Today (Wednesday) was day 1. I dropped my 6-year-old off at school, filled the van with gas, and headed north to Hawk Mountain. You spend the first hour on the turnpike, but then turn off into some more rustic parts of the state. We’re talking red barns against lines of golden trees — lovely.

I got to the preserve around 10:40, parked, and did two hikes. The first was to the “North lookout” — a great viewing spot where you can see hawks flying over the hills. Then I did part of the “River of rocks” trail — you go down a steep, rocky hillside to a field covered in boulders. You can do a loop, but I needed to get back for kid stuff, so I just went to the first boulder field, ate a snack, and came back up.

It was a nice way to get my 10,000 steps. It was all a little rocky but I managed to hike swiftly with only a little toe stubbing and one time putting my ankle somewhere it should not have been. And the colors were amazing! There’s something about red and yellow leaves against the white stone that is just stunning. Not bad for a 5.5 hour adventure.

How does that work? Often through good daily planning routines! We use part of this episode to do a deep dive on how we handle daily scheduling and task management. We talk about time estimating abilities and how this can be a real stumbling block for people (one upside of time tracking is that it does become pretty hard to convince myself that something takes a different amount of time than it does).

Then in the Q&A we answer a question from a listener about how to handle the constant day care sick days. Day care has many wonderful attributes, but this is the primary reason we switched to nanny care many years ago, so we talk about that.

Please give the episode a listen!

And please consider joining the Best of Both Worlds Patreon community where we discuss topics like these in a supportive environment. Membership is $9/month, and in addition to our 3-4 weekly discussion posts, we also have our holiday planning meet-up coming up on Nov 18, and our goal-setting workshop on December 16.

Meanwhile, the 6-year-old was with a sitter on Friday night, which meant we only had one kid at home! So my husband and I took our daughter out to dinner at a Mexican place (not our favorite one, alas, which is still closed for renovations). Then we went shopping at Costco. I don’t love Costco but with three people it was kind of fun. I wound up stocking up on Christmas wrapping paper and bows, which they already had out. Looking at the receipt, I’m reminded of why we go there sometimes. The price for 2 dozen organic eggs was about the same as one dozen at our local store. Though of course if you buy stuff you don’t need (extra Christmas ribbon!) then you don’t necessarily come out ahead.

After, my husband and I watched this BBC/PBS show on evolution we’d taped. I’d been excited enough about this to put it on my calendar several months ago (it came out in the UK this summer, but the US version wasn’t out until October). It was OK. Some interesting points. It reminded me of what I tend to wind up watching on airplanes. Oh well. I’ll probably watch the rest of the series. Meanwhile, I started the Janet Browne biography of Darwin (the 600 page one, not the two volume series).

On Saturday I got up early and ran with my friend Jane along the river trail. The trees were definitely looking nice — a good reason to be outside. Then I took my daughter to brunch at White Dog Cafe nearby. This was almost disastrous as she was really excited about the strawberry cheesecake French toast that was on the menu online, but then they had just switched to the fall menu, which had a stewed apple French toast that seemed less appealing. Fortunately, the waitress then mentioned they had an off-menu Nutella strawberry French toast, so that saved the day.

In the afternoon, I took the 6-year-old to a massive Halloween party that a classmate’s family was hosting. This family really did it up with craft stations, a haunted maze, etc. It was hard to extract him after an hour to go to baseball, but we had a very small team for baseball so it was good he went. Then I dropped the 15-year-old off at a costume party, and went to get my hair cut. There was more BBC Evolution watching at night while waiting for her to text for a ride.

Sunday was church as usual, then tennis for the 15-year-old. I’d canceled for the 11-year-old since I wasn’t sure when he’d be back from camping. But I think they were cold and broke camp early. They were home when I was back from church at 11:15. I ran during the tennis lesson, which was a nice way to spend 45 minutes — much more pleasant than scrolling. When both kids have lessons back to back that doesn’t work as well but it did this time.

After that I had about an hour to hang out (during which I talked to the college kid, who was up in Boston visiting friends over his fall break) before taking the 6-year-old to his Halloween piano recital. This was really cute. He had composed a song about bats and his teacher sang while he played. There was audience participation (“bats are not real, true or false?” and “bats are weird, yes or no?”) and as you can imagine, audience participation made it a hit. I was really proud of him and I love that he is getting the bug of performance. I know it is a thrill to get up on stage and make an audience laugh, and he saw that too. And then on the way home, I played Thriller in the car for him and he listened to it and said “this sounds like Michael Jackson.” Whoa! More knowledge of 80s pop than I would have imagined.

