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Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning,

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Speaker 1: This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's

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Speaker 1: tip is to enjoy and make the most of any

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Speaker 1: time you get back when a meeting is canceled or

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Speaker 1: ends early. As we often discuss on this podcast, knowledge

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Speaker 1: workers spend a lot of time in meetings, but sometimes

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Speaker 1: a meeting doesn't happen. People are gone, or the task

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Speaker 1: is no longer a priority, or sometimes it ends early.

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Speaker 1: I wish everyone was so clear on the agenda that

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Speaker 1: every minute of every meeting was well planned for, but

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Speaker 1: sometimes that doesn't happen, or sometimes it becomes clear that

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Speaker 1: the answer is a quick yes or a quick no,

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Speaker 1: and there is no need to use the time that

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Speaker 1: was there for the arguing. In any case, when this happens,

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Speaker 1: you get some minutes back. Free time has fallen from

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Speaker 1: the sky. I like to call these meeting rebates. You've

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Speaker 1: budgeted the time, but now you don't have to use

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Speaker 1: all of that time. Sweet, So what to do with

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Speaker 1: those meeting rebates? I know that the most common thing

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Speaker 1: people do is dive into their inboxes. But if you

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Speaker 1: do get free minutes as a meeting rebate, you might

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Speaker 1: consider being a little more intentional with the time. For instance,

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Speaker 1: if a meeting ends early but you really enjoy one

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Speaker 1: or more of the people participating in it, consider converting

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Speaker 1: the remaining time into something or social. Go grab coffee,

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Speaker 1: or just keep chatting about life and how everything is going.

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Speaker 1: Having close friends at work is strongly associated with feeling

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Speaker 1: more engaged and happy, so this is not a waste

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Speaker 1: of time. If a meeting ends early or cancels, you

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Speaker 1: can also fit in a little movement. Take a quick

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Speaker 1: walk around your office or in the neighborhood, walk up

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Speaker 1: and down the stairs, briskly stretch, or do a few

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Speaker 1: yoga poses, or just step outside and take a few

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Speaker 1: breaths of fresh air. Five or ten minutes in activities

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Speaker 1: like these can be refreshing and invigorating, and if an

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Speaker 1: entire meeting has been canceled, you might wind up getting

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Speaker 1: a serious amount of aerobic activity in during the workday.

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Speaker 1: Imagine that another option for time not needed for meetings

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Speaker 1: is to do some of your favorite work or speculative work.

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Speaker 1: What do you keep telling yourself you'd like to do

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Speaker 1: if only you had the time, Well, now you have

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Speaker 1: the time. This may be especially appealing if you have

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Speaker 1: fifteen minutes or more that become available unexpectedly. Maybe this

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Speaker 1: is when you develop a new auto response email for

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Speaker 1: people who sign up for your organization's newsletter, or maybe

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Speaker 1: you make notes about an employee resource group for working

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Speaker 1: parents that you want to pitch to your HR department.

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Speaker 1: One caveat. While I love meeting rebates, sometimes this is

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Speaker 1: not a true rebate. If the meeting is going to

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Speaker 1: be rescheduled, then you might be best off making progress

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Speaker 1: on tasks you know you'll need to do in the future,

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Speaker 1: because some of your future time is going to be

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Speaker 1: reallocated to the postponed meeting, so you need to budget

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Speaker 1: for that. But even though we spend a lot of

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Speaker 1: time at work, we don't spend an infinite amount of

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Speaker 1: time there. If time can be repurposed for something more

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Speaker 1: enjoyable or meaningful, work in general will feel better. Maybe

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Speaker 1: not quite as good as a day with no meetings,

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Speaker 1: but better nonetheless. In the mean time, time this is Laura.

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Speaker 1: Thanks for listening, and here's to making the most of

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Speaker 1: our time. Thanks for listening to before breakfast. If you've

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Speaker 1: got questions, ideas, or feedback, you can reach me at

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Speaker 1: Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast is a

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Speaker 1: production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts from iHeartMedia, please visit

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Speaker 1: the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to

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Speaker 1: your favorite shows.