J.O.B. to make your summer feel longer, deeper, denser.
Big Time will change how you think about time and what you do with it for the better
I am a known fan of Laura Vanderkam’s* work. All of it. She’s changed how I think about time in so many ways. Years ago, she taught me that I am never “too busy” to do something—what I’m doing is making other choices.
Sometimes they don’t feel like choices, but they are. They are choices to value even some things I don’t want to do (dentist, child’s sporting event held in 50 degree rain) over things I do (literally anything else) because reasons, and if I really wanted to fit in that coffee with the person I only kind of like or that political fundraiser… I would, tbh.**
The key thing here is that something this author wrote, over a decade ago, is still with me—because it was just that good, and it hit me that hard. Big Time: A Simple Path to Time Abundance, could do the same for you. It’s her best yet and the kind of helpful gut punch we all need, the one where you realize that part of the reason you don’t feel like you ever have time to do things you want to do is… you. By which I mean me. Even when I’m trying.
I don’t schedule things I want to do, I just hope that they will somehow happen.
I don’t make a point of getting my book and settling in on the couch, I just plop down with my phone.
I don’t look ahead—to the summer, to next year, to next summer. Or if I do, I decide that’s too far off to plan.
I make up reasons not to do things I want to do—it’s too hard, or it probably won’t work out, or that’s so far off how can I know, it’s too much time to spend on a [craft class/day trip/concert] when people need me to do other things…
And so on and so forth.
The goal of Big TIme is to remind us that time, if we’re lucky, is big. It really is. We get a decent amount of it. (Yes yes I know and so does she, maybe we won’t, things happen, how dare we even think such a thing when the hoodoo is gonna voodoo and we’ll be struck by lightning. Listen, if I’m struck by lightning after I boldly plan things for next year it will be just the same as if I didn’t. )
How will that help you make this summer feel longer, deeper and denser? You’ll think about what you want the summer to be. You’ll think about what you want the evenings, the mornings, the weekends to look like and you’ll be inspired to take action. To pick some things that make summer summer to YOU (and not gonna lie, I’m writing this in a resentful state bc it is going to be in the low 40sF/single digits C here this weekend) and do the things that make them happen.
It’s so easy to say oh, I don’t know if we’ll want to go to a hot air balloon festival that weekend, so I’ll just wait. If the weather’s no good the beach will suck, let’s don’t plan that. I don’t want to go for a walk while the kids ride their bikes, it will be hard to get them to go, I’ll just sit here. The flight’s too long, I’m too busy at work, no, no, no.
Big Time will inspire you to find ways you want to say yes, yes, yes. (And I didn’t even TELL you how much it can help you improve your time spent at work, or on household stuff, or accomplish both big and small goals.That’s all in there too. Here, check out this WSJ review (gift link).
I loved this book, as you can tell—and it’s an easy read, too. Short, fun, filled with anecdotes and stories, and it leaves you wanting to do better and convinced that you can while absolutely recognizing that it’s not like you’re not already trying.
Laura’s website: https://lauravanderkam.com/
Let me know if you liked it!
*Laura is also a friend, but I don’t push friends’ books here unless I flat out love them, although if you are a friend and I have not written about your book it is definitely for some other reason. I mean, it probably is. Like if you wrote historical fiction about a fire, as one friend did and I said, I am sorry, I don’t read about epic fires because they give me nightmares and also I’m not really a hist fic reader although I probably would have tried. Not every book is for everyone! Or maybe I was reading something else and I didn’t get to it! I don’t know! You’re not even real, but I can’t stop doing this!***
**It’s actually very unfortunate to have to face yourself in this way but I’m sure it’s made me a better person.
***This is a reason that it is very hard for writers to write about books. But I love books, so here we are.