Jill Biden Has Mastered 1 Simple Art so She Can Maintain Her Busy Schedule as First Lady and Full-Time Teacher
Jill Biden is the wife of President Joe Biden. However, in addition to being the first lady, Jill Biden is also a full-time teacher at a community college, a celebrity mom, and a grandmother. As someone who leads a busy life, Biden recently shared her secret for managing her schedule.
Some people did not believe Jill Biden could do 2 jobs
In 2009, after her husband became vice president, Jill Biden began working as an English professor at Northern Virginia Community College (NOVA) at its Alexandria campus. Years later, many people thought she would leave this position when she became the first lady. However, she chose to keep her day job — something no first lady had done before.
“I think people were a little skeptical,” Biden told Real Simple. “Could I truly do it, since I was the first one to try it? But I knew I wanted to teach. And so I said, ‘This is what I want to do. We have to figure it out.’ I knew I could do both. I’d done it as second lady, and at that time, my staff said, ‘There’s no way you can do this,’ and then they saw that I could. I saw it work then, and I knew we could figure out how to do it now.”
How does Jill Biden manage her busy schedule?
Speaking with Real Simple, Jill Biden shared her secrets for managing her busy schedule.
For example, she tries to get enough sleep every night and even takes naps when needed.
“There are a thousand things going through your mind when you have a lot in your life. But most nights I get my seven and a half hours. I’ve also mastered the art of the catnap. If I’m teaching and we have an event that night, I can sleep for 20 minutes and wake up fresh,” Biden revealed.
Even before becoming the first lady, Biden was already juggling a lot on her plate. In the ’70s and ’80s, she was a mother, wife, and student. She explained that, at the time, she and her husband took turns taking care of their kids.
“I made a lot of cookies, cakes, and pies. The boys and their friends would come over after school and dig in. I think of that time as a gift,” she said. “Then Joe would come home at about 7:40, and I’d have eaten dinner with the kids. I’d give Joe his dinner, and the kids would have dessert with him. And he always wanted to put them to bed and talk to them about their day — that was his special time with them, which gave me a bit of a break so I could grade papers or read. Getting a master’s in English and then my doctorate, I was always reading.”
Biden added, “You have to find a way to manage it all, and each family works it out differently.”
She enlists help when needed
Jill Biden also does not do everything by herself. Occasionally, one of her jobs is to host large dinner parties. In this situation, she makes it easier for guests to help her manage the events by using Post-It notes.
“It started because the Bidens are a big family, and we have a lot of gatherings,” she said. “And they would all say, ‘What can I do to help?’ And by the time you’ve explained, ‘You get the salad bowl out, it’s in this cupboard, here are the utensils, etc.’ I thought, ‘There’s got to be an easier way.’”
Biden continued, “I know my meal and what I’m going to serve, so I do Post-it notes, like ‘Fill the glasses with ice,’ ‘Light the candles,’ and I put them on the cabinet above my kitchen counter. Then I put out the salad bowl with the tomatoes or the lemons or whatever needs to be cut, and everything is set up so when somebody comes in, they do what they want to do.”
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