My Best Productivity Hack: Have Children

In this series, professionals share their secrets to being more productive. Read the posts here, then write your own (use #ProductivityHacks in the body).

The decision to have children is one of the most complex ones we make in life: it involves love, time, money, and perspective. It involves thinking about your own death, and how to help take care of another life. I wouldn't want to give advice in a book, much less a blog post.

But here's one personal thing I have noticed: since having children seven and a half years ago, I've become much more productive. I've become sleepier, and I've started drinking coffee. I work far fewer hours, and I rarely travel. I cancel or decline all kinds of invitations. I spend countless hours with my three boys that I could spend at the office. But, counterintuitively perhaps, I've gotten better at getting things done. 

Why is that? Partly it's perspective. It's hard to waste time at work when you know you're on the clock with the kids. If it takes 15 more minutes to get something done, that's 15 fewer minutes to play. More important, though, having children has given me a new set of standards to live up to. We all do our jobs for different reasons: for money, to pass the time, for curiosity, for our parents. But, to a certain degree, now, I do it for my kids. I want them, one day, to think: "You know, my dad did something worthwhile." And who could have a more powerful productivity tool than that?