Welcome to Vanderhacks!

A little newsletter about how to take your day from great to awesome

Let’s do life better — together

Thank you for reading this newsletter. I’m so excited you are here.

I like to get things done. Who doesn’t? I like to study people who get a lot done and I like to see what I can learn from them.

I like to be productive — but I don’t define productivity solely as climbing the corporate ladder, or earning a lot of money. I am most impressed by people who succeed professionally and who also have happy home lives and hobbies, and who are deeply involved in their communities.

Vanderhacks is about holistic productivity. Each weekday I’ll share a short tip that can help you take your day from great to awesome. Each tip is about how to get great things done in a world where life is worth celebrating, and people are a good use of time.

I wear several different hats in life. I write books about time management and productivity (Tranquility by Tuesday, I Know How She Does It, What the Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast, 168 Hours). I speak about time management to corporate and conference audiences (see my TED talk here). I host two podcasts: Before Breakfast, and Best of Both Worlds (which I co-host with Sarah Hart-Unger).

I am also a mom of five kids, ages 16, 14, 12, 8, and 3. I have been married to my husband for almost 20 years. I sing in my church choir (with my oldest son!), play the piano, and I try to run more days than not.

I believe that we do have enough time to do what is important to us. There are 168 hours in a week. There are 8760 hours in a year (8784 in 2024!). While time is precious, it is also plentiful enough to hold space for satisfying work, deep relationships, and time for fun. When we think time is scarce, we don’t ask what we’d like to do with our time, because why bother? So we do whatever is right in front of us, which might not be particularly meaningful or enjoyable. When we view time as abundant, we start to think about how we’d like to spend it, and how to make those things happen. Ultimately we make better choices.

I hope you will enjoy these tips. Most will be broadly applicable. Maybe every few days you’ll read something that doesn’t work for you, but I hope you’ll pass those tips along to someone else who might find them helpful. I welcome feedback and ideas. You can always reach me at laura@lauravanderkam.com.

Thanks for joining me — and here’s to making the most of our time.