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0:48

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0:51

She is a force. She was She

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was on the show this past

0:55

year talking about how to

0:57

carve out time for what is

0:59

important and she has a

1:01

lot of thoughts on why we

1:03

mismanage our time and how

1:05

we can do better. do If

1:07

you already a plus thank you

1:09

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1:11

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1:13

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Go .org to find out more.

1:32

out more. Okay, here's some of my

1:34

conversation with time management expert

1:36

Laura Vanderkamp. you. Laura Yeah

1:38

there are so many ridiculous time -saving

1:40

hacks out there hacks out you might

1:43

imagine might of a student of

1:45

this genre of literature of this always

1:47

reading these because going to find hours

1:49

in the day that I didn't

1:51

know existed. find hours The hacks are

1:53

always things like clean the shower

1:55

while you're in it. like,

1:57

clean the shower while you're in it.

2:00

I don't know about you, I don't think

2:02

that's gonna change my life and open

2:04

up hours that I didn't know existed

2:06

or something like, you know, if you send

2:08

a lot of emails where the answer

2:10

is okay, just type. K,

2:12

instead of okay.

2:14

Because, again... we're

2:17

not going to build these fabulous

2:19

lives by typing K instead

2:21

of OK in our emails, no

2:23

matter how many emails you

2:25

send, right? You need to start

2:27

with figuring out what you

2:29

want to spend more time doing

2:31

in your life. And then

2:33

you tend to naturally spend less

2:35

time in your inbox?

2:37

So let's talk about that. Well,

2:39

like what is the mistake you

2:41

think that people have? Like is

2:43

it about, well, if I hack

2:45

the lunches at night, then in

2:47

the morning I won't feel so

2:49

rushed. or you know, do you

2:51

find that people think they have

2:53

can sort of hack this whole

2:56

like time problem, but that they're

2:58

actually not being as effective as

3:00

they might think. Yeah, mean,

3:02

packing lunches the night before is

3:04

always a bit of a bugaboo for

3:06

me. I mean, because it doesn't

3:08

save time. It just moves the task

3:10

around. And it moves it from

3:12

time that you were probably going to

3:14

be in the kitchen anyway, to

3:16

time that you could have been relaxing

3:19

or sleeping or something else. A

3:21

lot of people's time -saving hacks amount

3:23

to moving things around. They're just rescheduling

3:25

work rather than removing work. You

3:27

know, I think for many parents who

3:29

are packing lunches the night before,

3:31

that is leisure time that they could have

3:33

had to, you know, feel more rejuvenated

3:35

for the rest of life. So, but that's

3:37

just one example of how people kind

3:39

of don't necessarily think

3:41

about how to open up

3:44

space in their lives and how

3:46

to make sure that they

3:48

are spending more time on what

3:50

is meaningful or enjoyable to

3:52

themselves, to the people they care

3:54

about, and maybe a little

3:56

bit less time on things that

3:58

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6:08

One of the things you have people

6:10

do is track their time over

6:12

a week and can you just explain

6:14

what exactly you ask them to

6:16

do and why you think that might

6:19

be helpful to other people? Whenever

6:21

somebody says they want to spend their

6:23

time better, I suggest they figure

6:25

out where the time is going now.

6:27

Like, it may be that something

6:29

you thought was taking a lot of

6:31

your time really isn't. And it

6:33

might be that something that you hadn't

6:35

considered is taking more time than

6:37

you imagined. right? You want to make

6:39

sure you are working from good data. So

6:41

I always suggest people try tracking their

6:44

time for a week. A week is the

6:46

cycle of life as we live it. It's

6:48

somewhat useful to know how you spend

6:51

Tuesday, but it's even more useful to

6:53

know how you spend a unit of

6:55

time that encompasses both Tuesdays and Saturdays

6:57

because then you get a complete picture

6:59

of your life. I've

7:01

had thousands of people do this now.

7:03

I've tracked my time continuously for

7:05

almost nine years now. Whoa! Whoa. I

7:07

know, that makes me sound like

7:10

a lot of fun, doesn't it? But

7:13

what have you learned by that? it,

7:15

do you feel like it's become something that

7:17

keeps you on track in a way?

7:19

Or are you watching, are there trends happening

7:21

in your life where you're seeing changes?

7:23

I think that it It just

7:25

makes me mindful. of my hours.

7:27

And And at this point, it

7:30

has become as much of

7:32

a journaling function as anything else,

7:34

because I can call up

7:36

a time log from six years

7:38

ago. So, you know, be

7:40

Monday, December 11. 2017,

7:43

and Monday, December 11, 2023. Anyway,

7:45

when I look at the

7:47

weeks, I can almost universally recall

7:49

those weeks once I see

7:51

the log. And so the

7:53

time isn't completely gone. Like the memory

7:55

is still there. Oh, that's really nice.

7:57

Yeah, but that's not why I mean

8:00

encouraging people to track 168 hours

8:02

one week. week. It's more

8:04

because most people have not

8:06

had the experience of truly

8:08

seeing where their time goes. And

8:10

often it just just reveals things

8:12

to people. mean, one

8:15

thing that most people see is, how much

8:17

how much time they have, Because if

8:19

you have a If you have a

8:21

full -time job, you often think,

8:23

well, a full -time job is the

8:25

full amount of my time. my time.