Meanwhile, my husband was with our 11-year-old at his baseball game, where he made a good play to get a runner out at 2nd. I think my husband would have liked to see the recital, and I’m sure it would have been fun to cheer that play but the thing of having a lot of kids is you can’t go to everything. So you go to what you can.

After that the evening was pretty chill. I got the kids outside to bike around the driveway for a while. I harvested some tiny carrots from the garden (not a stunning crop) but the pumpkins we got were pretty amazing. The kids carved those at night, so the jack-o-lantern picture accompanying this post is from a home-grown pumpkin. We grilled steak, I roasted pumpkin seeds, and I worked on a very atmospheric fall puzzle called The Quilt Barn. We are talking full on autumnal scene with a barn and a truck with old quilts. Good times.

Meanwhile, if you’ve made it this far, Sarah and I have figured out the dates for our last two Best of Both Worlds Patreon meet-ups of the year. On November 18 at noon, eastern, we’ll be talking holiday planning. This is a chance to get ideas on fun ways to celebrate the season plus some hacks for doing so effectively. Then on Dec 16th at noon we’re doing the annual Goal Setting Workshop — Sarah will lead us in figuring out what we want out of the next year. These are always some of the most anticipated meet-ups of the year, so please consider joining us. Membership is $9/month.

Content this week: Over at Before Breakfast, I interviewed Roy Schwartz, co-founder of Axious and co-author of Simplify, about making life more streamlined. The book is pitched as figuring out how to manage life and work in the age of AI and it has some interesting ideas, so please check that out.

In the shorter episodes, I talked about how you can “Just aim for 90 minutes” — a tip from the Ultraproductive interview the previous week. For many people, a solid 90 minutes of focused work during the day would make a big difference in productivity, and 90 minutes is more doable than, say, 3 hours. I talked about how “You need a side quest” and how to “Add people to everyday life.”

Over at Vanderhacks, my Substack newsletter, I wrote about “A smarter way to think about your weekends” — my formula for providing a little structure without a weekend feeling too busy. I also have an essay called “You chose this” — a little mantra that might help with the less-fun parts of otherwise fun jobs (or any other activity).

Behind the paywall I wrote about “How not to drop the ball” — my strategy for dealing with various projects that aren’t urgent, but need to get done at some point. I’m happy to report that this month I got my new drivers license, got my car (!), filed my taxes (Ok, that did have a hard deadline), and I’m hoping to book the 6-year-old’s birthday party shortly. I did not take my ring to get re-sized because mysteriously it fit for a day, so then I’m like…huh. Could I just try to replicate those conditions? Stay tuned (I’m sure everyone is very excited for an update on this project).

Did you know that I write a weekly newsletter? Every Saturday morning I send an essay on time related topics to about 30,000 people’s inboxes. (Once a month I send to my larger list that is about 60,000 people). You can sign up by entering your email on the box on my home page.

And if you enjoy my writing, please pick up a copy of my new book, Big Time: A Simple Path to Time Abundance. Book critic KJ Dell’Antonia called it “her best yet.” I enjoyed writing it!

And finally, as promised, here’s another sonnet from my 2-lines-a-day writing project. This one is called “October morning.”

I catch a hint of smoke — someone has burned
a wood stack overnight. The morning air
is crisp and cool, as if the seasons turned
quite suddenly. I turn a corner where

the asters bloom, this blue amid the gold.
The dogwood’s red is bright against the gray
October sky. The swollen clouds will hold
their rain for now, or might just blow away?

The world is full of magic, I believe —
a little more each day. The pumpkin grows
from seed. The bees, all autumn-drunk, will weave
around the dahlia’s petals. I compose

this poem, but I know a thousand words
cannot quite match the caw of circling birds.

Of course, sometimes you want to linger places, and that was the case with my little adventure today: visiting Chanticleer Garden. I love autumn flowers — asters, dahlias, etc. The leaves aren’t quite at peak yet so I might need to go back again next week. Or maybe I’ll go to Longwood Gardens. But botanical gardens in fall are always a treat. I’m trying to block a few days next week, when I think we will hit peak color, for some excursions.

In the meantime, a book recommendation: I just finished Receipts from the Bookshop, which is a compilation of observations from Katie Clapham about her bookstore in a little town on the coast in England. It made me want to go sit in a bookstore for a while. So if that’s appealing to you, you might want to check it out as well!

