Give yourself some longer days

Sometimes it's nice to work without a hard stop

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
tip is to give yourself some longer workdays, particularly if
you work flexibly and are responsible for kids or other
tasks on the home front. You want some days when
you don't have such a hard stop. In this extra time,

(00:34):
you'll do a little speculative work, or maybe think ahead,
or do the work that makes you feel more on
top of things. All of this can make life feel
a little more calm. So one of the sharpest life
transitions with parenthood, I mean, at least for some of us,
comes at the end of the workday. Pre kids, if

(00:58):
you needed extra time to wrap something up, you might.

Speaker 1 (01:00):
Have just done it. But for those trying to make
a daycare pickup where you are charged by the minute
if you are late, there is a hard stop at
the end of the day. Even if you have another
childcare arrangement like a nanny, this person no doubt has
a time that they are expecting to leave, and you

(01:21):
would probably like to see your kids before bed. This
means that the end of the workday features a lot
of awareness of the clock, and this isn't a bad thing.
Lots of people become way more efficient and effective when
they are accountable for their time. But sometimes it is
nice to feel a little more relaxed about the end

(01:43):
of the day. This is particularly true if you work
flexibly and wind up spending late afternoons going in and
out of work as you are driving to kid activities
and such. None of this is either or you can
choose to be present some afternoon yanes and not on
a few others. I like to think of having one

(02:05):
longer work day every week or so. If you are
normally doing daycare pickup or school pickup, maybe your partner
can take one to two days a week. If that
is not an option, maybe you can hire a sitter
for an evening one day a week, or trade off
with a friend or neighbor. Both of you get an

(02:25):
evening where you can be a little more relaxed about
work time. In my case, we often have a night
or two a week where the five year old is
out at activities that I don't have to drive him to.
That means my workday can extend right up until dinner,
which is often as late as I want to work Anyway,
in that five to six thirty pm window. I do

(02:47):
the extra work that doesn't have to be done urgently,
but that I do want to get done. I feel
much more on top of things by giving myself this
extra space. Now to be show. This language of giving
yourself some longer days might sound silly to some people

(03:09):
if your manager is forcing you to work late every night,
this is a different matter entirely. If you are not
in charge of little people in the evenings, and you
often do half work and half not work into the
wee hours, you might actually benefit by giving yourself a
hard stop at least a few days a week. But

(03:29):
if you are like a lot of people who listen
to this show, and by default you would have a
hard stop every work day, consider if you might feel
better about work if you gave yourself enough space to
really think and plan and try things out. You don't
have to work around the clock to make that happen.

(03:50):
Sometimes just giving yourself one longer day a week can
be enough. I think that is real work life balance.
It doesn't always mean working less in the meantime. This
is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's to making the

(04:12):
most of our time. Thanks for listening. To Before Breakfast.
If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback, you can reach
me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast

(04:37):
is a production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts from iHeartMedia,
please visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
listen to your favorite shows.