You’re doing more than you get credit for. You’re also not quite doing enough. You’ve mostly made peace with that, and sometimes you haven’t, and you’re not sure there’s a meaningful difference between those two states at 10pm on a Wednesday.
That’s roughly where I live.
I’m Jack Barrett. Late 30s, Chicago, married, two boys. I work in operations at a tech company, which means I spend my days thinking about how to make systems run better, and then come home and spend 45 minutes at the grocery store only to realize I forgot the one thing I actually went for, which was on the opposite end of the store from where I finished.
I have a closet gym — a drill-in pull-up bar and some kettlebells on the floor next to my dresser. I work out before anyone wakes up, usually 20 minutes, which I used to believe didn’t count and now understand is the only workout I’m actually going to do consistently. I put beef organ pills in my coffee every morning. I stretch before bed, which hasn’t transformed my life but did make my lower back stop complaining, which at 38 I’m counting as a win.
My wife and I do a 15-minute Sunday night check-in to go through the week ahead. Not because we’re organized — because without it we get blindsided by our own calendar. I’ve built systems for the household that my wife looked at once and never opened again. I’ve also built a few that actually stuck. The difference between them turns out to be whether they’re simple enough for two people with a full week and not much patience to actually use.
I ride an electric bike around Chicago with both boys strapped in. It’s the best thing we’ve done for our life in this city — the beach, the zoo, the park, everywhere in 15 minutes, no parking, no traffic, no circling the block while a toddler escalates. I’m not subtle about recommending it.
I’m working on getting better at meal planning. Haven’t cracked it. Currently in a rotation of Kevin’s Natural Foods with rice, Costco produce, and the occasional Tombstone pizza, about which I have no shame.
I write about all of it — the fitness you’re trying to maintain, the household that doesn’t run itself, the mental load you’re trying to carry more of, the routines that work and the ones that looked great on paper. Not from the other side of having figured it out. From the middle of still figuring it out, with enough specifics that it’s actually useful to someone who isn’t me.
If any of that sounds like your week too, you’re in the right place.
→ Grab the free Sunday Reset Checklist — the 15-minute weekly habit that keeps our household from being blindsided by its own week.
Or start with the posts people read first: the mental load one, the bedtime one, or the closet gym one.