In an earlier post, we talked about a pairing tied to how you might approach an hour of free time.
Today, we will look at another word pair as it relates to how we balance our professional work and the work we do to run our homes.
This concept covers all home management activities such as running errands, cleaning, cooking, managing finances, and doing laundry.
The choices are to Spread Out or to Spend Out.
Spread Out – Those who spread out take the work they need to do and pace across every day, even weekend days. These individuals seek balance at the individual day level. During the week, they focus on their professional work and minimize impact of home work. On the weekends, they focus on running errands, cleaning, and preparing as much as possible to support the week ahead running smoothly.
Spend Out – Those who spend out focus the work during the weekdays. These individuals seek balance at the week level. During the week, they pack in as much as they can. They work their professional job and run errands on the way home, clean and do laundry in the evenings, and keep as much as possible off the weekend list. On the weekend, they have time to do whatever they want….or nothing at all.
As with any pairing, neither of these are the “right” approach. Knowing your approach and that of those who you live with will help you appreciate another person with the opposite approach.
My Story
Historically, I have approached the work to run our homes in a spread out manner. Weekdays were focused on professional endeavors and the minimum home activities like cooking dinner and when the kids were young running them to activities. The weekends were full of all the errands, laundry, bills, and anything else that needed to be taken care of before the week began.
The pandemic and increased days working from home shifted this a bit. I found myself cleaning a room on a weekday or doing more professional work on a Saturday or Sunday. The kids are also grown now so evenings aren’t full driving to their activities.
My tendency is still to Spread Out, but I see less of a formal line that professional work is weekdays and home care is weekends. These days, both occur at some level every day.
Your Turn
Do you define your approach to lean more to spread out or spend out?
If you live with others, do they take the same approach?
Does knowing this about yourself change how you might think about your weeks?