The Seasons of Parenting: Why We Think in Quintiles
Unsubscribed Newsletter.
Season: Back to School 2025.
Article by Megan Hughes, PhD
Megan here. I’ve been on a 2025 productivity deep dive. I’ve always been interested in learning about various productivity systems and did a full David Allen GTD setup early in my career (productivity nerds will know what I’m talking about). I’ve gone between paper calendars and digital over the years. I am devoted to finding a setup that can help me stay on top of the many items on my to-do list without encouraging me to spend more time on my planning than actually getting things done. This has only gotten vastly more complicated since becoming a parent.
One of the podcasts I discovered this year (and love!) is Sarah Hart-Unger’s Best Laid Plans. Sarah is a physician, parent of three, and productivity tool expert. She uses the term Quintiles to describe the various seasons of parenting school-aged children throughout the year. She sees the working parent’s year as split into five unique time blocks (instead of Mother Nature’s four seasons or the business world’s four quarters).
Sarah Hart-Unger’s Quintiles are:
● New Year to Spring Break: Fresh Start
● Spring Break to the End of School Year: academic wrap-up, recitals, parties, and more!
● Summer Break: Seems like a break but is somehow more busy
● Back to School: New Routines
● Reflection and Celebration Season (November/December)
When I heard her talk about quintiles on the podcast, I was so excited. This perfectly covers the rhythms of a family’s life. As Amanda and I talked about creating our newsletter for working parents, we had the idea of using these quintiles as a framework for our newsletter. We will publish an edition of Oversubscribed on a quintile schedule and cover topics relevant to each of these phases of a working parent’s year.
So, this first edition of Oversubscribed will be focused on the rhythms and new identities that kids and working parents experience during the back-to-school season. We are so grateful to Sarah Hart-Unger for perfectly capturing the rhythms of the parenting year.
To hear more about Sarah’s work you can check out her website with paper planner recommendations, seasonal planning courses, podcast and upcoming book.