Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning.
Speaker 2: This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
Speaker 2: tip is to give yourself some longer workdays, particularly if
Speaker 2: you work flexibly and are responsible for kids or other
Speaker 2: tasks on the home front. You want some days when
Speaker 2: you don't have such a hard stop. In this extra time,
Speaker 2: you'll do a little speculative work, or maybe think ahead,
Speaker 2: or do the work that makes you feel more on
Speaker 2: top of things. All of this can make life feel
Speaker 2: a little more calm. So one of the sharpest life
Speaker 2: transitions with parenthood, I mean, at least for some of us,
Speaker 2: comes at the end of the workday. Pre kids, if
Speaker 2: you needed extra time to wrap something up, you might.
Speaker 1: Have just done it. But for those trying to make
Speaker 1: a daycare pickup where you are charged by the minute
Speaker 1: if you are late, there is a hard stop at
Speaker 1: the end of the day. Even if you have another
Speaker 1: childcare arrangement like a nanny, this person no doubt has
Speaker 1: a time that they are expecting to leave, and you
Speaker 1: would probably like to see your kids before bed. This
Speaker 1: means that the end of the workday features a lot
Speaker 1: of awareness of the clock, and this isn't a bad thing.
Speaker 1: Lots of people become way more efficient and effective when
Speaker 1: they are accountable for their time. But sometimes it is
Speaker 1: nice to feel a little more relaxed about the end
Speaker 1: of the day. This is particularly true if you work
Speaker 1: flexibly and wind up spending late afternoons going in and
Speaker 1: out of work as you are driving to kid activities
Speaker 1: and such. None of this is either or you can
Speaker 1: choose to be present some afternoon yanes and not on
Speaker 1: a few others. I like to think of having one
Speaker 1: longer work day every week or so. If you are
Speaker 1: normally doing daycare pickup or school pickup, maybe your partner
Speaker 1: can take one to two days a week. If that
Speaker 1: is not an option, maybe you can hire a sitter
Speaker 1: for an evening one day a week, or trade off
Speaker 1: with a friend or neighbor. Both of you get an
Speaker 1: evening where you can be a little more relaxed about
Speaker 1: work time. In my case, we often have a night
Speaker 1: or two a week where the five year old is
Speaker 1: out at activities that I don't have to drive him to.
Speaker 1: That means my workday can extend right up until dinner,
Speaker 1: which is often as late as I want to work Anyway,
Speaker 1: in that five to six thirty pm window. I do
Speaker 1: the extra work that doesn't have to be done urgently,
Speaker 1: but that I do want to get done. I feel
Speaker 1: much more on top of things by giving myself this
Speaker 1: extra space. Now to be show. This language of giving
Speaker 1: yourself some longer days might sound silly to some people
Speaker 1: if your manager is forcing you to work late every night,
Speaker 1: this is a different matter entirely. If you are not
Speaker 1: in charge of little people in the evenings, and you
Speaker 1: often do half work and half not work into the
Speaker 1: wee hours, you might actually benefit by giving yourself a
Speaker 1: hard stop at least a few days a week. But
Speaker 1: if you are like a lot of people who listen
Speaker 1: to this show, and by default you would have a
Speaker 1: hard stop every work day, consider if you might feel
Speaker 1: better about work if you gave yourself enough space to
Speaker 1: really think and plan and try things out. You don't
Speaker 1: have to work around the clock to make that happen.
Speaker 1: Sometimes just giving yourself one longer day a week can
Speaker 1: be enough. I think that is real work life balance.
Speaker 1: It doesn't always mean working less in the meantime. This
Speaker 1: is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's to making the
Speaker 1: most of our time. Thanks for listening. To Before Breakfast.
Speaker 1: If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback, you can reach
Speaker 1: me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast
Speaker 1: is a production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts from iHeartMedia,
Speaker 1: please visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
Speaker 1: listen to your favorite shows.