8:27

And yet you you very will see

8:30

see on 168 hours that even 50

8:32

or 60 hours time for time for

8:34

other things. are you And so what

8:36

are you doing with that time? people

8:38

are often surprised to see where it

8:40

might go. might go. Many people find things

8:42

that things that pleasant than they might have

8:44

imagined. A lot of people who A

8:46

work long hours are walking around with

8:48

the story of hours I never see my

8:51

family, with a full of like, I never see

8:53

my family. A A time

8:55

log will often reveal that you do see

8:57

your family. Now again, it

8:59

may not be as much time as

9:01

you want, but it's probably not So

9:03

what's the So what's the purpose in

9:05

that? Is it to like, rewrite your narrative

9:07

and appreciate the time that you

9:09

are spending with your family? the most

9:11

of it. Like, what's the Make the most

9:13

of it. Like, I always tell people. then?

9:16

Look at what is going right

9:18

in your life first going right celebrate

9:20

whatever that is. I mean,

9:22

most of us have our

9:24

lives and our schedules for a

9:26

reason. It is the result

9:28

of choices we have made. we

9:30

And so and so is working really

9:32

well. Maybe you managed to exercise

9:34

three times during an incredibly

9:36

busy week. busy week. you got a

9:38

reasonable amount of sleep even

9:41

though, again, it was busy. again, it

9:43

you made time to read

9:45

to your kids four nights the week

9:47

Or, you know, know, maybe you made

9:49

time to mentor a younger colleague.

9:51

There's just all sorts of things

9:53

that might have been awesome that

9:55

could have happened in a, you

9:57

know, know, otherwise busy or unremarkable week.

10:00

and so you should celebrate that. And

10:02

then you can start asking, what do

10:04

you want to spend more time doing?

10:06

Because maybe there's something that you're doing

10:09

a little bit of, but you'd like

10:11

to do a lot of, and you

10:13

can identify that. Just off the top

10:15

of your head, can you kind of

10:18

list the things that people decide to

10:20

prioritize is their health? And that's often

10:22

precipitated by some sort of crisis, right?

10:24

That they've gotten sick and all of

10:27

a sudden it's like, okay, I can't

10:29

just keep going neglecting my health. I

10:31

need to make sure that I have

10:33

time to sleep each night. I need

10:36

to make space to exercise. Maybe people

10:38

are in some sort of chronic pain

10:40

and their physician is telling them, well,

10:42

like, you need to do these exercises

10:45

to help with it. You're like, I

10:47

don't have the time for that. It's

10:49

like, okay, well, now you're writhing on

10:51

the floor in pain with your back

10:54

spasm. Like, maybe we could start making

10:56

the time, right? So, you know, things

10:58

like that people feel they haven't, you

11:00

know, they spend a lot of time

11:03

with their kids, but maybe not. entering

11:05

their kids' worlds and kind of having

11:07

those relaxed conversations with them. Because there's

11:09

always something else you can be doing.

11:12

You know, you have to run off

11:14

and do the laundry or, you know,

11:16

do whatever else. And then all of

11:18

a sudden you've got a kid who's

11:21

16, 17 years old and they're going

11:23

to be leaving in a year or

11:25

two. And you start saying, oh, well,

11:28

maybe I would want to prioritize that

11:30

trip to Starbucks over doing another load

11:32

of laundry. We're all figuring out how

11:34

to use our 168 hours of the

11:37

week. playing probably a slightly more difficult

11:39

level of the game at different points

11:41

in their lives. But if you're not

11:43

intentional about your time, it will be

11:46

spent on something. But whether it's spent

11:48

on something that you would have actively

11:50

chosen, well, that may not happen. So

11:52

let's say someone is saying, like, you

11:55

know, this is the year I am

11:57

going to find. time to read more

11:59

fiction? Like how should we approach this?

12:01

I think there are a couple ways

12:04

that someone might approach it. First is

12:06

when you have something that you truly

12:08

want to read, you wind up finding

12:10

time for it, even if you didn't

12:13

think you had that time in your

12:15

schedule. I'm sure many people had this

12:17

experience when they were... Kids with reading

12:19

Harry Potter like all of a sudden

12:22

there were hours in the day to

12:24

read that they wouldn't have identified as

12:26

reading hours But they wanted to find

12:28

out what happens next so if anyone

12:31

thinks they don't have time to read

12:33

that might actually be a way to

12:35

figure out where you do have time

12:37

to read is You know pick up

12:40

some sort of book that you absolutely

12:42

can't put down. And then you can

12:44

also look for other bits of time

12:47

during the day that you might be

12:49

able to open up to the possibility

12:51

of reading. A lot of this is

12:53

about how we use small bits of

12:56

leisure time. I mean, many of us,

12:58

if we don't have something we are

13:00

doing in the next five minutes, what

13:02

do we do? We pull out our

13:05

phones. Perhaps we look at email first,

13:07

you know, telling ourselves that we're being

13:09

productive. And that could have been reading

13:11

time too. And so I'm always encouraging

13:14

people to put books on your phone.

