February 2, 2025 • 19 mins
Ever feel like there just aren’t enough hours in the day? Between balancing work, fatherhood, relationships, and personal time, it can feel like you're constantly racing against the clock. If you're a busy dad trying to find more time for your family, kids, and personal growth, this episode is for you!
The truth is, we don’t need more time, we need to manage the time we have better. In today's episode of the Dad Mode Activated podcast, we're tackling the #1 struggle of modern dads: time management. If you've ever felt overwhelmed by your schedule or like you never have time for yourself or your kids, tune in.
🎯 Here’s what you’ll learn in this episode:
✔️ The Myth of “More Time” – Why feeling constantly busy isn’t about not having time but about how you use it.
✔️ The Dad Time Audit – A simple time-tracking strategy that reveals where your hours are really going.
✔️ Small but powerful time hacks – Daily habits that help busy dads free up more time for family and self-care.
✔️ Saying “No” to Say “Yes” – How setting priorities can help you be a more present, engaged father.
✔️ Your Weekly Challenge – An actionable step to help you reclaim your time starting TODAY.
⏳ Dads, it’s time to stop feeling like you’re constantly running out of hours. Whether you want to be more present for your kids, improve your work-life balance, or stop feeling like there’s never enough time in the day, this episode has practical, real-world strategies you can implement right away.
📢 Listen now and start taking control of your schedule!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Hey dads, welcome back to Dad Mode Activated, the podcast where we get real about the chaotic,
(00:15):
unpredictable, and rewarding journey of fatherhood.
I'm your host, Matt, and today we're talking about something that every dad on the planet
deals with.
And that's time.
Well let's be honest, how often do you feel like you just don't have enough hours in
the day?
You wake up, you rush through your morning routine, go to work, handle a million responsibilities,
(00:40):
tries to squeeze in a few minutes for yourself, and before you know it, it's bedtime.
Then just when you lay your head down on the pillow, your brain goes, did I actually spend
time with my kids today?
Or how do other dads make it look so easy?
(01:03):
And then the ultimate question, am I even doing this right?
So look, I've been there, you're not alone.
Between work, house projects, driving the kids around, picking them up, dropping them
off, keeping up with daily life.
It can feel like you're in a never ending race against the clock.
(01:25):
But here's the hard truth, we really don't find time.
We make time.
And that's what today's episode is all about.
It's titled, Dad vs the Clock, Finding Time Where There is None.
Or When There is None.
Because sometimes it really does feel like we're in a boxing match with time itself.
(01:49):
But today, we're going to figure out how to win that fight.
So among other things, I'll be breaking down a couple of things here.
So they go in this order.
The myth of more time and why we always feel busy.
How to figure out where your time is actually going.
(02:09):
And to be honest, this part might be surprising for you.
All the powerful tweaks to win back hours in your week without giving up sleep, of course,
because we all kind of need that.
Why learning to say no is one of the best time management tools you have.
(02:30):
And then finally, I'll kind of give you a challenge at the end here.
Something easy, but effective, that'll help you take control of your time really starting
today or this week even depending on your level of effort and commitment here.
So whether you're listening on your commute in the gym or hiding in the bathroom for a
(02:52):
little piece of quiet, you don't have to shy away from it, we've all done it.
This one's for you dads, so let's jump in.
So let's kick things off by debunking the biggest lie that we tell ourselves as dads.
If I just had more time, everything would be easier.
(03:13):
Which sounds pretty logical, right?
If we just had one more hour every day or maybe an extra day in the week, we'd finally
be caught up.
But here's the problem, it doesn't really work like that.
I've had days where I unexpectedly have free time and if you had to guess, I still didn't
(03:34):
get everything done.
Why?
Because if we don't need more time, we just need to use the time we already have better.
So have you ever had a slow work day or a slow day in general where you thought, I'm
gonna get so much done today, this is gonna be the best, most productive day I've ever
(03:54):
had.
But somehow, you still end up scrambling to finish everything by the end of the day.
That's because realistically, time expands to fill whatever space we will allow it.
