However, sometimes there are things that need to be looked at and dealt with eventually, but don’t need to be done right that minute. We’re talking filling in the Google form a coach sent out, or checking a new school calendar of events that’s been sent from the HSA, or buying pretzels for upcoming half days at the elementary school, or filling out a survey for a work project, or signing a form or…Many things.

I tend to let these pile up and then deal with them every few days during a batch processing time. Friday is a good time for this. I sometimes do a mid-week email triage as well.

On Friday the 4th, however, the kids were out of school and while I was working that day, it was a short day. So it didn’t happen. Then last week I was in Portland and I wasn’t really building in email processing time so even more stuff piled up. I got home late Friday afternoon and immediately went into picking up kids various places.

On Saturday my husband took the older four kids white water rafting (!) and we had a sitter for a while for the 4-year-old, so I seized the opportunity to sit down and deal with the mess of the previous two weeks. Since I track my time, I also know how long this took me: 2.5 hours to get to current.

Now, I don’t know if that’s entirely fair as a count as I spent a reasonable chunk of time on an advertiser survey that was pretty thorough. But I guess every week brings *something* that has to be filled out. So maybe it is an accurate reading of the stuff from the last two weeks.

Two and a half hours seems like a long time but I also imagine that if I’d dealt with all those things in the moment, they would have taken a lot longer than 2.5 hours because I’d be going in and out of things. So I think batching is the way to go, even if it’s not necessarily the most fun way to spend a Saturday afternoon.

Do you batch process email and the tasks that land in your inbox?

Speaking of batching…we are failing on this on the grocery front. There is a rather nice grocery store (McCaffrey’s, for any grocery store experts…) that is approximately a 4 minute drive from the house. This opened a year ago and as a result we don’t wind up thinking too much about what we need because it’s so easy just to stop by. But the net result is that my husband went to a different grocery store (Wegman’s) Friday night (after seeing Beetlejuice with our daughter) and bought some stuff, and then I went on Saturday to the local one to get some more groceries for the week…and then I realized we didn’t have stuff for hamburgers on Sunday night (a frequent choice) so I went back Sunday afternoon…and then got home and realized we didn’t have hot dogs (which we *always* have since we buy from Costco usually…but I guess some kid developed a real hankering for them?). Our nanny will likely get hot dogs and some other things today but she is more rationally making a list from looking at the pantry…

In other news: It’s definitely looking like fall around here! If you’re looking for a fall read, the first half of my novel, The Cortlandt Boys, takes place in a cozy small town in the Poconos during autumn. This remains my favorite thing I’ve ever written. Please give it a read! Or if you’d like a little time management in your fiction, Juliet’s School of Possibilities takes place in October in a place much like Cape May, NJ. You can learn more about this fable here.

In today’s episode of Best of Both Worlds, Sarah interviews Laura Mae Martin about her new book, Uptime, and about her work as Google’s in-house productivity expert. She shares tips and strategies for staying productive. They chat meetings, setting priorities, task and calendar management, family life, and more.

In the Q&A we tackle a tricky question from a listener who wonders how to balance vacations with nuclear family vs. extended family requests. If you’ve only got limited PTO, how should you split it between regular family vacations and trips to visit relatives?

Please give the episode a listen. As always we welcome ratings and reviews! You can also come join our Patreon community where we discuss topics related to work and life more at length. Recent threads have included one on career change and one on marathon training. We’re having a lot of fun and would love to see you there! Membership is $9/month.

But if you’re already having to think about five days…why not think about six? I have been attempting to do that this past week, as it’s not that much more extra work, and aiming to get most of the following Monday squared away (for anything that can be done ahead of time) can make re-entry a lot smoother.

It won’t be easy, of course, because stuff will come up over the week that will need to be dealt with. But at least the load will be a little lighter!

Speaking of which…I’ll likely be away from the blog for the next week or so. Tomorrow features dentist appointments for five kids (and my husband) which should be an interesting experience. Today features an epic Best of Both Worlds recording session. At least my speaking voice is mostly back. My singing voice, not so much. I tried practicing my music yesterday and couldn’t sing anything toward the top of the staff!

