Previously on Project Papapalooza:
Hey dads – Rob here.
Me and my partner always joke that being a parent is a masterclass in operational management. I now have greater level of respect for the people whose jobs is to manage technical projects, produce shows that go on television, ensure supply chains actually work so you get your fancy new iPhone, and whatnot.
Basically, these people make the world go around, and all we needed was a pandemic and a supply chain crisis to realise perhaps the industrial side of the world was more important (and more fragile) than our increasingly digital brains originally assumed.
Anyway, the point of this segue-as-an-intro is to say that, people who know and can enforce time management are kind of superheroes in certain circles. But as a parent, i think now less of time management, and consider more how i manage my energy and the energy of the household. Time management is about completing tasks, energy management is about ensuring you can do it without crashing and burning, yadayada.
Anyway, i thought today i’d share 7 short reflections on energy management that are reflective of my 2+ years as a dad, but frankly i kinda… wish i knew them sooner?
Whatever your plan is, assume at least an extra 20%. Build redundancy into whatever thing is meant to happen. Planning on leaving at 9am? Ensure you’re ready at 8.30am. Quick trip to the shops? Assume you’ll spend an hour. Because if there’s one thing toddlers are very good at, is not following plans and following their instincts instead. And you know what, it’s not their fault, that’s their bodies doing what they know. It’s our responsibility to pre-empt it as best we can.
More coffee is not the answer. At my peak, i was probably drinking 5 or 6 coffees a day, and while this gave me a tremendous buzz during the day, guess what. At 7pm i was invariably crashed. How do i know? Well, let’s just say that when you fall asleep just because you’re lying down on the floor playing with your toddler, that’s a sign. I’m not saying cut coffee. I’m saying mind your dosage, because just like crypto prices, whatever goes up must invariably come down.
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