I Work During Weird Hours.

Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays you will find me MIA. I will not schedule a meeting, take your call, or even responds to your emails. For the longest time I have found this schedule hard to explain to other people, and it bothers me every time when I feel that I have to. This post is a chance to explain it once and for all. You see, for the last year my wife and I decided to manage kids and to work on opposing schedules. She gets 3 days, and I get 3 days, and then we have one family day that we share. We are happily married and have a fully functional family, but both of us had things we wanted to accomplish, all without giving any less to our kids. This odd, but extremely functional schedule, seemed like a great way to do it. I work every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, when my day starts at 7am and ends for dinner at 6pm. Every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday I spend with my kids. We go to playground, zoos, lakes, you name it, we do it all. I dislike indoors, so as much as we can, we go out. Then, after dinner, I get to work again, for another 3-5 hours before sleep. My wife does the same, but on the opposing days. Put all these hours together, and you get about 40-50 hours a week, dedicated to work, and the same amount of time for the kids. Of course, some of that time is spent eating, exercising, reading ..etc, but when all said and done, this schedule enables me to have a "full-time-equivalent" work week, and a FTE engaged family time. This schedule is not for everyone. Besides that many families are not in the position to choose their schedules, and schedules are being forced on them, being able to maintain this flexible schedule also requires quite a bit of patience, and self-motivation. When there is no one telling you what to do and how to it, it is all on you. There are certainly also days when I wish I had spent more time working, and there are days when I wished we did more interesting things with kids than just hit a playground. It is a matter of balance. To me personally, this schedule is incredible because while I get at least the 925 equivalent work time, I also get as much time with kids, and my bet is that long-term it matters more than any downside to my work. It's just really hard to explain why sometimes, often, I am not available during the days most people are. Now you know. If you would like to hear more of my thoughts on the typical 8-hour work week, I spoke about it on a podcast, take a look below. Lastly, if you would like to hear more of my updates, and to get the best of Smash Notes, please sign up for the mailing list below. Till next time! ~Kirill