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"In years of studying people's schedules, I've talked to plenty of busy people who seem rushed and harried. Yet others, with similar time demands, seem relaxed. I well recall a conversation with an executive I hoped to interview about her astonishing productivity. I began our call with an assurance that I would not take much of her time. She laughed. 'Oh, I have all the time in the world,' she said.
Wouldn't it be nice to feel like that? For my new book, Off the Clock, I recruited 900 people with full-time jobs and families to track their time for a day. I asked how they felt about their time. I analyzed the differences between people who felt starved for time, and those who felt time was abundant. These seven strategies came up again and again—and can help anyone feel less busy while getting more done."
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"I like to think I'm a good steward of my hours—I write and speak about time management for a living!—but in terms of having space for what matters to me, I'm far from the only one. The popular narrative about women, work, and life is full of what I call 'recitations of dark moments': these lamentations about missed soccer games, or waking up at 5:15 a.m. to do laundry. They imply that working motherhood requires becoming some maxed out mess. And yet the reality is that women with big careers have far more balanced lives than the popular narrative conveys. That's good news for anyone wondering if it's possible to have a career, kids, free time, and even a full night's sleep. It is possible to have it all, not just in theory, but in how we live our day-to-day lives."
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"The last few years have certainly shown the downside of thinking that more house is always better, even if you have to stretch to afford it. Regardless, it's silly to talk about personal finance without talking about where you live and what you drive. In the context of achieving happiness, there is also some intriguing research suggesting that big, infrequent purchases (such as houses and cars) don't do much for overall happiness, whereas spending a lower percentage of your income on these items might free up cash for categories that will give you a more pleasant life. There are also plenty of people who have discovered this truth and, rather than trying to keep up with the Joneses or submitting to their tyranny, are getting a good laugh at them."
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"It is an unquestioned truth of modern life: we are all starved for time. With the rise of 2-income families, extreme jobs, and the ability to log on to the world around the clock, we can barely find time to breathe.
At least that's the way the story goes. Yet there are some people who don't seem to feel this way. Not only do they have full personal and professional lives, they often claim they could fit more in if they wished!
How do these people do so much with their time? How do they do so much and not even feel stressed about it?"
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