It may not be the advice you want to hear, but even without a kid you have too much going on at once.

It is better to do one thing really well than many things not so well.

Figure out the priorities in your life now and focus on getting that done.

(This is coming from someone who has a 3 year old, is a co-founder of an early stage startup, and always has other things to do as well)

Yeah I think the guide is; get rid of the degree, consultancy, startup, or child (in decreasingly sociopathic order).

You MUST mean increasingly ;)

I'm wrapping up the degree in a few days, so that's one less item on my plate. Funny one of the things you suggested I can get rid of, is my child, surely you're joking Mr. krickman!

Your child is only a toddler once. Blink and you might miss it. You'll regret it later on if you neglect the opportunity to watch your child grow.

It's an amazing age too - they're doing new, great stuff all the time.

I say great, it's great if they're your children. If they're someone else's it's obviously dull as dishwater.

Indeed. Amazing to watch them discover the world around them!

You're absolutely right. When it comes to my daughter (and wife), everything else takes the back seat. My work, startup and university have all suffered because of it, but I wouldn't have it any other way.

I think that you have to prioritize - no human can do the four things you've listed at max capacity for each. It's just impossible. You can have a Dad, have a part-time consultancy, be working on your startup "on the side" for 15ish hours a week, and go to school part-time. That works. But there's only so many working hours and so many play hours to go around.

168: Hours in a week

50: Hours of sleep a week (average)

========================

118 hours of work and play

60 hours a week of working

58 hours a week of playing

Of those 60 hours, it's just a matter of priorities that week in terms of what goes where. You can't work full-time on the consultancy, the startup, and be the degree - just not enough hours in the week.

The reason I spell it out like this is that sometimes our mental approach to a problem causes stress for us. If you have it in your head that, "I'm trying to do my consultancy full-time and get my degree quickly", then man - that's just a lot of pressure when you look around and go, "Holy crap - I've hardly worked on my startup at all today! Sorry, honey - I can't play with little {insert_child_name} today because I need to work!" The right frame of mind makes a lot of difference IMO.

Best of luck!

Hey thanks. I've tried several times to have set hours for the different tasks, but it doesn't last long, everything becomes a blur again in a few days. That's when the stress level spikes.

A guide like that would be like "How to be rich in X steps". Just the concept of balance is too optimistic, probably juggling is a better word.

I think three or four "parents" are needed to grow a child in "modern" societies ;-) I use quotes because the price of two working parents [full time] is very high.

That's too much stuff at once. This coming from the guy who has like a million startups. Your issue is that everything is unrelated. You can't combine work loads (that's the secret). When you are able to combine work loads, stuff gets simpler.

Wow that is quite a lot to juggle :) Good luck and thanks for reading this post.

Maybe I'll have to write that.

Sooner rather than later please. Thanks!

You won't have time to read it, not with all of what you have going on! ;)