Something funny lately is that friends keep recommending books to me on the topic of being overwhelmed and overworked. I can't wait to read them! Someday. But last week a happy opportunity presented itself when I was invited to hear Laura Vanderkam, author of I Know How She Does It: How Successful Women Make The Most of their Time speak at Leo Burnett. I figured hearing the author talk about her book would be as close to actually reading as I could get for now.

In her book Vanderkam interviewed and received time logs from a variety of working women and she discussed her findings at the talk.

I was looking forward to learning some new tips and tricks for how to manage my life but actually if anything I felt affirmed by my own existing habits. Like I'm not doing pretty bad. Some examples include:

• Successful women* work more than 40 hours a week--but not a lot more. I feel like by and large I keep "regular" work hours.
  
  
• Successful women get a decent amount of sleep. I think I do this as well as any woman with two small children can.
  
  
• Successful women make time for self-care and don't feel bad about it. Exercise, time to yourself and the occasional indulgence are necessary for charging one's batteries. I work out five or six days a week and don't feel particularly bad about it and I actually am going to try to make more of an effort to get out every day so I don't feel crazy burned-out by the end of it.
  
  
• Successful women aren't cheap when it comes to outsourcing help. We pay a cleaning lady to come every other week and we basically spend all our money on childcare.
  
  
• Successful women aren't all or nothing with their time and they're okay with it. Some nights they're done-done at 5 PM and other nights they're emailing from 9 PM to bedtime. This is me and I think since having kids actually I'm much better at not thinking anymore "This is the way it's going to be--forever!" because I have experienced proof that it is not.

However there were a few takeaways from the talk that told me what I need to work on. This includes:

• To have a good Monday, plan your upcoming week on Friday. What are your goals for the week--not just for work, but for relationships and your self? I think on Friday I often slag off yet also scramble around. I should consider it more of a planning day.
  
  
• Make sure you outsource help in ways that actually help you. Is it more important to clean the baseboards or to have someone help you with the dishes and fold laundry? I'm working on figuring this out (I don't think our cleaning lady does laundry or dishes) but I'm married to someone who can definitely help me out and I'm working on ways to articulate that and not just seethe about it.
  
  
• Plan how you'd like to use your leisure time. I think often I don't know I'm actually engaging in leisure time because it feels like I'm just wasting time. So I would like to be a little more proactive I guess--I'm trying to, anyway. "TONIGHT is the night I'm going to whittle down my magazine pile!"
  
  
• What do you want to spend more time doing? That is a good question. I'm not actually sure -- yet. But one thing Vanderkam promises, that I think I believe, is that when you spend more time doing what you'd like to, the time you spend doing stuff you don't want shrinks--yet still gets done. Anyway, I may try tracking my time the way the author recommends to see if it reveals anything--if I have time!

*It should be noted that this advice of course also applies to men as well.