Simplify Your Time: Laura Vanderkam Says Treat Your Priorities Like They’re Flooding Your Basement

In this week’s episode of Simplify, Ben Schuman-Stoler chats to time management expert and author of the bestsellers I Know How She Does It, What the Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast, and 168 Hours, Laura Vanderkam.

“We don’t live our lives in days, we live our lives in weeks. And when we look at the whole week, we can see that there often is enough space for what we want to do.” — Laura Vanderkam

If you feel like you simply don’t have enough time for all you want to achieve, or have been putting off your pet project to focus on your day job/family/life admin, you’ll finish this episode feeling more confident about being able to achieve your goals. You just have to learn to bend time to your will. Simple.

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Who’s Laura Vanderkam?

Laura Vanderkam is the author of several time management and productivity books, including I Know How She Does It, What the Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast, and 168 Hours. Her work has appeared in publications including Fast Company, Fortune, USA Today, and the Wall Street Journal. She lives outside Philadelphia with her husband and four children, and blogs at lauravanderkam.com.

What’s Simplify?

Simplify is a podcast for anybody who’s taken a close look at their habits, their happiness, their relationships, or their health and thought “There’s got to be a better way to do this.” We talk to bestselling writers, productivity wizards, sex geniuses, and happiness experts to find it for you. Life is complicated, but living it better doesn’t have to be. Simplify.

Simplify is made with love by Blinkist. Click here to try Blinkist free for 14 days with the voucher code: waterheater

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Who made this?

Your hosts are Caitlin Schiller and Ben Schuman-Stoler.

Stellar research and production assistance by the outstanding Nika Mavrody.

Thanks to Nico Guiang for our awesome intro and outro music. Listen to more on Soundcloud or check him out on Facebook.

Sound and editing by Ody Constantinou who once tried going an entire week without sleeping, only to lose his bearings, board the wrong train on the way to work, and be woken up half a day later by a security guard’s nightstick somewhere near the Baltic Sea.

Got links?

Ann-Marie Slaughter article for The Atlantic, “Why Women Still Can’t Have It All”.

Extra Credit Reading

Laura Vanderkam recommends:

The Road to Little Dribbling by Bill Bryson

Notes from a Small Island by Bill Bryson