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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 map out your focused time. Even if

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Speaker 1: you are not going to get as much deep work

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Speaker 1: time as you would like, Knowing the contours of this

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Speaker 1: time can make it feel real and like something worth protecting.

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Speaker 1: So I was recently working on a project that I

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Speaker 1: knew would require long stretches of uninterrupted time. I wanted

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Speaker 1: to be able to really think and try things out

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Speaker 1: and come back to the project. I looked at the

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Speaker 1: week I was planning to do this and saw that

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Speaker 1: with some strategizing, I could push all my calls and

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Speaker 1: basic work to dos to Monday and Friday. That meant

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Speaker 1: Tuesday through Thursday would be mostly open if I didn't

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Speaker 1: offer those times to anyone. But it's not like I

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Speaker 1: got to go hide in the woods from Tuesday to Thursday.

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Speaker 1: It's summer. Some of my kids are around, and I

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Speaker 1: had some driving duties for the ones going to camp.

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Speaker 1: Even if I didn't have to do all the driving myself,

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Speaker 1: my days were going to get chopped up. I was

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Speaker 1: feeling a bit discouraged about this, but I decided to

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Speaker 1: map out exactly when my deep work time would be.

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Speaker 1: On Tuesday, I could likely get going at seven forty

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Speaker 1: five am and get all the way to three forty

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Speaker 1: five pm before I had to bring people places. On Wednesday,

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Speaker 1: I got nine fifteen to two forty five. On Thursday

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Speaker 1: I got eight fifteen to two forty five. Now that

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Speaker 1: wasn't the end of the workday. I could do things

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Speaker 1: after two forty five on these days, but I knew

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Speaker 1: this time would be more chopped up the time before

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Speaker 1: would be less. So of course I would have liked

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Speaker 1: to have had more time. But seven forty five to

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Speaker 1: three forty five is eight hours. It's not a short

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Speaker 1: amount of time. Seeing that in the five and a

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Speaker 1: half hours on Wednesday and six and a half hours

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Speaker 1: on Thursday made me feel better about the whole thing.

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Speaker 1: I felt less like there was no point in even trying.

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Speaker 1: If I had stop at two forty five to go

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Speaker 1: pick someone up at camp, I could feel like I

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Speaker 1: could work slowly and not feel rushed and still get

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Speaker 1: a lot done. I know not everyone writes for a living.

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Speaker 1: I know in many jobs there is no way you

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Speaker 1: could hold seven forty five a m to three forty

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Speaker 1: five p m. Open on any day, even with a

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Speaker 1: lot of strategy, but even if you only get a

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Speaker 1: few hours here and there, mapping out potential focus time

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Speaker 1: can help you decide what to do with it. You

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Speaker 1: will see that you can get say two hours on

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Speaker 1: Tuesday afternoon, so you decide to protect this time. You

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Speaker 1: ask what would be best suited to it. You don't

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Speaker 1: waste that time popping in and out of your inbox

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Speaker 1: that can happen in ten minute chunks in between meetings.

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Speaker 1: With so many things in life, knowledge is the first step.

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Speaker 1: I talked recently about how knowing the length of your

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Speaker 1: weekday evenings can help you see that this is real

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Speaker 1: time that can be used. Same with focused time at work.

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Speaker 1: We may never get as much as we want, but

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Speaker 1: that doesn't mean there is zero time. Being aware of

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Speaker 1: this time and having a map of where it will

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Speaker 1: happen in any given week means that it can be

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Speaker 1: used purposefully, and that increases the chances of getting good

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Speaker 1: things done in the meantime. This is Laura. Thanks for listening,

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Speaker 1: and here's to making the most of our time. Thanks

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Speaker 1: for listening to before breakfast. If you've got questions, ideas,

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Speaker 1: or feedback, You can reach me at Laura at Laura

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Speaker 1: vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartMedia.

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Speaker 1: For more podcasts from iHeartMedia, please visit the iHeartRadio app,

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Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.