You can't keep all your balls in the air all the time but that's ok! Learn how to decide which to drop and which to keep in the air. I recen

How to Juggle Priorities: Decide Which Balls Are Glass and Which Are Plastic

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2024-04-23 08:00:14

You can't keep all your balls in the air all the time but that's ok! Learn how to decide which to drop and which to keep in the air.

I recently came across a Twitter thread by author Jennifer Barnes about a Q&A session she had seen with author Nora Roberts. Roberts was asked how she juggled writing and raising a family, and Barnes summarized Roberts's response as:

I like the metaphor of juggling plastic versus glass balls because it creates a powerful visual of the idea of too many priorities.

Barnes clarified that Roberts was not referring to the elusive discussion of work-life balance where you have work on one side and try to balance family on the other. Barnes related,

When there are so many balls in the air each day, you have to accept that some are going to drop. You can’t keep all the balls in the air all the time so you have to be intentional about which balls to drop, instead of it just happening.

Instead of focusing on the broad categories of work and family, you need to consider with more nuance which balls are glass, which are plastic, and focus on the glass ones.