I too am big on “productivity” and I can see, without question, that I need to focus on the systems and not the routine or I am going to be a very stressed man.

Thanks for a great read. Lateral Action has pleasantly surprised me again and again with the high quality of posts. I’m becoming a loyal fan. Keep up the excellent work.

Jonathan Wold

In my opinion, Life will simply be life; ever demanding much more than we are often prepared to give. Like you said in the post, we can all get used to anything -its in our nature as humans to adapt to our immediate environment, and from what i read, you’re pretty much doing fine.

Thnks for sharing!

I take no responsibility. None.

Nice try, but I’m afraid in these cases responsibility tends to be assigned rather than assumed.

“But JAMES told me to do it!!!”

“Yes, honey, but JAMES isn’t the one who’s going to do the laundry, cook supper and pay the bills while you’re out playing hookie…”

I take no responsibility. None.

I guess I’m walking the talk by taking so long to reply to the second half of this week’s comments. Sorry about that.

@ Finola – Yes, it’s tempting to chip away at the little things, go for ‘easy wins’ – but you can’t have too many days like that…

@ Beth – Well, it’s fair to say it made us gulp when we go the news it was twins! Thanks for sharing, glad to hear the important stuff happens ’somehow’ – maybe the babies bring invisible helpers?

@ Mary – Thanks for the creative tips, for parenting as well as making stuff. I like the idea of switching to a different branch of your art that requires less setup. Reminds me of Hugh MacLeod drawing his cartoons on business cards so he didn’t have to faff around setting up a canvas in his studio. Or William Carlos Williams doodling his short poems on the prescription pad in between seeing patients at his doctor’s surgery.

@ Drew – Glad to hear there are no hard and fast rules for parenting.

@ David – I dream of a decent night’s sleep. Well I would if I – well, you know what I mean.

@ Fred – I’m glad there’s some balance in the post, even if life feels a bit unbalanced at the moment!

@ Dan – Good to hear it can be done!

@ Cath – Thanks, I’m trying to make the most of it… even the bleary-eyed 3am moments.

@ Curtis

Admittedly I struggle occasionally with the wish that I had more time to change the world “out there.” And then I realize the awesome contribution and responsibility I have in raising these girls well, not to mention the hubris of my world changing aspirations.

Great reminder that there are more important things than productivity. And a nice post, thanks for sharing.

@ Kami – Hmmm, what are the odds on that being their first word?

@ Ruwan – Actually that’s a really good point I didn’t think to write about. Being so tired/overwhelmed that you can only focus on the present and the next couple of hours can be very liberating. Although it would be nice to take the present awareness without the sleep deprivation!

@ Ovidlu – Thanks, good luck to both of us in finding those scraps of time!

@ James – Thank you, your comment will be my perfect future excuse to down tools and rush out to play with my kids.

As for freelancing with kids… Yeah. Fun times! I’ve learned I can’t write with distractions, prefer morning silence while everyone is sleeping and that the best thing to do when I’m being continually, loudly paged to “COME PLAY! YOU SAID YOU WOULD!!!!” is to accept that setting the work down (for now) is okay and that I can get to it later.

Plus, kids remind me that I don’t want to look back on life and feel regret that my children’s memories of their childhood involved me working all the time.

Cheers.