My 30-Hour Work Week
My oldest daughter started kindergarten last week, which is a huge milestone. Aside from the disbelief that she’s already that old, this new normal has introduced a not altogether unanticipated constraint: the 30-hour work week. My work as an entrepreneur affords me more flexibility than most people have, including my spouse. As a result, I have volunteered to drop the kids off at school and daycare as well as pick them up. That gives me exactly 6 hours of productive work time each weekday. Ok, it’s possible to get up super-early and squeeze in a couple of hours there, but that doesn’t work for me (I can do it for a couple of days, but it’s just not sustainable for me). I do manage to spend about an hour each night after the girls have been put to bed reviewing the day and planning out the next day but that’s not a super-productive time for me either. So I get 6 hours each day for 5 days a week, giving a total of 30 hours. So far (i.e. last week) I managed to be very productive as a result of reflecting on just how precious time is. I’m trying out the strategy of allocating a chunk of hours to each of my major clients and to myself (for business development and for that which shows up as “H&WB” in my calendar: “Health & Well-Being”).
I’ll see whether this is sustainable or not over the next 4-5 weeks, but so far it’s a blessing in disguise!