In today’s episode of Best of Both Worlds, Sarah interviews Laura Mae Martin about her new book, Uptime, and about her work as Google’s in-house productivity expert. She shares tips and strategies for staying productive. They chat meetings, setting priorities, task and calendar management, family life, and more.

In the Q&A we tackle a tricky question from a listener who wonders how to balance vacations with nuclear family vs. extended family requests. If you’ve only got limited PTO, how should you split it between regular family vacations and trips to visit relatives?

Please give the episode a listen. As always we welcome ratings and reviews! You can also come join our Patreon community where we discuss topics related to work and life more at length. Recent threads have included one on career change and one on marathon training. We’re having a lot of fun and would love to see you there! Membership is $9/month.

In this week’s episode, Sarah and I revisit the goals we set at the end of 2022 for 2023 (you can listen to that episode here). Many things have happened. A few things have not, for various reasons. We talk about what we plan to continue for the rest of the year, and what we plan to pivot on.

Please give the episode a listen! And let us know: How are you doing on your 2023 goals? If you made a list, but haven’t revisited it since January, now is a great time to do so. This isn’t about feeling “bad” if something hasn’t happened — there are lots of reasons things change. It’s more about reminding ourselves of what we thought we’d like to prioritize or plan, and seeing if that still works with life now. And hey, if there’s something new you’d like to do, feel free to set Mid-year resolutions!

On the other hand, there are downsides, too. Because it’s almost impossible to actually take a day off — you can’t put in for vacation and then ask your co-workers to cover for you. So on days like today, I become a nap time warrior. I made a prioritized list of things that 100% Must Be Done Today. As soon as Sam started rubbing his eyes at 12:45, I was off to the races. This blog post was pretty low down the list, given that it is 2:45 and he’s going to be up any minute.

This would drive me nuts to try to work like this most days (with a swing shift from 9-11PM too, I imagine), though I know people who do it. This is how some folks manage to put in a 20-25 hour workweek with no childcare whatsoever. But even if you do have childcare (and we usually do) it’s always a good exercise to think through in the context of prioritizing our work days. If you only had two hours to work — either because you’re home with pre-school aged kids, or you’ve got an all-day meeting coming up, or are leaving on vacation — what would you choose to do? How quickly could you zoom through the list?

Perhaps more tellingly, what would fall off the list? Could this fall off forever? Or would it just fall off because it’s not urgent (even if it is important)? What would you do on a 2-hour workday?

Because that’s all she does, that’s how.

In 168 Hours, I talk about spending as many hours as possible on the things we do best and which bring us (and the people we care about) the most joy. Then, as much as possible, we should try not to do anything else. We shouldn’t make ourselves busy with things that don’t matter. So, today, Crystal posted a list of her priorities, and a list of things that are not priorities. Among the non-priorities? Crafts, gardening, sewing, putting her kids in activities, even playing the Drugstore Game (that is, trying to get shampoo and razors and the like for close to free at major drugstore chains through couponing and rebates). The good thing about running a successful business is that you have money, which can then buy you time to not obsess about saving a few bucks on personal care items. (Or making homemade tortillas, according to another post).

I’m glad to read this series, because I think sometimes our culture spins a certain Super Woman fantasy about moms who not only nurture their kids (and, more often than not, contribute to or earn the bulk of family income) but also do elaborate crafts to spruce up their homes, make gourmet home made meals, and feed the children kale chips for breakfast. I have never met a woman who does that. It’s not that there isn’t time, it’s just that nurturing our families and playing Martha Stewart (who I’m guessing doesn’t clean her own house) are always going to be competing priorities. I think it’s a good thing that kids, marriages and careers usually win out over spotless sconces.

In other 168 Hours news:

• AOL runs my essay on Some Post-Election Ideas for Facebook Nagging
• Our Sunday Visitor (distributed in Catholic churches around the country) runs an article on How to Make the Most of Your Time, which features 168 Hours
• Heidi Stevens’ Chicago Tribune article on 168 Hours (and other time management books) continues to be the gift that keeps on giving, having now been syndicated in several additional papers, including the Charleston S.C. Post and Courier, the Lansing State Journal, the Norwalk Reflector, NorthJersey.com, and many other places. Thanks Heidi!

ShareThis