{"id":228242,"date":"2026-05-28T21:26:48","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T21:26:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.care.com\/c\/?p=228242"},"modified":"2026-05-28T21:27:35","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T21:27:35","slug":"what-is-microshifting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.care.com\/c\/what-is-microshifting\/","title":{"rendered":"What is microshifting, and is it a solution for working parents?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Microshifting, a time-blocking technique that involves alternating short bursts of focused work with &ldquo;breaks&rdquo; devoted to child care, household or personal activities, has been gaining popularity among <a href=\"https:\/\/www.care.com\/c\/working-mom-burnout\/\">working parents<\/a>. Fans claim it may be a solution to the career-child care balancing act so many working parents struggle with every day.&nbsp;<\/p><p>&ldquo;Instead of viewing the day as a rigid 9-to-5 block, microshifting treats the day as a series of fluid shifts. It allows you to pivot seamlessly between work mode, parenting mode and self-care mode without breaking your psychological momentum,&rdquo; says <a href=\"https:\/\/mentalhealthsacramento.com\/?utm_source=google&amp;utm_medium=organic&amp;utm_campaign=gbp-listing\">Bonnie Mitchell<\/a>, a Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor and Doctor of Behavioral Health at The Mental Health and Stabilization Center of Sacramento, California.&nbsp;<\/p><p>But what is microshifting really, and is it all that it&rsquo;s being built up to be? This guide digs into what the time management technique looks like in real life, how to tell if it&rsquo;s a good option for you and exactly how to try it out for yourself.<\/p><div class=\"wp-block-custom-dynamic-list key-takeaways-block\"><h3>Key takeaways<\/h3><div class=\"key-takeaways-container\"><ul><li>Microshifting reframes the workday as a series of flexible, focused bursts. Rather than trying to carve out large, uninterrupted blocks of time, microshifting breaks the day into shorter increments devoted to specific tasks, with time built in for child-related, household or personal to-dos. This approach is especially appealing to working parents, who often struggle to find enough hours in the day to get everything done.<\/li><li>Many working parents are already microshifting. If you&rsquo;ve been sneaking in work emails during nap time or scheduling your family&rsquo;s doctors&rsquo; appointments between meetings, that&rsquo;s microshifting. Formalizing the practice can transform what once felt like a guilty secret into a legitimate, effective strategy.<\/li><li>Microshifting has real mental health benefits, but it isn&rsquo;t for everyone. Research shows that schedule flexibility is linked to greater happiness and less caregiver burnout among working parents. That said, people who struggle to switch between tasks may find the stop-start rhythm more draining than freeing &mdash; so it&rsquo;s worth experimenting before fully committing.<\/li><\/ul><\/div><\/div><h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-what-is-microshifting\" data-toc-id=\"3ba19c51\">What is microshifting?<\/h2><p>Microshifting is a time-blocking technique. It&rsquo;s meant to be fluid, so there&rsquo;s no one set schedule that all microshifters stick to. But in general, it involves &ldquo;intentionally breaking your day into smaller, highly flexible and focused increments of time ([as short as] 10 to 30 minutes) to accomplish specific tasks, rather than waiting for large, uninterrupted blocks of time,&rdquo; Mitchell says.&nbsp;<\/p><p>One of the reasons microshifting is so appealing to working parents is that it&rsquo;s designed to accommodate a mix of work, child care, household and personal tasks.&nbsp;<\/p><p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve spent the last year microshifting by necessity,&rdquo; says Meredith Brace Sloss, the founder of travel beauty company <a href=\"https:\/\/wanderous.ai\/\">Wanderous<\/a> and a single mom whose own mother lives with her. &ldquo;A newborn, a startup and a multigenerational household don&rsquo;t leave room for solid blocks of focused time. I structure my work in short, intense bursts around the beautiful chaos of my days. What surprised me most is that I&rsquo;m getting more done now <a href=\"https:\/\/www.care.com\/c\/work-from-home-moms-isolation\/\">microshifting from home<\/a> than I ever did sitting in a corporate office.&rdquo;&nbsp;<\/p><figure class=\"wp-block-pullquote\"><blockquote><p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve spent the last year microshifting by necessity. A newborn, a startup and a multigenerational household don&rsquo;t leave room for solid blocks of focused time. I structure my work in short, intense bursts around the beautiful chaos of my days.&rdquo;&nbsp;<\/p><cite>&mdash; Meredith Brace Sloss, the founder of travel beauty company and a single mom<\/cite><\/blockquote><\/figure><p>Working parent Jenny Dwork also began microshifting because she had no other choice. She launched <a href=\"https:\/\/bummed.co\/?srsltid=AfmBOoqNm2n5P7hoRqsRKQsbwnD1U1ogbFxIU7756ZqfhYVSSwTUUBt3\">Bummed<\/a>, a digital health platform focused on anorectal care for pregnant and postpartum women, when she was seven months pregnant.