Improve time management and productivity with A Better Week newsletter

Our free time is evaporating.

From the moment we wake up, our devices demand our attention. With endless feeds to scroll and incessant push notifications, we have become tethered to time-sucking digital distractions. We are always just a messaging app or email away from our employers, even when we have ostensibly signed off from work.

For many of us, the past year and a half further dismantled what little separation existed between work and home. Our sense of time became warped. Dinners and drinks with friends turned into lag-filled video calls. We were always at home.

But now, as more of us are fully vaccinated and reentering society in clothes that don't quite fit anymore, we have an opportunity to reset our daily calendars — and rebalance our lives.

That’s why we made A Better Week, our seven-day email course designed to help you make time for the things you care about. We want to help build healthier habits that structure our lives, as we reenter society after more than year mostly spent indoors and with screens. One thing I don’t miss about pre-pandemic life: my out of control calendar. It’s easy to fall back into those old habits — and this newsletter can help prevent that.

I’m Tom, and like a lot of people, I often feel short on time, high on stress and too distracted by technology.

I’m neither a time management savant nor a productivity guru, but I talked to a lot of people who are to figure out ways to improve everything from how I buy groceries to how I plan my weekends. Then I put their strategies to the test, and I found 7.5 more hours each week.

I didn’t just find more time — I improved my relationship with it.

These strategies helped me make time for the things I care about, like maintaining friendships and reading the book that has been on my shelf for months. And yes, sleeping a little later each day.

Not all waking hours have to be productive. This series will teach you how to enjoy time spent to its fullest potential, without distractions. (Does this also mean making time for my favorite TV shows? Absolutely!) I hope you’ll find a few techniques that are worth trying.

We aren’t robots to be optimized, and my goal isn’t to inspire you to become a multitasking machine. I promise not send you perverse Instagram posts overflowing with hashtags encouraging you to #hustleharder — the social media equivalent of those corny office posters with motivational phrases.

Sign up at any time and you’ll receive Day 1 the following Monday. You’ll get an email every day through Sunday. I hope you’ll tell a friend about it, too.