There’s a moment every work-from-home dad knows. You’re sitting at your laptop, mid-task, and you hear little feet running down the hallway. That’s the tension Lucas Williams lives in every day.

Lucas is the founder of DeadLast and a dad to two boys, ages four and one and a half, living in Greenville, South Carolina.

He’s building something he genuinely loves. Which is exactly what makes it hard.

The Blur

For Lucas, the hardest part of parenting isn’t the schedule. It’s the overlap. When your office is at home, there’s no clean break. You can step into a meeting one minute and be playing on the floor the next. Sounds ideal, but it comes with a cost. It’s easy to drift.

Thinking about work while you’re with your kids. Sneaking in a quick hang during the workday that turns into a distraction. Letting one part of life bleed into the other. So he’s learned to anchor himself in something simple.

Focus on what’s in front of you.

Be Where Your Feet Are

Lucas doesn’t pretend to have perfect balance. Instead, he’s built structure. Wake up between 4 and 6am. Run with friends. If he misses it, it probably doesn’t happen that day. Pick up coffee for his wife. Make breakfast. Start the day as a family.

Then it’s work mode. Meetings. Product design. Content. Building DeadLast. If there’s time, a quick lift in the garage gym. By the afternoon, it shifts again. School pickup. Hanging with the boys. Dinner at 5. Cleanup. Bath. Books. Prayer. Then a couple hours with his wife before bed.

If he’s asleep by 10, it’s a win. The rhythm isn’t perfect, but it’s intentional.

The Shift You Don’t Expect

Before becoming a dad, Lucas didn’t expect how much it would change him. Not just his schedule. Him.

He says he’s not naturally a selfless person. But something shifts when you have kids. You start finding joy in their joy. Serving them becomes the reward. Watching them learn, grow, and develop their own personalities has been the most meaningful part.

You start to see pieces of yourself and your spouse in them. And you realize your role is to learn how to connect with each of them individually.

When things start to pile up, Lucas keeps it simple. Family first. Once that’s steady, everything else tends to fall into place. He leans on communication, making sure the people around him know where he’s at, and discipline, keeping a schedule so nothing bleeds into the wrong part of his day.

When he needs a reset, he goes back to the basics. Time with God. Prayer. Being intentional with his family. And moving his body. Running, lifting, getting outside. It clears his head and brings him back to what matters.

A non-negotiable for him is staying active with his boys. They’re wired to run, explore, and burn energy, so most days you’ll find them doing exactly that.

When he does get time alone, it doesn’t look all that different. Running, lifting, creating, designing. Most of his hobbies overlap with his work, which used to feel like a blur but now feels like a gift. Because when he stays present in each moment, that overlap stops being a distraction and starts becoming the life he actually wants to live.

Check out what Lucas is building over at DeadLast.