Speaker 1: Good morning. This is Laura. Welcome to the New Corner Office,
Speaker 1: the podcast where we share strategies for thriving in the
Speaker 1: new world of work, where location and hours are more
Speaker 1: flexible than in the past. Today's tip is to occasionally
Speaker 1: run an errand during the workday. You don't want to
Speaker 1: make a habit of it, but sometimes getting out and
Speaker 1: about in the middle of the day can make a
Speaker 1: work from home day feel more doable. I know that
Speaker 1: millions of people have started working from home for the
Speaker 1: first time over the past few months, which makes all
Speaker 1: sorts of schedule changes possible. If your normal experience of
Speaker 1: going to grocery stores or places like Target is right
Speaker 1: after work or on weekend afternoons, your first trip on
Speaker 1: Tuesday at ten am is going to blow your mind.
Speaker 1: There are often more employees than customers in the aisles,
Speaker 1: everything is well stocked. No one pushes you on the
Speaker 1: way to the milk case, which actually happened to me
Speaker 1: once when I hit the grocery store at four pm
Speaker 1: on a Saturday. No one likes being shoved at the
Speaker 1: milk case. So if you start working from home more regularly,
Speaker 1: it can be tempting to do all your errands on
Speaker 1: Tuesday at ten am, and yep, most of us who've
Speaker 1: worked from home for a while go through that phase.
Speaker 1: But to the problem is, if you're working from home,
Speaker 1: you are working. Taking hours out of the day regularly
Speaker 1: for errands is not the best way to maximize productivity.
Speaker 1: You're best off getting things delivered and maybe splitting errands
Speaker 1: with other family members so no one takes the whole
Speaker 1: productivity hit. But sometimes when you're in a bit of
Speaker 1: a rut or trying to mull over a problem, it
Speaker 1: can be good to hit the grocery store for a
Speaker 1: midday errand just because you'll get out of the house,
Speaker 1: you'll get some physical activity, you'll get something done that
Speaker 1: probably does need to happen at some point. And there's
Speaker 1: a funny psychological aspect at play too. When we optimize
Speaker 1: every single minute, it can trick our brains into feeling
Speaker 1: like time is scarce. But consciously wasting a little bit
Speaker 1: of time, taking time to go run an errand in
Speaker 1: the middle of the day can make you feel like
Speaker 1: the kind of person for whom time is abundant. And
Speaker 1: when we feel like time is abundant, we tend to
Speaker 1: feel more relaxed and see more possibilities. So this week,
Speaker 1: if you've got a relatively like day, consider skipping out
Speaker 1: to run an errand you need to do again. Don't
Speaker 1: make a habit of it, and don't let other people
Speaker 1: expect it of you. Oh you're working from home, Hey,
Speaker 1: can you run to the dry cleaners for me? Just no,
Speaker 1: But if you choose it, you won't lose too much
Speaker 1: time and you might start to feel you've got a
Speaker 1: little bit more time to play with In the meantime,
Speaker 1: This is Laura, Thanks for listening, and here's to succeeding
Speaker 1: in the New Corner Office. The New Corner Office is
Speaker 1: a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your favorite shows.