[Tracking Every Minute]-Day 20 – School’s Out

School’s Out for the winter.

Dazed and confused. That’s how most parents will feel over holiday break. Maybe it’s just me. Balancing work responsibilities with family responsibilities once school is let out gets much more complicated.

I am anticipating much less time dedicated to working, but also want to make the most of the time we have together as a family. So I can’t feel bad about not working while hanging out with the family or feel bad about not being with the family when I am carving out some time to work.

Presence of mind to the task at hand is a must.

7:00 – 9:00. Right away, I’m falling into the vacation schedule. Sleeping in.

9:00 – 11:00. Work out.

11:00 – 12:00. Communication block. Had a few calls that made this block longer than usual.

12:00 – 2:00. First deep work block of the day.

2:00 – 3:00. Lunch.

3:00 – 5:00. Second deep work block of the day.

5:00 – 7:00. Family time. Included some board games at the house and taking my son to his basketball practice. Also some 1 v 1 action.

7:00 – 8:00. Dinner at home.

8:00 – 10:00. Family movie night. First of many to come.

Presence

Presence of mind, or attention. However you choose to define awareness of how you are spending your time, that is what I am focusing on now.

When I am choosing to do some work, I want to try my best to focus all of my attention on doing work. I am hoping that planning my day out in advance helps me achieve this goal. Today it worked great.

I woke up, picked up around the house, fed the kids breakfast.

We were hit with one of life’s constant surprises when we got a call from our oldest who was sleeping out. My wife had to go get her right away. We were planning on working out together, but my daughter’s needs took priority here.

No serious issue for my daughter. But a reminder that even when we try and plan, issues will always come up.

After the workout, I came home and tried to shift focus into work mode. I told the kids I’d be unavailable until around 2. Went into my office and worked. When lunch time came around I tried to hang out with them.

Then I quickly shifted focus back to working. Getting two deep work blocks in on the first day of the kids vacation was a massive win.

I am sure I am in for a few days where I plan on getting some work done but am drawn into doing other things. It’s the holiday season, it’s to be expected. That doesn’t mean I shouldn’t make a plan, but rather that I should plan with a little bit more leeway.

Main Takeaways

• You never know what life is going to throw at you. Every day is truly a blessing.
• With my kids, at the age they are at, I can tell them I have to work for a few hours and they will respect it. I also have to respect that when I take a break they might be into something else and not want to hang out.

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