I Know How She Does It

How Successful Women Make the Most of Their Time

By: Laura Vanderkam

Narrated by: Laura Vanderkam

From the best-selling author of What the Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast, powerful insights from 1001 actual days in the lives of high-achieving women.

Balancing work and family life is a constant struggle, especially for women with children and ambitious career goals. It's been the subject of countless books, articles, blog posts, and tweets in the last few years, and passions run high in all directions.

Now Laura Vanderkam, the acclaimed time-management expert, comes at the "having it all" debate by asking a very practical question. Given that we all have the same 168 hours every week, how do people who do have it all - women with thriving careers and families - use those hours? When you study how such women fit together the pieces of their lives like tiles in a mosaic, the results are surprising.

If you work 40 hours and sleep 56 (i.e., eight times seven), that leaves 72 hours for everything else. Vanderkam explains how her subjects use those "everything else" hours; why we work less and have more free time than we think; why it's a myth that successful women get too little sleep; and how women can have demanding jobs, spouses, and kids and still enjoy a healthy amount of downtime.

She shares the time logs from 1001 days in the lives of women who make at least $100,000 a year and still make time for their families and friends, for sleep and exercise, and for leisure activities they love. Based on what she learned from the patterns in those time logs, she provides a framework for anyone who wants to thrive at both work and life.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2015 Laura Vanderkam (P)2015 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

"As an entrepreneur and mother, I’m invested in honing time management strategies that enrich my life instead of taking any enjoyment or flexibility out of it - and Laura Vanderkam understands that. In her new book, she shares how busy people build full, productive careers and happy homes as well. You’ll find lot of tools that can help you make time for everything that’s important and cut out what’s not." (Angela Jia Kim, founder of Om Aroma & Co. and Savor)

"I’m a longtime fan of Laura Vanderkam’s insightful work - her recommendations for getting the most out of every day are often counterintuitive but always realistic and manageable. In her new book, she reveals the time management strategies that highly successful mothers use to build lives that work. Thanks to her findings, I’ll never look at my weekly calendar the same way again." (Gretchen Rubin, author of Better Than Before and The Happiness Project)

"For many years I’ve wanted to see reflected in our collective conversation what I know to be true in women’s lives: that many of us are happily combining work and motherhood, and loving both. Laura Vanderkam has written the book that’s been sorely missing, and she does so with an impassioned, eloquent voice, important new research, and the warmth of a dear friend." (Tara Mohr, author of Playing Big)

helpful, interesting, and easy to read

this audiobook was interesting and held a lot of information that I hadn't read about before, however there was nothing that was truly life-changing and I can't say that I would read it again. However it's an easy read and a quick read if you need some ideas of how to make the most of your life. The greatest thing that I took away from this book was that I have more time than I realize and I often take for granted the extra space in my mosaic.

Unique solutions to time management issues

I love the narrator's voice. She presented creative yet practical solutions to difficult time management issues that busy women face. Although I felt that some of the statistical analysis presented regarding the Mosaic project was unnecessary, the overall message was not lost. I definitely gained valuable new insight from this audio book.

Must read for working moms

I wasn't sure what to expect with this book because I thought it would portray perfect women. What I found is that Laura portrays women how are as busy as me and not perfect housewives, however they figure out how to fit so much into their lives. Laura's interpretation of how they do it is beautiful. Her recommendations include: 1 - being mindful of the time you spend on the good, bad, and ugly vs the ugly overwhelming your perspective. 2 - Claiming the fun times with children in the small snippets and longer planned time. 3 - Plan for the snippets of time or unplanned opportunities to enable you to make the most of that time. There are so many great strategies.

Good and inspiring

This book is good and inspiring but it does get boring from time to time. I listened to within 3 days so it can't get that boring.

As a young female entrepreneur, happily married that travel often and is planning on having kids sooner than later this book embraced my inner voice than once kids come most aspects of my life will change. Yes they will change but as all the women Vanderkam describes in this book I will make it work with some organization and mindfulness.

A Must-read

I enjoyed this book so much I immediately downloaded the rest of her work. Her writing is sharp and her finds are inspiring. I have completely reevaluated how I spend my time.

The information you need

Loved it. very happy to have this fresh perspective on how to get my shit together now that I've realized my life isn't as busy as I thought it was, thank you Laura!

Great book with useful suggestions

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

I would recommend this to working moms and others who are struggling with feeling like they are consumed by work.

What did you like best about this story?

It contains practical suggestions about how to manage time and helped me to let go of the guilt that I am not spending enough time with my children. As it turns out, I am spending more time than average!

much needed perspective shift

I am a working mom with a 2 year old and 5 month old. Coming back to work is HARD and feeling like you have no time is a constant state of being. This book helps to reframe my outlook on my time. I've recommended the book to many other women (mom's and not) because of how I've appreciated the perspective.

Inspiring but dont expact a "step by step" book

I took many ideas from the women in the book. The idea of looking at the entire week as a whole was new and life changing for me. On the other hand, I came to this conclusion after 1 hour of listening... The book is built on examples of weekly logs and not as a "work book" to build your on log, thou it is very clear how to do it.
It is read very nice and clear, and at the bottom line it does give you a new point of view on how you REALY spend your time.

It’s an okay book

It wasn’t interesting enough. I didn’t enjoy the way it was read. There were times that I just stopped it and did other things. However, I will not read a book without learning a thing or two and for that I’m thankful to Laura.
I will try other books for time management.