There's actually a scientific principle behind this.
It's called Parkinson's Law and it says, work expands to fill the time available for its
(04:19):
completion.
Basically what that means is, if you give yourself an hour to mow the lawn, you'll get
it done in an hour.
If you give yourself three hours, somehow, you will stretch that out to make it meet
that three hour mark.
So think about how we treat time versus money.
(04:42):
If someone handed you an extra $1,000 today, you'd probably find a way to spend it.
I think we all would.
Groceries, those prices are insane.
But anyway, whether you actually needed to or not, you'd still find a way.
So time works, I would say, in the same way.
(05:03):
So here's what I want you to take away from this piece here is you don't really need more
hours in the day.
You just need to manage the ones you already have more intentionally.
And that's the key step, being intentional with how you manage your time.
So for example, having some unexpected free time.
(05:25):
I just recently started dabbling in the social media world and more specifically the world
of TikTok, which if you're interested, DM activated on TikTok.
It's pretty cool.
But I sunk quite a bit of time into that.
And all the while, my wife has been asking me to go out and finish building the other
(05:48):
half of the chicken run that I committed to last year.
And here we are a year later.
I'm scrolling TikTok and trying to figure out how it works.
Still not that sure.
But I could have probably handled that time a little bit more appropriately and had knocked
out what I needed to knock out, but I didn't.
So really, that brings us to our next step.
(06:11):
So this portion is I'm going to title it the dad time audit.
So where does your time really go?
But if you think about it, if we don't need more time, what do we actually need?
We need to figure out where our time is going.
I'd like to call this the dad time audit.
(06:33):
And it's really the first thing you need to do if you want to take back control of your
schedule.
And I'll go into a little bit about how it works.
And don't hate me.
I already know we're busy.
And here I am talking about another task, but it's really going to help you in the long
run.
I've done it.
It is very useful.
So write down everything you do for a full 24 hours.
(06:57):
And like that literally means everything.
Work, eating, sitting there, scrolling through your phone, reading emails, answering phone
calls, TV, driving, random distractions.
Just be brutally honest with yourself.
And if you need help with that, you can reach out.
I don't mind helping to build some type of Excel spreadsheet.
(07:20):
That's what everybody does, right?
We can go through and create some kind of list with times and some representation of your
commitment to those activities throughout the course of a 24 hour period.
And then the next thing you want to do after you create this list, identify your time leaks.
(07:40):
I guarantee you're going to see some major areas of wasted time.
For example, 20 minutes of mindless scrolling on Instagram, you know, watching all those
fancy dances.
I'm sure it's interesting, but not useful.
30 minutes of just one episode, which could turn into, we've all been binge watched something.
(08:05):
So that's applicable here.
Or the extra trip to the store that could have been avoided, to be honest with you.
This is where writing everything down really comes in handy, keeping a list.
It's useful for going to the store too and a whole bunch of other things that we can
cover later on.
The next step, make some adjustments.
(08:26):
Once you see where your time is going, you can start making those intentional changes.
So another, I would say, shocking stat, the average person spends 2.5 hours a day.
There's only 24 of those hours in a day.
2.5 of those are spent on social media and that's over 17 hours a week.
(08:49):
That's a huge amount of time.
Imagine what you could do if you got really just half of that time back, eight and a half
hours.
That's a lot of time.
So the next piece here, we're going to talk a little bit about small tweaks, big wins,
walking through finding those hidden pockets of time, and actually backing up a little
(09:14):
bit, doing that time audit.
Admittedly, there were things, and my wife and I have talked about this for sure.
She's amazing by the way, so when she listens to this, I just want everybody to know.
She's awesome.
But usually at night, say we'd have dinner at 6.30pm, get done at 7.30pm, everything's
(09:34):
cleaned up great.
Go sit in the living room and watch TV until one or the other looks over and says, we should
probably go to bed.
That's several hours worth of time, while important for me to spend that time with her.
I could have knocked out a couple of the small tasks that I have pending on a regular basis,
(09:55):
but I didn't really know that until I started to list those things out.
