I’m a proponent of learning new skills. I believe the sense of accomplishment are worth the frustration and time invested. Doing things that are difficult can, eventually, make you happier. But, I’m also starting to learn that paying someone to do hard stuff for me can make me pretty darn happy as well.

After seven years of running my own blog, I recently received an email from my web host letting me know that my site was no longer eligible for a shared server. It was “using too many resources”, an explanation that still doesn’t make sense to me, and I was to be “upgraded” to a virtual server that would cost five times my current monthly rate. I logged into my admin panel, took a look at graph bars that purported to be monitoring my resources, and promptly realized I was in over my head.
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I start my days as a mother. The drill is a familiar one to most mothers: make wake up call, encourage teeth and hair brushing, check children’s clothes for obvious stains or tears, check backpack for homework and papers that should have been signed the night before, slobber kids with hugs and kisses as they run out the door. My goal is to help my kids begin their day on the right foot, well loved and appropriately dressed. What happens next determines how prepared I’ll be for my own day.
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Successful people often talk or write about the power of their routines. They meditate in the morning or begin their day with a workout. They make time for self care and know precisely when they are most creative and productive. While I see the wisdom in these bits of advice, I can’t help but wonder when these superhumans were able to willfully craft a schedule.
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When I signed on four years ago to write this column, my intent was to discuss the constant quest for a work-life balance. I imagined sharing my best productivity tips as well as commiserating about the days when those tips inevitably failed. Over time, I also began sharing how my definitions of "work" and "life" were evolving . But while the balls changed in shape and color, the desire to keep them aloft always remained. Recently, however, I’ve begun to question my understanding of balance itself.
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I spent Sunday working on a gallery wall for our living room. That meant plotting the size, shape, location and color of 21 frames, painting said 21 frames, and then taking a trip down memory lane in order to choose 21 perfect photos. It was a cross-country trip, because I decided to focus on pictures from our family’s year-long road trip around America . As I flipped through hundreds of digital images and asked for my husband and kid’s input on their favorites, I got a nice refresher course in what matters most to our family.
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I had finally hit my stride as a parent. When I heard friends with younger children talk about how worried they were about messing things up or getting things wrong, I realized just how far I’d come since those early days of constant self doubt. Although I had no illusions about getting it all right, I was finally confident enough to say I was a good mother. And then my oldest became a teenager.

Pride cometh before a fall, and confidence cometh before a teenager.

I’m only officially a few months into this new stage - although the teen attitude started several months before the 13th birthday - and I’m already completely exhausted from the experience. One of the worst parts, and perhaps the most unexpected struggle, is how alone I feel in it.
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The blogs are buzzing with news about an internal memo announcing changes to the work-from-home policies at Yahoo!, a tech company that has seen more ink dedicated to its CEO than its products in the last year. The gist of the memo is this: all telecommuters must report to Yahoo! offices by June, or quit. The gist of the response in my news and social media feeds: CEO Marissa Mayer is setting back women. Personally, I have more problems with the criticism of the policy than I do with the mandate itself.
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I think we all know – or at least have been told once or twice – that unplugging now and then is a good thing . Step away from the screens, the email, the Wi-Fi signal, and the 4G network and just… be. Be in the moment , be with your loved ones, be on your own without the constant net of technology. It sounds blissful, but being able to actually do it has proven virtually impossible in my real life. I think I’ve found the solution, however: I need to buy a watch.
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I’m not sure if this is a phenomenon that is unique to women, or just me, but my mood definitely affects my work . If I’m sad or angry, I have a really hard time concentrating and creating at a top level. Of course, most of us don’t have the luxury of blowing deadlines or skipping work just because we’re in a bad mood. How can we suck it up – or improve our mood – long enough to get stuff done?
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I believe that mindfulness can help us be happier people, better parents, and more productive in our careers. And yet, this post was partially written in my head while I scarfed down a bowl of cereal and scanned my to-do list. I’ve switched to another tab on my computer twice while writing this paragraph. Multi-tasking is the opposite of mindfulness, but it’s a habit I struggle to avoid when life gets extra busy.

It’s an easy trap to fall into. The busier I get - or more specifically, the more things that have to be done in the foreseeable future - the more likely I am to buy into the myth that moving quickly and doing many things at once equals efficiency. Efficiency, obviously, is the key to not falling behind, to getting it all done in the appropriate time frame. I forget that multi-tasking often means every task takes longer.
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