&nbsp;<\/p><p>&ldquo;When my daughter was born, I jumped right back in &mdash; working during nap windows and whatever moments I had free hands,&rdquo; she says. Shortly after, she formalized her microshifting arrangement. &ldquo;I block my calendar intentionally, but I protect chunks of time to take [my daughter] to appointments, be present in the evenings when my husband is working late and just be her mom. When I am working, I hyper-focus on the most important tasks of the day.&rdquo;&nbsp;<\/p><p>While that tends to be her work for Bummed, Dwork also does consulting work to supplement her income. She tries to reserve weekday mornings for heads-down work for Bummed and save the afternoons for networking calls and meetings. If her mornings get interrupted with child-related or personal appointments, she flips her schedule and saves her afternoons for Bummed-related work, only allotting an hour or so to her consulting jobs. She tries to keep Fridays meeting-free so she has time to finish up any work she needs interrupted time for, that she didn&rsquo;t get to Monday through Thursday.&nbsp;<\/p><p>Ultimately, she says, juggling working and parenting is hard. &ldquo;Things will drop. Figure out what you can delegate or cross off your list altogether. Take it week by week and see how a change in one area may have felt good or perhaps didn&rsquo;t work so well.&rdquo;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p><h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-why-traditional-time-blocking-fails-parents\" data-toc-id=\"d9881ded\">Why traditional time-blocking fails parents<\/h2><p>When you block time in a traditional way, you&rsquo;re assuming that you&rsquo;re going to be able to do work that requires intense focus without distraction for a set period of time. &ldquo;Sadly, &nbsp;this is a fantasy for working parents. Kids get sick, school schedules shift and toddlers don&rsquo;t care about your calendar invites,&rdquo; Mitchell says. &ldquo;When a rigid time-block is broken by a parenting reality, it creates a domino effect of stress, guilt and a feeling of falling behind. Traditional blocking doesn&rsquo;t account for the unpredictable fluidity of raising a family.&rdquo;<\/p><p>In reality, many working parents are already doing some version of microshifting.&nbsp;But without giving the practice a name and some structure, the fact that they&rsquo;re using gaps in their workday to accomplish child care, household or personal tasks can feel like a shameful secret or personal failing.&nbsp;<\/p><p>&ldquo;Honestly, it took me a while to stop feeling guilty about the interruptions,&rdquo; Dwork says. &ldquo;But once I leaned into this rhythm instead of fighting it, something shifted. I feel more focused, not less. And I still get to show up for the moments that matter. Learning that there&rsquo;s actually a name for this, microshifting, made me feel genuinely validated.&rdquo;<\/p><figure class=\"wp-block-pullquote\"><blockquote><p>&ldquo;Honestly, it took me a while to stop feeling guilty about the interruptions. But once I leaned into this rhythm instead of fighting it, something shifted. I feel more focused, not less.&rdquo;<\/p><cite>&mdash; Jenny Dwork, founder of a a digital health platform and working parent<\/cite><\/blockquote><\/figure><h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-the-science-behind-microshifting-what-research-says-about-short-mental-resets-and-productivity\" data-toc-id=\"5af84fdd\">The science behind microshifting: What research says about short mental resets and productivity<\/h2><p>Microshifting may end up feeling like a more natural and sustainable way to work for working parents, sandwich caregivers and, really, anyone who is pulled in multiple directions throughout the day. That&rsquo;s because there&rsquo;s evidence that microshifting may take advantage of the way your brain&rsquo;s naturally wired to work.&nbsp;<\/p><p>In 2021, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/worklab\/work-trend-index\/brain-research\">Microsoft led a study<\/a> that involved monitoring participants&rsquo; brain activity while they worked. The researchers found that trying to sit through back-to-back meetings increased the activity of beta waves, which are associated with stress, and decreased levels of frontal alpha asymmetry, associated with engagement and focus. Meanwhile, taking even a 10-minute break between meetings led to the opposite: decreased beta wave activity (less stress) and higher levels of frontal alpha asymmetry (more engagement).&nbsp;<\/p><p>In the study, the participants meditated during their breaks. Microshifters are more likely to step away from their desk to do household labor like making a necessary customer service call, running to a doctor&rsquo;s appointment or, if you&rsquo;re <a href=\"https:\/\/www.care.com\/c\/working-from-home-with-kids\/\">working from home<\/a>, folding laundry. But even so, the short increments and variety may help people stay engaged, focused and collected, says <a href=\"https:\/\/linktr.ee\/drniloodardashti\">Niloo Dardashti<\/a>, a workplace wellness psychologist in New York City. Knowing you&rsquo;re about to move to something entirely new can motivate you to focus on the task at hand, she says.&nbsp;<\/p><p>Microshifting leverages Parkinson&rsquo;s Law (an observation derived from a 1955 satirical essay by naval historian C. Northcote Parkinson): Work expands to fill the time available, Mitchell says. &ldquo;When you give yourself a hard 20-minute microshift to write a project outline, you focus intensely and get it done, bypassing the procrastination that often plagues a wide open two-hour block.