How Do I Balance Work, School and Kids?

00:00:00.000 | [MUSIC PLAYING]

00:00:05.400 | All right, moving on now, we have a question from Wei,

00:00:10.760 | who says, how do I keep balance among a full-time job

00:00:13.680 | graduate school and teenage kids?

00:00:15.360 | All right, so this is kind of similar to Nana's question

00:00:17.680 | from right before.

00:00:18.560 | When you have a lot going on-- well, we just told Nana,

00:00:21.440 | deep work is something to keep in mind.

00:00:24.640 | The things that have to get done that are important,

00:00:26.880 | do it with intense, unbroken concentration.

00:00:29.520 | Do it well, but do it fast, and then move on.

00:00:32.480 | Two, if you have a bunch of competing demands,

00:00:34.640 | you have to give every minute of your day a job.

00:00:36.840 | You cannot go through your day in the list-reactive method,

00:00:40.720 | where you react to things like email and Slack

00:00:43.400 | and the internet and whatever is going on on Twitter,

00:00:48.800 | where you discover that Donald Trump has just

00:00:51.840 | selected Omicron as his running mate,

00:00:54.520 | and they're running on a platform that says,

00:00:58.000 | your kids have to be infected or something.

00:01:02.080 | You don't want to just be doing that, and then,

00:01:04.360 | as you get around to it, looking at a to-do list

00:01:06.600 | and saying, do I want to do something from it?

00:01:08.520 | You have to give every minute of your day

00:01:10.800 | a job if you're going to make this possible.

00:01:12.960 | And that's going to be something like time block planning.

00:01:16.080 | Here's the hours I have.

00:01:17.280 | Here's the meetings and classes I have.

00:01:20.440 | All this time's off limits, like whatever,

00:01:22.280 | I'm doing child care or something like that.

00:01:24.680 | But here's where I actually have time to work.

00:01:26.400 | What do I want to do with that time to get the most out of it?

00:01:28.760 | I'm working on this here and that there and this here.

00:01:31.560 | I'm going to be very clear about this way.

00:01:33.280 | This does not mean that if you time block,

00:01:35.080 | you'll be able to fit everything in and get everything done.

00:01:38.320 | Yes, time blocking is going to get you way more out

00:01:40.360 | of your time than if you don't.

00:01:41.320 | But the other thing it's going to give you

00:01:43.080 | is a reality check.

00:01:45.480 | It forces you to use a phrase from earlier

00:01:48.440 | episodes of this show.

00:01:49.680 | It forces you to face the productivity dragon.

00:01:55.240 | It forces you to actually see, here's what's on my plate

00:01:58.960 | and how long it really takes.

00:02:00.480 | I like to put down here, oh, do my email in 15 minutes,

00:02:03.120 | but it takes me 90.

00:02:05.200 | Got to face that reality.

00:02:07.280 | I got to study for my class.

00:02:08.520 | I give it 30 minutes between lunch and this other meeting.

00:02:11.280 | I'm frazzled in that 30 minutes.

00:02:12.760 | I never get it done.

00:02:13.640 | OK, that needs a whole afternoon block.

00:02:16.720 | And you see how long things really take, for better

00:02:18.640 | or for worse.

00:02:20.200 | But knowing what you're facing and how long it takes

00:02:22.520 | allows you to be realistic.

00:02:24.640 | And there might be hard choices you have to face,

00:02:26.520 | but at least you'll be making those hard choices

00:02:28.480 | from a really informed place.

00:02:30.040 | You're going to be making those hard choices from,

00:02:32.080 | like, I know what's possible.

00:02:33.280 | I know what things take.

00:02:34.440 | I can get this and this done, but I

00:02:35.640 | can't do this at the same time as this.

00:02:37.040 | Or I have to put this off.

00:02:37.840 | Going to have to quit this.

00:02:38.920 | You got to face the productivity dragon

00:02:40.520 | and then get as much out of the time that you can.

00:02:43.240 | Time block planning is what you're going to have to do.

00:02:45.960 | You're doing something hard.

00:02:47.160 | Don't let anyone tell you it's not hard.

00:02:48.840 | And it might not be possible.

00:02:50.840 | But there is no scenario in which

00:02:53.040 | ignoring that reality, avoiding the productivity dragon,

00:02:56.040 | just doing list reactive and being stressed,

00:02:57.880 | there's no scenario in which that's

00:02:58.920 | going to be the best thing to do.

00:03:01.320 | [MUSIC PLAYING]

00:03:04.560 | (upbeat music)

00:03:07.140 | (upbeat music)

How Do I Balance Work, School and Kids?

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