Laura Vanderkam Quotes & Sayings

Fortunately, being mindful of family time - making a commitment to be there physically and mentally and enjoy life while doing so - makes memories possible. We control a lot less about our children's outcomes in life than we think. They are their own people. But one thing parents do shape is whether kids remember their childhoods as happy. Creating a happy home is a conscious choice, as is creating a happy marriage. — Laura Vanderkam

Look for wars to trim transition times. If you decide to do something, do it. You can lose thirty minutes or more puttering around the house, putting things away, getting distracted, and losing intensity before taking whatever action you decide to take. — Laura Vanderkam

What the most successful people know about weekends is that life cannot happen only in the future. It cannot wait for some day when we are less tired or less busy. If you work long hours, then weekends are key to feeling like you have a life that is broader than your professional identity - even if, and probably because, you take that identity very seriously. — Laura Vanderkam

The majority of people who claim to be overworked work less than they think they do, and many of the ways people work are extraordinarily inefficient. Calling something "work" does not make it important or necessary. — Laura Vanderkam

If you choose your life's work well, something bewitching can happen through your labors. Each hour you log can be a source of joy. — Laura Vanderkam

You don't become a better parent or employee by not enjoying your life. — Laura Vanderkam

You don't build the life you want by saving time. You build the life you want, and then time saves itself. Recognizing that is what makes success possible. — Laura Vanderkam

Since life comes up and emergencies happen, making success possible hinges on two things: being choosy about each day's priority list, and developing an accountability system that works. — Laura Vanderkam

This realization leads to a different question than that suggested by all these tips on simplifying the holidays. Namely, what are you saving your energy for? This is all there is. Anything could happen and you are not guaranteed another snowman. So make a fuss. Make a show. Spend your energy now. — Laura Vanderkam

Ultimately, self-control lets you relax because it removes stress and enables you to conserve willpower for the important challenges. — Laura Vanderkam

Getting adequate sleep is a sign that the world doesn't need your attention for seven to nine hours each day. It keeps spinning as usual in its orbit. Who wants to admit that? — Laura Vanderkam

Time is elastic. It stretches to accommodate what we need or want to do with it. — Laura Vanderkam

I can accomplish more before breakfast than I used to do in a day. — Laura Vanderkam

It is a metaphor for life, perhaps, in that everything is a metaphor for life. The berry season is short. So how full, exactly, do I intend to fill the box? Or, if we slice away the metaphor, we could just ask this: what does the good life look like for me? — Laura Vanderkam

Even if you don't have kids at home, morning time can be great for nurturing your relationship with your spouse, other family members, or your close friends. One of the most disturbing "statistics" I read while researching how people use their time was that dual-income couples could find only 12 minutes a day to talk with each other. — Laura Vanderkam

Reading fiction as you commute to a job you don't like will make you feel somewhat more fulfilled; being in the right job will make you feel incredible. — Laura Vanderkam

Think of a typical full-time worker, who's in the office from nine to five daily, but takes thirty minutes for lunch, leaves an hour early on Friday, and comes in an hour late on Tuesday due to a dental appointment. That puts her at 35.5 hours for the week. One errand tacked on to the end of lunch one day or a longish midmorning break will pull her under that thirty-five-hour threshold that defines "full time. — Laura Vanderkam

If you wait until the end of the month to save what you have left, there will be nothing left over. Likewise, if you wait until the end of the day to do meaningful but not urgent things like exercise, pray, read, ponder how to advance your career or grow your organization, or truly give your family your best, it probably won't happen, If it has to happen, then it has to happen first". — Laura Vanderkam

Successful people know that small things done repeatedly have great power. — Laura Vanderkam

Successful people know that hours, like capital, can be consciously allocated with the goal of creating riches - in the form of a changed world, a life's work - over time. Indeed, successful people understand that work hours must be more carefully stewarded than capital because time is absolutely limited. You can earn more money, but the mightiest among us is granted no more than 168 hours per week, and it is physically impossible to work for all of them. — Laura Vanderkam

become deeply engaged in their team's project, and — Laura Vanderkam

Before the rest of the world is eating breakfast, the most successful people have already scored daily victories that are advancing them toward the lives they want. — Laura Vanderkam

The best morning rituals are activities that don't have to happen and certainly don't have to happen at a specific hour. These are activities that require internal motivation. — Laura Vanderkam

In 168 hours, there is plenty of space to nurture yourself alongside your career and your relationships. — Laura Vanderkam

You need to hit Monday ready to go ... To do that, you need weekends that rejuvenate you, rather than exhaust or disappoint you. Cross-training makes you a better athlete, and likewise, exercise, volunteer work, and spiritual activities make you a better worker. — Laura Vanderkam

Planning a few anchor events for a weekend guarantees you pleasure because - even if all goes wrong in the moment - you still will have derived some pleasure from the anticipation. — Laura Vanderkam

You have fewer than 1,000 Saturdays with each child in your care before they're grown up. — Laura Vanderkam

In life, you can be unhappy, or you can change things. And even if there are things you can't change, you can often change your mind-set and question assumptions that are making life less goof than it could be. — Laura Vanderkam

the force of the water drop that hollows the stone. A small daily task, if it be really daily, will beat the labors of a spasmodic Hercules. — Laura Vanderkam

Getting things down to routines and habits takes willpower at first but in the long run conserves willpower," says Baumeister. — Laura Vanderkam

This is what happens when you treat your 168 hours as a blank slate. This is what happens when you fill them up only with things that deserve to be there. You build a life where you really can have it all. — Laura Vanderkam

you can choose how to spend your 168 hours, and you have more time than you think. — Laura Vanderkam

Success in a competitive world requires hitting Monday refreshed and ready to go. The only way to do that is to create weekends that rejuvenate you rather than exhaust or disappoint you. — Laura Vanderkam