January: Travel — plans, dreams, strategies. I know I have big ideas now that the kids are getting older, though there is also the challenge of squishing these travel dreams into the school calendar. We’ll all get ideas from each other here!

February: The Adventures Project. Starting in January, we’ll be encouraging people to plan big and little adventures into their weeks, and in February, we’ll share what fun things we’ve done. This will be a nice little winter pick-me-up.

March: Money March. We’ll be discussing financial topics — a few frugal wins, for sure, but also ideas for financial goals and how to achieve them.

April: Home organization. It’s a bit of a journey for most of us, but we all have tips and strategies for making life run better, and this will be a way to get at that “spring cleaning” energy.

May: 168 Hours! A book club meet-up of sorts. My first time management book, 168 Hours, came out in May 2010, so this will be the 15th anniversary. We’ll discuss the topics in the book. If you haven’t read it, this might be a fun excuse to do it.

June: I Know How She Does It. In related news, my book on how successful women make the most of their time turns 10 in June. This will also be a book club discussion of the topics in this book.

July: In lieu of a Zoom meet-up, Sarah and I will do a private Q&A video. Ask us anything!

August: Back-to-school and household routines. If something isn’t working, this is a great time to rethink it. We’ll talk daily routines for families with school-aged kids.

September: The joy of work. Shouldn’t work be fun? Seriously. We’ll talk strategies for enjoying the experience of any given workday more.

October: Superficial things. These discussions are always amazing — come prepared to talk hair, make-up, skin care, fashion, etc. Warning: People often make several purchases in the course of an hour…

November: Holiday planning. How to curate your holiday season to enjoy it more and stress less.

December: Our annual goal setting workshop. Yep, it will be time to plan 2026!

To that end, the Patreon community will be meeting on December 19th at noon (eastern) for this year’s annual goal setting workshop. This is always a lot of fun, and a great chance to get started on figuring out how to make next year the best year yet. 2025 is going to be awesome — I’m definitely looking forward to it.

Membership is $9/month and it’s fairly easy to quit at any point. Hope to see some new folks there!

Seven years later, we are still at it! Both of us have seen some changes. We’ve both moved houses (albeit locally). We both had another baby (well, we knew Sarah’s was on the way when we launched in 2017, but my late 2019 baby was just a glimmer in my eye then…). We’ve had some challenges with it, but we’ve also had a ton of fun.

This week’s episode is all about celebrating our 7th birthday. Feel free to let us know your favorite episode, or any topics you’d like to see covered. We’d really appreciate ratings/reviews (think of it as a birthday present!).

Also — the Best of Both Worlds Patreon community will be having our monthly meet-up today, August 27th, at noon eastern time. We’ll be talking all things time management. Membership is $9/month. If you join before noon you can get the Zoom link in the forum. If you join after, no worries, the session will be recorded. Hope to see you there!

Over at Vanderhacks I wrote that “No one wins a misery contest” and that “Smart categories create variety.” Being creative about how you make your lists can nudge you to make better choices. The post behind the paywall was about “3 ways to make any work day more enjoyable.” Not all work is the same by any means, but I think these three strategies can make the vast majority of work days better.

The Before Breakfast podcast suggested that life might be better if we “Cultivate a Saturday vibe.” I suggested that “If you can’t get out of it, get into it.” For those who are looking to spend more time with friends and boost focus I suggested people try to “Work side by side.”

The Best of Both Worlds podcast was about rest and trading off. Over at the BOBW Patreon community page we’re discussing strategies one member can use while her husband will be away for 3 days every week for the next 3 months. We’re also sharing lists of things that are fun for us…and NOT fun for us (even if they are for other people). Please come join us!

Also, I write a weekly newsletter that comes out on Saturday’s (“A Week’s Worth”) and one that comes out monthly (“Just a Minute”) — the latter will be published August 1st. You can sign up for either/both here.

Finally, I was just reminiscing that 15 years ago I was putting the finishing touches on the manuscript of what became 168 Hours. Let me know if you’ve read it (and when!)

On a deeper level, though, this rule can be absolutely life-changing. Those of us who are managing complex family and personal situations, and those of us who don’t have an incredible amount of administrative support at work, can feel like the little things eat up our lives. In many cases the little things don’t take a ton of time (at least individually). It’s just that they are always options, nagging at us. Or we worry we’ll forget them so we keep thinking about them. Or we don’t want to do them so we procrastinate them. Or we do them during times when our better selves have decreed that we should be doing deep work (or relaxing!)