The cherry blossoms have peaked in DC. I didn’t make it down this year, but I’ve enjoyed looking at pictures from past years on my phone. I’m hoping that the cold weather we are having tonight and tomorrow won’t damage the buds on our trees here a few hours north. Theoretically, anything that blossoms in March should have strong anti-freeze properties, but it doesn’t always work. A few years ago, some high temperatures in February, coupled with a deep freeze in March (like into the low teens) meant none of the magnolias blossomed. It was sad!

I’ve been continuing to listen to my Bach every day. I created the listening calendar through to the end of April. Since January, every day has featured a church cantata (vocal + instruments) and some solo organ pieces. In late April I will finally be through all the organ music, and will start on the piano/harpsichord pieces. There are something like 200 of these, but a lot of them are very short. I am not 100 percent sure if my pace of listening is right, but one third of the way through the year (as in April 30) I will have listened to 403 of the 1080 works so that is a little ahead of schedule. (I might listen to some of the extra ones that are unsure…although it turns out a few of the canonical 1080 aren’t actually Bach either – people just thought they were when the BWV system was created.)

Another puzzle of the day: What wine would pair with fried chicken? I am sure the internet will have answers. It has all the works of Bach and that. Amazing.

In other news: This week’s Vanderhacks featured an essay on why you should “Say yes when you can” and why you should “Look for the garbage cans” when deciding whether something is real or not. The post behind the paywall is on “How I keep the plates spinning” — a write-up of my weekly planning process. Please check those out!

So, where do they go?

Fans of David Allen (Getting Things Done) are familiar with the “someday/maybe” list, which I think is a brilliant concept. You can keep a running list of things you’d like to do someday, or that sound cool to do, maybe, but you don’t want to commit to them yet.

All sorts of things can go on this list, such as buying that second book shelf for your son’s room, scheduling the wallpaper installer to fix the peeling paper in the dining room, ordering extra “Melon bud” patterned silverware (where did all my spoons go??), buying a series of future plane tickets, renewing your 4-year-old’s passport, getting the cars cleaned, figuring out Christmas 2024 plans, etc.

All those things have, in fact, wound up on what I’ve been calling my “Projects List.” I have a page in a notebook where I park these things and continually add to the list.

I know a long list of stuff can feel daunting, but it really doesn’t need to be. This isn’t a to-do list…it’s a someday/maybe list! Or at least a “needs to be done but in the nebulous future” list. By getting this stuff out of my head I won’t forget it. By keeping it accessible, I have sometimes been inspired to pull something off the list and put it on my weekly priority list, so it can then migrate to a daily to-do list, where it does get done.

So I have been making progress. The new bookshelf has arrived and is, indeed, covered in books. The wallpaper person will be here in early April. I bought plane tickets for something in May.

Have I figured out Christmas 2024? No, I have not. But someday — hopefully before December.

Do you keep a someday/maybe list?

In other news: Longtime readers know that I have been tracking my time on weekly spreadsheets since 2015. My current computer has logs from some point in 2016. At the corresponding point in 2022, when I would go to save log names with the Monday start date, my computer would try to overwrite the 2016 ones, because the dates matched up (so I began adding years to distinguish them).

With that little bit of knowledge about the calendar, I decided to start looking back to these logs from 6 years ago during the corresponding week. I did that through 2022 (post Leap Day 2016), 2023 (2017), and the beginning of 2024 (2018)…BUT then Leap Day 2024 happened. I was very curious to see what that would mean. I opened the March 4 log and discovered it was from… 2019. So now I’m looking back on that year.

So when do I get back to the rest of 2018? I haven’t quite figured that out…

(Actually, printing up all the time logs is on the someday/maybe list, so maybe I’ll look through all my time logs together someday.)

Photo: Contemplating possibilities…

Why are we here? Well, aside from the almond milk decaf cappuccino, which my son totally laughed at me for, but did go up to the counter and order for me… Basically, our house wifi went out at 10 a.m. Friday, and has not come back.

When we finally got a human at Verizon, this person told us that the outage is “widespread.” I am not sure how widespread. But we have had very limited connectivity all weekend. I was having to go outside to get my email and anything on the internet (via my phone), until I figured out to turn off wifi on my phone (forcing it onto the cellular network). To access stuff on our laptops, though, we have to go elsewhere (the hotspot thing is very very slow).

So, yesterday I worked like a fiend at my 8-year-old’s climbing class. I got through a lot of document sending and emailing in 50 minutes courtesy of the climbing gym wifi! Today I am here at Starbucks. Good times.

