As a stay at home dad, loving husband, and freelance musician, my schedule is anything but steady and predictable!
Many days (or weeks…) can go by without making much progress on the goals I have set out for myself. Days blend together and turn into weeks and I’m still at square one with many ideas and projects.
The way I’ve been dealing with these lulls of professional inactivity is to work on projects and ideas at night after my wife and son go to bed. I have traditionally been a late night worker, so this just seems like a natural time for me to be productive. Besides, haven’t the most genius of minds also been night owls?
I am trying to find new techniques to combat these stagnant periods of productivity, that will allow me to spend more time with the family, rather than staying up later than they do.
My options include:
1. Keep staying up late and getting things done.
2. Get up earlier than the family and work in the morning!
3. Ignore the child during the day and work on projects and ideas.
4. Put everything on hold for a few years until The Boy goes to kindergarten.
Let’s work through these options. I’m not a jerk, and I think/hope I’m a good enough dad to quickly and easily throw out #3. I do enjoy progressing, learning, and I don’t want to miss great opportunities as they arrive, so I must also throw out option #4.
That leaves either staying up late, or getting up early. Either way, it’s losing sleep and maybe even time with my beautiful family…
Tough choices to be sure. I think I’ll experiment with getting up early and working in the morning, that is if I can change my internal circadian rhythm.
What other ideas would you suggest so that I can be productive and still be a responsibly loving father and husband?
Here’s to progress!
Mythical 5th Position 
Do more projects with other people. You are more likely to procrastinate if you are only trying to get things done for yourself. That will make getting up easier, knowing you can’t push something off until the next day. And eventually you can do more on your own since you’re used to getting up and getting stuff done.
And if that doesn’t work, you can always sell your child.