It’s the new year. Routines are coming back online, but life hasn’t exactly slowed down.
I took a little time off, like many people did. And then real life continued.
Over the last few weeks, our dog landed in the ER after eating an entire bottle of Motrin (she’s fine), and shortly after, the stomach flu moved through my house. Lots of caregiving. Doctor visits. Cancelled plans. Very little predictability.
And still – I worked for much of it.
No long, uninterrupted stretches. Definitely no 9-to-5 blocks. Just small windows of time.
A call here. An email there. Some workshop prep over there. Work done early in the morning, later at night, and in between caring for others and myself.
It wasn’t ideal. But it was doable.
I’ve made my work flex around my life instead of requiring my life to stop.
There’s a name for this: microshifting.
A recent Forbes article describes microshifting as breaking the workday into smaller, flexible blocks rather than one continuous eight-hour stretch. Work happens around school drop-offs, caregiving, practices, appointments, or when someone actually has the focus to do good work.
For many parents, this isn’t new. We’ve been doing versions of this for years! What’s changing is that more people are naming it and leaders are being asked to pay attention.
In my coaching work, I see this from both sides. I work with parents in leadership roles who are living this daily – managing real responsibility at work and at home, often within the same hour.
I also work with leaders who don’t personally live it the same way. They may have support systems that allow work to stay more contained. They are also thoughtful, capable leaders and this simply isn’t their lived experience. Neither perspective is wrong – just different!
Microshifting isn’t about doing less work but rather about acknowledging reality and then choosing how to lead within it. When stress remains high and people are worried about stability, “quiet cracking” becomes the norm, where employees go through the motions while burning out underneath. Microshifting offers a way to step away earlier and return with focus instead of depletion.
What makes microshifting work isn’t tracking or monitoring. It’s trust.
Trust that people can manage their energy.
Trust that productivity can look different without being diminished.
Trust that stepping away doesn’t mean stepping back.
And for parents who lead, there’s an opportunity here.
To set boundaries out loud.
To take thoughtful risks instead of quietly burning out.
To lead from the front by modeling what sustainable, human leadership actually looks like.
No, we’re not lowering our standards. We’re updating them!