shayarnett reminded me of a great point about maintaining productivity while caring for kids by writing “I could have made vast improvements just by having my next actions ready to go when I came off baby duty”. Much like waiting to respond to e-mails until commuting via bus, you can save up tasks and dedicate them to times when your mental cycles aren’t being spent on your kid (much easier when kid=baby). For example, when I have issues that I need to make decisions on and I want to spend a good amount of time thinking about them, I save these tasks for the time I spend feeding my daughter a bottle or taking her for a walk in her stroller. This gives me a good 10-15 minutes to do baby care and also mentally organize for and prioritize upcoming tasks.

Brittp, your post reminded me that I can still make advances in my multitasking abilities. I, too, suffer from interruption anxiety. Some of my co-workers with kids have been able to play with their kids while simultaneously working, and I’m constantly envious of their ability to do so. For some reason, I just can’t start some projects when I have a fear of being interrupted (especially reading, which I do quite a bit of for my research). The way I cope with this: I’ve decided that mom was right: if something is worth doing, it is worth doing well. When I have family time, I devote it 100% to my baby. I’ve adopted the opposite of “Work hard, play hard”. In my mind, if I play hard with my daughter, she’ll enjoy it more (and also sleep better once I’ve tired her out!) Then, my reward is to have time to work hard while she’s napping!