You may think I’m nuts but as counter-intuitive as it may seem, I’ve improved my productivity since having my first baby six months ago.
Sure, the first three months were horrible (in terms of sleep deprivation) and some days I even thought about closing down my “migration to wordpress” business but once the baby starts sleeping more regularly (yes, this happens eventually) I found myself being much more productive than before for two reasons:
- A child gives you the focus and motivation you need. No matter how motivated you were before, a child will boost your motivation. Now you are not doing it only for you anymore, now you want to succeed to give the best possible life to your child.
- There is no time to lose. With a baby you can never be sure how long you´ll have to work (babies can get ill, have a bad night,…). This “threat” makes you squeeze every available minute and produce much more in less time. You stop wasting your time with stupid distractions. Every moment counts!
Don’t you believe me? Well, have a baby and prove me wrong 🙂
Ok, I’ll try… but I know where you live 😀
Sure but with a baby you won’t have the time to travel so I’m not so worried 🙂
right… :-S
So I see how will do more per time, since you have to be efficient. But you’ll have less time. So did your overall output increase, or just the productivity per time 🙂 ?
That’s why I explicitly linked to the definition of productivity in Wikipedia 🙂
Now more seriously, the overall output has not decreased (which I’d say is already quite good). In fact, I could say that more than the overall output, what I’ve increased is the “quality” of the output. By this I mean that given the (uncertainty of) time constraints now I say NO more often than before. So, same output but focusing on more important things.
Well, I cannot agree more 🙂 Mine already 2 years old, and expecting another one! 🙂
Regards,
d.
When you have two babies the works does not double it increases in x3, x4, as both want the same things at the same time 😀
But I agree with the post, on the first baby productivity increases, but is also because you spend more time at home 😉