When there is a designated time for the little things, though, we both know they will get done and, since they are not always options, this reduces the guilt and the sense of being pulled in a million directions.

I’m currently writing this blog post as a break from my Friday Punch List. During the home renovation process I learned about “punch lists,” which are all-in lists of stuff the contractor still needs to take care of after the major work is done. During the week, I make a running list of all the little things I need to take care of, and then I attempt to plow through these things on Fridays.

So, this morning I have been a busy bee indeed. I filled out permission slips so my 15-year-old can go to a Science Olympiad competition. I paid the fee on an airline and chose seats so we could all sit together. I made a hair appointment. I MADE 5 ANNUAL PEDIATRICIAN APPOINTMENTS (shout out to the receptionist who worked with me to batch the kids into fewer days). I called my OB/GYN office to make my appointment but they have not called me back yet. I talked with the fridge repair guy about stopping by to check out a problem which we thought was solved, but was not. I made a stock purchase within my 401k (I made the annual deposit a while ago but I spread out my purchasing). I still need to purchase fencing equipment (a lot of fencing equipment…this could take a while). Plus a few other things.

Doing all these tasks at once isn’t exactly fun, but it is fun to check off many many things on a list. I feel very accomplished AND I don’t feel like all these things are hanging over my head all the time. There is a time for them…but if it’s not Friday morning, now is not that time.

In other news: Need some guidance and support while setting goals for 2023? Our Best of Both Worlds Patreon meet-up for December (12/15 at noon eastern) will feature Sarah’s annual goal-setting workshop. Last year I came up with a few random ones during this event, like learning to do make-up, and doing a free-writing project where I write about a character’s day in 365 chunks. I wound up doing both this year! Membership is $9/month, and there aren’t a whole lot of such workshops at this price point, so if this sounds good, please come join us. (You can cancel after the workshop of course…but I don’t think you’ll want to! We have some great discussions going in our forum.)

Photo: Batching lots of little flowers…creates lovely displays

Of course, travel has its challenges too. I got on my 4:09 p.m. flight out of Portland, we taxied toward the runway, and then there we sat, because Philadelphia had a ground stop. We did eventually make it out a little after 5:00, though, so we were on the ground in PHL at 6:20, which meant I walked into choir practice only 2 minutes late (they were already warming up…it is a very punctual choir).

A few announcements. First, if you have ever been interested in hearing me speak…the University of North Carolina School of Medicine is hosting a fall Women in Medical Sciences retreat on Friday, September 24. This was going to be an in-person event, but with the delta variant of Covid, it has gone virtual. So they are opening it up to the general public. You can register here. The event is free. I’m probably speaking around 10:30 eastern, but if you’re going to register, please do try to come for the whole thing (which is approximately 9 a.m. to noon). There are other good speakers, including former podcast guests Lori Mihalich-Levin and Christina Shenvi. We’ll all be talking work and life and productivity.

Second, and speaking of work and life and productivity…When Sarah Hart-Unger and I began the Best of Both Worlds podcast four years ago, we wanted to reach a market we thought was under-served: women who loved their careers and their families, and wanted strategies for thriving in all spheres of life.

We love talking about these topics, and we love hearing from listeners, but we’ve really been wanting to create more of a community for the show. So this fall we’re launching the Best of Both Worlds Patreon community for those who’d like to get more involved beyond listening week to week.

Nothing about the podcast itself will change right now. But BOBW Patreon members will have access to monthly online meet-ups where we’ll talk about perennial Best of Both Worlds topics: childcare logistics, family activity schedules, setting career goals, and so forth. Our discussion forum will allow people to interact with others in the same boat. And we’re publishing monthly guides with all our best tips (September’s, on kid activity schedules, is already up and ready for reading!)

The first discussion will be on Tuesday, Sept 28th at 8 p.m. eastern (don’t worry, we’ll record them for members who can’t make it). So if you’d like to join us, please join the Patreon community by then! Membership is $9/month. We look forward to building a network where we can all help each other get the most out of life. If you have any questions or you are on the fence about it feel free to reach out to me at laura at lauravanderkam dot com. I am really excited about this — it’s a community I would want to join, just like BOBW was a podcast I wanted to exist! So, we create them

Speaking of kid activity schedules, it’s going to be quite a weekend, with a kid’s scout camping trip, karate, soccer, baseball, tennis, a wedding, and a half-marathon. In theory it all fits…