A review by rachelwiththelonglegs
I Know How She Does It: How Successful Women Make the Most of Their Time by Laura Vanderkam

1.0

This book is for those earning high-figure incomes with positions in which one has the authority to choose their hours and build in their own flexibility options. The key take-away from this book, is to work an executive level from the start and not get stuck in a job where you don’t have the freedom to take personal time in small chunks throughout the typical 9-5. All of the “insights” are obvious solutions for rearranging the hours of your day to meet the demands of modern life and that is just not options for the majority of working moms and dads. She emphasized multiple times that a typical job is 9-5 with a break for lunch and less than 7 hrs a day is the norm. I’ve yet to find a job that isn’t 8-5 with a mandatory hour unpaid lunch that also doesn’t frown upon taking an average an hour and a half per day to run errands. Maybe I’ve settled for horrible working conditions my entire career or maybe the fact that she only reviewed data for six-figure income women made the reality of application of their custom schedules unobtainable for anyone at middle management or below.

If you are feeling overworked and don’t have the freedom to choose to come in to work half an hour early, work through lunch break and take off an hour and a a half early to get your housework done before you pick up kids then this book will only frustrate you.