The 4 mental modes of a work-from-home parent

🙅🏻‍♀️🙅‍♂️ The idea of work-life balance is a myth.

⚖️ Because balance implies that there is work on one end of the scale and real life on the other.

😬 And that neither can outweigh the other or the results may be… less than desirable.

Recently, my husband and I were faced with the familiar challenges that most new parents encounter when both return to work.

Although we each have the privilege of working from home, it comes with its own flavor of difficulties.

😴 Overlapping meetings competing with nap times

📝 Growing task lists conflicting with feeding schedules and wake windows

😩 That lingering sense that we’re simultaneously being spread too thin and should also be doing more than we’re actually capable of.

🤨 So we sat down and put our researching-analytical-prioritization-project-management brains to work.

The second image is a sketch of the “mental modes” we identified we switch between throughout the workday.

Understanding these modes has allowed us to flex our schedules and our expectations to accommodate the needs of our newest little coworker.

It isn’t easy, nor is it perfect. But every day we’re tweaking, testing, and trying to adapt.

🧘🏻‍♀️🧘 So instead of balance, strive for work-life harmony.

Because it doesn’t matter if one area is louder or more pressing than another sometimes.

🎶 It’s still good music. 🎶