Brigid Schulte quotes:

Busyness is now the social norm that people feel they must conform to, Burnett says, or risk being outcasts.

A gift, like a good friend drawing a personal road map out of the crazy busy swirl of our overloaded lives.

As work weeks get longer and leisure time shrinks, people are becoming sicker, more distracted, absent, unproductive, and less innovative.

What often matters more than the activity we're doing at a moment in time is how we feel about it.

Our perception of time is indeed our reality.

But the majority of mothers work - and are responsible for taking care of the kids and home. And more fathers are spending more time doing child care and housework, and still working long hours. That work-life conflict is weighing on everybody.

I have trashed the to-do list to help my brain.

I think that was one of the biggest revelations is that leisure is really in the eyes of the beholder.

The United States is the only advanced economy with no paid parental leave for either mothers or fathers.

What if not just women, but both men and women, worked smart, more flexible schedules? What if the workplace itself was more fluid than the rigid and narrow ladder to success of the ideal worker? And what if both men and women became responsible for raising children and managing the home, sharing work, love, and play? Could everyone then live whole lives?

Because this is how it feels to live my life: scattered, fragmented, and exhausting.

As long as you're pushing men to stay at work, you're pushing women to stay home.

I'm a big believer in education. If people learn the truth, they'll see the benefit if they have gender neutral policies.

The best thing a society can do is ensure its children are taken care of.

I'm optimistic. I really believe people in power want to do the right thing.

The prejudice is against men and women - assuming men stay at work. That's the reason why we don't have enough women in the halls of power - the prejudice is pushing women to go home.

It's incredibly painful to think back to the time I had to come back to work. I was so, so needed at home. Like the vast majority of people in America, I couldn't take unpaid leave.

I take solace in knowing that some of the steps I took can help other people.