Photo: This is actually a close-up of the mums on my porch

That was the case for today’s Best of Both Worlds guest, CNN anchor and correspondent Pamela Brown. She experienced postpartum OCD after one of her pregnancies, and began exploring how little was known about various topics. She’s now launched a new streaming series called “Body Language” that explores women’s health topics from perimenopause to egg freezing. In the episode she talks about her career journey, how she manages work and life, and what she learned in producing the series. You can visit the landing page for the series here.

In the intro, Sarah and I discuss our favorite healthy habits. Then, in the Q&A we talk through the reality of outdoor sports getting rained out, and how to pivot with weekend schedules. Please give the episode a listen!

Our Best of Both Worlds Patreon community October meet-up is tomorrow, Wednesday Oct 21st at noon eastern. We’ll be talking “superficial things” — skin care, make-up, hair care, nails, etc. We’ll be sharing product recommendations and I know I always wind up doing some shopping afterwards. Membership is $9/month.

I did a lot of singing this weekend. On Friday (after driving various kids around in the new car, which was very exciting) I went downtown for my Choral Arts Philadelphia dress rehearsal (note: I did not take the new car — I’m a little wary of getting it dinged up in a parking garage! Eventually I’ll take the plunge but for now…). We practiced the Chichester Psalms with organ, harp, percussion and our professional counter-tenor, who was amazing. I made it home around 9:45 and, after a little puzzle time + reading, pretty much crashed.

Saturday morning was just a gorgeous fall morning. I went for a 5 mile run looking at all the bright color against the gray sky. It was cool and crisp. The air smelled vaguely like wood stoves. I might have gone farther but I didn’t have any water on me and had only eaten a waffle before hand. I love fall. The next few weeks are going to be among the most gorgeous of the year.

The 17-year-old also got to run — in his case in another cross-country meet. My husband took the 6-year-old to his baseball game (he got a hit!). I went downtown for a rehearsal (plus a little wandering around Rittenhouse Square during a break) and then my concert. This went really well. The repertoire for “I Hear America Singing” wasn’t terribly challenging — some spirituals, Southern harmony type songs, hymns, and Chichester — so we’d spend a lot of time polishing. My parents came to see the show, so that was nice. My father, who spent many decades as a professor of Hebrew scriptures, said our Hebrew was good so phew. I saw my parents off, came home, and cooked and ate family dinner. Plus going to the grocery store and more puzzle time (that’s my exciting Saturday night!)

On Sunday we had church (so I sang then too), then a slew of stuff: flag football for the 6-year-old (he scored a touch down!), two tennis lessons, and a baseball game for the 11-year-old (finally!). I had booked a sitter, who is basically the 6-year-old’s favorite person in the universe, so that was exciting for him as well. I went for a bike ride on a local trail, worked at Barnes and Nobles for 2 hours, then met my husband at the baseball game. A baseball game is a much more relaxing experience when you don’t have a 6-year-old asking to go home constantly.

I didn’t stay too long, though, as I wanted to be on my home wifi at 6 p.m. for the major ordeal of the weekend — trying to get a reservation at Her Place Supper Club. The restaurant is small, recently got a Michelin star, is only open during the week (no weekends). They release the next month’s bookings on the third Sunday of the month at 6 p.m. So I made sure to be logged into Open Table right at 6 p.m. with my date in mind — and I got it! My husband and I will take the two older boys when our college kid is home for Thanksgiving. I was ridiculously proud of landing this.

And that was it for the weekend. I cooked salmon and green beans for dinner and maybe no one else liked it but I did. As I look over the previous week’s log, here’s my week of workouts:

Monday — worked out (strength) with trainer via Face Time

Tuesday — run outside for 3 miles in afternoon

Wednesday — run 2.1 miles on treadmill at night + strength

Thursday — hike with Joy on a local trail for about an hour. The woods were beautiful!

Friday — run/walk on treadmill in afternoon for about 2 miles – I wound up talking with my college kid on and off during this so I would walk while talking.

Saturday — 5.1 miles outside (pretty fall weather!)

Sunday — 45 minutes of biking along the Schuylkill River Trail

I was glad to have done something every day given that it was kind of a challenging week. I want to try to run outside a few times this week too since the colors will just get better.

Photo: Pumpkin that grew in our garden. From a seed! Nature is amazing. 

One — we had much more limited childcare than usual, due to some unexpected events, and this happened to coincide with my husband being gone a big chunk of the week.