13:16

And when you pick up your phone

13:18

in those little bits of time, you

13:20

might be able to get five to

13:23

10 minutes of reading done if you

13:25

do that first before you go do

13:27

things like read headlines or check social

13:29

media. How do you suggest people prioritize

13:32

as they look at the upcoming year

13:34

and get into this mindset of looking

13:36

at time as something that they do

13:38

have and that they can use to

13:41

make. these priorities come true. So anything

13:43

you want to do is going to

13:45

involve spending time on it, right? We

13:47

live our lives and hours, and so

13:50

any of these big ideas are actually

13:52

going to be manifested in how we

13:54

spend our hours. And so I think

13:56

it's often helpful to look at

13:59

what a big

14:01

goal will entail. in

14:03

terms of how you might spend your time

14:05

on an average day. So the idea

14:08

of I want to eat more healthfully, well,

14:10

what does that actually mean? Well, maybe

14:12

we drill down to I am going to

14:14

actually achieve that five servings of fruits

14:16

and veggies that the nutritionists tell us to

14:18

do. Okay, well, what does that look

14:20

like in terms of breakfast, lunch, and dinner,

14:22

and snacks? Well, what kind of veggies

14:25

am I going to be eating? Well, I

14:27

don't know, now we're getting done. What

14:29

does this mean for when I go to

14:31

the grocery store on Tuesday? And I

14:33

think the reason people often fail at their

14:35

resolutions is because they haven't drilled all

14:37

the way down to when I'm in the

14:39

grocery store on Tuesday, I will be

14:42

grabbing a bag of baby spinach so I

14:44

can add a handful to these various

14:46

other meals that I am making. right?

14:48

But when you have that as a

14:50

very specific thing that you plan to

14:52

do, then the bigger goal has a

14:54

fight or a chance of happening, right?

14:56

now you have made these tweaks that

14:58

actually affect your day -to -day life and

15:00

that have a space in your life

15:02

and that you have thought through what

15:04

it's going to entail in terms of

15:07

how you are spending your time. Do

15:09

you see a difference in the people

15:11

who have Mmm,

15:13

good time hygiene, I guess is the I'm

15:15

thinking of it, like, Like are they? Are

15:18

they calmer? Are they more relaxed

15:20

or not because they have to

15:22

get somewhere that's next on their

15:25

schedule. Yeah, I think people

15:27

can have various different temperaments. So you

15:29

could be the kind of person who

15:31

is on time everywhere but anxious about it.

15:34

Or you could be late to not

15:36

anxious about it, but you could also be

15:38

late and anxious about it. I

15:41

will say is that a

15:43

lot of people whose lives were

15:45

a bit more happy -go lucky.

15:48

have something happen in their life where

15:50

this just no longer works. So for

15:52

some people, it's that they have

15:54

a kid. or then

15:56

they have multiple kids. and what

15:58

worked when it was just. You, as an

16:00

an adult. longer no longer works when

16:02

you have in other people in your family

16:04

who all want to go various places

16:07

and need to have things happening and

16:09

all of a sudden all living in absolute

16:11

chaos, right? right? Or, Or maybe it's something

16:13

that happens at work. Like it was fine

16:15

when Like just it go to work and

16:17

you do whatever your manager tells you

16:19

to but now all of a sudden

16:21

you're managing a team of 10 people. but now

16:23

Well, if you don't think it through,

16:25

they're not getting anything done, right? And

16:27

so you don't think you to be a little

16:29

bit more intentional about what you are

16:31

doing. behooves you can make sure that

16:33

your team is executing on what

16:36

they need to be doing. you can make

16:38

I think for many people it's

16:40

just this, as life becomes more

16:42

complex, doing. you realize that it

16:44

requires a lot more intentionality. intentionality. Hmm. You

16:46

though that complexity isn't the

16:48

enemy. Chaos is the enemy.

16:50

You can have a very complex life

16:52

have a very if you know where all

16:54

the pieces need to go then

16:57

it can feel very orderly and

16:59

in control. orderly To me that is

17:01

the secret of me, that is the about life.

17:03

calm about life. That was

17:05

management expert Laura You can hear

17:07

more of my conversation with

17:09

her of my the TED Radio

17:12

Hour with her in the Ted Radio Hour episode

17:14

this year. the Script we have

17:16

got all kinds of bonus

17:18

episodes to get you out

17:20

of 2024 of bonus 2025 you out of

17:22

new ideas, fresh outlooks. Meanwhile

17:24

though, our regular episode of

17:26

TED Radio Hour will be

17:28

out on Friday. on Friday. I am

17:30

talking to Microsoft AI CEO

17:33

Suleiman about the future

17:35

of AI. He's got quite a got quite

17:37

a life story our our

17:39

conversation really helped me see

17:41

clearly into this fascinating future. Do

17:43

Do join us. now, thanks

17:45

For now, thanks again for listening and

17:47

being here. here. This

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