Tranquility by Tuesday Quotes

“activity for at least ten minutes in the first half of every single day. More is better. But ten minutes is a start. Even ten minutes can change a day, as many Tranquility by Tuesday participants found, and changing days is how we ultimately change our lives. The “move” part of this rule can be any sort of movement. Most people walk, but push-ups, sit-ups, jumping jacks, kettlebell swings, and so forth, are options. Chasing kids around the yard or pushing a stroller counts. Traditional exercise such as running or a fitness class is wonderful if it works, but if it doesn’t, there’s no need to get sweaty enough to require a shower afterward. The lady who shared her schedule challenge at my talk wasn’t changing clothes”
― Laura Vanderkam, Tranquility by Tuesday: 9 Ways to Calm the Chaos and Make Time for What Matters

“To figure out what deserves more time in your life, I suggest making something called a List of 100 Dreams. This exercise was shared with me by career coach Caroline Ceniza-Levine more than a dozen years ago. I wrote about it in my first time-management book, 168 Hours, and I continue to hear from people more than a decade later about how helpful it is. The List of 100 Dreams is exactly what you think it would be. You write down a hundred things you’d like to experience or have in your life. These can be regular bucket-list items (Visit Fiji! Run a marathon!) but most people’s bucket lists stop around item #25 when they’ve listed the twenty-five countries they want to visit. Getting to a hundred is hard. This is the point. You start thinking beyond the Fiji trip, and start thinking of more off-beat items (getting the house professionally decorated for Christmas?).”
― Laura Vanderkam, Tranquility by Tuesday: 9 Ways to Calm the Chaos and Make Time for What Matters

“There is a famous quote from Dwight Eisenhower (who himself called it a statement he had heard long before in the army) that “Plans are worthless, but planning is everything.” In a normal life context, just as on the battlefield, things seldom go exactly as planned. However, when you have thought through the logistics, you can pivot more easily than if you’ve never even pondered the possibilities. When we are thinking of pleasurable plans, as opposed to military campaigns, there’s an even better argument for planning: anticipation accounts for the bulk of any happiness associated with an event. If I have made a reservation at The French Laundry for a date in August (something that turns out to require being on the reservation system right when it opens months before), I will spend much time”
― Laura Vanderkam, Tranquility by Tuesday: 9 Ways to Calm the Chaos and Make Time for What Matters

“But for many, this shift from “what’s happening” to “what’s important”—and broadening planning from meeting times to relationships and personal fulfillment—was intriguing. Indeed, some even found it exciting. “I already do a weekly planning session for my work priorities. However, I see value in planning priorities in relationship and personal categories so that I don’t feel like I did ‘nothing’ over the weekend,” one person wrote. She began brainstorming all the new fun she could actively”
― Laura Vanderkam, Tranquility by Tuesday: 9 Ways to Calm the Chaos and Make Time for What Matters

“you observe a typical Monday–Friday work or school schedule, then Friday, and particularly Friday afternoon, has four main upsides over some other leading planning-time contenders (Monday mornings or Sunday nights, judging by my surveys). There’s little opportunity cost. It is hard to start anything new on Friday afternoons. Many of us are sliding toward the weekend at that point. If this time would otherwise be wasted counting the hours until it is acceptable to sign off, why not repurpose it for planning? You can make Monday productive. If you plan on Fridays, you can make full use of your Monday mornings. Many of us have more energy at the start of things than we do later on. Planning on Fridays allows you to use that Monday-morning energy”
― Laura Vanderkam, Tranquility by Tuesday: 9 Ways to Calm the Chaos and Make Time for What Matters

“A powerful and easy habit Friday planning is simple. Some people enjoy fancy planners, high-end pens, and washi tape. Some people like to make this session a treat, with a favorite beverage appropriate for the time of day, or a soaring movie soundtrack. All of those things are great; none of them are necessary. I use a notebook or a planner, and cross-reference with my calendar. Notes in an electronic calendar can work too. The tool doesn’t matter. What matters is that you do it.”
― Laura Vanderkam, Tranquility by Tuesday: 9 Ways to Calm the Chaos and Make Time for What Matters

