Just over a year ago, I made the transition from working professional to working father. I expected there’d be changes. I knew that the baby would keep my wife and I up at night, and I expected I’d be bringing that fatigue to work — not that anyone can prepare you for the sleep deprivation of a child’s first few months.
What I didn’t expect was that adding to my family would fundamentally alter my approach to work. Not in a sappy, “everything is more precious with kids,” way, but in significant ways that actually make me a better marketer.
So yes, like so many new parents, I’m better than I’ve ever been at time management. I’m better at saying no to projects that take me away from time with my family. But I’m better at other things I never expected as well:
I’m better at developing creative solutions.
When it’s 3 a.m. and the baby is crying — despite being fed and changed — what do you do? You get creative. You sing silly songs you make up. You invent games out of the household objects nearest to you. Basically, you do what it takes to get the job done — no questions asked.
That’s true creativity at work, and I’ve been surprised by how much that mindset has crossed over into my work. When I have an ecommerce client who claims they’ve “tried everything,” but still can’t fix their conversion problem, my mind detects infinitely more possibilities than it did before.
I’m more attuned to big picture thinking.
In a related way, having a kid has stretched my mind to think about broader issues, in addition to quick, creative fixes. Looking down at my daughter pulls my mind in a thousand directions at once. At…