3 Minutes 24 Seconds

A brilliant article came out of the Washington Post on July 10, by Suzanne M. Edwards and Larry Snyder, about the impossiblity of the dual roles of parenting and working from home. I’ve only just now had time to sit down and reflect on it, for understandable reasons.

3 minutes 24 seconds.

For the rather well-positioned family in this article (both parents working from home, children aged 12 and 8 who are somewhat self-sufficient), a child interrupted their work time, on average, every 3 minutes 24 seconds. Imagine setting a timer on your phone for 3 minutes 24 seconds, on repeat, all day. Imagine doing every bit of your work in chunks of 3 minutes 24 seconds. Yes, it’s an average, which means that some stretches were longer. But it also means that some stretches were a heck of a lot shorter, too. In fact, to make that average, a lot of much shorter intervals would be needed to offset one decently long chunk of work time.

3 minutes 24 seconds.

Every parent you work with who has a child/children at home while they work is facing this. Do you know how hard it is to work in chunks of 3 minutes 24 seconds? It isn’t just the interruption itself. It takes time to get the brain to focus back on work when it becomes sidetracked. By the time it’s really getting back on track (if the worker is lucky), it’s already being interrupted again. The interruptions might be sweet and cute. They might be short-lived. But they are nonetheless disruptive to trying to work. Younger children interrupt more. Multiple children interrupt more. Every child interrupts some, even the “good” ones.

3 minutes 24 seconds.

Even when I’m not being interrupted, I’m constantly on guard when the little guy is home. Listening. Hearing footsteps coming down the hall and wondering if he’s coming in or not. Looking at how long I have left until I am the “parent on duty” so that the other parent can attend a meeting or work a project, knowing that even the “off-duty” parent will almost certainly be interrupted. Setting up a TV show hoping it’ll occupy him, only to receive a barrage of “watch this” and “can I have a snack.”

3 minutes 24 seconds.

Be kind to the parents on your team. They are exhausted. Their brains are fried. They have been working in 3 minute 24 second chunks for over 4 months now. Even if they had the chance to focus now, they’d have to remember how to do it.