I listened to this podcast last night while working on instructions for Jelly Rolls (they will be done soon). It’s on Work Life Balance (and the myth thereof).
Here’s the link so you can listen while you work.
One of the best tips was to “Drop three things from your to-do list. Right now!”
I’m not sure what those three things could be for me. Everything seems like it’s so important and can’t be dropped but I’ll be thinking about it for the next few days.
If you listen to the podcast, I’d be interested to see what you took away from the show.
My first thought was that maybe I could drop some of my housework responsibilities. There’s a great post on that very subject here. It starts out:
Working women let the laundry pile up. That was basically the finding of a recent study on women and housework.
That’s true in my house already – laundry, dishes, and dust are already piling up. So, maybe cutting housework responsibilities isn’t the first thing to drop off my To-Do list. =)
The only thing I seem capable of taking off my to-do list is SLEEP! =D
A-M:
I listened to most of the podcast. Thanks for brining it to my attention. Here are some of my thoughts.
1. I agree that “balance” is a myth. I like one guest’s use of the phrase “work/life fit” to better describe work/life issues.
2. I agree that it’s not a woman’s issue. It’s a family issue and on a grander scale, a life issue.
3. There are big differences between the work/life challenges that affect people with traditional jobs and the challenges affecting those of us who are Indie Business owners. I’m glad to be in the latter camp and happy to see so many people going in that direction so they can find the best fit for them. My husband and I settle on what works for us and call it a day. It’s nice not to be concerned with bosses and staff meetings controlled by others especially since we have young children. If a good work/life fit is to exist, especially when kids are in the mix, flexibility is a must and you can’t have as much of it if you work for someone else.
I take my hat off to my husband. I can’t remember the last time I pushed the vacuum cleaner in our home. He does at least as many of the household chores as I do and helps me train our kids to chip in to the best of their 4 and 6 year old abilities.
But that kind of “sharing” did not manifest itself in our marriage overnight. It was a process.
From personal experience, I think women shoulder too many of the home management responsibilities and then complain when hubby doesn’t pull his weight. Why should he? If he knows that he can let the dishes pile up because we’ll eventually tackle them, what’s in it for him to pick up a dish rag? He can always eat out or use a paper cup if the dishes are a mess.
I remember once, my husband and I decided one of us would clean up the kitchen after dinner and the other would get the kids ready for bed. It didn’t matter which one you did, but you had to do one. Early on in this arrangement, he chose the dishes. I bathed the kids, brushed their teeth, got them into their jammies and settled them for bed. Hubby cleaned up the kitchen and then joined us for a short story, prayer and finally, lights out.
Afterward, I went downstairs to see that the dishwasher was humming, but the hard to clean dishes were piled up in the sink — supposedly to soak overnight. I called my darling down and oh so lovingly pointed out that this was not cleaning up the kitchen. I didn’t bathe the kids and throw them in the bed naked. He couldn’t fill up the dish washer and leave the hard work for the morning and call that cleaning up the kitchen.
Today, if he agrees to clean up the kitchen, it gets finished for real. And actually, he more often chooses getting the kids ready for bed. Which is fine with me since I cherish the moments alone, even if my hands are stuck in greasy dish water.
There was a time when I would have been grateful that he even started the dish washer, and simply washed the rest of the dishes because it was easier than making a stink about it. But then I would have been off complaining to a girlfriend or completing a survey saying that I carry an unfair load at home. Wouldn’t I have broght that on myself? Yes! For not holding him accountable and respecting myself enough to insist that he carry his home maintenance weight.
Guess we hit a nerve, huh?
Also, delegation works as well in the home as it does in business. I recommend that if the family budget can handle it, a home cleaning serving be hired to come in at least twice a month for the heavier house cleaning. Delegation is a beautiful thing indeed.
So one more thing. A-M, on that laundry issue. It shouldn’t pile up because you shouldn’t be the only one doing it. I’ll stop there.
dM