December 7, 2007 | Filed under:

Ashley and

Here's my contribution to the worthy cause of staying married whilst being a start-up junkie.

I realised the other week that my biggest failing as a spouse was not paying enough attention to the small stuff. Hey, I am busy changing the world so how am I going to notice that the floor needs vacuuming?

I just don't see it. I am on conference calls, writing spec and blog posts, designing user interfaces, speaking with India about outsourcing, etc. The goals are big, the ambition is high. Its about creating a perfect world for my family...

The problem is, it's insulting. Its leaving all the shit jobs to my spouse without noticing. I am actually quite happy to do house work, but just don't notice.

So here's what I did. I decided that the best way was to treat it like a startup and have a weekly meeting to agree on the goals and tasks for the week and literally schedule them in. I created a template which every week, without fail, we sit down and complete. Things we cover:

• Weekly events: Make sure we each know what the others are doing so no double booking, birthdays are remembered, baby-sitters arranged, etc
• Career issues: What's going on? Enough money coming in, etc
• Tasks: Who is going to do what house work and when.

Here is the template we use.

Let me know if you find this useful.

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