alissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anecdotes and practical suggestions

[Shivani · Rating 4 out of 5]

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.

[Lorna Hughes · Rating 5 out of 5]

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.

[Rebekah Suwak-Worsham · Rating 4 out of 5]

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.

[Erica · Rating 4 out of 5]

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.]

[Stephen · Rating 3 out of 5]

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.

[Anton Mar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Big Time argues that time feels less scarce when you stop looking only at one packed day and instead consider the full year. Vanderkam focuses on the 8,760 hours in a year and suggests tracking a real 168 hour week so you see where your time actually goes instead of guessing. When sleep and work are counted honestly, there is more room left for longer term projects and big swings than it feels like when you are only staring at today’s calendar.

The book is most helpful when that mindset turns into simple habits. Ideas like setting a small evening plan for your “golden hours,” going outside after dinner, or aiming for one big and one little adventure each week make fun and rest something you decide in advance rather than whatever is left when you are tired. Leisure time, especially evenings, is treated as something to schedule on purpose rather than spillover after work and family, which makes rest feel like part of the system that keeps everything else running instead of a guilty extra. Since reading it, small changes like after dinner walks or exercise, planning leisure a bit more, and penciling in a weekly themed night such as Italian night already feel like meaningful upgrades.

What stayed with me most was the push to leave margin for serendipity, so there is enough slack to say yes when interesting people, invitations, or ideas show up. I am not sure I will ever track my time in as much detail as the author does, and I have some doubts about sustaining that level of logging over the long term, but the underlying principles still feel useful and adaptable even with a lighter touch. The overall effect is less about becoming a perfect time tracker and more about seeing that there is more room in the week than it first appears, and being a bit more intentional about how to use it.

[Carrie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Big Time by Laura Vanderkam releases on May 5th!

Laura Vanderkam is one of my favorite experts on productivity, time tracking, and general life "hacks."

If you are always trying to beat the clock, cramming in as much as you can in a day, or trying some new trick to really be able to finally do it all, this book is for youuu!!!

Big Time is Laura Vanderkam flipping the notion of doing it all and focusing instead on TIME ABUNDANCE! Sounds amazing, right?

Do you know someone (or are you someone?!) who is always complaining about how busy you are, how overwhelmed you feel, how underwater your life is? It you tracked your every hour tor a week, do you think you'd realize that you have more time than you think?

I can tell you from first-hand experience that tracking my time years ago was an eye-opening experience. You have 8,760 hours in the year. A person who works a 40-hour week has 72 WAKING, nonworking hours each week to do other things. Read that again.

Laura Vanderkam's work to me is just so, so refreshing, so attainable and so digestible. She had me tabbing and highlighting this book and nodding my head along with her.

I have loved her other works for years, specifically Tranquility by Tuesday, What the Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast, 168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think. I also get her emails Vanderhacks, and her weekly emails, and I always look forward to those landing in my inbox (she just posted a fantastic one about screenshots - which I did, in fact, screenshot).

This was such a refreshing read that makes me want to spend more time embracing a less rushed life, perfect for Spring!

Thank you Laura for writing this masterpiece! Thank you to NetGalley and W. W. Norton & Company for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Surprisingly excellent. I'm an old dog, so I'm not sure that I learned any new tricks myself, but I've added this book to my "bookshelf" of must-reads for those I mentor. I'm ordering copies for my (adult) children. I wish that I'd had the wherewithal to write this myself, as much of the advice here aligns directly with the advice I give others.

I have to admit, when I received this book, I was not excited to read it. I didn't know the author and I'm exhausted from over twenty years of reading books on time management, all with promises of efficiency while missing out on how to make those lessons effective. It took me a couple of chapters to realize that this book stands out from the pack. The author isn't trying to impress you with how much rigor can be put into a schedule. She is trying to help you reframe how you think about your schedule in sips, not gulps.

Clocking in at a svelte 205 pages, Big Time is well worth your investment. It is succinct, poignant, and littered with copious amounts of actionable tactics on how to maximize your 8,760 hours a year. It doesn't shame the reader as many other similar books do. It leans in with actionable examples on how to reframe, redefine, and then refine your schedule in a sustainable way, regardless of your season of life.

