Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Good Morning, This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Speaker 1: Today's tip is to work smart when working after hours.
Speaker 1: Make sure you know what you are trying to accomplish
Speaker 1: so you can get done and move on with your day.
Speaker 1: One of the most unfortunate work life narratives out there
Speaker 1: is that big jobs inevitably require long hours. Long hours
Speaker 1: mean you will never see your kids. Thus, many parents
Speaker 1: and mothers in particular just won't be or shouldn't be
Speaker 1: in the running now. This is obviously a problematic thing
Speaker 1: for organizations to believe, as they cut themselves off from
Speaker 1: a lot of great leaders. But it's also a problematic
Speaker 1: thing for individual parents to believe, since people limit their
Speaker 1: ambitions when everyone seems to be screaming that no one
Speaker 1: can have it all. But it turns out there is
Speaker 1: a lot wrong with this story. Sure, plenty of jobs
Speaker 1: require more than forty hours a week, but in my
Speaker 1: experience looking at thousands of time logs, very few people
Speaker 1: log more than sixty hours a week averaged over the
Speaker 1: long haul. Even more intriguingly, many people who work long
Speaker 1: hours do not work those hours from say seven thirty
Speaker 1: am to seven thirty pm, which would preclude seeing their
Speaker 1: young kids during the week. A little creativity means people
Speaker 1: can work long hours and see their families. When I
Speaker 1: collected time logs from women who had kids and who
Speaker 1: made over a hundred thousand dollars a year for my book,
Speaker 1: I know how she does it. I found many moved
Speaker 1: work hours around to preserve family time. The most common
Speaker 1: method was what I started calling a split shift. Here's
Speaker 1: how it works. You end work at a reasonable time,
Speaker 1: however you define that. Let's say five pm or so.
Speaker 1: You hang out with your family, including young kids who
Speaker 1: go to bed relatively early. Maybe they are in bed
Speaker 1: at seven pm or so. Then, at least a few
Speaker 1: nights a week, you do more work after the kids
Speaker 1: go to bed. You split your shift some during the day,
Speaker 1: some at night. Working from eight pm to ten pm
Speaker 1: is the same as working from five pm to seven pm,
Speaker 1: only in the former world. You are trading off work
Speaker 1: time for TV time instead of work time for fam time.
Speaker 1: That is a trade off a lot more people are
Speaker 1: willing to make. I found that about half the women
Speaker 1: in my study worked such a split shift at least
Speaker 1: once a week, or it's cousin working from say five
Speaker 1: am to seven am in the morning before the kids
Speaker 1: got up. Of course, you'll notice that I said working
Speaker 1: from eight pm to ten pm. I did not say
Speaker 1: working from eight pm to some undefined time in the
Speaker 1: middle of the night. Someone recently sent me a note
Speaker 1: saying the split shift should come with a warning label
Speaker 1: to make sure people use it responsibly. So here it is.
Speaker 1: We all sometimes work outside traditional hours, but if you
Speaker 1: do plan to work after hours, be that at night
Speaker 1: or in the early morning, or on what are supposed
Speaker 1: to be your days off, you should be intentional about it.
Speaker 1: That means creating a defined list of what you intend
Speaker 1: to get through. The most obvious choices are those things
Speaker 1: that actually have to get done for tomorrow. Prepping for meetings,
Speaker 1: answering an important email you didn't get to before five pm,
Speaker 1: finishing up a proposal you plan to submit the next day.
Speaker 1: This list should be short and reasonable. You would not
Speaker 1: get through a one email backlog between nine am and
Speaker 1: five pm, and you won't from eight pm to ten
Speaker 1: pm either, so don't set that as a goal. Create
Speaker 1: your list, and then when you are done, sign off. Indeed,
Speaker 1: I would suggest giving yourself a strict time limit for
Speaker 1: your split shift to force efficiencies. If you go to
Speaker 1: bed at eleven pm, working from eight to ten allows
Speaker 1: you to have thirty minutes of leisure and then thirty
Speaker 1: minutes to get ready for bed and wind down. Or
Speaker 1: maybe you could just do ninety minutes of work and
Speaker 1: have an hour for reading or crafting or puzzles. I'd
Speaker 1: also suggest not automatically doing a split shift. The truth
Speaker 1: is that most people only do it a few nights
Speaker 1: per week. The most common scenario is two to three
Speaker 1: nights per week. Four is pretty much the max. So
Speaker 1: I'm not really concerned about this, but don't do a
Speaker 1: split shift just to do it. Maybe on Tuesdays you
Speaker 1: normally sit back down to work, but if you don't
Speaker 1: actually have any work that needs to get done for
Speaker 1: the next day, you don't have to work. You can
Speaker 1: just be done. It's okay. When you have intentions and
Speaker 1: you keep your list short, then a split shift can
Speaker 1: be a great way to have it all a big
Speaker 1: career and time with your family. When it gets out
Speaker 1: of control, it can feel like life is no fun.
Speaker 1: So if you are working after hours, it's important to
Speaker 1: work smart In the meantime. This is Laura. Thanks for
Speaker 1: listening and here's to making the most of our time.
Speaker 1: Hey everybody, I'd love to hear from you. You can
Speaker 1: send me your tips, your questions, or anything else. Just
Speaker 1: connect with me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at Before
Speaker 1: Breakfast Pod. That's b E the number four, then Breakfast
Speaker 1: p o D. You can also shoot me an email
Speaker 1: at Before Breakfast podcast at i heeart media dot com
Speaker 1: that Before Breakfast is spelled out with all the letters.
Speaker 1: Thanks so much, I look forward to staying in touch.
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