So just kind of to belabor the fact that creating that list while it's a pain, it's a pain in
the something, but once you do it, I think it really does pay dividends later, and being
honest, being specific, really does go a long way.
Okay, sorry, back to the other thing, the small tweaks, big wins.
(10:19):
So now that we know where our time is going, let's talk about how to get some of it back.
Here are five simple, kind of simple, but really powerful strategies to reclaim those
lost hours.
So speaking of kids specifically for your dads out there, the commute connection is
(10:43):
one, the screen swap challenge is another, the three minute rule, bedtime bonus time,
and the one thing rule.
So let's kind of walk through each one of these, the commute connection.
So let's say you have to drive with your kids every day, turn that drive time and to talk
(11:05):
time with your kids, it actually does drive my whole family, five kids, wife, everyone
crazy.
I don't even turn the radio on.
I would much rather sit there, joke around, loosen them up, and really get into the meat
of the conversation that they typically want to have, whether it be about their day, what's
going on.
They really do share quite a bit once you invest that time, what else are you going
(11:30):
to do other than sing Shania Twain, which I'm not very good at.
I'll do it, but I think spending that time talking with the kids are, you know, could
be a little bit more important.
The screen swap challenge I'm defining as 15 minutes of being on your phone.
Go do something real.
(11:51):
Sweep, vacuum, the living room might do that faster than 15 minutes, but that's just one
example of just how productive that time could be.
And you're not really going to miss anything other than some fancy dances that let's face
it.
Some of us just can't do the three minute rule.
(12:12):
Defining as before saying something like, not now, I don't have time.
We'll get to it later, which I'm just as guilty of doing.
Give your child three minutes of focused attention.
Now that's not to say grab your phone, say pause Billy, I got to set this timer for three
minutes and you can talk to me.
(12:32):
Just put the time in and listen to what they have to say.
You never know what you might learn.
My, my stepson on a regular basis will educate me on Godzilla and all of his workings.
Am I interested?
Sometimes I'm a Godzilla fan, but not all the time.
But I'll spend that time just to listen.
I might joke around with them and poke and prod and learn a little bit more, but I think
(12:55):
that time is pretty valuable.
Bedtime bonus time.
Spend an extra five minutes at bedtime talking with your kids as impossible as that may seem
because bedtime for some, including myself, could be a whole routine in and of itself.
But at the same time, that's the wind down.
(13:16):
That's the, if I had a bad day, I know that I'm going to joke around.
I'm, I'm going to head to bed and yep, it might be difficult, but some of my personality
is still allowed to shine and come out while I'm on my way to bed.
I can go to bed knowing that, you know, my feelings matter, my opinions matter.
(13:37):
I could have gone about it differently, but I'm a kid.
What do I know?
And as a parent, I still think that's pretty valuable.
That's a good learning opportunity.
So just keep that in mind.
And then there's the one thing rule.
And this is more personal to you, but before bed, just ask yourself, what is one thing
(13:59):
I can do tomorrow to make my day better?
And then do that.
So for example, I don't have a fancy, uh, I have a curig, but it's not a fancy one.
You got to fill up the water reservoir every day and my wife and I drink a lot of coffee,
but I would oftentimes just go to bed and then wake up in the morning cursing myself
(14:21):
because I didn't fill up the water.
So I have to stand there and do that, put it back on, then I can drink coffee.
It would be great if I could just come downstairs, put my coffee mug underneath there, pop the
little cup thing in and push the button.
So I started doing that recently and it's, I was surprised actually at how much of a
(14:42):
relief that was.
And to be honest on my brutally honest self-awareness list of things that I do with my time that
three minutes had a huge impact on, I would say my mental wellbeing, which is important.
We'll cover that later too.
For those of you that are interested in that, lots to share there really.
(15:04):
Anyway.
So this next piece, saying no to say yes.
Really the fastest way to get your time back is learning to say no.
Every time you say yes to something, you're saying no to something else.
