Time

Possibly the hardest part about being a parent is time. That is not having enough time to do everything that you want (and sometimes need). I wake up at 6-6:30 everyday, shower and get ready, and then meditate for 10 minutes before I get Colin up at around 7:00am. From then, it’s getting Colin ready and feeding him breakfast. We’re out the door by 8:15am to drop him off at daycare.

We work all day and leave by 5pm to get him from daycare at 5:30am. The next 2 hours is spending time with Colin and dinner, and we have him in bed by 7:30pm. With a 10pm bedtime, that leaves around 2-2.5 hours of time to ourselves. That time is mostly spent catching up on work and planning with Sophia. If we’re lucky, we get 45 minutes of TV to relax.

It’s not all so bad. I’m lucky to have flexibility in my work day that I can get a 45 minute workout in during the day which I have made sure to prioritize as my health comes first. All that means is that I do need to catch-up in the evening after bed time but that’s a fair tradeoff. Unfortunately, if we have another child, things are going to get worse.

Thus is the life of a parent. Last night, I spent a few minutes just watching videos of the new GTA 6 game. It was fun watching from afar but I know deep down I won’t get to play video games anytime soon. I also have a bunch of personal financial items to get through including setting up a will and estate plan, and also looking at some investments that I wanted to make. That list of items has been pushed back months at this point.

There’s just too much to do and too little time. Prioritization of my time is incredibly important. Colin and Sophia come first and I want to ensure that I spend as much time with my family as I can. Then my health comes second which I’ve done a good job prioritizing. From then, work is obviously incredibly important and where I need to also focus.

That leaves everything else including my social life, personal leisure, and to-do items such as my finances. I’ve outsourced a lot of my finances to my advisors which is great, but I could spend more time getting through the important stuff that I need to be involved in. With time at a premium, it’s the right tradeoff but I do need to find more time to catch-up.