Space isn’t the final frontier—it’s time. Millions of American suffer from “time poverty” as vacations shrink, schedules grow more packed and workdays lengthen. We work nine full weeks more per year than Europeans. Time poverty even affects our children: they have lost 12 hours per week in free time since the late 1970s.

We can take back our time, however, starting with simple, individual actions. These steps open up time for life, whether we’re craving more time with our families or a few hours to contribute to our communities or listen to our deepest longings.