Catholic Husband

Love / Lead / Serve

Avoiding Neglect

We’re men. We’re hard charging. We’re all about getting stuff done. But how do you do that while not ignoring your family?

I always have a task list of things to get done. In fact, I have a daily list of 10 things that I need to get done. They include exercise, cleaning the kitchen, logging my food, and writing this blog!

Before Benedict, it wasn’t really that hard. My time was mostly my own and I could go with the flow. Now that Benedict is here, I have to make sure that my schedule fits into his and the responsibilities that I share with Alison.

Even though I have this new reality to work with, how do I keep getting my task list done?

  • Buy more time. There are only 24 hours in a day. Several of them are already spoken for. Some by sleep, others by work. Still, you probably have 8 good hours to your name every day. One of the easiest ways to get “more time” is to wake up earlier. If you like sleeping in or hitting the snooze button, cut it out.
  • Find your guaranteed time. There are certain hours during the day that you will have no competition for. It could be before the kids get up or after they go to bed. It might be uncomfortable or might not fit into your schedule now, but a few tweaks could make it work. If you commit to getting certain tasks in during these times, like exercise, you can get them done and not feel guilty. My guaranteed time is 5am - 6am.
  • Trim your list. Face it, we can’t do everything. Find the essentials and ditch the rest. You can always get them back later.

Being married or being a dad involves dedicating more of your day to other people that you love. Just don’t forget to take care of your essentials.