How Do I Reclaim My Schedule? (w/ Laura Vanderkam) | Monday Advice
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How can I reclaim my schedule and find time abundance?
if you ask most people how they feel about their schedule they'll say their biggest problem is that they don't have enough time busyness is often cast as the scourge of our current moment the villain that is keeping us from cultivating deep lives But is this time scarcity narrative correct? Well, today is Monday, which means it's time for an advice episode of this show, which is the perfect opportunity to take a closer look at this question. Now, to help me in this exploration, I'll be joined by my friend Laura Vanderkam, who has a new book out titled Big Time, A Simple Path to Time Abundance. Now, Laura has been making waves recently by arguing that the story we tell ourselves about not having enough free time is more about mindset than reality, that we actually have more time to work with than we realize if we can adjust habitually.
how we approach our schedules and our expectation for our schedules. Now, I think there are some incredibly important ideas in here for those who are interested in seeking depth in an increasingly distracted world. The very best deterrent to losing yourself in endless digital distractions has to be to build a life that is more interesting and more intentional than what's happening on all of those screens. And Laura argues that you can start cultivating this depth right away without having to make drastic changes to your circumstances like a major career shift or moving to the countryside. So if you feel like your life has been slipping out of your control and you crave something deeper... then you need to listen to this conversation.
So let's get into it. As always, I'm Cal Newport, and this is Deep Questions, the show for people seeking depth in a distracted world.
So Laura, I want to start by talking about our perceptions of our free time versus the reality. So the most common story that you point out that people seem to be telling about their time is they don't have enough. They're busy in a way they haven't been before. There is no free time in their life. What have you found to be the reality about that narrative?
I have found through looking at thousands of people's schedules that Even the busiest among us has some free time. Now, it probably is not as much as we want, but there's a big difference between not as much as I want and none. And so when people track their time, they tend to see that there's at least a little bit here and there. And that's just a good thing to know. It's a much better story to tell ourselves than none, which is completely defeatist. If we see that we have some, even if it's not as much as we want, then we can start asking, well, what do we want to do with it? What would be most enjoyable in these few minutes I have? What would feel most rejuvenating? Whereas if you're telling yourself a story that I have no free time whatsoever –
What do you do when free time appears? Well, these days it tends to be whatever is easiest right in front of us, our electronic hobbies of scrolling around online, looking at social media, that sort of thing. So if you want to spend the free time that everybody has well, then we need to first acknowledge that it exists.
So how much are we talking about, right? So when you look at these time tracking logs, people actually writing down how they spent their time of a real week, what did you discover? Is it, hey, I got 23 minutes a week and I thought I had none, or is it more substantial? What are you actually finding when you look at this data?
For most people, it's way more substantial than 20 minutes a week. And if anybody wants to check that, you can look at your electronic tallies. Even those of us who try to stay off a lot of websites and headlines and things like that, wind up consuming more than we mean to. I mean, that's the nature of sort of addictive technology. But, you know, it tends to be some amount of time, maybe an hour or two at night. Sometimes it comes in bits and pieces, but it's generally at least an hour or two in the That could at least be repurposed.
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Chapters
7 chapters
1
How can I reclaim my schedule and find time abundance?
0:00–6:32
2
What mindset shifts are necessary to perceive free time differently?
6:32–15:58
3
How do we effectively track and analyze our time usage?
15:58–26:59
4
What strategies can help us prioritize meaningful activities?
26:59–30:10
5
How can batching email responses improve productivity?
30:10–54:41
6
What are the benefits of weekly planning for managing time?
54:41–1:13:55
7
How can we incorporate intentional leisure activities into our schedules?
1:13:55–1:26:53
Speakers
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