Editing time

On the bus this morning, I was reading an article in the Globe and Mail titled,"Hoping to get sick in order to rest". It got me thinking about one of the major things we edit in our lives - our time.

For many of us, our time is valuable and when we are forced to time manage (our events, our work, our family time, our friend time, we are essentially editing our lives to the time we have.

The Globe and Mail article, part of the their Canada: Time to Lead. Eight discussions we need to have series. The article is the personal confessions of 11 business professionals regarding their work-life balance. It really struck me.

Here is one of the confessions.

SUSAN WITTEVEEN, TORONTO

Managing director of a bank. Married. Three kids.

In my life right now, I have a “village” of support. I have my mother-in-law. I have a dedicated assistant; I expect her to read my mind and she is really getting quite good at it. And I have my nanny Pia.

Pia and I have been raising my kids together for five years. She works about 12 hours day – 6:50 a.m. to around 7 p.m. – plus often overtime during the week. We try not to have her on weekends to give her a break from us. We try.

I always say to people when they decide to hire a nanny: Be honest with respect to your needs. Are you hiring a nanny for the “kids” or do you need a nanny for the “household” (code for the mommy and daddy need nannying too)?

Pia helps close the wide gaps in my domestic interest and abilities. She seldom complains and when she does gives us a blast – we really, really deserve it.

I consciously chose to spend money on what matters most, so we have a nanny instead of sending the kids to private schools.

The hard truth is that the juggle doesn’t always work. I am a multitasker. That’s out of vogue right now. But that is what I do. I have been known to mix “business with pleasure” and as a result have had my kids too close during important conference calls and have inadvertently yelled into the phone, “Don't wrestle her like that ... she’s a baby and you are choking her to death!”

But I’m glad I work outside the home, even if during the outrageously busy times at the office, or when all three kids get sick at the same time, I question that choice.

The article really hit home with me because one of my biggest anxieties regarding my hopes of having a successful journalism career is the amount of time it will require. In my life, I hope to edit in enough time to not only just have a family, but to be able to devote the time it would require to have a well-functioning family. I don't want to end up like Susan (quoted above), but am sad that that may mean sacrificing the career I want.

But we can choose to edit our time however we want, and if I'm not happy with my editing, luckily, there's always the opportunity to change it.