You Have More Time Than You Think with Laura Vanderkam

Most leaders treat time management like a logistics problem. Not enough hours. Too many demands. A calendar that's already full before Monday starts. So they grind harder—and still feel behind.

Laura Vanderkam has spent two decades studying how people actually spend their time, and her research keeps arriving at the same uncomfortable finding: most of us aren't as busy as we believe.

We're just zoomed in too close to see it.

In this conversation, we dig into Laura's new book Big Time and the core insight behind it—that the way we frame time (in days, in tasks, in pressure) actively prevents us from seeing the abundance that's already there. We explore why high-earning leaders often feel the least in control of their schedules, what a dedicated weekly planning habit actually changes, and how leaders can model time abundance for their teams without it looking like bragging.

If your people are burning out, and your answer is "we need to work smarter," this conversation will sharpen what that actually means.

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// LEADERSHIP LESSONS

-Zoom out before you optimize. Most leaders experience scarcity because they plan in days. Shifting to weeks—and eventually to seasons and years—reveals space that the daily view hides entirely.

-Busyness is often a framing problem, not a workload problem. The same week looks overwhelming in 24-hour slices and completely manageable across 168 hours. The math matters more than the feeling.

-Leaders who hold the most power often have the most control over their time—if they choose to exercise it. Senior leaders frequently surrender schedule autonomy they technically have, out of habit or cultural pressure.

-Track before you optimize. You wouldn't change a budget without looking at the numbers first. Time tracking—all 168 hours, not just work hours—gives leaders the data they need to make deliberate choices instead of reactive ones.

-Modeling matters more than messaging. When you share how you spent your week, ask your team what they'd like to see you spend more time on, and visibly protect time for life outside work, you give your people permission to do the same—which is worth more than any policy.

-Evening intentions are an underrated leadership tool. Encouraging your team (and yourself) to name one non-work, non-housework thing to do each evening changes how the whole week feels—less like a grind, more like a life.

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// ABOUT DAVID

One of the world’s leading business thinkers, David’s forward-thinking ideas and bestselling books are changing how companies approach leadership, teamwork, and collaboration.

A skilled researcher and inspiring communicator, Dr. David Burkus is the bestselling author of five books about business and leadership. His books have won multiple awards and have been translated into dozens of languages. Since 2017, David has been ranked multiple times as one of the world’s top business thought leaders. His insights on leadership and teamwork have been featured in the Harvard Business Review, The New York Times, CNN, the BBC, NPR, and CBS Mornings.

A former business school professor, David now works with leaders from organizations across all industries, including PepsiCo, Fidelity, Adobe, and NASA. David’s keynotes aren’t just entertaining and enlightening—they’re evidence-based and immensely practical, offering leaders at all levels a set of actionable takeaways they can implement immediately.

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