In the end, I'm glad to have read this book. It distilled over twenty years of my own research into ~200 pages of actionable advice. I may not have learned anything new, but I HAVE learned how to message these concepts more elegantly to others. For that alone, I’m grateful. However, this digestible read is something I wish that I'd had when I was earlier in my career because the advice given here ... just works.

[Manon · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received an advance copy of Big Time in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed Big Time. Laura Vanderkam has this way of writing about time that feels both calming and motivating. The book is easy to read, the stories are relatable, and the ideas actually feel doable in real life.

Like many people, I’ve long been in an adversarial relationship with time. I always feel behind, too much of my day gets eaten up by menial tasks, and too many minutes get wasted on things that don’t matter (yes, including cat videos). Vanderkam acknowledges this familiar scarcity mindset, but she offers a compelling alternative: viewing time as abundant, flexible, and full of possibility.

Drawing on research, real-life examples, and her own time tracking expertise, Vanderkam makes a persuasive case for being more mindful and intentional with our hours. What I appreciated most is how practical the book is. These aren’t abstract theories; they’re things you can actually try right away.

One example that really stuck with me is her point about War and Peace having 361 chapters, most of them relatively short. If you read just one chapter a day, you’d finish one of literature’s most intimidating novels in a year without ever feeling overwhelmed. The idea that small daily actions quietly add up hit me harder than I expected, and it even inspired me to start my own “chapter a day” goal reading Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina.

Big Time left me feeling hopeful, energized, and more in control of how I spend my hours. It’s not just a productivity book; it’s a mindset shift. If you’ve ever felt rushed, stretched thin, or frustrated by how your days unfold, this book offers a refreshing and empowering new way to think about the 8,760 hours we all get each year.

[EVB · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book did an excellent job of putting time in perspective for me. By reflecting on a typical week of my life, I was able to examine how I spend my days, where I was wasting my time, and how I would like to optimize my actions for the following week.

The author provides a wealth of practical tools and tactics she has used, researched, and evaluated via time usage challenges she offered to participants. She gives useful examples of people who led complex lives and managed to create possibilities with their modified schedules. She also includes planning questions, implementation questions, and strategies, as well as a case study, which was helpful with understanding what a real life “time makeover” looks like.

The concept of “golden hour” gave me a number of ideas on how I can set aside a hour each evening to do something enjoyable. By “zooming out” I find myself taking a look at the bigger picture of how to spend my time over the course of 8,760 hours in a year. Implementing what I have learned about time will help me to plan & set goals so they are more achievable and not so daunting.

I’m now inspired to start a time log so I can track how I spend my days, evaluate where I can be more efficient, be more intentional about setting aside time for activities which nourish me, and finding the right balance between time spent on work, relationships, and self.

By making a mindset shift in how we view time, this terrific book will help us realize how abundant time is, thus allowing us to use time to our advantage and to manage our days in ways that lead to a more meaningful life!

[Rob Sagedy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Big Time: A Simple Path to Time Abundance offers a refreshing perspective on one of the most common modern complaints: “I don’t have enough time.” In this engaging and practical book, Laura Vanderkam challenges the assumption that busyness is inevitable and instead explores how people can create a greater sense of time abundance in their lives.

What makes this book particularly effective is its blend of research, real-life examples, and actionable strategies. Vanderkam doesn’t promise unrealistic productivity hacks or encourage readers to cram more tasks into already packed schedules. Instead, she focuses on aligning time with priorities, being intentional about commitments, and recognizing opportunities that often go unnoticed.

The writing is clear, accessible, and encouraging. The concepts are simple enough to implement immediately but meaningful enough to create lasting changes in how readers think about their days. The stories and case studies help illustrate the principles without feeling repetitive or overly academic.

One of the book’s greatest strengths is that it shifts the conversation from time management to life management. Rather than asking how to get everything done, it encourages readers to focus on what truly matters and to make conscious choices that support those priorities.

