On the weekends, I get more done because there is a baby’s nap time and just longer chunks of time when he plays.
I wish I needed less sleep so I could work a little more in the evening, but this is not an option.

I’m finding that some of these tasks – researching something online, making calls, unloading dishwasher, etc. are great “transition” activities between real tasks or family outings.

I work from home, so I sometimes do these in between larger work tasks during the day, but it’s also been effective to try to quickly get them done while I’m waiting for people to get ready to go somewhere, etc. (rather than puttering around online or doing random tasks as I see them – marking that time for something very specific seems to help.)

What is NOT working for me is 30 min of “chore time” in the evenings after the kids are in bed. I am way too tired for that and need that time to be fun for me (or more paid work as needed).

I sort of wish I could approach admin tasks that way, but I can’t. I only really wish it because I’ve had other people tell me that that is how you *have* to do it, otherwise it will “expand to fill the available time.” Which is a valid point, but when I try to fit it in “here and there,” I forget things, drop balls, and am surprised by deadlines. People start yelling at me, my anxiety and stress level goes way up, and it seeps into the rest of my productivity. For me, the “mental load” issue is huge.

@Ana- I do go back and forth on whether it’s best to do these a bit at a time or all at once. And how to lighten the mental load is a perpetual problem. It’s probably good to split the mental load in a household, but our own tasks always seem bigger in our minds and we may not remember what other people are remembering for us…

For me, those are the things I fit in here and there. I don’t devote a large chunk of time to doing any one of those “admin” type tasks because I don’t want them to occupy a large chunk of my life. They do, however, need to get done! So I just fit them in during breaks at work or home. That time is counted as “work” or “family” because that’s the primary focus of that hour, though maybe 2-5 minutes was spent ordered diapers or texting a babysitter. Those tasks do exert a mental load, though, so I’m not sure my way is the best way. I was considering whether setting aside 10-15 minutes a few evenings a week may be a better way to compartmentalize it.

I often find I divide things into work, personal, admin and family time mentally and then have subsets. But it’s rare that something is purely one category outside of work. My day would broadly be broken up into 7-9:30am is a combination of personal, admin & family time. This morning for example I spent time meditating & doing personal reading before my daughter woke up at 7:30am, then spent half an hour getting her up, dressed & fed (she’s still a toddler) & then between 8am & 9am was a mixture of family & admin stuff (arranging nanny, planning a weekend drive, putting in load of washing, making husband coffee to drink in bed cause I was feeling nice) but because my daughter is with me & watching & ‘helping’ while I do these I count them mentally as mostly family time. So I would probably say I spent 90 minutes on my family this morning but really it’s more complex than that. Maybe that helps explain it….

You are probably right, and yet I’d still like to see a time log featured anywhere that really highlights when people get these things done. Because, unfortunately, life is more than work, family time, personal time. There are also activities that need to be done but aren’t particularly valued in any of these categories (though watch out if the kids don’t get their bday parties 😉 ) Let’s ask Emilia when she does it!

@Rinna- true. One thing to consider is that this schedule represents an ideal day/week. As I see with time logs, there is never an ideal week. So my guess is that for anyone attempting this, some evening part of the business time gets taken over for stuff, or some early morning, or part of the weekend (particularly if someone is trying not to work on weekends, a lot of household admin stuff may happen then). And sometimes one’s partner may be primarily responsible for these things too.