Longtime readers may recall how upset my children were in Norway when we were in a gorgeous, remote mountain location…with no wifi. There has been something of the same level of whining, though the older boys’ phones can go on the cellular network too, so it has not been as bad as it could be. The 3-year-old has asked a few times to watch an Octonauts video on the computer…and has been quite confused by my explanation of why it won’t work.

My husband and my brother-in-law and mother-in-law watched the Texas A&M game yesterday all hunched over my brother-in-law’s phone. It was pretty funny. Family togetherness!

In any case, it is interesting to see what we do with our time when accessing the internet is not quite as easy as getting water out of the tap. Some of the kids have played cards with my husband. We played outside a fair amount, though it is rainy today, so we played in the garage for a while instead.

But don’t worry, this isn’t some ode to the wifi-free, simpler life. The simpler life is gone, which is why I have to take my kid to Starbucks so he can do his homework. I can do stuff on my phone, it’s just a lot harder, so we shall see what happens with my workflow this week. Hence the post on Sunday — I’m guessing it will be tough to do on Monday. Unless the wifi is fixed. Or I go back to Starbucks. This decaf almond milk cappuccino is quite good…

Now it is possible that I would have gone through my closet and disposed of the size 2 dresses (best to just bid that era goodbye…) without a deadline. It is possible I would have pulled the less-sentimental baby outfits and toys out of the storage boxes, and my daughter’s outgrown clothes out of her closet (no younger daughters to pass them on to!) and gotten those out the door too.

But…I probably wouldn’t have. By creating a deadline, I gave myself a nudge to get going on stuff.

I know that many of us are highly motivated by deadlines. So it seems pretty straightforward to create a deadline to nudge action.

Of course, we’re smart, and we know, on some level, what are fake deadlines. I can tell myself that I need to do X, Y, or Z by September 1st, but if life gets busy, that intention might get chucked.

But it’s often possible to create an external deadline — hence the scheduled donation pick-up. I haven’t gotten rid of everything that needs to go by any means (maybe I’ll schedule another pick-up in six months…) but it’s a start. One reason I created my Summer Reads book club is that it forced me to edit my novel manuscript so people can discuss it in September! An internal desire becomes an external deadline. And then stuff gets done.

Do you create deadlines for yourself?

I spent a lot of time on July 3 trying to get on top of things (Vanderkam Inc. wasn’t closed). However, I’m also catching up on a lot of life + admin stuff too, like getting my car’s oil changed (I wound up working in the library during that service). I have paid various bills. I made the executive decision to sign the 8-year-old up for an additional week of camp as one unstructured day quickly descended into chaos. I need to get my hair cut. I need to figure out how to file some tax document related to my solo 401k which, by the way, is moving somewhere else because the brokerage merged with another company…

What I am looking forward to: My writing retreat is coming up! I will spend two whole days engrossed in my novel manuscript. It’s mostly about winter, so that might feel strange to picture in summer, but hey, imagination. I’ve also got two mommy days scheduled. My daughter is getting her ears pierced this Friday and we’ll have lunch and shop. My 16-year-old and I will be in NYC soon for college visits + a nice dinner. The 8-year-old expressed interest in a potential Daddy Day, which could certainly substitute — and then I think I will consider myself good on this project as the 3-year-old got a ton of Mommy Days in Turks & Caicos while others went boating, snorkeling, diving, etc….

Over the past few months I’ve been posting the occasional short list of life hacks. Here are a few more little things making life easier these days.

French toast. My kids eat a lot of sliced bread, but somehow my husband and I have a monopoly on eating the end pieces…unless they are turned into French toast. Since we do breakfast for dinner every Wednesday night (this was a previous Vanderhack), if I notice the bread drawer getting full with abandoned bread heels and packages of two leftover slightly hardened hot dog buns, I declare it French Toast Night. People mostly eat old bread if it’s covered in egg and sugar and cinnamon, and then even eat the extra pieces for breakfast the next morning. So this is a win all around.

A griddle. Having a large flat cook surface is great when you might need to make many pieces of French toast simultaneously (or pancakes, or grilled cheese). I now own two waffle makers as that likewise speeds up the waffle-making process (one is shaped like Mickey Mouse). I’m thinking of purchasing a third.