Whether you’re a busy professional, entrepreneur, parent, or simply someone who feels constantly pressed for time, Big Time provides valuable insights and practical tools for creating a more balanced and fulfilling life. It’s a thoughtful reminder that time abundance is often less about finding more hours and more about using the hours we have with greater intention.

[Erika · Rating 5 out of 5]

"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.

[Graeme Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

Big Time: A Simple Path to Time Abundance is a reflective and practical exploration of how people experience time, and how that experience can be reshaped through intention rather than pressure. Laura Vanderkam draws on extensive research and long-term personal time tracking to challenge the common belief that time is always scarce and uncontrollable.

At the heart of the book is a simple but powerful reframing: time is not something to be constantly fought against, but something that can feel expansive when structured with clarity and purpose. Vanderkam supports this idea with real-world behavioral insights, showing how small, consistent decisions can create a sense of spaciousness even in busy lives.

The book’s strength lies in its grounded approach. Instead of abstract productivity theory, it focuses on practical shifts such as breaking down long-term goals into manageable actions and becoming more aware of how everyday time is actually spent. This makes the ideas both accessible and immediately applicable.

There is also a strong emphasis on recognizing overlooked leisure and undervalued moments, encouraging readers to re-evaluate what “making the most of time” actually means. The tone remains encouraging throughout, aiming to reduce anxiety around productivity rather than intensify it.

Overall, Big Time is a thoughtful and reassuring guide for anyone seeking a healthier, more balanced relationship with time. It is especially relevant for readers who feel overwhelmed by schedules yet still want to pursue meaningful long-term goals without burnout.

[Christina · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was my first time reading Laura Vanderkam’s work, so I went into Big Time without the comparison point that some other reviewers mentioned regarding overlap with her earlier work.

Overall, I found the book to be a helpful mix of reminders of techniques I have experimented with in the past and some completely new ones. What resonated most with me was the shift away from simply “doing more” and toward examining what we are actually spending our time on. I found the time log to be intriguing and to be intention in aligning what really matters to me. I also enjoyed the mindset shift from scarcity to abundance.

There were several concepts I appreciated. Planning with flexibility. Creating small rituals. Making space for things that bring joy. I also needed the reminder (just in time) that “the difference between nothing and just a little more than nothing turns out to be huge.”

The book did lean heavily on parenting examples, which made sense given the audience. Because I’m not a parent, those parts didn’t always connect to my own life experience. I also found there to be some underlying privilege in the assumptions, around having strong support systems and available resources. Some of the recommendations feel far easier to implement when strong networks and financial stability already exist.

This book felt like an invitation to become more thoughtful about how I was experiencing my days. I did walk away with several ideas I want to experiment with, especially around tracking time and creating more intentional evenings.

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Better Way to Think About Time

Laura Vanderkam’s latest book on Time Management, Big Time: A Simple Path to Time Abundance, has a simple yet extremely powerful thesis. If you think about time as being abundant rather than scarce, you’ll find that you can make far better use of the time you have.

Ms Vanderkam offers an array of tools to help make the shift in thinking. Chief among them is time-tracking, to find out not only how you currently use your time, but perhaps more importantly to discover where you can take advantage or if necessary create slots on your schedule to perform work that is important to you. She also asks you to expand your horizon, no longer thinking of time as 24-hour blocks in a day, but rather larger blocks like the 168 hours in a week or the 8,760 hours in a year. Within these larger time pools you can certainly find time to do the things that are important to you, as long as you don’t feel compelled to do it all at once.

While I personally don’t track my time to the degree suggested by Ms Vanderkam, I realized after reading Big Time that with a few simple changes in my daily routine I could be far more productive. I stopped spending the first hours of my day consuming news and working puzzles and got back to the practice of spending my first waking hour writing. For me a huge change.

Big Time is a quick read, and I recommend it to anyone who is feeling that they never have enough time to do what they want. If they learn to think of time as abundant, it can be life changing.

[Curtis Mason · Rating 5 out of 5]

Know what you are getting. This is a book about time management. It is much more than that as well. It is a book about the psychology about time, lack of time and priorities. The author seeks to enable the reader to improve their time management and feel better about their life and accomplish the things that really matter.

