Raising 4 kids, writing blog posts, and reading books for improvement. Where’s the time coming from? No simple way unfortunately. It’s via trade-offs. Here’s how my weekday looks like, the challenges, and the meta points.
Gist is:
3h for reading + writing posts while family sleeps.
Look after kids + tidy up during out of work hours.
Anything outside of above eats into the personal 3h.
Hourly:
6-7AM. Read self-improvement book and breakfast. Family sleeps.
7-9AM. Family wakes up. I look after the baby and 3y old. Wife handles breakfast and takes children to school.
9AM-12PM. Work sprinkled with 5min breaks at which I tidy up home and do push-ups. [1] for work time management.
12-1PM. Mid day break. Lunch first 30min. Then read my bible [2] if I’m not needed to care after the baby.
1-5PM. Work. Wife brings kids from school.
5-6:30PM. Look after the baby and 3y old. Wife handles dinner.
6:30-8PM. Tidy up the kitchen and bedroom. Wife looks after the kids. We all go to bed at 8PM.
8-10PM. Iterate on the weekly post.
10PM-6AM. Sleep.
Trade-offs:
No bedtime stories for kids.
Less sleep.
Time to web browse / youtube only during lunch.
Any bureaucracy and non-urgent time consuming tasks are left for weekends.
No time for other hobbies.
Challenges:
Not enough sleep. Every 2nd night I sleep with the baby which wakes up often. The push-ups during day though do help with energy. To somewhat recover, on weekends I don’t do the 3h and instead sleep more.
Reading + writing posts is at suboptimal times. Early morning when sleepy and end of day when tired. Not possible to do with kids around. One parent has to look after the small children so 2nd can use their hands.
I struggle to read the bible consistently as I haven’t found a reliable slot / what to sacrifice. It bugs me. The notes have increased tremendously after [3]. Long gaps of not re-reading causes slip to old behavior.
The 2h end of day for writing are volatile. Anything outside common flow eats into them. Like returning late due travel, family bath, delayed tidy up, kids not feeling sleepy.
Meta points:
Writing a post takes 5-9h, across 3+ days. With multiple revisions to refine the idea. And cut offs to fit in the 3k LinkedIn limit.
Running out of ideas to write posts for. Will have to get creative.
Finding the time was matter of prioritization. Deciding what’s most important. Alternative is free time, and bless you if you have it. Wants are useless if not acted - hence struggles with the bible. I “want” to read it, but not so much as to sacrifice more sleep, or browsing during lunch, or reduce blog time.
[1] How I manage time at work
[2] My bible / Process for continuous self-improvement
[3] Decisive: How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work; Ego Is the Enemy; Never Split the Difference: Negotiating as if Your Life Depended on It