Boxes of birthday cards. Buying individual birthday cards from a store is not only pricey, it’s hard to find the exact sentiment you might be looking for. But you can often buy boxes of a dozen-plus Hallmark (or other brand) birthday cards online that have minimal messaging. You can then write whatever you want to in there, which is more personal and saves time and money. Seriously, if you send birthday cards to people in your life, go buy a few boxes right now! (You can get fancy blank cards too, and those are great for thank you notes/sympathy notes/etc. but I find that birthday-specific cards tend to be a bit more festive.)

Kindle samples. I love being able to buy and download ebooks instantly. This feels like such a bonus if I’m sitting in the dark with my 3-year-old waiting for him to go to sleep. However, I’ve been burned a few times on thinking I would like something and then realizing within the first few pages that I had just purchased a truly terrible book. Now I almost always download the sample first. After I’ve reached the end of the sample, it’s very easy to go back and order the book — the Kindle app will open it automatically to where the sample left off. If I make it to the end of the sample I’m all in (I have purchased two ebooks this week because I enjoyed the sample). If I read the sample and realize it’s not for me then it’s just like reading a few pages in a bookstore or library and putting the book back.

Choosing a random calendar date. It can be hard to capture things that you can’t act on now but could possibly at some future date (even if you don’t know what that future date will be). Where this recently came up for me — Several years ago I read The Cotton Kingdom by Frederick Law Olmsted (best known for designing Central Park). His accounts of traveling in the pre-Civil War South are absolutely fascinating (and at times horrifying). I read in the Publisher’s Lunch newsletter that there is a new book coming out about his travels and writings and I’d like to read it, but the reason it is in Publisher’s Lunch is the deal was just completed — the book itself likely won’t be out for a year or two. So my system is just to choose a random future date and write that book on my calendar. I always look at my calendar, so when I get to that week in the future, I will put that item on my weekly to-do list and look to see if the book has a publication date yet. If it does I can then put that date on my calendar. If not, I can just choose another future date (like in another 6-9 months or so). Anyway, the point is that you don’t need a specific date to think about something in the future. You can just choose a random date if you know you have a way to send messages to your future self, because you know there is somewhere you will always look and act on any to-dos that have been recorded there.

Industry newsletters. Speaking of Publisher’s Lunch… I read this weekly recap of book deals every Monday. Some is of interest and some is not, but after 20+ years in the writing business, almost every week I see that someone I know has gotten a book deal, which is generally good to know (not to mention a good reason to send congratulations). I’m guessing that your industry has some similar sort of newsletter about people’s moves/achievements/etc. It might be worth checking out.

Saving frequently used files with a “_” in front of the name. So there are lots of ways to pull up frequently used documents and files, but this oldie-but-goodie works for me. When I’m interviewed for a podcast or article, people often ask for a headshot. There’s one available for download here on the website (see the About section) but I also have it saved as _LauraVanderkam_highres.jpg and so when I go to attach a file to an email it’s among the first few on the alphabetical list of options. I could see doing this for anything one sends frequently. For some freelancers that might be a W9, for job seekers it might be a resume, etc. (I have some frequently scanned documents saved on my phone as well for easy sending.)

The short bio. On my About page you’ll notice that I have two bios. The first came about because I was like, hey, this is the web, I can write as long as I want because there are no space limitations! Then, I had the experience (multiple times…) of being introduced as a speaker with someone reading that long, long bio. No one needs to sit through that! So, as someone scrolls down the About page, they now see the short bio with the instruction “Are you introducing Laura? Please use this one!” Problem solved.

The annual National Parks Pass. If you’re an American reader, you can buy an annual pass to all national parks for $80. I only have plans to go to Acadia currently, but maybe I’ll add to the list. If you have a fourth grader you can get a free pass. This might be worth building a family vacation around!

Emailing myself. I imagine a lot of people reading this do at least semi-regular processing of a primary inbox. If that is the case, then emailing yourself a note means you have a high chance of seeing it later at a time when you are making decisions/putting things on a calendar/batch processing. So, for instance, last night I remembered that I needed to contact a handful of people. But it would have been rude to text them at that time. So I emailed myself a reminder to do it and then did at a reasonable time in the morning — when I sat down and looked at my email.

