The time we have on this Earth is precious and limited.

I’m old enough now to realize this. To see this truth manifest in different forms in my life. 

For example, I am now thirty five years old and by all means considered mid-career. I remember when I first graduated from university and the world was my oyster. Career time was infinite. I worked at a courthouse helping felons clean up their rap sheets and assessing the efficacy of sentencing repeat misdemeanor offenders to drug rehab or community service instead of jail time. I started an organization to help raise money for nonprofits. I traversed the jungles of the Philippines to interview survivors of human trafficking. The list goes on. The point is I was young and felt I had an unlimited runway of possibility. I was building things I believed in.

But now things feel different.

As a new Dad, when do I have time to myself?

This is a question that often came to mind in the early early days of parenthood. Noticing the decreasing chunks of time where I can simply “do my thing” lead to at first concern, frustration then dismay and later to resolving how to deal with this new reality.

As we’ve discussed previously, having a child changes things. It changes everything to be precise. One of the more noticeable aspects of life that transforms is our daily schedule, in that we give up the level of control that we are used to. And in the process the time we have to ourselves to spend however we desire changes dramatically. It is no longer as accessible or plentiful as it used to be. This presents challenges, but these precious pockets of time still exist if we are creative in our efforts to find them.

New Dad rule #1: expect the unexpected.

I currently work in software development as a product manager. In a nutshell, my job is to ensure that what the engineers are building matches the needs of customers and goals of the business. As you can imagine, this is a process that is constantly evolving throughout the development of a feature, a website, a mobile application. Managing uncertainty and being able to adapt with changing priorities and insights are key traits to success in the product management discipline, even when the change is drastic. In the startup world we call this pivoting.

And as it would turn out, this experience proves quite useful when parenting.

Feeling unfocused? A million thoughts running through your mind?

Did someone at work rub you the wrong way?

Or did your wife leave kitchen cupboards ajar despite you repeatedly asking her to close them?

Never fear! 

There’s an easy way to clear your mind and emotions and maybe even find some inner peace while still being a good parent and not leaving your child for some me time:

Take your baby and clip their nails.

We live in an on-demand world.

From Amazon Prime to Uber to Munchery to TaskRabbit and beyond, whether it be a hand crafted hamburger, someone to wash the dishes or toilet paper to wipe on the way out, suddenly everything is instantly accessible. Which is a weird thing if you think about it, because it means that expectations to get what we want when we want something have never been higher. And in turn patience has never been thinner. 

Our lives are increasingly merging with the Internet to deliver an increasingly Matrix-like experience (do you know kung fu?).

But what about things that we want but maybe just not right this moment? Like a child for example.

When is the perfect time to have a baby?