Now that might sound very basic and principal, but it's true.
(15:27):
So if you start asking yourself this question, you know, you go through your work day, your
personal day, whatever time you're on, just ask yourself, is the yes that I'm about to
give?
Is that worth what I'm giving up?
So for example, I am a huge football fan.
I love going tailgating.
(15:49):
I love seeing my friends there.
They're very important to me and they know that.
But there came a time where, you know, for football home games, I was always gone and
I was gone all day.
There are things that I need to do here at home.
I would put those by the wayside, winter or not, depending on the weather, projects and
(16:12):
things.
And I just wouldn't do them.
You know, Saturday is one of the two free days that I have and some of these projects
I can't, I just can't get done in one day.
So I had to step away and say, no, I can't come do this.
I need to do this instead.
And it could be a number of things.
(16:33):
Another example is, you know, my daughter, my stepdaughter at times will go ride horses
on a Sunday.
But there is a football game on a Sunday.
I would be gone for that whole entire day and I would miss that.
Or I would miss time staying home with my boys while my wife took them to ride horses.
(16:54):
And that's when I started to realize that saying no, while it may come across as, you
know, hurtful to some, it was meaningful to them.
And that's what really was important to me.
So I know I mentioned earlier in this podcast that I'd have a challenge for you.
So really here's your challenge for this week.
(17:18):
Do the dad time audit.
And if you're not sure what it is, rewind and go back.
It's toward the beginning.
But do the audit, reach out.
Like I said, I'll help you.
I have no problem with that.
I don't even want to see it unless you want me to, but do the audit.
It is useful.
It's more work on top of an already potentially busy schedule, but it is worth it in the long
(17:39):
run.
And then go through and pick one strategy from today or from this episode and try it.
Whether it works, whether it doesn't work.
Again, you can send me an email.
You can hit me up on the tick tock or one of the other various social media platforms.
Probably the easiest way would be to jump on the website and contact me there.
(18:03):
DMactivated.com.
But pick one of those strategies from this episode and just try it.
And then lastly, even though I just said it, but send me a message with your biggest time
waster because admittedly, I'm not the perfect dad.
(18:24):
I just have a lot of experience doing it.
And it's something I'm very passionate about and I'm willing to learn even today.
So send me that feedback.
I might even incorporate it into one of the episodes that I'm doing, if that's something
you're comfortable with.
And if not, we can keep it anonymous.
(18:44):
Anonymous.
Can't even read my own notes.
And talk about it that way.
It's up to you.
But realistically, let's take back our time.
One intentional choice at a time.
And I can't emphasize that enough.
Intentional choice.
So until next time, stay present, stay intentional, and keep DadMode activated.
(19:10):
Thanks everybody.
Hey dads, welcome back to Dad Mode Activated, the podcast where we get real about the chaotic,
(00:15):
unpredictable, and rewarding journey of fatherhood.
I'm your host, Matt, and today we're talking about something that every dad on the planet
deals with.
And that's time.
Well let's be honest, how often do you feel like you just don't have enough hours in
the day?
You wake up, you rush through your morning routine, go to work, handle a million responsibilities,
(00:40):
tries to squeeze in a few minutes for yourself, and before you know it, it's bedtime.
Then just when you lay your head down on the pillow, your brain goes, did I actually spend
time with my kids today?
Or how do other dads make it look so easy?
(01:03):
And then the ultimate question, am I even doing this right?
So look, I've been there, you're not alone.
Between work, house projects, driving the kids around, picking them up, dropping them
off, keeping up with daily life.
It can feel like you're in a never ending race against the clock.
(01:25):
But here's the hard truth, we really don't find time.
We make time.
And that's what today's episode is all about.
It's titled, Dad vs the Clock, Finding Time Where There is None.
Or When There is None.
Because sometimes it really does feel like we're in a boxing match with time itself.
(01:49):
But today, we're going to figure out how to win that fight.
So among other things, I'll be breaking down a couple of things here.
So they go in this order.
The myth of more time and why we always feel busy.