Does it accomplish these goals? Absolutely and in a very easy to follow format. Laura did a fantastic job breaking down simple research studies that she has conducted over the years and helping the reader feel like they could have control over their time, mental state, and priorities without adding more challenges into the mix.

I have not followed the author's podcast, other writings or any of her other endeavors. I do not know if all this information is/has been readily available from her in other formats or if this book is just a rewrite of other books. It is a fantastic stand-alone book to manage time.

I had the audiobook which was read by the author, and she did a great job with lots of inflections at appropriate points. I found the pace to be perfect between 1.25 and 1.5x speed.

Writing 5/5
Narration 5/5
Practical information 5/5
Overall the best new nonfiction book I have read to date (5/19) in 2026 barely nudging past "Incorruptible" by Eric Ries (the best business book of 2026) due to practical everyday application for the normal person.

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

Next Big Idea Club

I felt a skeptical going in to this book. Another book on productivity even by Laura Vanderkam felt extra, but the concept of how we all actually have more time available than we think hooked me early. I think most people know they spent too much time scrolling, but realizing the other ways time slips through our fingers was compelling.

I am excited to try time tracking for a few weeks to see where my time goes and how I might be able to leverage it better.

The bulk of this book follows with powerful tactics for how to better leverage your "Golden Hours" each evening or how to take on a big project in a more methodical approach. Her example of reading one chapter of War & Peace per day which will have you finish it in one year is just great. As someone who is constantly trying to read three things at once (fiction, non fiction, personal development) I am energized to try to read one chapter of a personal development book per day.

I kept thinking of the mantra "If you want to get something done, give it to a busy person" kept coming back to me. Wasting time can become a habit, why not replace it with something you've always wanted to get done!

The book is a quick compelling read and worth reading to pick up some of her best ideas to implement in your own life.

[Kaitlynn Cooper · Rating 5 out of 5]

Vanderkam reframes how we think about time in big ways with smaller steps that are both practical and easy to implement. Even the chapters break down the book in ways that make it easy to revisit a section that meets my individual needs when thinking about how and why I use my time the way I do. While every chapter offered practical insights and things to try in my life, two stand out chapters were "Stop Wishing Time Away" and "Be Patient."

In the chapter "Stop Wishing Time Away," Vanderkam points out commonalities that humans tend to desire and might use to measure our satisfaction in our work and lives, even as we all differ in our logistical day to day needs and wants. Vanderkam then breaks down the three main areas with strategies that can support the reader as a "Blueprint for a Better Workday." This chapter made me feel seen and has impacted how I show up at work in a positive way. Counting down to the weekend is one way to spend your working weeks, but Vanderkam offers shifts that mean we don't need to only look forward to the weekend.

Vanderkam's chapter "Be Patient" hit home as I also do not enjoy having to be patient. Vanderkam's framework around patience as an active agent and examples of times that being patient has allowed time to do what time does are truly helpful in working through difficult life moments. This is a chapter I will continue to revisit in the future as a reminder of how patience can be a super power.

[Jeff Loesch · Rating 5 out of 5]

Big time = More Time for You!

By tracking your time (and analyzing your results), planning your week, and taking a longer view of your goals, you will more than likely find time to enjoy life more than you do today. This includes your work, family, and personal life. Staying flexible and patient with time (when possible) and saying yes to opportunities can allow serendipity to enter your life. You never know who you will meet, what you will learn, or what you will be introduced to.

The concepts and ideas presented in this book strongly resonated with me—especially the chapters "Stop Wishing Time Away" and "Embrace Your Golden Hours" (evenings). After all, who wouldn’t want to find a little extra time in the evening for themselves?

This book is for anyone who feels constrained by their schedule and would like to explore how to find more time for themselves to do whatever makes them feel better. Readers will learn how to change their relationship with time. The book is a relatable, quick read and full of analogies that apply to almost anyone.

