ASHLEY WHILLANS
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Harvard Business School Professor
Author of Time Smart: How to Reclaim Your Time and Live a Happier Life
Ashley Whillans delivers data-driven strategies to reshape how organizations value their most precious asset. Backed by her groundbreaking research and book Time Smart, she demonstrates how shifting the focus from financial rewards to “time affluence” is linked to reduced burnout, greater workplace productivity, and increased overall life satisfaction.
Ashley Whillans is the Volpert Family Associate Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School, where she teaches Negotiations to Executives and the Motivation and Incentives course to MBA students. A leading voice in time, happiness, and workplace well-being research, Professor Whillans has been named a Rising Star of Behavioral Science by the Behavioral Science & Policy Association in both 2015 and 2018, and received the 2022 SAGE Emerging Career Trajectory Award from the Society for Personality and Social Psychology.
Her research has been published in top academic journals including the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, Nature Human Behavior, and Management Science, as well as popular media outlets including Harvard Business Review, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Time magazine. Her book Time Smart: How to Reclaim Your Time & Live a Happier Life was published in October 2020 by Harvard Business Publishing and was named one of the top 10 business books of 2020 by The Globe & Mail. Her TED talk on work-life balance has been viewed over 4 million times.
Professor Whillans serves as a Distinguished Principal Research Fellow for Human Capital with The Conference Board, a Senior Research Advisor for Gallup, and a Senior Scientist for Edelman. She has previously served on the UN Global Mental Health Council and the Lancet Global Mental Health Task Force. In 2016, she co-founded the Department of Behavioral Science in the British Columbia Public Service Agency.
Professor Whillans earned her BA, MA, and PhD in Social Psychology from the University of British Columbia. Her dissertation research on time and happiness won the 2018 CAGS Distinguished Dissertation Award, recognized as the single best PhD thesis in Canada across the fine arts, humanities, and social sciences. Prior to joining HBS, she was a visiting scholar and guest lecturer at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
You can learn more about her research at: http://hbs.edu/awhillans
Speech topics
Speech topics
Time Is a Strategic Resource: Why the Best Leaders Manage Time Like Capital
Time Is a Strategic Resource: Why the Best Leaders Manage Time Like Capital
Organizations measure, track, and optimize every dollar of capital with rigor, yet often fail to do the same when it comes to time. Drawing on a decade of research, learn why the most effective leaders are redesigning work to value, protect, and give back time, and why doing so has become a defining source of organizational performance and competitive advantage.
Time Smart: Why the Most Successful and Happy Employees Prioritize Time
Time Smart: Why the Most Successful and Happy Employees Prioritize Time
Eighty percent of us feel time-stressed—and it's making us less happy, less healthy, and less productive. Learn evidence-based strategies to reclaim your time and live a better life.
The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions: Insights from Behavioral Economics
The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions: Insights from Behavioral Economics
From how we spend money to how we manage time, invisible psychological forces guide our choices in ways we rarely recognize—and understanding them can transform how we lead, design products, and build organizations.
Beyond Bonuses: The Behavioral Science of What Really Motivates Employees
Beyond Bonuses: The Behavioral Science of What Really Motivates Employees
Money matters, but it's not everything—discover how non-monetary rewards like time, recognition, and autonomy can drive engagement and performance more effectively than cash alone.
Books
Books
Time Smart: How to Reclaim Your Time and Live a Happier Life
Time Smart is your playbook for taking back the time you lose to mindless tasks and unfulfilling chores. Author and Harvard Business School professor Ashley Whillans will give you proven strategies for improving your "time affluence."
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