Re-read a favorite book - Laura Vanderkam
Revisiting favorite books offers fresh insights, new perspectives, and renewed joy. Here’s why re-reading can be as powerful as reading new titles.| Laura Vanderkam
Monthly Archives: August 2025| Laura Vanderkam
September is always a busy time of year. Schedules and routines have to shift. There are many logistics to be figured out, and time can feel tight. I am doing my usual Friday planning today, where I map out activities and driving and who is where when. A few things start up, and the four […]| Laura Vanderkam
My oldest is off to college! I successfully delivered him to his dorm yesterday. This went relatively smoothly as things go. He packed up his stuff on Monday/Tuesday, and we loaded the minivan around noon on Tuesday. I then proceeded to drive us up to Boston, where he’s attending Northeastern University. The drive was…something. The […]| Laura Vanderkam
Sarah and I started Best of Both Worlds in August of 2017. So I’m pretty sure this is our ninth time discussing the back-to-school season. When we began, we had fewer kids and they were all much younger. This year my baby is starting kindergarten and my oldest is off to college! I’m actually moving […]| Laura Vanderkam
Another beach vacation is in the books! We got back yesterday from two weeks in Ocean Grove, my favorite little town on the Jersey shore. My husband and I had stumbled on this little Victorian enclave early in our marriage, and first rented a cottage there during the summer of 2006. We haven’t gone there […]| Laura Vanderkam
Feeding people can be challenging, especially with the pressure to cultivate perfect family meals. Little in life is ever perfect. But family meals can still be a positive thing over the long haul. In today’s episode of Best of Both Worlds, we open with a discussion about how our families are doing dinner these days. […]| Laura Vanderkam
Any readers who have young kids know that traveling with them is always challenging. On a family vacation a few years ago, I well recall, my then-2-year-old screamed for long chunks of the flight, threw crackers all over the plane, and stayed up from 2 a.m. to 4 a.m. one night, requiring Herculean feats from […]| Laura Vanderkam
Just a quick post with some links for the week! Over at Before Breakfast, I interviewed organization expert Laurie Palau. We talked organization (of course!) but also scaling up a business that is about “you” — and how that might be possible. Please check that out! The short episodes covered topics such as “How long […]| Laura Vanderkam
Revisiting favorite books offers fresh insights, new perspectives, and renewed joy. Here’s why re-reading can be as powerful as reading new titles.| Laura Vanderkam
Monthly Archives: July 2025| Laura Vanderkam
Maintaining adult friendships can be challenging, especially if people are far flung. But it’s not impossible. In this week’s episode of Best of Both Worlds, we talk about one way of making this happen: a friend’s trip! This episode was somewhat inspired by Sarah’s recent get-away with her college buddies. They’ve been doing a trip […]| Laura Vanderkam
At least in theory, having kids at camp makes life easier — it’s fewer people to manage at home. But the kids have to get there and home, which — especially if they aren’t going for long — can add a lot of driving to summer weekends. That was basically my experience these past few […]| Laura Vanderkam
Four original July-themed sonnets capturing summer evenings, baseball, lakeside stillness, and firefly-lit nights in poetic iambic pentameter.| Laura Vanderkam
Yearly Archives: 2025| Laura Vanderkam
Beethoven backlog, skipping Prime Day, puzzle joy, and this week's podcast + newsletter highlights in one content-packed round-up.| Laura Vanderkam
Laura shares travel highlights from her 10-day France choir tour with her son, including music, food, and memorable moments.| Laura Vanderkam
Monthly Archives: June 2025| Laura Vanderkam
Ten insights on time, work, and parenting from a decade of studying how professional women manage careers and family life.| Laura Vanderkam
Monthly Archives: May 2025| Laura Vanderkam
Reflections on school concerts, musical milestones, and fresh time management tips from the podcast, blog, and newsletter this week.| Laura Vanderkam
Much has been written about the lack of women in top leadership roles. But the problem starts much earlier. Far fewer women are promoted into the first ranks of management vs. men, which means fewer women will make it higher up on the rungs of the corporate ladder. In this week’s episode of Best of […]| Laura Vanderkam
A family-filled long weekend, biking adventures, and the scent of honeysuckle — plus a milestone: 15 years since 168 Hours was published.| Laura Vanderkam
Why do so many people hit snooze? A reflection on sleep habits, mismatched intentions, and what it says about our mornings.| Laura Vanderkam
A weekend of choir performances, birthday celebrations in NYC, and reflections on time as Laura marks her son's milestone 18th birthday.| Laura Vanderkam
Laura and Sarah share their top 5 tips for summer planning, challenges, and fun in this seasonal Best of Both Worlds episode.| Laura Vanderkam
Laura shares 15 reflections on her book 168 Hours, 15 years after its release — lessons learned, reader impact, and favorite takeaways.| Laura Vanderkam
Laura recaps her quick trip to Portugal, her preschooler’s auction wins, and shares the latest in podcast and newsletter content.| Laura Vanderkam
Meagan Francis joins the podcast to talk parenting adult kids, ending The Mom Hour, and embracing midlife leisure pursuits.| Laura Vanderkam
Laura shares her 2024 Summer Fun List—from concerts and beach days to creative goals and launching her oldest off to college.| Laura Vanderkam
It’s become a tradition around here. Every summer, I post a list of things I’d like to do before September comes. I hunted back through the archives, and I found a 2015 list. By 2016 I was saying that I did this “every year” so perhaps there was an earlier list that I haven’t found. […]| Laura Vanderkam
What else will they remember from this summer? What will I remember? This question of remembrance is a big reason I make a summer fun list each year.| Laura Vanderkam
Every year, I make a summer fun list (see last year’s here). Little adventures make life memorable. I do not want to get to September and wonder where the summer has gone. So I create a list of activities that will help me make memories, and will make summer feel like summer to me. This […]| Laura Vanderkam
Memorial Day weekend is almost here — which, in the US at least, signifies the start of summer. For the past several years, I’ve made summer fun lists. These activities celebrate the season. The goal is to hit Labor Day feeling like summer was rich and full of memories. Curiously, these lists become self-reinforcing. Certain […]| Laura Vanderkam
It’s that time again! Memorial Day is around the corner, and it’s time to start planning. Every summer, I make a list of activities that make summer feel like summer to me. The goal is to enjoy the season, and make copious memories by the time Labor Day rolls around. The more memories we have […]| Laura Vanderkam
For the past few years, I have observed a summer tradition: creating a list, in late spring, of things I want to do before Labor Day. Time passes whether we think about where it is going or not, and I find that thinking about what I want to spend time doing vastly increases the chances […]| Laura Vanderkam
June is the Friday night of summer. As with weekends, at the start they seem endless. Deep in, though, they feel fleeting. I want to make sure that my summers, like my weekends, feel full and good, and not like they have passed me by. We do plan vacations, which are great, but the smaller […]| Laura Vanderkam
In my umpteen years of blogging, I think I've written a post about how a long weekend with small children is not relaxing" many times.| Laura Vanderkam
It’s that time of year again! Memorial Day weekend is coming up, and so I’ve been working on my summer fun list. This is the list of things I want to do over the summer to make memories and make summer feel like summer. This is always a special season, and I don’t want to […]| Laura Vanderkam
