@Lisa- thanks so much, I really appreciate this. I hadn’t read Work Clean but it sounds like I might enjoy it. I think one of there reasons I’ve enjoyed writing some pieces about bigger families is that the systems large families require can be interesting for everyone else to learn about.

@Maggie – thank you! I hope you enjoy both novels!

I have recently discovered your books and have read Off the Clock and I Know How She Does It as audiobooks — loved the fact that you narrate both books! I’ve been recommending I Know How She Does It to friends as the most positive and inspiring take on working motherhood that I’ve seen. As a single, working mother of two children similar in age to your older ones, I’ve found your books and blog to be like a wise friend offering advice 🙂

A possible research idea might be studying particular professions that require highly-developed time management skills — what can we learn from them? I recently read and loved Dan Charnas’ book Work Clean, in which the author researched how professional chefs organise not only their time but also their spaces, systems and movements super efficiently. This enables them to put out 100+ fancy meals in a night whereas the rest of us just manage to get a basic dinner on the table for our family 😉

@Christine – good question. I think – once your basic needs are met – that you can decide whether travel is a priority, vs. other things. If you’re going overseas every year, that’s great – and it clearly is a priority for you! In our case, we have one “secret weapon” — my husband’s frequent flyer miles. There has to be some upside of him traveling 2-3 weeks per month for the past 25 years! So we use miles to get plane tickets when we’re traveling internationally. He also has a lot of hotel points (like Starwood points) so we tend not to need to pay for hotels either. My other thought may also not be terribly helpful for people in an immediate sense, but in All the Money in the World, I talk about the upsides of spending a lower % of your income on housing and cars than you theoretically could. Some people have no choice. But if you do, spending, say, 25-28% of income vs. 33% of income (which a lot of calculators say you can) opens up 5-8% a month for other things. Like travel. Our cars are 8 years old, so we have no car payments. Driving cars long can open up budgetary space.

@Diana – I’m with you. While I know the early years do impact people’s perception of time, and my data showed that moms of kids under age 2 have significantly less free time than other people, I didn’t personally find it kept me from brushing my teeth or anything like that. I turned in a work project a few weeks after baby #1 was born (newborns turn out to sleep a lot…), sang in a choir concert at 2 weeks, etc. I think people have different experiences. It might be an interesting question to understand what drives the different experiences.

@DVStudent- you’re getting a PhD! That’s why you’re a grad student at 29 🙂 And yes, I think the combo of the DONE list, lessons learned list, and a looking forward list (or list of 100 dreams) can change one’s perception about life all around.
Congrats on the productivity boost. Time tracking is life changing!