Making Time for What Matters with Laura Vanderkam (SB1787)

What It Covers

Time management expert Laura Vanderkam explains how to reclaim control of 168 weekly hours through Friday planning sessions, energy tracking, and eliminating time confetti while addressing estate planning strategies to prevent burdening family members with cleanup.

Key Questions Answered

• •Weekly Planning Ritual: Plan your upcoming week every Friday afternoon at 2PM when mental energy naturally declines, repurposing wasted time to map out professional priorities, personal goals, and logistical challenges before the weekend begins, eliminating Sunday anxiety and enabling Monday momentum.
• •Time Confetti Strategy: Harness scattered five to ten minute gaps by maintaining a pre-planned list of meaningful micro-tasks like texting friends, reviewing photos, or reading, which accumulates to thirty minutes daily or three and a half hours weekly, completing roughly one book every two weeks.
• •Morning Priority Protection: Complete your three most important tasks before 10AM and avoid checking email until then, preventing other people's urgent requests from hijacking your agenda and ensuring two focused hours when energy peaks, rather than scrambling at 4PM when exhausted and inefficient.
• •Energy Battery Management: Track energy levels alongside time to identify natural peaks and crashes, then proactively schedule ten to fifteen minute renewal activities during predictable afternoon slumps, such as outdoor walks, colleague coffee breaks, or motivational content, preventing productivity collapse throughout remaining hours.
• •Estate Cleanup Framework: Document end-of-life care preferences, activate power of attorney and healthcare directives before mental decline occurs, and eliminate unnecessary possessions now rather than burdening adult children with emotional decisions and financial hardship, as baby boomers aging creates thirty percent more caregivers by 2050.