This morning over breakfast, I told Mike about a project I’m working on and that I’m falling behind schedule. His immediate response was to carve out a portion of the day during which he would take the girls out and occupy them for a few hours.

This is a perfect example of tag-team parenting, which is one of the most important aspects of our family travels.

Mike and I work every day, whether we’re at home or abroad. Doing so when we travel sometimes presents challenges. I’m currently writing from Mexico, where we’re contending with unreliable internet and insatiable mosquitos.

The true difficulty in remaining productive work-wise when we travel is balancing work life and family life. My daughters aren’t interested in whether or not I’ve made headway with my latest work-in-progress. They just want to go to the beach.

If both Mike and I were fighting for time to get through our respective to-do lists without considering the other person, our household would quickly implode.

The key to keeping that from happening is tag-team parenting. If Mike knows I’m on a deadline, he’ll offer to take the kids for an hour or two. I do the same for him when I know he’s under pressure.

Acknowledging what your partner needs and then stepping up to help them is both simple and powerful. It’s about thinking beyond yourself. It’s about giving.

If Mike and I didn’t both have this mindset in place, I doubt we’d travel for months at a time to other countries. Our trips would have more stress and less enjoyment. By trading off the parental duties, we each allow the other the time and space needed to stay productive. And when we both keep current with our work, we’re able to enjoy our time together as a family without worrying about what didn’t get accomplished.

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​Ryan Fletcher, the guy who runs both the StoryAthlete and GRIT challenges in which Mike and are taking part, wrote the other day about the difference between gambling and investing.

Gambling is exciting. There’s a rush that goes along with it. Spin the wheel and who knows what might happen?

Investing is less exciting. It requires small deposits and sustained effort. Not nearly as sexy.

In terms of diet and exercise, here’s the difference:

Gambling: I go on a fad diet and order a bottle of overpriced magic pills off of a late-night infomercial (contains 10% pure snake oil).

Investing: I embrace the monotony of sustained effort over time. I make 1% gains each day. I put the effort in consistently, whether I feel like it or not.

It’s pretty clear which one is going to pay off.

As writers, we often get in the way of our own progress because we struggle with the monotony of small gains, day after day. We don’t want to make the investment.

Instead of embracing the effort required and creating in ourselves the necessary discipline, we get in our own heads and start questioning what we’re doing. Why am I wasting time trying to craft these words that might never get published/read/liked/fill-in-the-blank?

We need to push those self-doubts away, not let them occupy any space in our thoughts, and instead embrace the monotony of the process. Those who are able to do this make huge strides.

Whether you write a sentence, a paragraph, a page, or a chapter, you’re making progress if you can repeat that effort every day. Learn routine, muster discipline, and embrace the journey instead of longing for it to be over.

Invest in your writing, consistently over time, and your yield may far exceed your expectations.