How to figure out where your time is actually going.
(02:09):
And to be honest, this part might be surprising for you.
All the powerful tweaks to win back hours in your week without giving up sleep, of course,
because we all kind of need that.
Why learning to say no is one of the best time management tools you have.
(02:30):
And then finally, I'll kind of give you a challenge at the end here.
Something easy, but effective, that'll help you take control of your time really starting
today or this week even depending on your level of effort and commitment here.
So whether you're listening on your commute in the gym or hiding in the bathroom for a
(02:52):
little piece of quiet, you don't have to shy away from it, we've all done it.
This one's for you dads, so let's jump in.
So let's kick things off by debunking the biggest lie that we tell ourselves as dads.
If I just had more time, everything would be easier.
(03:13):
Which sounds pretty logical, right?
If we just had one more hour every day or maybe an extra day in the week, we'd finally
be caught up.
But here's the problem, it doesn't really work like that.
I've had days where I unexpectedly have free time and if you had to guess, I still didn't
(03:34):
get everything done.
Why?
Because if we don't need more time, we just need to use the time we already have better.
So have you ever had a slow work day or a slow day in general where you thought, I'm
gonna get so much done today, this is gonna be the best, most productive day I've ever
(03:54):
had.
But somehow, you still end up scrambling to finish everything by the end of the day.
That's because realistically, time expands to fill whatever space we will allow it.
There's actually a scientific principle behind this.
It's called Parkinson's Law and it says, work expands to fill the time available for its
(04:19):
completion.
Basically what that means is, if you give yourself an hour to mow the lawn, you'll get
it done in an hour.
If you give yourself three hours, somehow, you will stretch that out to make it meet
that three hour mark.
So think about how we treat time versus money.
(04:42):
If someone handed you an extra $1,000 today, you'd probably find a way to spend it.
I think we all would.
Groceries, those prices are insane.
But anyway, whether you actually needed to or not, you'd still find a way.
So time works, I would say, in the same way.
(05:03):
So here's what I want you to take away from this piece here is you don't really need more
hours in the day.
You just need to manage the ones you already have more intentionally.
And that's the key step, being intentional with how you manage your time.
So for example, having some unexpected free time.
(05:25):
I just recently started dabbling in the social media world and more specifically the world
of TikTok, which if you're interested, DM activated on TikTok.
It's pretty cool.
But I sunk quite a bit of time into that.
And all the while, my wife has been asking me to go out and finish building the other
(05:48):
half of the chicken run that I committed to last year.
And here we are a year later.
I'm scrolling TikTok and trying to figure out how it works.
Still not that sure.
But I could have probably handled that time a little bit more appropriately and had knocked
out what I needed to knock out, but I didn't.
So really, that brings us to our next step.
(06:11):
So this portion is I'm going to title it the dad time audit.
So where does your time really go?
But if you think about it, if we don't need more time, what do we actually need?
We need to figure out where our time is going.
I'd like to call this the dad time audit.
(06:33):
And it's really the first thing you need to do if you want to take back control of your
schedule.
And I'll go into a little bit about how it works.
And don't hate me.
I already know we're busy.
And here I am talking about another task, but it's really going to help you in the long
run.
I've done it.
It is very useful.
So write down everything you do for a full 24 hours.
(06:57):
And like that literally means everything.
Work, eating, sitting there, scrolling through your phone, reading emails, answering phone
calls, TV, driving, random distractions.
Just be brutally honest with yourself.
And if you need help with that, you can reach out.
I don't mind helping to build some type of Excel spreadsheet.
(07:20):
That's what everybody does, right?
We can go through and create some kind of list with times and some representation of your
commitment to those activities throughout the course of a 24 hour period.
And then the next thing you want to do after you create this list, identify your time leaks.
(07:40):
I guarantee you're going to see some major areas of wasted time.
For example, 20 minutes of mindless scrolling on Instagram, you know, watching all those
fancy dances.
I'm sure it's interesting, but not useful.
30 minutes of just one episode, which could turn into, we've all been binge watched something.
