I get asked this question a lot. Was asked again today, by a young male colleague who asked to meet me before he left for a posting to another organisation. As we were chatting, he suddenly burst out and asked "I always wanted to ask you! How do you do it? Manage 4 kids and have a successful career?". My best friend likes to ask me how I manage to take care of 4 kids and still have time to meet her for long dinners or brunches (once in a few months).
I must say I always scratch my head to answer this question. It's something I just do, a bit like asking a fish how do they breathe under water. I find myself usually giving a combination of replies such as "Well, it builds up, cos you give birth one at a time, and learn to manage them one at a time. So it's not all at once!", or "I have good help. My mum and my maid help me, so I have peace of mind when I work" or "I am not a tiger mommy. I just spend time with them after work and on weekends, and I monitor their progress in school. If they seem to be doing ok, I will leave them be and focus on my work. If there are some warning signals, I will focus a bit more on them" or "I have been blessed with very understanding bosses, thank God." or "I don't! I'm going crazy".
Frankly it is all of the above, plus, well, daily prioritisation of tasks either at work or at home. As a result I am loving my Bullet Journal, which is basically just my rolling to-do list for both work and personal life, plus a smattering of journal entries when I find time and the mood to. Then whatever cannot be squeezed into what time I have, just have to let it slip. And trust that you somehow got the big rocks in the tank, and what could not be fit in was the final liquid which overflowed and hopefully was the small stuff.
And actually I always fail to mention the most important time-saving ingredient, which can be summed up in this very popular verse "seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you". I have found that when I put God first, somehow my work and family life gets magically done, and magically ordered, such that it didn't require me to put in the amount of effort I imagined it would. It is a miraculous and magical, and probably God's humorous way of teaching us a lesson. I can just imagine God chuckling at us marvelling at how come despite us eking out the time from our packed schedule and our unruly emotions to prepare that bible study, teach cell, attend church, keep our Sabbath, when we look back at our work week, it always seems extraordinarily uneventful. To my immense surprise, I would realise that nothing crashed or burnt, and there might even be a lack of stress.
It is probably my biggest secret principle of time management.
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