&rdquo;<\/p><p>Trying to arrange your schedule so blocks of stressful or draining work are followed by more pleasurable activities can be particularly useful, Dardashti adds. &ldquo;Knowing that you have this reward coming up is a reinforcer and motivates you, when you might typically feel like, &lsquo;Oh no, I don&rsquo;t even know where to start.&rsquo;&rdquo;<\/p><h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-how-working-parents-can-use-microshifts-during-the-work-day\" data-toc-id=\"f47ba91b\">How working parents can use microshifts during the work day<\/h2><p>The beauty of microshifting is that you can adjust your schedule to work for you, intentionally creating time for your highest priority to-dos.&nbsp;<\/p><p>For instance, Dwork uses microshifting to create time for herself to exercise, take her daughter and herself to any health-related appointments, do bedtime, go to face-to-face networking meetings and complete focused work for her businesses. She works about 40 hours a week, but those hours are spread out across the entire day and week. On a typical weekday, she starts microshifting when her nanny arrives at 8:30 a.m. and finishes with at least an hour of email and tying up miscellaneous loose ends after her daughter&rsquo;s asleep and she&rsquo;s eaten dinner. She works for a few hours each weekend as well.&nbsp;<\/p><p>Microshifting also allows you to take your preferred working style into account. For instance, Dwork, who finds context-switching distracting and prefers working in discrete chunks, blocks off longer shift intervals for distraction-free deep focus work. On the other hand, Sloss, who prefers a more active, varied work schedule, works in hour-long shifts and finds that the shorter intervals suit her best.&nbsp;<\/p><p>&ldquo;Sitting in an office, staring at a screen all day really took a toll on my productivity,&rdquo; notes Sloss. &ldquo;Moving throughout the day, accomplishing a task here, crossing something off my list there, being able to go outside for lunch has changed my whole perspective. I get so much more done.&rdquo;<\/p><h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-what-experts-say-about-the-mental-health-benefits-for-working-parents-nbsp\" data-toc-id=\"ed7c4b3a\">What experts say about the mental health benefits for working parents&nbsp;<\/h2><p>Many people find their way to microshifting out of necessity. But it &mdash; and more generally having control over your workday &mdash; has unique benefits for working parents. The upsides include:&nbsp;<\/p><h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-more-quality-family-time-nbsp\">More quality family time&nbsp;<\/h3><p>Working moms with more control over their schedules report feeling happier with the amount of time they spend with their kids, according to findings published in the <a href=\"https:\/\/pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/articles\/PMC3889156\/\">Journal of Marriage and Family<\/a>. The study didn&rsquo;t look at how flexible work hours actually changed how parents spent their time, but the researchers theorized that they might allow parents to &ldquo;linger over breakfast with their children or be home when the bus drops them off from school.&rdquo;&nbsp;<\/p><h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-less-risk-of-burnout\">Less risk of burnout<\/h3><p>Microshifting can also reduce cognitive overload and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.care.com\/c\/caregiver-burnout\/\">caregiver burnout<\/a> by helping you move away from an &ldquo;all or nothing&rdquo; mindset, Mitchell says. When your goal is to work a typical 9-to-6 schedule, stepping away from your desk to handle a child-related, household or personal task can feel like you&rsquo;re falling short of being a good employee or managing your time correctly. Microshifting allows you to reframe these moments as equal and necessary parts of your day.<\/p><p>However, there are potential downsides to microshifting, as well. Some people struggle to switch between tasks, and may find that the stop-start nature of microshifting hurts their productivity, Dardashti says.&nbsp;<\/p><p>Microshifting can also encourage you to blur the lines between work and personal time, which can eventually increase stress, adds Mitchell.&nbsp;<\/p><p>If you think the strategy sounds appealing, it&rsquo;s worth trying it out. But if you find that it&rsquo;s making you feel overwhelmed or burnt out, microshifting might not be a fit.<\/p><figure class=\"wp-block-pullquote\"><blockquote><p>When microshifting, it&rsquo;s important to clearly define what you plan to do for each block of time throughout your day. Otherwise, you&rsquo;ll become vulnerable to distraction and procrastination.<\/p><cite>&mdash; Niloo Dardashti, a workplace wellness psychologist in New York City<\/cite><\/blockquote><\/figure><h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-how-can-i-start-microshifting-as-a-working-parent\" data-toc-id=\"6e90cf31\">How can I start microshifting as a working parent?<\/h2><p>Unless you already have a flexible work arrangement, your first step should be talking to your supervisor about whether your job can accommodate microshifting. If they&rsquo;re on board, here&rsquo;s how to get started.&nbsp;<\/p><h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-1-audit-your-current-schedule-nbsp\">1. Audit your current schedule.