“Since you are one person, with one life, it’s most efficient to look at all of that life. So I’d recommend creating a three-category priority list for the upcoming week: Career Relationships Self”
― Laura Vanderkam, Tranquility by Tuesday: 9 Ways to Calm the Chaos and Make Time for What Matters

“Plan on Fridays Expectations are infinite. Time is finite. We are always choosing. Choose well.”
― Laura Vanderkam, Tranquility by Tuesday: 9 Ways to Calm the Chaos and Make Time for What Matters

“Your turn GIVE YOURSELF A BEDTIME Planning questions: What time would you like to wake up most mornings? About how many hours of sleep do you need on an average night? What time do you generally need to be in bed in order to get this amount of sleep? This is your bedtime.”
― Laura Vanderkam, Tranquility by Tuesday: 9 Ways to Calm the Chaos and Make Time for What Matters

“Listen to a new piece of music Record a quick video for social media Stretch or do some yoga poses Take several deep breaths and pay attention to your breathing Read a story with a young child Read a chapter in a book with an older child Take care of a few plants Have a cup of tea with your spouse Check in with a friend, relative, or accountability partner Walk to a nearby coffee shop and back home Look at your calendar and reflect on the day’s priorities Write down an intention for the day”
― Laura Vanderkam, Tranquility by Tuesday: 9 Ways to Calm the Chaos and Make Time for What Matters

“Take a photo of something beautiful Do twenty push-ups and twenty sit-ups Do a ten-minute strength-training video Meditate with a five-minute program on an app Pray a memorized set of prayers Pray for a specific person (a new person each day) Send an email reaching out to a new or old connection Write 250 words in your memoir Practice for ten minutes with a foreign-language app Read a story in a physical newspaper (or a daily news digest) Read one article in a professional journal Listen to a short podcast or ten minutes of an audiobook”
― Laura Vanderkam, Tranquility by Tuesday: 9 Ways to Calm the Chaos and Make Time for What Matters

“Make a list of two to three bite-sized morning activities that you would genuinely enjoy, and that would positively impact your career, your relationships, or yourself. For instance, you could: Respond to a creative writing prompt Read a few pages in a sacred text Have a cup of coffee outside, weather permitting (or in front of a window if not)”
― Laura Vanderkam, Tranquility by Tuesday: 9 Ways to Calm the Chaos and Make Time for What Matters

“Take the next step CREATE A (BITE-SIZED) MORNING ROUTINE One of the best reasons to set a bedtime is that it gives you more control over your mornings. Mornings are a great time for getting stuff done. For busy people with careers or young families or both, weekdays tend to feature two potential chunks of autonomous time: at night after the kids go to bed, and first thing in the morning, if you get up early enough. Both have their pleasures, but because many people find it challenging to exercise or do mentally demanding”
― Laura Vanderkam, Tranquility by Tuesday: 9 Ways to Calm the Chaos and Make Time for What Matters

“given chunk of waking hours. By defining this amount, we start to think of each day as containing a given quantity of temporal space. That time will be filled by something. I maintain that what we fill each day with is largely up to us, based on current”
― Laura Vanderkam, Tranquility by Tuesday: 9 Ways to Calm the Chaos and Make Time for What Matters

“In general, people planned to stick with this rule. In my follow-up interviews with respondents, people often mentioned some other rule as making a big splash in their lives, but that this one most changed their day-to-day experience. As one person put it, of all the rules, “Giving myself a bedtime was probably the least sexy but the most useful.” In the reflection questions about this rule, people noted benefits beyond the obvious upsides of not having to drink four cups of coffee to stay awake in meetings (and then sleeping through their alarms the next morning).”
― Laura Vanderkam, Tranquility by Tuesday: 9 Ways to Calm the Chaos and Make Time for What Matters

