Quality time vs. Quantity time

At work, the quality of our time matters.

Most managers and clients don’t care how we get our work done. As long as our work is consistently high quality. And our behavior is ethical and legal.

And unless we’re paid by the hour, it doesn’t matter if a project takes us two hours. Or twenty hours. As long as we meet our deadlines.

Our professional time should be focused. Intentional. High quality.

But at home, the quantity of our time matters.

If our goal is to create a home full of love, there’s just no substitute for physical presence.

Intimacy can’t be scheduled.

Tenderness can’t be planned.

We can’t make an appointment with our children to get them to share their secret fears and dreams. We can’t put 30 minutes on our spouse’s calendar with an agenda and stated objective of strengthening our marriage.

Our moods and emotions may not line up with the quality time we block off. People don’t operate that way.

It’s impossible to plan the moments at home that strengthen our bonds with the people we love most. But if we spend enough time together. And we’re watching and waiting for them.

Those moments come.