11 ways to make your time feel less rushed during a busy week

This article is republished with permission from Wonder Tools, a newsletter that helps you discover the most useful sites and apps. I love Laura Vanderkam’s books about how to make the most of time. It’s never about stuffing more into our days. It’s not about productivity. It’s about savoring and being creatively thoughtful about what we choose to do. Her books 168 Hours and Tranquility by Tuesday changed how I think about my own weeks. For example, her argument for “effortful before effortless,” nudged me to spend more of my discretionary time on my hobbies. Her latest book, Big Time, released last month, makes the case for time abundance: we have more time than we think, and there are surprising ways we can savor it. Laura and I talked about why weeks matter more than days, how to make work more satisfying with small changes, and why your weekday evenings may hold more free time than you realize. Below, my favorite ideas from our conversation: 1. Your Life Is a Circus. Be the Ringmaster When people say “my life is a circus,” they mean chaos. Laura says that’s a slander against circuses. A real circus is a super-organized performance. Nobody gets shot out of a cannon at the wrong time. She thinks of life as a well-orchestrated three-ring circus: career, relationships, and self. You’re the ringmaster. Each ring may have a bigger or smaller act at any given moment. A good circus is managed for delight. You want to run a show you’d actually want to watch. The circus also needs a safety net. Complex lives require backup plans so that complexity doesn’t descend into chaos. 2. Think in Weeks, Not Days There are 168 hours in a week. That number matters more than 24. If you work 40 hours and sleep 56, you still have 72 hours for other things. That’s not all free time. But we have much more discretionary time than we often realize. Laura says the time-crunch feeling often results from looking narrowly at today. Zoom out to the week and you’ll often see more room. 3. Track Y