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The predictability of unpredictablity
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Salieri

Posted: Jul 28, 2010
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How do we carve out time whilst bring up a young family? You can't predict or plan for what happens with children. Yet, you need regular time to get things done. Any thoughts?
mco

Posted: Jul 28, 2010
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Posted by Salieri:
How do we carve out time whilst bring up a young family? You can't predict or plan for what happens with children. Yet, you need regular time to get things done. Any thoughts?


You need to be able to do small bits or less important things while your main focus is on the children. When you have blocks of time available (naps?), you have to know what the best things to do are, and do them. Try using contexts to differentiate.
PeterW 

Posted: Jul 28, 2010
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For me, some regular things that I liked and wanted to do just had to be put onto my Someday list until the kids were older and more time was available. That's just life.
Andrew A

Posted: Jul 29, 2010
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Agreed with both. As the father of infant twins, it has been a challenge.

If you've read David Allen's GTD, it touches how we decide what our next task is based on context, time, energy, and priority. The four factors, constraints, whatever you want to call them, and how taking these things into mind helps us intuitively decide what to do next off our list, e.g., and facetiously, grabbing the trash on the wait out the door for the 3am cup of coffee on the stoop, or altering my drive home so it goes by the Babies-r-us and supermarkets so I can be in the right context for food shop (and save time actually since I don't have to ever drive there anymore!).

But I hope you get my drift. Do things when you can, how you can, where you can, in the time you have and as long as things get done, some progress is made.

My thoughts on the matter might change as they get older, but this working for me now.
Salieri

Posted: Aug 26, 2010
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Yes. I like "Do things when you can." I'm a little ocd when it comes to planning. I feel more secure with a regular time to do the things that matter. Family life though, ought not, should not accommodate that.
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