In this episode, I sit down with Laura Vanderkam, bestselling author of Big Time: A Simple Path to Time Abundance, along with several other books on time management, productivity, and building a more meaningful life.

Laura and I talk about something almost every high performer wrestles with: time.

So many people believe they have a time management problem, but Laura challenges that idea. Often, the issue is not that we have no time. It is that we are not always intentional with the time we do have.

We talk about the difference between time scarcity and time abundance, why busy people can still have unused space in their lives, and how small pockets of time can become opportunities for joy, connection, rest, creativity, and meaningful progress.

Laura also shares how she manages life as a writer, speaker, podcast host, business owner, wife, and mother of five. We talk about planning, energy, open space, parenting, routines, travel, big projects, and why a well-organized life can actually create more freedom, not less.

About the Guest

Laura Vanderkam is the author of Big Time: A Simple Path to Time Abundance, as well as several other time management books, including Tranquility by Tuesday, Off the Clock, and 168 Hours.

She is the host of the Before Breakfast podcast and the co-host, with Sarah Hart-Unger, of the Best of Both Worlds podcast. She also writes the Vanderhacks Substack newsletter, where she shares a short tip each weekday.

Laura's work has appeared in publications including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Fast Company, and Fortune. She lives outside Philadelphia with her husband and five children.

Her work helps people rethink time, not as something they are constantly losing, but as something they can shape with more intention, awareness, and possibility.

Key Takeaways

→ Why time is really about how we experience it

→ What Laura means by "time abundance"

→ Why many people have more space in their lives than they realize

→ How phones and scrolling quietly fill the small crevices of our day

→ Why believing you have time helps you make better choices with the time you do have

→ The difference between time and energy

→ Why low-energy time still matters and can be used intentionally

→ How bedtime gives structure and shape to the day

→ Why planning ahead can create more relaxation, not more rigidity

→ Laura's "three-ring circus" framework: career, relationships, and self

→ How sitting down once a week to plan can prevent chaos later

→ Why meaningful long-term projects can make life feel bigger

→ How reading War and Peace one chapter a day changed Laura's relationship with time

→ Why small actions repeated consistently can create major accomplishments

→ How scheduling open space can create room for opportunity

→ Why most opportunities do not show up gift-wrapped

→ How personal-life overwhelm can prevent people from saying yes to good opportunities

→ Why ambitious parents need systems that protect both family life and personal space

Closing Thoughts

This conversation with Laura reminded me that time is not just something we manage.

It is something we experience.

So many of us walk around saying we are busy, overwhelmed, and out of time. And sometimes we are in a genuinely demanding season. But often, the story we tell ourselves about time shapes the way we use it.

If we believe there is no time, we stop asking what we would do with it.

And when time appears, we give it away to whatever is easiest.

Laura's message is not about cramming more into every hour. It is about becoming more awake to the hours we already have.

That means planning with intention. Protecting open space. Understanding our energy. Creating moments we will remember. And building a life where our time reflects what actually matters.

The goal is not to optimize every second.

The goal is to live with enough awareness that we do not miss our actual life.