Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning,
Speaker 1: This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
Speaker 1: tip is to make your calendar your to do list.
Speaker 1: Many people make to do lists that have little to
Speaker 1: do with reality. Tying your intended tasks to specific times
Speaker 1: on the calendar forces you to figure out what is
Speaker 1: reasonable and what isn't. Today's tip comes from Jamie Sear's
Speaker 1: new book, How to Love Teaching Again. This productivity book
Speaker 1: is specifically aimed at teachers who want to spend more
Speaker 1: time helping kids and less time getting caught up in
Speaker 1: administrative work, but there are tips that people in lots
Speaker 1: of different professions can use. Jamie point it's out that
Speaker 1: for many people, to do lists are not terribly effective.
Speaker 1: People put down everything that they might like to do
Speaker 1: in life, and much of it appears very vague. I
Speaker 1: mean they'll put things like math grading for teachers, or
Speaker 1: maybe think about new clients or staffing problems with a
Speaker 1: question mark what does that even mean? Here is the
Speaker 1: real psychology of to do lists, Jamie writes. The list
Speaker 1: becomes so overwhelming that your brain decides there is no
Speaker 1: way that it can complete everything that's when you end
Speaker 1: up using your plan time to gossip with your teacher bestie,
Speaker 1: or you use your grading time to scroll through social media.
Speaker 1: In other words, your to do list isn't a plan
Speaker 1: for action. Instead, it's an excuse to procrastinate or set
Speaker 1: yourself up to fail. Now, contrast a poorly constructed to
Speaker 1: do list with a calendar. As Jamie notes, a calendar
Speaker 1: is a list of things to do at a specific
Speaker 1: hour or within a defined window of time on a
Speaker 1: teacher's calendar. If it is time for teaching reading, the
Speaker 1: teacher will teach reading. If it is time for a
Speaker 1: meeting with a parent, the teacher will meet with a parent.
Speaker 1: As a general rule, people do these things that are
Speaker 1: on their calendars, whereas there is pretty good evidence that
Speaker 1: people do not do a great many things that they
Speaker 1: put on their to do lists. So why not use
Speaker 1: your calendar as you're to do list? Long time listeners
Speaker 1: know that I advocate carving out time on Friday for
Speaker 1: planning the upcoming week. On Friday, you make your priority
Speaker 1: list for the upcoming week. But then, rather than just
Speaker 1: saying you want to research a potential client, you put
Speaker 1: it on your calendar for eleven to twelve on Tuesday,
Speaker 1: rather than saying you want to reach out to Bob,
Speaker 1: you note that you will do that along with a
Speaker 1: few other exploratory emails on Friday at one p m.
Speaker 1: This habit does a few good things. One it acknowledges
Speaker 1: this truth. Basically, every task takes some amount of time,
Speaker 1: So if you are not willing to give the task
Speaker 1: a specific time, that is a pretty good indication that
Speaker 1: you aren't serious about doing it. So you might migrate
Speaker 1: that to do that you don't intend to actually do
Speaker 1: over to what David Allen calls a some day maybe list.
Speaker 1: It is not an active intention anymore. This also forces
Speaker 1: you to think about how long things will take. If
Speaker 1: you have never managed to write a certain report in
Speaker 1: less than two hours, then you will need to give
Speaker 1: that task two hours now. Of course, at some point
Speaker 1: it might become challenging to find spots for tasks amid
Speaker 1: the other things that are on your calendar, like meetings,
Speaker 1: which turn out to be tasks in and of themselves.
Speaker 1: If these aren't tasks that you value, will maybe take
Speaker 1: a good look and see if they need to be there.
Speaker 1: Maybe they do, maybe they don't. But using your calendar
Speaker 1: as you are to do list forces you to see
Speaker 1: that you cannot do eight one hour tasks plus at
Speaker 1: ten three one hour meetings. If you arrive at work
Speaker 1: at nine and need to leave at five pm for
Speaker 1: a daycare pickup, that is not a matter of how
Speaker 1: motivated you are or how good you are at your job.
Speaker 1: It is just a matter of physics. Now to be sure,
Speaker 1: Jamie adds the caveat that you are going to need
Speaker 1: to be somewhat flexible here life happens. A teacher might
Speaker 1: plan to do something before school, but a parent asks
Speaker 1: to meet about a child who is floundering, and the
Speaker 1: teacher wants to take the opportunity to brainstorm together. Or
Speaker 1: maybe the fire alarm goes off during a planning period.
Speaker 1: People in any job can experience the unexpected, So Jamie
Speaker 1: recommends building in a few open slots on the calendar
Speaker 1: thirty minutes here and there to absorb tasks that need
Speaker 1: to move or unexpected ones that come up. She, like me,
Speaker 1: tries to leave Friday's available slots as open as possible.
Speaker 1: I think this idea can work for a great many
Speaker 1: people who have fairly set schedules, like teachers, or many
Speaker 1: people in corporate roles with a lot of meetings. It
Speaker 1: can also be helpful for people in any sort of
Speaker 1: role who have trouble making short to do lists. Now,
Speaker 1: if you are a self employed podcaster who has more
Speaker 1: control over her calendar and who has been tracking her
Speaker 1: time for eight straight years, maybe you can do things
Speaker 1: a little differently. But even if I don't calendar my tasks,
Speaker 1: when I make to do lists for a day, I
Speaker 1: never put anything on there that I do not truly
Speaker 1: intend to do in the hours I have. That is
Speaker 1: the point of using your calendar as a to do list,
Speaker 1: and so we are really all getting at the same thing.
Speaker 1: If you try using your calendar as a to do list,
Speaker 1: let me know how it goes. And if you are
Speaker 1: a teacher or just like productivity strategies in general, please
Speaker 1: check out Jamie Sears's book How To Love Teaching Again,
Speaker 1: which is newly out this month. In the meantime, this
Speaker 1: is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's to making the
Speaker 1: moose of our times. Hey, everybody, I'd love to hear
Speaker 1: from you. You can send me your tips, your questions,
Speaker 1: or anything else. Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook
Speaker 1: and Instagram at Before Breakfast pod that's b the number four,
Speaker 1: then Breakfast p O D. You can also shoot me
Speaker 1: an email at Before Breakfast Podcasts at iHeartMedia dot com
Speaker 1: that before Breakfast is spelled out with all the letters.
Speaker 1: Thanks so much, should I look forward to staying in touch.
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