Family Time
Sometimes, being productive with a family is hard.
Whether its in-laws, siblings, parents, children or even your partner, it can difficult to coordinate, plan, or adjust to other people.
Now, as a non-parent adult, I definitely realize I’m nowhere near knowing the time commitment that a child is and I don’t have any older parents requiring my assistance with activities of daily living but nevertheless this is my truth for my situation.
Coordination is hard.
Everyone has their own priorities, their own desires, their own wants.
Person A wants to do X activity. Person B wants to do Y activity. Person C wants to do Z activity. And we only have a certain timeframe, a certain monetary restriction, a certain activity tolerance to do them.
For me, I think the big thing about it is knowing my balance and knowing my limits. Trying to be accommodating, forgiving myself for sometimes needing my own space to do the things I want to do, and then sometimes breaking my promises to myself in order to adjust to the family needs.
In this particular case, I’m sacrificing some of my productivity writing time to spend time with family.
Productivity comes at a price. You prioritize achieving specific goals at the price of attending to others. You prioritize your wants and needs as well as your aspirations before other peoples.
So naturally, there will be times when you want to prioritize other things ahead of your currernt desires.
And that’s okay.
No need to beat yourself up over it.
No need to feel like a failure.
No need to feel like you didn’t achieve, that you messed up, or that you should regret your choice.
Just continue on your life journey. Pick it back up again another time. But be conscious that you actively decided on that plan of action.
I think the reminder I’m writing here is that sometimes in the quest for productivity, we will naturally pit everyone and everything that isn’t in favour of our work and productivity goals as against them.
My family is preventing me from being productive.
It’s because of my family that I didn’t achieve that goal.
And that’s a terribly slippery slope of a mentality to have.
I choose to spend time with my family over my pursuit of productivity. I choose to allow myself to rest and relax to build the relationships with the people I love. I choose to show my love to the people who care for me through an investment of time and energy.
Much like a successful company is built from the blood, sweat and tears of a committed workforce, the relationships you foster and/or do not foster are equally a result of the time and energy you spent building them.
So this week, it’s quality time with family.