What to Do When Life Gets Busy
It’s been a very busy few months for me with my book launch, covering for a colleague on paternity leave, and helping my mom recover from a hospital visit. Thankfully Mom is back in assisted living and my colleague returns in a week. I used project management tools to help navigate these hectic times and stay on top of things. I’ve shared in previous posts how to manage individual projects, and now I want to share how to make proactive decisions to successfully navigate busy periods of life.
One of my favorite project management principles addresses the idea of constraints and basically means that you can’t do it all. There are limits. This principle is almost counter-cultural; we’re often told that we can fit it all in if we just work harder, that we are (or should be) superhuman. But the theory of constraints recognizes that we all have limited time, energy, and resources for everything, and we need to be realistic. Now there’s a refreshing thought!
Let’s use this theory of limits to figure out how to adjust your family schedule proactively when life gets busy. Consider the larger picture by looking that these three components of your family schedule: workload, resources (time and money), and quality of life. By thinking of these three categories together, you can make sure you don't compromise on one too much or overemphasize another.
There are three ways to address a tight schedule: decrease your workload, place less of a priority on your quality of life, or increase your resources. You can think of this like a seesaw to keep things in balance.
Here are some changes you can make to balance your seesaw:
1. Decrease your workload (work inside and outside the home, education, or activities)
Decrease parents’ work hours
Decrease kids’ educational activities
Decrease extracurricular activities and hobbies
2. Deprioritize your quality of life (but only to a point!)
Spend less time working out
Spend less time sleeping
Spend less time together as a family, like dinner or weekend activities
3. Increase your resources to get things done (time, money)
Pay services to get things done around the house
Have friends or relatives help out
Extend the timeline, move the work to a later time, or cancel it
Take a fictional (but realistic) example from my book, Project Management for Parents. A couple has two school-age kids, and both parents work full-time. The mother is given an important short-term work assignment that requires travel two days a week. At the same time, the father wins a contract with a new client that has a short deadline. They realize that their work will take up a lot of their time for the next two months. The parents look at their constraints to see what they can move around so they can complete these work projects.
First, they ask his retired parents to pick up the kids from after-school activities and spend time with them until the parents get home. Then they set up grocery delivery, including lots of prepared foods. One of the kids’ birthdays is coming up, and they decide to hold it at a kids’ play place that provides all the food and decorations instead of having it at home. They also let their church know that they are not available to volunteer during this time. At the end of the two months, they book a weekend away together so they can reconnect as a family and celebrate the end of the work assignments.
In summary, the parents can’t reduce the work focus, so they add resources (grandparents and services) to reduce their workload at home and also decrease volunteering to add more time in their schedule. Then they make sure to reprioritize quality of life by spending time together as a family when the assignments are over.
When the short-term work projects are over, this couple can return to their usual activities like volunteering, picking up the kids, and grocery shopping. For me, now that the busy period is coming to an end, I’ll have more time to spend writing, cooking, and hopefully gardening. I’ve let some things slide – my Christmas lights are still up, and I need to do some deep cleaning around the house. And that’s ok, because I focused on the priorities that are important to us and we got through this busy time and still feel connected as a family. Remember that each family is different and each plan will look different, so do what works for you and adjust as necessary. I wish you the best of luck as we navigate busy times!
Hilary Kinney is the author of Project Management for Parents, a timeless book that provides resources for busy parents to streamline life at home. She is a certified Professional Project Manager with 17 years of experience at a Fortune 500 company.
