Episode 67: How to Make the Most of Your Time

Why are we so apt to blame work for hard choices when there are other reasons that we have to make choices as well? I think it’s because we’re still not entirely comfortable with women achieving professionally.
— Laura Vanderkam
Photo by Pogonici/iStock / Getty Images
Photo by Pogonici/iStock / Getty Images

Laura Vanderkam

We say it repeatedly - that we're 'crazy busy' and 'don't have time' for various things we enjoy, or used to. The pressure of work and life is too much.

Or is it?

In this show I talk to author and journalist Laura Vanderkam about women and time management. Her latest book is I Know How She Does It - How Successful Women Make the Most of Their Time. Laura says many of us buy into a negative storyline about what's (im)possible as a worker and a parent. She argues there are ways to have a senior job and a family and not lose your mind - you just have to think creatively.

Thanks to Foreign Affairs magazine, which is sponsoring this episode of the show. Head to ForeignAffairs.com/broad to get a year's subscription for $19.95 - that's more than 80% off.

Further reading: If listening to the show has inspired you to keep track of your own hours for a week, you can download one of Laura's timesheets here: http://lauravanderkam.com/manage-your-time/

If you'd like to read more about that lawyer who quit Clifford Chance after at least one terrible day, here's her goodbye email.

And this Harvard Business Review piece, Why Some Men Pretend to Work 80 Hour Weeks, is by Erin Reid, the Boston University researcher who studied men and women at a large global consulting firm.

You can also read a transcript of the show.

And about that T shirt I mentioned at the end of the podcast...if you can support this one-woman show with a $50 donation I'll send you a Broad Experience T-shirt (below). Fill out this form with your contact details and size, and make your donation here at the site's donate page. Thank you!