(08:05):
So that's applicable here.
Or the extra trip to the store that could have been avoided, to be honest with you.
This is where writing everything down really comes in handy, keeping a list.
It's useful for going to the store too and a whole bunch of other things that we can
cover later on.
The next step, make some adjustments.
(08:26):
Once you see where your time is going, you can start making those intentional changes.
So another, I would say, shocking stat, the average person spends 2.5 hours a day.
There's only 24 of those hours in a day.
2.5 of those are spent on social media and that's over 17 hours a week.
(08:49):
That's a huge amount of time.
Imagine what you could do if you got really just half of that time back, eight and a half
hours.
That's a lot of time.
So the next piece here, we're going to talk a little bit about small tweaks, big wins,
walking through finding those hidden pockets of time, and actually backing up a little
(09:14):
bit, doing that time audit.
Admittedly, there were things, and my wife and I have talked about this for sure.
She's amazing by the way, so when she listens to this, I just want everybody to know.
She's awesome.
But usually at night, say we'd have dinner at 6.30pm, get done at 7.30pm, everything's
(09:34):
cleaned up great.
Go sit in the living room and watch TV until one or the other looks over and says, we should
probably go to bed.
That's several hours worth of time, while important for me to spend that time with her.
I could have knocked out a couple of the small tasks that I have pending on a regular basis,
(09:55):
but I didn't really know that until I started to list those things out.
So just kind of to belabor the fact that creating that list while it's a pain, it's a pain in
the something, but once you do it, I think it really does pay dividends later, and being
honest, being specific, really does go a long way.
Okay, sorry, back to the other thing, the small tweaks, big wins.
(10:19):
So now that we know where our time is going, let's talk about how to get some of it back.
Here are five simple, kind of simple, but really powerful strategies to reclaim those
lost hours.
So speaking of kids specifically for your dads out there, the commute connection is
(10:43):
one, the screen swap challenge is another, the three minute rule, bedtime bonus time,
and the one thing rule.
So let's kind of walk through each one of these, the commute connection.
So let's say you have to drive with your kids every day, turn that drive time and to talk
(11:05):
time with your kids, it actually does drive my whole family, five kids, wife, everyone
crazy.
I don't even turn the radio on.
I would much rather sit there, joke around, loosen them up, and really get into the meat
of the conversation that they typically want to have, whether it be about their day, what's
going on.
They really do share quite a bit once you invest that time, what else are you going
(11:30):
to do other than sing Shania Twain, which I'm not very good at.
I'll do it, but I think spending that time talking with the kids are, you know, could
be a little bit more important.
The screen swap challenge I'm defining as 15 minutes of being on your phone.
Go do something real.
(11:51):
Sweep, vacuum, the living room might do that faster than 15 minutes, but that's just one
example of just how productive that time could be.
And you're not really going to miss anything other than some fancy dances that let's face
it.
Some of us just can't do the three minute rule.
(12:12):
Defining as before saying something like, not now, I don't have time.
We'll get to it later, which I'm just as guilty of doing.
Give your child three minutes of focused attention.
Now that's not to say grab your phone, say pause Billy, I got to set this timer for three
minutes and you can talk to me.
(12:32):
Just put the time in and listen to what they have to say.
You never know what you might learn.
My, my stepson on a regular basis will educate me on Godzilla and all of his workings.
Am I interested?
Sometimes I'm a Godzilla fan, but not all the time.
But I'll spend that time just to listen.
I might joke around with them and poke and prod and learn a little bit more, but I think
(12:55):
that time is pretty valuable.
Bedtime bonus time.
Spend an extra five minutes at bedtime talking with your kids as impossible as that may seem
because bedtime for some, including myself, could be a whole routine in and of itself.
But at the same time, that's the wind down.
(13:16):
That's the, if I had a bad day, I know that I'm going to joke around.
I'm, I'm going to head to bed and yep, it might be difficult, but some of my personality
is still allowed to shine and come out while I'm on my way to bed.
I can go to bed knowing that, you know, my feelings matter, my opinions matter.
