A better way to share responsibilities with your partner

Amy Shearn
Forge
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1 min readFeb 18, 2021

🤝 Today’s tip: Schedule a planning sprint.

What does it really mean when someone says, “Oh, I’m just not a planner”? Nine times out of 10, it just means they have benefited from “planning privilege,” as the time management expert Laura Vanderkam explains in Forge: “Non-planners with complex lives are almost always already benefiting from a planning process,” she writes. It’s just that someone else is doing the lifting for them.

If you’re tired of being the default planner— or if you’re the non-planner, tired of letting your partner manage the complicated schedules that define modern life — you need a more equitable system. Vanderkam recommends sitting down together for a 30-minute planning sprint every week. “Both of you get out your calendars,” she writes. “You talk through what’s coming up and divvy up responsibilities. You talk about fun future things you’d like to arrange and assign any logistics.” When the timer dings, you’re done planning for at least a week.

📅 More from Forge on planning:

A New Way to Schedule Your Work Week
Read more >>

Prioritizing “White Space” Is The Key to a Productive Week
Read more >>

This Is What A Perfect To-To List Looks Like
Read more >>

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Amy Shearn
Forge

Formerly: Editor of Creators Hub, Human Parts // Ongoingly: Novelist, Essayist, Person