Getting (Some) Things Done With a Baby in the House
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When my son Oiva was born almost four and a half months ago I wrote a post titled “Getting Things Done with a Baby in the House“. In the post I described a very specific plan for how I was going to do the things I wanted to get done while still having time for my son and wife.
It was a wonderful plan. A plan with only one major flaw: it was impossible to follow.
Babies don’t look at calendars or clocks when they plan their days. In fact, I don’t think they even plan them at all. And if your baby doesn’t follow any kind of schedule during his day, how could you imagine following one?
Based on this newly found wisdom I wrote a new blog post: “(Not) Getting Things Done With a Baby in the House“.
This time I looked at the question from a different angle and pointed out that maybe not getting things done isn’t a problem after all. The baby should be the most important part of my life right now so if I don’t get my own things done, it shouldn’t matter that much.
And that’s still true. Oiva’s needs always will go before my own needs.
But luckily life isn’t only black and white and now I’m writing the third part in the series with a new message: Sometimes you do get things done with a baby. Here’s how:
- Do something you are passionate about: If you really enjoy doing what you want to get done and see the value in doing it, you will find ways to get it done no matter what. It has been interesting to notice that during these first months in Oiva’s life I have actually been able to increase my posting frequency to posting every day instead of every second day like I was doing in the beginning. If I wasn’t insanely interested in writing I don’t think it would have ever happened.
- Find the right time: No matter how busy your life seems to be there are still 24 hours in your day. A baby sleeps for about half of that time, maybe even more, so if you sleep less than him and prioritize your actions well, you will have time to pursue your goals. What I do is that I wake up early in the morning (around five AM) which gives me one or two hours of active blogging time before getting to work. But it doesn’t have to be in the morning: if you really aren’t a morning person (or your kid doesn’t sleep in the morning), you can as well try to find that time slot at some other time in your day. After the baby has gone to bed, during his naps or you can even do what a friend of mine used to do when studying: wake up in the middle of the night to work for a few hours and then get back to bed.
- Be flexible: Learn to leave your work aside at any moment and then get quickly back to it when you have time again. I sometimes work on my things (like blogging) while Oiva is awake and exploring the world by himself. In these moments the work can be interrupted without notice when he gets bored with his toys or just wants me to pick him up from the floor and carry him around the house. Then I just quickly press save and leave my laptop to wait for the next working moment.
- Simplify: This is something I’ve been saying in all my Getting Things Done With a Baby in the House posts so far. Cut off everything you don’t need or want to get done. The new family member needs to be your number one priority right now. And if you collect too many duties and responsibilities you’ll stress yourself out and be unable to enjoy your time with the baby.
- Carry a notebook with you: Ideas come and go, so make sure that you write them down when they pop into your mind. This way the playing time can also be productive in the sense of getting things done.
- Use the commute time: If you go to work outside your home, take a bus instead of driving your own car. This way you get your personal driver and can concentrate to something useful instead of the rush hour traffic. I usually spend my bus rides reading, writing down ideas or just thinking about my priorities, projects and life.
That’s what I know about this topic right now. During the upcoming months life will teach me more and more lessons about getting things done with a baby. And when I learn more I’ll share my ideas with you again.
While waiting for my new ideas let me know yours! If you have kids and get things done while having a good time with them, let me know how you do it.
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October 4th, 2007 at 8:34 pm
Having a baby in the house teaches you lots of patience and management. You are right about baby’s priorities being the top ones. I have a 26-year-old daughter and every time I feed her it takes more than an hour. So if I feed her even thrice, three hours are gone. Then she takes about an hour to go to sleep and it seems only I can make her sleep, so another hour. In between there are many more things. My professional work cannot be compromised with because that fetches us money. So the rest of my activities are halted for the time being. But I like it this way. Cute baby Jarkko :-). It seems Oiva has a big head, he’s going to be very intelligent.
October 4th, 2007 at 8:44 pm
26 years? Hmm… A typo maybe? :)
October 5th, 2007 at 10:52 pm
I like the bus idea. It’s a good one in that it’s wasted time in traffic that can be put to good use. Thanks!
October 6th, 2007 at 12:14 pm
Thanks for the comment Thomas, I’m glad you liked the post!