(13:37):
I could have gone about it differently, but I'm a kid.
What do I know?
And as a parent, I still think that's pretty valuable.
That's a good learning opportunity.
So just keep that in mind.
And then there's the one thing rule.
And this is more personal to you, but before bed, just ask yourself, what is one thing
(13:59):
I can do tomorrow to make my day better?
And then do that.
So for example, I don't have a fancy, uh, I have a curig, but it's not a fancy one.
You got to fill up the water reservoir every day and my wife and I drink a lot of coffee,
but I would oftentimes just go to bed and then wake up in the morning cursing myself
(14:21):
because I didn't fill up the water.
So I have to stand there and do that, put it back on, then I can drink coffee.
It would be great if I could just come downstairs, put my coffee mug underneath there, pop the
little cup thing in and push the button.
So I started doing that recently and it's, I was surprised actually at how much of a
(14:42):
relief that was.
And to be honest on my brutally honest self-awareness list of things that I do with my time that
three minutes had a huge impact on, I would say my mental wellbeing, which is important.
We'll cover that later too.
For those of you that are interested in that, lots to share there really.
(15:04):
Anyway.
So this next piece, saying no to say yes.
Really the fastest way to get your time back is learning to say no.
Every time you say yes to something, you're saying no to something else.
Now that might sound very basic and principal, but it's true.
(15:27):
So if you start asking yourself this question, you know, you go through your work day, your
personal day, whatever time you're on, just ask yourself, is the yes that I'm about to
give?
Is that worth what I'm giving up?
So for example, I am a huge football fan.
I love going tailgating.
(15:49):
I love seeing my friends there.
They're very important to me and they know that.
But there came a time where, you know, for football home games, I was always gone and
I was gone all day.
There are things that I need to do here at home.
I would put those by the wayside, winter or not, depending on the weather, projects and
(16:12):
things.
And I just wouldn't do them.
You know, Saturday is one of the two free days that I have and some of these projects
I can't, I just can't get done in one day.
So I had to step away and say, no, I can't come do this.
I need to do this instead.
And it could be a number of things.
(16:33):
Another example is, you know, my daughter, my stepdaughter at times will go ride horses
on a Sunday.
But there is a football game on a Sunday.
I would be gone for that whole entire day and I would miss that.
Or I would miss time staying home with my boys while my wife took them to ride horses.
(16:54):
And that's when I started to realize that saying no, while it may come across as, you
know, hurtful to some, it was meaningful to them.
And that's what really was important to me.
So I know I mentioned earlier in this podcast that I'd have a challenge for you.
So really here's your challenge for this week.
(17:18):
Do the dad time audit.
And if you're not sure what it is, rewind and go back.
It's toward the beginning.
But do the audit, reach out.
Like I said, I'll help you.
I have no problem with that.
I don't even want to see it unless you want me to, but do the audit.
It is useful.
It's more work on top of an already potentially busy schedule, but it is worth it in the long
(17:39):
run.
And then go through and pick one strategy from today or from this episode and try it.
Whether it works, whether it doesn't work.
Again, you can send me an email.
You can hit me up on the tick tock or one of the other various social media platforms.
Probably the easiest way would be to jump on the website and contact me there.
(18:03):
DMactivated.com.
But pick one of those strategies from this episode and just try it.
And then lastly, even though I just said it, but send me a message with your biggest time
waster because admittedly, I'm not the perfect dad.
(18:24):
I just have a lot of experience doing it.
And it's something I'm very passionate about and I'm willing to learn even today.
So send me that feedback.
I might even incorporate it into one of the episodes that I'm doing, if that's something
you're comfortable with.
And if not, we can keep it anonymous.
(18:44):
Anonymous.
Can't even read my own notes.
And talk about it that way.
It's up to you.
But realistically, let's take back our time.
One intentional choice at a time.
And I can't emphasize that enough.
Intentional choice.
So until next time, stay present, stay intentional, and keep DadMode activated.
(19:10):
Thanks everybody.
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