ThirdPath Institute

ThirdPath Institute "We really shouldn't have to choose between career aspirations and family aspirations. There's no one way to do this!

We need to continue to push for more flexible organizations, supportive public policy, and progressive conversations at home."—Jessica DeGroot This page is for anyone looking for a "third path" to create time for work and for life: for rewarding careers, for family, and/or for other personal pursuits. Too often we imagine an "either-or" scenario: Either we work and outsource more care than we'd like—for children or other loved ones, or we sharply divide the labor of childcare and outside employment between two partners. ThirdPath is interested in re-inventing the standard ways we structure time: for work, for family, for life. This space isn't for deciding a parenting/professional ideal. It's meant for generating ideas, rethinking assumptions, sharing information about how to spend our time that's most in line with our values. If you have discovered a solution that works for you then please let us know. We would love to hear your story and maybe share your wisdom with the wider ThirdPath community.

Q4 has started. Before asking how your team can accomplish more, it may be worth asking a different question:Is there ac...
10/05/2026

Q4 has started. Before asking how your team can accomplish more, it may be worth asking a different question:

Is there actually room for more?

Capacity isn’t an attitude problem. It’s the finite combination of time, attention, staffing, energy, and resources available to do the work.

When something urgent gets added, something else may need to move. That’s why one of the most useful questions a leader can normalize is:

“If this becomes a priority, what should become less of one?”

These are exactly the kinds of conversations we’re continuing inside The HUB, with people rethinking how work, leadership, caregiving, and life can fit together more sustainably.

Join The HUB and keep the conversation going with us - scan QR code!

10/01/2026

What if the problem is not that we need to manage our time better? Maybe the bigger question is whether the systems surrounding work, care, relationships, and the rest of our lives actually work for the humans living inside them. This month, a new season of Taking Your Third Path begins. We’re returning to the complicated questions that rarely have tidy answers, and exploring what another way can look like.

Follow ThirdPath and subscribe to Taking Your Third Path. We’re just getting

started.

Before setting final-quarter goals, make the full workload visible.A realistic plan does not assume everyone has unlimit...
09/29/2026

Before setting final-quarter goals, make the full workload visible.

A realistic plan does not assume everyone has unlimited energy, identical responsibilities, or equal control over their time.

Leaders can ask: “What capacity do we actually have, and what tradeoffs are required?”

Households can ask: “What does this season require, and how will we share it?”

Save & share this checklist and use it before October begins.

Team culture is shaped by the expectations people experience every day, not only by the values written in a handbook.Cho...
09/28/2026

Team culture is shaped by the expectations people experience every day, not only by the values written in a handbook.

Choose one norm to discuss with your team before Q4.

Save this and share it with someone responsible for how work gets done.

Wellbeing is not a polished routine that never gets interrupted. It is the ability to return to yourself, your values, a...
09/27/2026

Wellbeing is not a polished routine that never gets interrupted. It is the ability to return to yourself, your values, and your people with enough support to keep going. Some weeks that looks spacious. Some weeks it looks like asking for help, canceling something, or doing less on purpose. Either way, it counts.

09/26/2026

In many teams, the planning burden hides in plain sight. It shows up in meeting prep, onboarding, emotional temperature-checking, reminder systems, and follow-up that quietly lands on the same people again and again. Leaders, this is design work. Where can you distribute relational and coordination labor so it is not concentrated in one set of shoulders?

Rewarding work and time to care for loved ones should not be in conflict, yet so many people are forced to act as though...
09/25/2026

Rewarding work and time to care for loved ones should not be in conflict, yet so many people are forced to act as though one must always win. Today’s blog spotlight invites a different lens. A healthy life is not built by choosing between contribution and care. It is built by designing systems that honor both.

What would need to change in your workplace for care to be treated as a normal part of life?

You can read the full blog here: https://thirdpath.org/2026/08/rewarding-work-and-time-to-care-for-loved-ones/

Every recurring meeting should continue earning its place on the calendar.Use today’s audit to decide whether one meetin...
09/24/2026

Every recurring meeting should continue earning its place on the calendar.

Use today’s audit to decide whether one meeting should continue, change, become asynchronous, occur less often, or end.

A calendar can hold more appointments than a human life can sustainably support.ThirdPath’s 4,000 Weeks reflection offer...
09/22/2026

A calendar can hold more appointments than a human life can sustainably support.

ThirdPath’s 4,000 Weeks reflection offers a useful lens for meeting overload, constant communication, response-time expectations, and the temptation to treat every request as equally urgent.

Accepting that time is limited is not giving up. It lets us decide what deserves attention.

Before the final quarter, review your calendar:

• Which recurring meetings still create value?
• Which conversations can happen asynchronously?
• Where is focused work protected?
• Which evenings or weekends are being treated as overflow capacity?
• What commitment should end?

Read the blog: 4,000 Weeks. Save this audit for your September reset.

https://thirdpath.org/2026/02/4000-weeks/

International Equal Pay Day may have been September 18, but the work of pay equity doesn’t end with a date on the calend...
09/21/2026

International Equal Pay Day may have been September 18, but the work of pay equity doesn’t end with a date on the calendar.

Pay equity cannot be separated from the systems surrounding paid work.

Who reduces hours when care falls through? Who declines travel, misses networking opportunities, or turns down advancement because the household depends on them? Who receives flexibility without consequence—and who quietly pays for it through slower career growth?

Organizations need to look beyond salary alone. Compensation, promotion, scheduling, leave, flexibility, workload, and access to career-building opportunities are deeply connected.

And at home, equity means examining how care and household responsibilities shape each person’s time, choices, and opportunities.

The question worth carrying forward: Where are unpaid responsibilities still limiting paid opportunity?

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