I may be a bit light on blogging this week due to some travel and the Great Stomach Flu of 2016, which has my family in its clutches. I thought we would be in the clear by now. We are not.
Anyway, this blog post features two requests. First, for me. I am working on a project related to my year-long time diary, and I would like to include the experience of a few other people. If you kept a time log and I did NOT write about you by name in I Know How She Does It and you would be willing to be interviewed (real name) for a major publication (different one than usual) about what you learned, please let me know. You can email me at lvanderkam at yahoo dot com.
In other news, remember Vanessa Chan from Chapter 1 of I Know How She Does It? She was the partner at a consulting firm who was launching her own business. Anyway, her first product, loopit (a cool pair of fashion-forward headphones that cannot get tangled) was featured on the Today Show this morning as part of their Next Big Thing competition. If she wins, she goes straight to QVC to sell on air. If you would be up for voting for her by 5 P.M. eastern today, please go here (need an email address and a few seconds) she would really appreciate it.
What a fun contest! I voted for loopit… but I have to say a portable wine glass would be pretty handy 🙂
I’m sure you have plenty of people with time logs, but if you need someone, I’m happy to share on the record what I learned with mine….
Hope your family all feels better very soon!!
@Courtney- they all looked cool. But loopit won the first round! She’s on to the finals! Vanessa sends her thanks to everyone for voting. We helped put her over the top 🙂
Everyone is back at school, so that’s a positive step…
Hope you’re all starting to feel better. I have to remain anonymous for now, but would love to discuss time logs with you at some point in the future.
I’m not near the income bracket you studied for I Know How She Does It, but I have been tracking my time this week (I started to track a couple of months ago, then got sick on Tuesday, and while there are no “normal” weeks, that one was really out there!). Anyway, one thing I’ve noticed very clearly is how much transition time I need/spend. Not so much between same-purpose activities, like work-to-work or kid-to-kid, but say settling in to work after doing the dishes, or even getting out the door for a run after coming in from dropping kid #1 off at school. I just googled (as part of a transition-to-work-time activity, ha) tips on shortening that time, and started reading a Fast Company article. I laughed when I thought the voice was familiar and checked the byline … and it was yours!
@Meghan – oh, funny. This request has no income requirement on it! Just in general I’m trying to include examples from people who have tracked time and found it interesting/useful.
Yep, transition times can take a lot of time…
Hi Laura.
I’ve kept a time log last year BUT I’ve logged only 3 weeks in different periods of the year, and in differents work settings so I can compare my feelings vs reality. Is it enough to help you?
anne-marie
@anne-marie – sure I’d love to hear about it! Feel free to email me, I love to hear about the difference in feelings vs. reality.
Very sorry to hear the bug’s hit your household, I hope you’re out of the woods in time for the weekend! We’re just back up on our feet again after a few rounds of virus.
I would love to do this- I tracked my time a few months ago and it was awesome. I had already incorporated many of the principles of your books into my life- minimizing/outsourcing work that wasn’t part of my core values/strengths, planning a few anchoring activities during my leisure time, accepting that there will be some annoying moments within the fun moments, and the BIG ONE- knowing that I can have a full, rewarding career while enjoying my family and feeling good about my work-life harmony. I would be happy to track my time again, or you can use the one I sent during your time-tracking challenge to avoid the Hawthorne effect 🙂