Or writing it on my hand. I sometimes do this to remind myself of things while out and about. Very sophisticated I know. But my kids have done it too (willingly!) if there’s a change in pick-up procedures that they need to remember. If it says SPU (student pick up) on your hand in marker maybe you won’t get on the bus…

Putting a little water in it. It is very satisfying to use things up. Perhaps this tendency gets me into trouble with things like make-up, but there is often a lot of usable shampoo or soap in a bottle even after it stops reliably squeezing out. Add a little water to thin things and you can get several more days out of it. This is particularly helpful if you are, say, in the bathroom and need to wash your hands and no one else seems to have replaced the used up soap (hmmm….). Last night I put water in the tomato sauce jar to get all of it out!

Storing extra toilet paper in each bathroom. Not in a central place. People still won’t replace the rolls (why????) but at least they are closer.

Puzzle + computer. So, at the end of the day, especially if the 3-year-old has had a long nap and will not be going down early, he watches an episode or two of Catie’s Classroom or Animal Mechanicals on the YouTube Kids. Our home computer is in the dining room which…I now consider my puzzle room (we eat at the kitchen table usually). It’s gotten a little crazy — there are two 1000-piece puzzles usually on the table at any point. I’m currently doing a 750-piece one and it is seeming a lot easier. I think the difficulty level is geometric with piece number, or some version of that whereby a 750-piece puzzle only takes half as long as a 1000-piece one. Anyway…I get 45 minutes of puzzle time while supervising the toddler. Multi-tasking!

Shelf-stable yogurt. One of my picky eaters likes yogurt, but it’s not the world’s most portable snack…until now. GoGo Squeeze makes shelf-stable pouch yogurt, which I have to imagine tastes better cold, but I’m not the one eating it, so whatever. It can be brought on a car trip or stashed in a purse just fine.

My tote bag/purse. I’ve figured out that it works best for me to carry a leather tote as my purse. Maybe for you too? It’s a gray number from Longchamp, bought on clearance…of course…which is why it is gray, but I have come to think the color is smart — it goes with everything. The bag can fit my laptop, and can function as my carry-on personal item while traveling. It can also fit diapers and wipes (it’s a banner day when I need to carry the laptop AND diapers and wipes). I bought it in late 2018 after my old tote fell apart. I realized that the size was exactly right, so I bought a near replica.

The accessory notebook. About two years ago, Sarah suggested I use the Whitney English weekly planner (academic year version). She bought me one that I used for a year, and then I bought the next year’s version. I likely will re-up for a third year. BUT! I often need to take notes on stuff or brainstorm ideas and there is limited space in a weekly planner. Enter the accessory notebook. I always have another random notebook going on my desk to write down anything that occurs to me that isn’t to-do specific. I didn’t always separate these things (my old planners have lots of notes from stuff like voice mail messages) but doing so makes a smaller planner possible.

Charix shoes. Another Instagram purchase…but they are really comfortable. Will I be able to walk 10 miles in them with no blisters as advertised? Unclear but they’ve been good for regular walking around so far.

Succulents. Like a little greenery but don’t want much upkeep? They’re good. I have a few in my office. Honestly, fake plants could work in many cases too.

Not folding (some) clothes. Many clothes don’t need to be folded. I know this might be a controversial take, but things like workout clothes and pajamas can just be tossed in a drawer.

Storing clean towels on top of the dryer. Hear me out. We have a linen closet in the laundry room, which would be a good place to store towels. However, when my older children decide they need a clean towel before a shower, they are not always careful as they pull them out, and suddenly, the stack of neatly folded towels is a mess, with collateral damage to other things in the closet. Store a handful of clean towels on top of the dryer and they simply grab a towel and go.

Keeping a screwdriver in the kitchen junk drawer. And batteries nearby. I am amazed how often this need comes up. If I had to go retrieve the screwdriver from a toolbox there are a lot of toys that would just sit there, not fixed.

Keeping a travel size pack of floss in my purse. (As in, the tote bag described above.) I seem to get stuff stuck in my teeth a lot. Quick trip to the ladies room and the problem is solved.

Introducing teens to tea. I’m not sure it’s great to start a coffee habit as young as I did. Too many frappuccino type beverages aren’t that wise either. But tea is something kids can sip while studying or order while out with friends and it seems more sophisticated than juice. We now go through a lot of green tea around here!

The “recording” sign. I put this on the office door when I can’t be disturbed. Usually it’s because I’m recording. (Rule of thumb: Anyone not old enough to read and respect that sign should have childcare coverage even if you are working at home).

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