So I managed several days start to finish. I’m happy to report that everyone got where they needed to go – we only canceled one thing, and that wasn’t because of the driving logistics. All those rained out baseball games are getting rescheduled during the week, so a trombone lesson needed to be postponed. But yeah, a lot of driving. On Tuesday, I got my 6-year-old at school, got the 17-year-old from practice, drove the 11-year-old to his baseball game, drove home and got the 15-year-old and took her to church where she works as a tutor, then got the 6-year-old and took him with me to watch the remainder of the 11-year-old’s game. Meanwhile, the 17-year-old picked the 15-year-old up when she was done. On Thursday I wound up hiring the older kids for more driving and babysitting while I was at choir. The 17-year-old drove his 11-year-old brother to parkour and hung out there reading/working/scrolling and took him home, The 15-year-old took care of the 6-year-old and got him ready for bed though he was not asleep when I got back. I guess he never is!

I also learned that I could get out to my parents’ place in NJ and back inside the school day. They are moving into a retirement community and downsizing some stuff, so I went to pick up a load. Among the things: some records I listened to when I was a little kid. I haven’t heard one of those albums in probably 40 years, but when I saw the cover a lot of the songs came back instantly. Music is funny that way.

Another unusual thing: I bought a car! Longtime readers know that I have been driving my 2011 Acura since, well, 2011. It’s been a good car (we are keeping it to be another teen driver car). It is also just…old. I decided on a Lexus SUV. I had actually put a deposit on this particular car back in July, as there is a several month-long waiting list. Our local dealer got one in that met my specifications, so they called me this week and I went and got it. Definitely fancier than the one I’ve been driving. I doubt I will use most of the tech but wow, tech has come a long way since 2011.

The world is really changing colors right now. The photo on this post is from an autumnal walk on a nearby trail. Everything is just so pretty out my window, and it’s getting even brighter by the day. Kind of sad that in a month it will mostly be gone but for now I’m enjoying these lovely few weeks of the year.

Content — over at Before Breakfast, my interview this week is with Christian Poensgen, the co-author of Ultraproductive. I thought this book had some interesting insights on aiming for 90-minute stretches of productivity, along with 90-minutes of deep sleep and such. Christian is also a new dad, and had some thoughts on how to get sleep when you have little ones — basically he and his wife alternate getting sleep on various nights. Please check the interview out!

In the short episodes, I talked about “Know how to take back the day,” how to “Take control of your alerts,” and “Make your planning time pay off” with a hat tip to Ben Meer, a previous guest.

Over at Vanderhacks, my Substack newsletter, I wrote about how to “Feed your mind” — it’s good to aim for quality, even during your leisure time. I suggested we “Do it or be done with it” — sometimes a personal ultimatum is helpful. I also suggested that we “Make connection automatic.” Recurring get-togethers create less mental work!

Behind the paywall I wrote about “11 things you can do now to get a jump start on the holidays.” I also wrote that “You can still play the game.” Even if life is challenging, the world still needs your ideas.

Finally, over at the Best of Both Worlds Patreon community page, we’ve been having a great time getting ready for our “Superficial Things” meet-up next Wednesday at noon, eastern. We had a thread on hair, make-up, jeans, and nails… I’m excited to get some product recommendations next week. Membership is $9/month. Thanks for supporting me and my work.

In the Q&A, we address one of the most common questions Sarah gets. What are her favorite planners for kids? She has some answers though as she often reminds people — the planner (and calendar) itself doesn’t matter. What matters is the system, and that you use it! A freebie calendar that some nonprofit mailed you that you actually use is going to be better than a $100 custom planner that sits in the drawer.

Please give the episode a listen! And please consider joining our Patreon community. We have 3-4 discussion threads a week on work/life topics, plus monthly Zoom meet-ups. This month’s, on Oct 21 at noon, eastern, will be on “Superficial things” — a perennial favorite where we all share our favorite skin/hair/make-up type products. Come ready to shop! Membership is $9/month.

First, if you’ve been wanting to read 168 Hours, here’s a new way to try. Google has been working with a handful of non-fiction authors to bring some of the benefits of AI to older books in a way that respects IP. 168 Hours is one of those books. You can buy the ebook here and then search and access various material through Google’s Notebook program. Google is giving away a limited number of complimentary copies of the 168 Hours ebook to jumpstart this program. You can enter code EXPERTINTELLIGENCE at checkout to see if it’s still redeemable when you’re reading this. I really enjoyed writing 168 Hours, and I’m excited to see it get a new audience.

