Thank you to everyone who helped celebrate the launch of Big Time yesterday! The virtual launch party was great — so many thanks to my panelist friends and all the people who pre-ordered the book and attended. (I’ll send around a link to the recording soon for those who registered but couldn’t make it.)
If you have received your copy of Big Time, I hope you are enjoying it! If you do enjoy it, please share the book with friends. And please write a review! If you do (for any of the book retailers or Goodreads) please shoot me a note so I can thank you personally.
And if you haven’t picked up a copy of Big Time yet, please do! You can buy it at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop, or your local independent retailer.
Big Time scored a lovely review over at Verily yesterday. Check out this section: “What surprised and delighted me the most about Big Time, though, was the wisdom that Vanderkam has clearly drawn from her years of experience. In a time when we all tend to feel harried, stressed, and time-depleted, Vanderkam (who has been charting her time since 2015) models peace, cheerfulness, and, in this book, something resembling a beautiful mysticism. In Chapter 2, ‘Become the Ringmaster,’ she pokes gentle fun at the idea of life being a three-ring circus, suggesting that if it must be so, we must acquire the skills to become great ringmasters, confidently planning and managing your own circus. Then she shows us how.
“Vanderkam’s approach to time management has always stuck with me because of its fundamental optimism about the human person and their capacity for change: rather than hand-wringing about the state of women in contemporary life or the failures of modern technology to fulfill us, she rolls up her sleeves and gets into the work. And watching her inspires us to believe that we could do that, too.”
You can also read an article from me over at LitHub called “On making time to read War and Peace and other great literary works.” I promise that time is big enough for that!
Big Time was today’s Book of the Day over at The Next Big Idea. You can also listen to my “Book Bite” on the book there.
I’m always aiming to reach a variety of different audiences with book publicity. So I was excited to do a YouTube video for A Quilting Life. We’ve got almost 7k views so far on helping people find more time to quilt!
Molly Beck’s Beck on Tech newsletter featured me yesterday talking about why we should see email as an opportunity. (After all, Molly and I met through an email she sent, just reaching out, in 2013!)
I did a Substack Live with KJ Dell’Antonia last night about time management and writing for the #AmWriting community. This was right after my virtual launch party, so I had a glass of wine, and I decided to take a swig right before I thought we were recording but…guess that’s now immortalized.
Many more to come! The tiny edition of Big Time in the photo accompanying this post is a gift from my friend Joy. How perfect is this?
Laura, there is indeed a beautiful mysticism and fundamental optimism in your approach. These are the things that resonated with me when I started following you in early 2024 and still do today. As a side note, I have been laid up for most of a week now with an injury… “something” muscular, and very painful. I was reminded of your time spent in bed in early 2024 with your own injury, as that’s when I first dived into your blog. I went back and reread it all the other day, so I might gain some perspective when things seemed bleak. Now I’m off to buy Big Time!
@Holly – I hope you feel better soon! It took a while but eventually I am back where I was – probably better as I don’t have as much leg and back pain as I did in the lead-up to my injury. I am hoping for the same for you as well. And hey, I’ll go for beautiful mysticism and fundamental optimism!