Harvard Business Review - Getting It All Done (HBR Working Parents Series)

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Harvard Business Review Press.

Title: Getting it all done / Harvard Business Review.

Other titles: HBR working parents series.

Description: Boston, Massachusetts : Harvard Business Review Press, [2020] | Series: HBR working parents series | Includes index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2020026435 (print) | LCCN 2020026436 (ebook) | ISBN 9781633699755 (paperback) | ISBN 9781633699762 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Work and family. | Parenting. | Work-life balance.

Classification: LCC HD4904.25 .G5346 2020 (print) | LCC HD4904.25 (ebook) | DDC 646.7dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020026435

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020026436

ISBN: 978-1-63369-975-5
eISBN: 978-1-63369-976-2

CONTENTS

Grab the tricks and tools that will help you and start using them today.

by Daisy Dowling, Series Editor

Plan and schedule, play to everyones strengths, and put people first.

by Whitney Johnson

Transform your family by asking three questions.

by Bruce Feiler

With fewer bad surprises, everyone is happier.

by Elizabeth Grace Saunders

Reach better outcomes and model a better process.

by Mary C. Kern and Terri R. Kurtzberg

Networking helps at home, too.

by Alison Beard

Learn to translate your priorities into action.

by Elizabeth Grace Saunders

Look for four-way wins.

An HBR IdeaCast Interview with Stewart D. Friedman and Alyssa F. Westring

When was the last time you checked in on your kids priorities?

by Amy Jen Su

To get the help you need, put a task and an ask in a higher context.

A Women at Work Interview with Tiffany Dufu

Figure out what you need, just ask for it, and accept what is offered.

by Heidi Grant

Practice saying it out loud.

by Rebecca Knight

It takes more than a home office.

by Daisy Dowling

Consider family breakfast.

by Daisy Dowling

Advice for the pandemicand beyond.

Contributed by 18 HBR readers

Strategies to handle the chaos.

by Daisy Dowling

Make peace with never being caught up.

by Rebecca Knight

Propose a plan that works for you, your boss, and your company.

by Amy Gallo

What to say to your boss and colleagues.

by Daisy Dowling

Strategies for when you cant be in two places at once.

by Elizabeth Grace Saunders

Make sure to communicate with the people who matter most.

by Stewart D. Friedman

Four tactics to juggle your job, your kids, and your own well-being.

by Sabina Nawaz

Help them grow.

by Peter Bregman

INTRODUCTION

Getting to All Done

by Daisy Dowling

A few years ago, when my daughter was a toddler, she would finish her breakfast with a triumphant ritual. After spooning up the last of her cereal, shed shout All done! and beam with delight, then slam her fist down on the plastic tray table of her high chair with a loud bang for emphasis. Every morning, without fail, it was the same thing: the same sense of joyous competence at being able to handle the task in front of her, that same sense of completion and closure. I loved to watch her, but as embarrassing as this is to admit, I felt a little jealous. As a full-time working parent, I wasnt in a competence and completion state of mind. In fact, it was more the reverse. By the time each mornings Great Oatmeal Take-Down had concluded, around 6:45 a.m., I was already well underwater and trying desperately to swim up to the surface. Emails had rolled in overnight from colleagues waiting for answers. I had to hustle if I was going to make it to that 8 a.m. meeting. There was the leaky sink I needed to have fixed and tax forms to sign and get to the post office, and my boss was waiting on the draft strategy report, and oh, the laundry pile (which could only be described as Himalayan) and mounting eldercare issues to handle, and was I getting to get to the gym once this week? Getting it all done? Who are we kidding? I was behind all day and every dayand it felt crummy.

Are you a working parent trapped in that same always-on-but-never-finished scramble? Maybe youve tried to cope with your endless to-do list by working later into the night, or breaking it up into multiple lists, or using a new calendar color-coding system or special task-tracking app to help you get more accomplished. Even so, are you still struggling to find the bandwidth for things you know are importantlike networking, or really preparing for that big meeting next week, or reading to the kids, or sitting down for a family dinner? Day to day, despite stretching yourself to your personal limits, do you still harbor a hazy but nagging sense that you should be getting more done at work and be there more for your children? Have you ever considered wholesale life changeslike quitting your job or moving to a remote area, off the gridjust to get some relief and to feel on top of things, together, and like yourself again?