The little rhythms that make home life work

And a wee primer on Scientific Management.

One of my biggest college crushes was Frederick Winslow Taylor, the early 20th century originator of scientific management (also called Taylorism). His theory focuses on improving workflow efficiency and, ultimately, labor efficiency. This obviously can be taken (and is often taken) to an inhumane extreme, but the core concept of reducing wasteful efforts and increasing efficiency in factories captivated 20 year-old me.

He is sometimes called the first management consultant, which was also my first job title out of college. I’m clearly A Type (or is it Type A?).

It’s no real surprise that my approach to household management stems from the same sort of engineering concepts Taylor studied.

I’m thinking about this in particular after returning home from a 2.5 day solo trip away. My husband ably held down the fort, but I returned to a house where processes hadn’t been run for a couple days.

The processes I’m talking about aren’t just cooking and laundry — that’s obvious stuff. It’s the sub…