My iPhone alarm - a sonar ping - sounds every morning at 5:45 a.m. sharp.
Immediately, I throw off the bed covers and climb the stairs to wake up my 13-year-old son, an early riser who likes to finish his homework before dawn.
Then I climb back in bed for two 9-minute snooze sessions. At 6:03, I shuffle to the kitchen, pack lunches for my two sons and brew myself a cup of coffee. Each boy gets a turkey-and-cheese Lunchable, Lay's potato chips, a pack of mini-muffins and a sports drink. If I deviate one iota from this checklist, I will hear about it later.
At 6:50 a.m. I wake-up my 8-year-old son, toast his frozen waffles and give him 20 minutes to get dressed. At 7:05 a.m. I climb into the shower. At 7:35 I walk the dog. And at 7:50 I drop off my younger son at elementary school. By 8:30 I'm at my desk at work.
No, I'm not Rain Man, but hitting these marks - plus or minus a minute or two - is crucial to keeping our family on course. My wife, who also works outside the home, has her own minute-by-minute schedule to keep.
As regimented as this weekday schedule can be for our household, there is comfort in following a routine. My whole family is on vacation this week - it's spring break for Hamilton County Schools. Unmoored from our regular schedule, I'm braced for a rocky stretch of days.
Without the tyranny of the daily grind, each member of my family will try to bend the family schedule to his or her own desires. My wife will want to sleep in. My 8-year-old will want to stay up late. My older son will want to turn the week into a nap-a-rama. And I will become frustrated that everybody is not like me, content to read for 16 hours a day, then sleep the other eight.
This tug of war - precision vs. relaxation - is a primary point of conflict in modern life.
Most of the successful people I've known have been good at making - and keeping - a schedule. The best senior manager I've ever had shot off emails at 4 a.m. Successful people learn that making to-do lists and burning the candle at both ends creates efficiencies that help them get to the top.
The first time I was ever given management responsibilities, I bought a Day Planner, one of those leather-bound loose-leaf calendars with a page for every day of the year. I soon developed a reputation as a manager who could, at least, make the trains run on time - which turns out to be about 80 percent of most supervisory jobs. I would send gentle reminders to reporters on Tuesday that an important deadline was looming on Thursday. I even called these notes "gentle reminders," and I never got a negative response - at least to my face.
I've found that the same approach works with children - only better. If you tell them it's time to take a bath - right this minute! - you'll get push-back. If, on the other hand, you tell them that bath time is in 20 minutes, they'll usually say "OK" and hit the mark.
It's the difference between being shaken awake from a dead sleep vs. the feeling of tapping the snooze button.
Sometimes I think the secret of being a good parent is the simple realization that what makes adults happy usually makes kids happy, too.
So, all together now, everyone: Sleep, snooze, work, repeat.
Contact Mark Kennedy at mkennedy@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6645. Follow him on Twitter @TFPCOLUMNIST. Subscribe to his Facebook updates at www.facebook.com/mkennedycolumnist.