Eva Longoria has a new interview with Yahoo! Life talking about her life at home with son Santi, four, and her husband of seven years, Jose Baston. They all make breakfast together in the mornings, Santi helps, and Eva has charts for him so he knows what’s expected and what parts of his day he can control. After that Eva goes about her very efficient day. She’s a bit self congratulatory about how much she gets accomplished while carving out time to spend with her family. At first I found that haughty, but it sounds like it’s her life’s philosophy so I get that. Eva is all about productivity and making sure you’re not wasting time. She’s helping address childhood hunger through her partnership with Kellogg’s and she has a bunch of projects she’s working on, including her podcast, the Flamin’ Hot movie and a CNN series. Here’s more from that interview:
“My husband calls me a sergeant sometimes,” she says. “We have little pictures and little charts for [Santiago] and he gets a sticker when he completes things and if you go out of order, he’ll correct you. He’s like ‘no it’s brushing teeth and then books’ and you’re like ‘yup, yup, you’re right.’”
She considers herself a strict mom, but allows her son to feel in control with freedom to make some choices and express himself. Brushing teeth is a must, but what toothbrush he uses is up to him. Eating vegetables is a non-negotiable, but he gets to decide if it’s broccoli, cauliflower or spinach.
“Allowing him to pick his clothes in the morning, go for it. I don’t care if it matches. I don’t care if socks stick out. I don’t care if you want to wear two different shoes,” Longoria says. “I think that’s important. They have autonomy and they feel like they’re in control of their lives and they are making decisions for themselves and it makes them feel empowered.”
The routines and a supportive team help Longoria balance all the plates she’s juggling…
“I am really good at prioritizing and I’m very efficient,” Longoria says while conducting a Zoom interview and doing a required daily COVID test for work purposes. “I’m not on Instagram hours a day. Who has time to be on Instagram hours a day? If I’m in traffic I do all my calls in the car because when I get home I want to be with Santi. I don’t want to be on the phone. I don’t want to be on the computer. People are always amazed at how much I can get done in a day. Time is my greatest wealth. I’m either spending my time, wasting my time or investing my time, so I try to invest my time.”
I really like that last quote above, that time is wealth and you have to use it wisely like money. I get a lot done in a day but I definitely struggle with this. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve uninstalled and reinstalled an addictive match 3 game on my phone. I know it’s a waste of time but it’s hard to put down. Eva is proud of managing her time precisely and of not wasting time on Instagram scrolling mindlessly. I suspect a lot of very successful people are like this but don’t reveal the effort they put in to managing their lives. Also, I’ve listened to Eva’s podcast and it’s so well edited and produced. Whatever she’s doing, it’s working.
Photos credit: Jeffrey Mayer/Avalon and via Instagram
I’m so sick of people saying shit like this. That everyone has the same 24, that if you are efficient …
It’s bullshit. Everyone could be more efficient but that squeezes out joy and spontaneity too. Plus she’s delegated the areas of her life that are incredibly time consuming to others. Meal planning, grocery shopping, house cleaning. Etc. I don’t begrudge her that. But to act like she doesn’t have a structure in place that allows this freedom is disingenuous. Same with every single successful white dude ever.
My life isn’t like that. I do spend too much time on my phone – working on that – but I use my time on things that bring me joy too. Sometimes it’s just joy in the moment. Sometimes it’s joy now with dividends later.
But I also spend a huge amount of my time cleaning and doing household managing plus the mental load. Which she seems fortunate enough to have delegated.
The article includes “The routines and a supportive team help Longoria balance all the plates she’s juggling…” so she acknowledges she has a team supporting her.
However, your point about people who throw the “we all have 24 hours a day” nonsense out there is spot on. See also: pretending Gates, Dell, Bezos, Musk, etc starting at zero and becoming billionaires foolishness when all of them received millions of family money to start their businesses.
I had charts when my boys were young too. ¯\(◉‿◉)/¯
I have lost all desire to be efficient or productive or active or creative. Nearly everything that people do seems sort of… insane?
I strongly feel you on this.
I really like her show Searching for Mexico. She’s a real foodie and into Mexican cuisine in a big way. It’s not all tacos and burritos, and she gets deeply into her Mexican roots in her appreciation of regional food. I lived in Mexico for several years back in the seventies and my mother, although Canadian, was born there and didn’t move back to Canada until she was 15 or 16 so she had a great love of the food and culture that she instilled in me. Eva strikes me as a bit of an A-type like Reese Witherspoon but if it’s what makes her happy so be it. She appears to have a thriving career, a solid loving marriage and a great little boy.
Growing up on the border, I have a very unbreakable bond with culture myself. Our outings always took us deep into Mexico. I miss it so much. The people are gracious, accepting and just wonderful to be around.
A friend worked as a stand in for an actor on a set for one of Eva’s tv shows. She said Eva had her son (when he was younger) on set, engaged with everyone on the set including extras and stand ins and it was one of the first set where everyone seemed to get along. It can be a tough balance for women in this industry. Good for her for what works for her.
@Ms single malt, how lovely and thank you for sharing that. 😁 Too many folk are dismissive of people who have more then them, but manners, inclusivity and basic kindness don’t cost money and are the most attractive of personality traits.
I think this is one of those interviews that doesn’t come across well in print but is probably fine if you heard it – like she prioritizes down time with her kid and to do that she’ll do calls in the car. I’m like that – hyper efficient and protective of downtime (i.e. logging off).
I started to like her a lot when I watched the Roundtable with Kerry Washington, Elizabeth Banks and Reese Witherspoon – they cover producing. She comes across as very sharp and finally getting a chance to control her projects.