How Do I Reclaim My Schedule? (w/ Laura Vanderkam) | Monday Advice
5/25/20261 hr 27 min
It’s common to feel like you don’t have enough time in your schedule to build a life that’s both professionally successful and personally deep. But is this true? In today’s episode, Cal interviews time management expert Laura Vanderkam about her new book, BIG TIME, which argues that with the right tweaks and mindset you might be able to start getting more out of your life right away. Below are the questions covered in today's episode (with their timestamps). Get your questions answered by Cal! Send an email to podcast@calnewport.com. Video from today’s episode: youtube.com/calnewportmedia (0:00) How do I reclaim my schedule? (w/ Laura Vanderkam) (2:00) Eliminating distraction and prioritizing deep work (1:08:18) Batching email responses (1:13:25) Cal’s upcoming books (1:18:51) What Cal is reading (1:24:06) HQ update Books: Grow Healthier as You Grow Older (Kenneth Cooper) The Ride of a Lifetime (Bob Iger) MurderBot (Martha Wells) Links: Sign up for Cal’s newsletter at www.calnewport.com/ideas Buy Cal’s latest book, “Slow Productivity” at www.calnewport.com/slow Get a signed copy of Cal’s “Slow Productivity” at https://peoplesbooktakoma.com/event/cal-newport/ Cal’s monthly book directory: bramses.notion.site/059db2641def4a88988b4d2cee4657ba? Thanks to our Sponsors: https://www.calderalab.com/deep https://www.vanta.com/deepquestions https://www.shipstation.com/deep https://www.drinklmnt.com/deep Thanks to Jesse Miller for mastering and production, Jay Kerstens for the intro music, and Nate Mechler for research and newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsCal Newport· Host0:00
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's 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 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.