First published 2014
Modern life feels like a "rabid lunatic" running naked and screaming past us, and Washington Post journalist Brigid Schulte wants to know why. When a time researcher claims she has 30 hours of weekly leisure time, the harried mother of two accepts his challenge to keep a time diary. Her investigation takes her from Yale neuroscience labs discovering that overwhelm shrinks our brains to North Dakota researchers studying our obsession with busyness. She travels to Paris for international time research conferences and Denmark, where parents enjoy more leisure than anywhere else. Schulte examines intensive parenting standards, workplace bias lawsuits, and America's lack of family policy. She interviews an evolutionary anthropologist about whether mothers are naturally primary parents and explores the science of play that makes us human. Through concrete research and real world examples of innovative workplaces and equitable couples, Schulte uncovers both why we feel so pressed for time and how we can move toward what researchers call Time Serenity.
Genres: psychology, social-science, sociology, non-fiction, 21st-century, academic
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: investigative-journalism, personal-journey
Setting: Denmark, North Dakota, Paris, Washington D.C., Yale
Period: Modern
353 pages · Hardcover · Sarah Crichton Books