household management Archives - Laura Vanderkam

Best of Both Worlds podcast: Lighten your mental load

Laura Vanderkam — Tue, 19 Nov 2024 14:10:15 +0000

If you are mostly managing your household schedule and logistics, then you probably keep track of a lot. It can feel overwhelming, but there are ways to make it all more manageable.

In today’s episode of Best of Both Worlds, Sarah and I share 7 strategies for lightening the “mental load,” defined as the cognitive and emotional effort it takes to manage life. From writing things down to batching, automation, embracing vertical ownership, encouraging kid independence, and spending out, we’ve got lots of ideas. And of course our favorite: care less. It’s not always possible, but when it is, it can definitely help!

In the Q&A we address a listener question about the best jobs that are high paying and also flexible. It’s not a question with a straightforward answer. Lots of jobs can be made more flexible once you’ve built up seniority and experience. Even “flexible” jobs usually aren’t 100 percent flexible once time has been spoken for. But we give some ideas for thinking through this question.

Please give the episode a listen, and as always we welcome ratings and reviews. Our Patreon community will be meeting next Tuesday (Nov 26th) to discuss all things holidays, so if you’re interested in that Zoom discussion, you can join us here. Membership is $9/month.

Best of Both Worlds podcast: Digital parenting tools

Laura Vanderkam — Tue, 17 Oct 2023 12:42:56 +0000

We live in a high tech world, so the available tools affect how we run our households. In this week’s episode of Best of Both Worlds, Sarah and I talk about how people use generative AI, subscription services, shared calendars and lists, digital assistants and other things to help manage the show.

In the Q&A, a listener writes in wondering when kid birthday parties switch from being family-centered to friend-based, and whether there’s a way to combine the two.

Please give the episode a listen! And please consider joining the Best of Both Worlds Patreon community. In addition to an active discussion forum (3-4 topics per week), we have monthly online gatherings where we discuss work/life related topics. On November 28th we’ll be gathering (via Zoom) to discuss our next book club selection, Virginia Sole-Smith’s Fat Talk.

Then on December 12th Sarah will lead our annual goal-setting workshop, during which she’ll guide us through various exercises to plan the upcoming year. This workshop is always a huge hit. As one community member told Sarah, “The goal setting Patreon you did last year was AWESOME and I think I have had a great year partially because of spending an hour with you and Laura on that call.”

Membership is $9/month. Hope to see you there!