&nbsp;<\/h3><p>Before changing anything, pay attention to your typical work routine for a few days. Notice when you tend to do your deep-focus work, when interruptions tend to occur, and where you have natural &ldquo;micro pockets&rdquo; of time you might be able to turn into microshifts so you can free up daytime hours for child-related, household or personal to-dos, Mitchell suggests.&nbsp;<\/p><p>This can help you spot your busiest work hours, when your focus naturally peaks and when your attention is being pulled by other to-dos &mdash; all useful information for your microshifting schedule.&nbsp;<\/p><h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-2-build-a-trial-schedule-nbsp\">2. Build a trial schedule.&nbsp;<\/h3><p>When microshifting, it&rsquo;s important to clearly define what you plan to do for each block of time throughout your day. Otherwise, you&rsquo;ll become vulnerable to distraction and procrastination, Dardashti says. But your schedule needs to be realistic to work. If you underestimate how long a task will take you, you&rsquo;ll wind up feeling frazzled and overwhelmed, she adds. So create a trial schedule, blocking off times where you&rsquo;ll be present and focused on work and times when you plan to intentionally step away so you can complete other necessary tasks.<\/p><h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-3-create-a-task-menu-nbsp\">3. Create a &ldquo;task menu.&rdquo;&nbsp;<\/h3><p>Keep a list of your to-dos on hand, but categorize them by time rather than priority, Mitchell suggests. This makes it easier to maximize your time. If you find yourself with a free block of time or if you&rsquo;re struggling to focus on your planned task, you can seamlessly shift gears and use the time to check off a task from your list.&nbsp;<\/p><h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-4-don-t-go-all-in-nbsp\">4. Don&rsquo;t go all in.&nbsp;<\/h3><p>&ldquo;If you microshift too much, your day can feel like a chaotic series of sprints, leaving you feeling exhausted and scattered,&rdquo; Mitchell says. She suggests reserving one or two larger blocks of time a week for deep work that need sustained, focused attention.&nbsp;<\/p><h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-a-final-word-on-microshifting\" data-toc-id=\"fb94fc43\">A final word on microshifting<\/h2><p>Microshifting it isn&rsquo;t necessarily a magic fix for all the struggles that come with being a working parent. But if you find that your workday is often interrupted by personal or child-related obligations, the solution may be to lean in. Creating time blocks of focused work time with scheduled &ldquo;breaks&rdquo; devoted to child care, household tasks or personal errands can help you get more done with less stress and guilt. And while it may not be suited to everyone&rsquo;s working style, it&rsquo;s certainly worth a try.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Most working parents are already microshifting; they just don\u2019t know it has a name. Here\u2019s what to know about the time-management technique.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1508,"featured_media":228248,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"enable_toc":true,"care_reviewed_by":0,"care_post_updated_flag":true,"care_updated_date":"2026-05-28 00:00:00","last_update":"2026-05-28","view_count":63,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1077,1157,1127],"member-type":[3],"vertical":[6,17,15,11],"platform":[],"class_list":["post-228242","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-new-parents","tag-parent-mental-health","tag-work-life-balance","member-type-seeker","vertical-children","vertical-child-care-advice","vertical-money-work","vertical-news-trends"],"acf":[],"created":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.care.com\/c\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228242","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.care.com\/c\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.care.com\/c\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.care.com\/c\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1508"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.care.com\/c\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=228242"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.care.com\/c\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228242\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":228257,"href":"https:\/\/www.care.com\/c\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228242\/revisions\/228257"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.care.com\/c\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/228248"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.care.com\/c\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=228242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.care.com\/c\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=228242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.care.com\/c\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=228242"},{"taxonomy":"member-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.care.com\/c\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/member-type?post=228242"},{"taxonomy":"vertical","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.care.com\/c\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vertical?post=228242"},{"taxonomy":"platform","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.care.com\/c\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/platform?post=228242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}