Since I have just entered the next phase of life, I’m excited to begin tracking my time and leveraging the guidance presented, such as the weekly planning sessions. I am really looking forward to finding more time for exploring, learning, and building new relationships in this new chapter.

This is a must-read for any professional, parent, or anyone feeling overwhelmed by life. Today, that’s just about everyone!

[José Enrique Meza Cancino · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is for everyone like me who constantly complains that there’s never enough time — and spoiler: there isn’t. But the reason might not be what you think.

I love the framework Laura Vanderkam offers and the fresh perspective she brings. Productivity books telling you your goals are achievable if you just organize yourself is nothing new. What felt new to me was the mindset shift she proposes around how we approach time in the first place.

I really liked how she opens with a simple “what if?” — because rather than handing you a direct answer, it cracks open your mind to possibilities. As she puts it in the book, a happy sense of possibilities.

For a productivity book, this one gives you a lot of room for self-reflection. It strikes a great balance between how-to (tracking your time hour by hour, for example) and genuine self-exploration. More than laying out a path — which it does — it also gives you the right questions to sit with before you dive into overhauling your schedule.

One idea that stuck with me: putting more meaningful things into your life often naturally pushes out the less important ones. Most productivity books are all about adding more. This one reminds you that sometimes subtracting is just as valid a move — as long as you’re clear on what actually matters to you.

I’m glad this book found its way to me. I’m already planning to put at least a couple of Laura Vanderkam’s tactics into practice.

[Elizabeth Cherry · Rating 5 out of 5]

The thing about any book that could broadly fall under "self-help" is that you have to actually implement the tips in the book. The benefits don't happen just by reading the book. (This is a note to self more than anything.) On day 2 of reading this book, I downloaded Laura Vanderkam's time-tracking spreadsheet and started tracking. It immediately made me more mindful of how I was using my time. I've done a variety of time tracking in the past, but mostly work-related, and this more holistic approach was much better for me to see how I can more wisely use my time outside of work. Most importantly, her approach in this book is for us to see all of the hours we have outside of work (and sleep) to do wonderful things. Being more mindful about my time really does help me feel more time abundant.

Edited to add: I knew I'd read one of her books before and I only rated it three stars (which means "okay" in my review vernacular). So why did I like this one so much more? I think it had more implementable tips rather than being primarily philosophical. The philosophical approach of time abundance is the basis for this book, but it comes with actual tips for how to get to feeling that way.

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've read all of Laura Vanderkam's books on time management since she wrote 168 Hours in 2010 so I'm very familiar with her. She doesn't have much new to say in this new book. She repackages a few concepts but it is basically the same content as her other books: time tracking, weekly planning, make better use of your evening hours, plan yearly projects. The one new concept is a chapter on being happier at work. Her suggestions are to 1. spend more time on projects your like, 2. deepen work friendships, and 3. take intentional breaks. Not exactly earth shattering suggestions.

The book was pleasant to read and she presents some interesting anecdotes as examples of her principles. I particularly enjoyed the interview she had with a circus performer. Her research in done with surveys and challenges she did with volunteers she recruited on her blog. Not very scientific. For someone who is not familiar with her work, I would recommend this as a good introduction to her concepts. For those who have read her other books or follow her blog, there is not much new material.

Thank you to Netgalley for the advanced reader ebook.

[Cate Gregory · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have read a few classic books on time management and I get something out of each of them. What I appreciated about Laura Vanderkam’s latest book (and I have to admit this is the first I have read from her) was her starting by offering a fundamental mindset shift in terms of how we see our relationship with time - not as a finite resource we will never have enough of and rather as a resource we are lucky to even have - it’s a scarcity vs abundance shift that I had never considered. While I don’t know if there was a ton of “newness” in the tactics - I appreciated the insightfulness around mindsets towards, relationship with and language around our relationships with time. She offers several approaches and then gets into specific tactics that you can try /adopt/ modify to meet your needs. I especially like seeing her personal time tracking log as an example of how to really see where you spend your time - where you spend you time shows what you value and care about. A great and thoughtful read about time that didn’t leaving me feeling like I didn’t have enough of it - rather that I can have a different relationship with time if I choose to!