Now onto the weekend…I took a quick trip Friday-Sunday to Nashville. My college kid transferred to Vanderbilt for his sophomore year. My husband brought him down in August (I was on my way to Sydney) so I hadn’t seen him in his new environment. Parent weekend didn’t quite work so I blocked off this weekend to go.

My flight down on Friday was uneventful, if an hour late. I took an uber to my hotel (the Marriott at Vanderbilt, right by the stadium) and then met up with my son at a nearby Starbucks. He took me on a brisk walking tour of the entire campus, showing me where his classes were, the campus landmarks and the like. Vanderbilt is quite pretty. It is right in Nashville but feels kind of separate, so there’s a “best of both worlds” quality. You can find restaurants and stores and enjoy big green quads with old trees.

We had a late dinner reservation, so we went back to our respective rooms for an hour or so. Then we went to the Finch. The food was good but wow are there a lot of bachelorette type parties! I hadn’t worn the official Nashville outfit of a little dress with cowboy boots. Oh well.

On Saturday I was up early with the time change. I went to the gym and ran on a treadmill looking right out at the football field. It was a very rainy day, so I was glad I wasn’t actually going to the game, but it was kind of cool to see from inside.

After I got cleaned up, my friend Mary Laura Philpott came to get me. I know her through writing circles and getting to see her was a bonus of going to Nashville! We had brunch at the Chloe — eating some absolutely amazing fried chicken biscuits (pictured). When in Nashville!

I then met up with my son and we went to the Mall at Green Hills. I had a really strong sense of deja vu, but that was because this is also a Simon mall (like the King of Prussia mall in PA) and so it had many of the same stores and even some similarities of layout. We shopped at Abercrombie and American Eagle among a few other places. Meanwhile, I was getting dispatches from my husband, who was at KOP mall with our daughter shopping for a homecoming dress. It took many hours but they did find one (good, because homecoming was Saturday night!). We did not stay quite so long at the equivalent mall in Nashville, but my son managed to get some good cooler weather clothes. We went back to the university and I got to see my son’s apartment — he shares a 2-bedroom apartment with two other transfer students. So now I know where he is calling from.

I went back to my room for a bit and thought I might rest but that didn’t really happen because the football game was going on. My “stadium view” room didn’t quite show the field but I could see the scoreboard and the videos of each play. Vanderbilt did not do so well. It was also very loud. So I just watched and relaxed and worked.

Then my son and I met up again to go to an Italian place (Amerigo) — we had Caesar salad and pasta and it was a very nice, albeit fairly quick meal. He then announced he was going to go study, which seemed surprising to me on a Saturday night, but I do not question these things. Before he went I made sure he got all the things I brought for him from home: his mail-in ballot, his contacts, and a mug my husband apparently got for him (not sure on that one).

Sunday AM I had been planning to go back to the gym but then I saw that the rain had mostly stopped. So I crossed the street and ran in Centennial Park. This was kind of fun — I looped around the Parthenon several times (and the nearby lake) and took in the stalls that were setting up for the Tennessee Craft Fair. Much more entertaining than running in place. I grabbed breakfast from McDonalds (it was right there, and I just ran…) and went back to my hotel. After check out I met up with my son again to go to Aba, which is a Mediterranean restaurant. We had a combo of things like hummus and French toast (brunch!). Fun. Then it was back to the airport where my flight was an hour delayed but considering how much the storm was messing up travel everywhere that was not so bad. I was home around 8:40 p.m. and now am plunged back into the workweek.

In trying to keep myself accountable, here’s my list of last week’s workouts.

Monday – 30 minutes of strength with my trainer via Face Time.

Tuesday – 2.5 miles on the treadmill at night + some strength (I can do push-ups and bicep curls while waiting for the treadmill to reset, plus I did some other things after).

Wednesday – 2.1 miles on the treadmill from 7:30 before needing to go get my 11-year-old at church.

Thursday – 3.3 miles looping around the Haverford preserve in the afternoon. This was my little treat for finishing most of my work on time. The trees haven’t really changed yet but it’s pleasant nonetheless, and only about 8 minutes from the house. Plus I put gas in the car on the way back, so it was almost like not even an extra errand.

Friday – no formal exercise but walking all around Vanderbilt briskly was about 6000 steps!

Saturday – 2.5 miles on hotel treadmill + strength (hotel gym machines + weights)

Sunday – 3.1 miles around Centennial Park in Nashville.