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" We modern men have a lot of responsibilities\u2014but we approach them a little differently than you women do. At the end of a week, I look at the big picture: Are my kids happy and safe? Did I do some writing? Will Karel continue being my wife for another week? Everything else is gravy. Here&amp;#039;s how we guys keep our balls in the air, so to speak. I only have two children, and yet there always seems to be a birthday party in the offing. How is that possible? My main responsibility in Josie&amp;#039;s party planning was to hand out the invitations, which I did a week late. I figured, if we invite 12 kids and only six show up because they&amp;#039;ve made prior engagements, is that really such a bad thing? Karel, though, believes in big parties with elaborate themes. This one involved Harry Potter and white balloons with owls drawn on them, pretzel-stick &amp;quot;wands&amp;quot; dipped in chocolate, and dressing the cat up like a house elf. That&amp;#039;s her show. I worry about logistics like making sure a few friends show up and keeping the cat from peeing under the birthday girl&amp;#039;s bed to protest its costume. That leaves me just enough time to toss my present to Josie into a paper bag and scrawl, &amp;quot;I love you&amp;quot; in Sharpie. I don&amp;#039;t need to sign my name. She knows who wraps presents like that. Hand out birthday party invitations. I know a lot of moms who think of working out as a luxury, the thing you&amp;#039;ll do for yourself when everything else is all set. I get it; &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;ll avoid type 2 diabetes next month&amp;quot; was my mantra for a long time. But these days, exercise clears my mind and helps me function like a normal earth human. I&amp;#039;m not avoiding the other things on my list\u2014I&amp;#039;m making them possible. Hit the gym. Just like birthdays, there always seems to be a parent-teacher conference, or an early dismissal, or something. Last week&amp;#039;s early dismissal reminded me how hard it is to get things done when children are within 100 yards of you. So I brought a bottle of wine to the conference as a thank-you gift for taking my son for most of the day and trying to teach him stuff. Was it inappropriate? Probably. Did Noah&amp;#039;s teacher accept my offering? You betcha. Noah&amp;#039;s parent teacher conference. I can&amp;#039;t stand shopping for toilet paper and toothpaste. I would wait until we&amp;#039;d been forced to use shampoo as hand soap for a few days before making a Target run. This drives Karel crazy, so she buys that kind of stuff. On the other hand, she hates shopping for food. A lot of moms feel that way\u2014too many scarring memories of shopping with a toddler? The stress of planning meals? I don&amp;#039;t know, because I love it. It&amp;#039;s a moment of weekly Zen. I go when the kids are in school, and I have a pastry and a cup of coffee at the store. I buy all the weird green vegetables that Karel uses to make my arteries work, plus Nutella (shh). I also get the right kind of bacon. I don&amp;#039;t know where Karel finds it, but somehow she procures &amp;quot;healthy bacon.&amp;quot; It tastes like bacon-shaped cardboard. Seriously, it&amp;#039;s like prop bacon. Buy more food. This was a last-minute add to the list, because the dog ate my secret stash of Nutella, all of it. Half a day and six hundred dollars later, I&amp;#039;m wondering why we decided to get a dog. Go to the vet. Oh, it was so smart to schedule the guy to come and tear up our rugs and do our floors right before Josie&amp;#039;s party, on a day when the kids have another early dismissal and I&amp;#039;m on deadline. This was a stroke of planning genius. Because there is nothing more relaxing or helpful than having workmen in your house. Just because guys have a schedule or a to-do list doesn&amp;#039;t mean we actually consult either before adding stuff to it. Floor guy on Friday. As you can see, I have created an environment and routine that is nicely conducive to quiet concentration. That&amp;#039;s why I&amp;#039;m able to bring you the highest-quality relationship insights every month. Ha. You guys should consider it a miracle you get complete sentences and 800 correctly spelled words. Work-life balance achieved! Sorry, the dog&amp;#039;s puking, gotta go. Write column. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.redbookmag.com/love-sex/mens-perspective/a17067/how-men-get-things-done/>