“haven’t had a toddler, going to bed on time means I can wake well rested and able to run (something I won’t do at 10 p.m.) or write when I am able to think straight (again, harder to do as the night goes on). Late-night “me time” feels good, but play your cards right and morning “me time” can open up more choices. One respondent who confessed to desiring alone time after the kids went to bed figured out that “If I just go to bed earlier I can wake up early (before kids) and get my quiet alone time, and I usually do something higher quality in the morning like read a professional development book over coffee rather than rewatch three episodes of Friends at night!”
― Laura Vanderkam, Tranquility by Tuesday: 9 Ways to Calm the Chaos and Make Time for What Matters

“some research has suggested that we become less disciplined as the day goes on. Turning off the TV and going upstairs to brush teeth takes energy at a time”
― Laura Vanderkam, Tranquility by Tuesday: 9 Ways to Calm the Chaos and Make Time for What Matters

“Set an alarm for fifteen to thirty minutes before the official bedtime so you can ease into bed. This last step is key. If you don’t start winding down until your actual bedtime, you will go to bed later than you intend to. So start the process at least fifteen minutes before. If you want to read for more than a few minutes, or have some couple time, set your bedtime alarm earlier. Turn off the lights when the moment arrives. Try this for a week and see how it goes. Since most adults can’t really “sleep in,” at least during the week, then going to bed on time is the best way to recreate this sense of on-vacation-with-no-kids luxury.”
― Laura Vanderkam, Tranquility by Tuesday: 9 Ways to Calm the Chaos and Make Time for What Matters

“Let’s be honest here too. Most working-age adults need between seven and nine hours per day, with the majority of those landing between seven and eight. Few people need less than six and a half hours per day, aside from a handful of genetic short sleepers who sleep short hours on weekends and vacations too. If you aren’t sure, aim for seven and a half hours and see how it goes. If you’re still crashing on weekends, you need more. If you wake up consistently before your alarm clock, you might need less. Calculate what time you need to be in bed in order to get this amount of sleep. This is a math problem. If you need to wake up at 6 a.m. on most weekday mornings, and you need seven and a half hours of sleep, then count back seven and a half hours. This gives you a 10:30 p.m. bedtime.”
― Laura Vanderkam, Tranquility by Tuesday: 9 Ways to Calm the Chaos and Make Time for What Matters

“I feel like I spend much of my energy some days convincing the younger people in my house to go to bed so I can go to bed. There is always something else that has to happen. The toddler wants to be rocked again. Someone else’s homework must go in the backpack. Someone has forgotten to tell me something very important, some story that takes meandering minutes”
― Laura Vanderkam, Tranquility by Tuesday: 9 Ways to Calm the Chaos and Make Time for What Matters

“When we think about “joy” and “happiness,” we often think about whether the big pieces of a good life are in place: the prestigious job, the loving family, the beautiful home. These things matter, but happiness is actually experienced in how we spend our hours. If every day looks the same, if you feel lethargic from sitting too long or exhausted from sleep deprivation, if you rarely have time for the absorbing work you find meaningful, and if you rarely have time for hobbies or to connect with the friends who make you laugh, that prestigious job and loving family can start to feel like a grind. We can berate ourselves for feeling this way. We try gratitude practices or even post photos on social media with the hashtag #blessed, but resentment can linger.”
― Laura Vanderkam, Tranquility by Tuesday: 9 Ways to Calm the Chaos and Make Time for What Matters

“Happiness happens in hours Achieving tranquility amid the frenzy of modern life is challenging. It is certainly more challenging than basic time-management matters, such as figuring out how long it will take to”
― Laura Vanderkam, Tranquility by Tuesday: 9 Ways to Calm the Chaos and Make Time for What Matters

“so, I have narrowed all these ideas down to nine practical rules with the biggest impact: Give yourself a bedtime Plan on Fridays Move by 3 p.m. Three times a week is a habit Create a back-up slot One big adventure, one little adventure Take one night for you Batch the little things Effortful before effortless”
― Laura Vanderkam, Tranquility by Tuesday: 9 Ways to Calm the Chaos and Make Time for What Matters

“Life is not going to be less hectic next week. Life probably won’t be less hectic next year. We have to make time for what matters now. We need practical, straightforward strategies to make that happen.”
― Laura Vanderkam, Tranquility by Tuesday: 9 Ways to Calm the Chaos and Make Time for What Matters