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Speaker 1: Good morning. This is Laura. Welcome to the New Corner Office,

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Speaker 1: the podcast with strategies for thriving in the new world

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Speaker 1: of work where location and hours are more flexible than

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Speaker 1: in the past. Today's tip is to create a later list.

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Speaker 1: Whether you're working in an office or remotely, it can

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Speaker 1: be easy to get distracted, but the nature of the

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Speaker 1: distractions are a little different. When you're in an office,

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Speaker 1: you might be trying to write a report, but you

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Speaker 1: realize you need a particular statistic, so you go searching

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Speaker 1: for it online. But then once you're there, you start

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Speaker 1: checking headlines and whoops, there goes your focused work time.

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Speaker 1: This can happen at home, too, but there are additional

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Speaker 1: distractions that masquerade as productive activities. You start writing that report,

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Speaker 1: and then you remember that you need to check if

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Speaker 1: the hamburger made it out of the freezer and into

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Speaker 1: the fridge to thought for dinner, So you pop up

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Speaker 1: to go check, and then you see that the kitchen

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Speaker 1: is messy, and whoops, there goes your focused work time. Fortunately,

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Speaker 1: there's a good way to fend off these kinds of

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Speaker 1: distractions and create time for focus in any sort of workplace.

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Speaker 1: You just need to create a later list. Here's how

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Speaker 1: this works. Keep a notebook next to you as you're working. Then,

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Speaker 1: whenever a thought occurs to you of something else you

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Speaker 1: need to do or to find, write it down on

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Speaker 1: this later list. That way, you won't forget it. Indeed,

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Speaker 1: you should designate specific times during the day to look

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Speaker 1: at your later list so your brain trusts that you

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Speaker 1: absolutely will deal with anything on it. This gives your

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Speaker 1: brain permission to get back to the business at hand,

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Speaker 1: secure in the knowledge that the meat will be out

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Speaker 1: of the fraser in thirty minutes. That's still enough time

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Speaker 1: to defrost by dinner, but you won't have ruined your

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Speaker 1: concentrate now. To be sure, sometimes our distractions appear to

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Speaker 1: be wise praise away from our project. For instance, if

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Speaker 1: you're writing a report and you need a particular number

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Speaker 1: that you know is sitting in an email from a colleague,

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Speaker 1: it seems like it would make sense to go find it.

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Speaker 1: But when have you ever found one thing in your

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Speaker 1: inbox and then completely stopped looking at it. You know

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Speaker 1: full well that you'll see an email from a big

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Speaker 1: client and think you should open it, and loops, there

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Speaker 1: goes your focused work time. So here's a trick. That

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Speaker 1: journalists use. If they're waiting for a particular source to

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Speaker 1: call them back, they can still get started writing the story.

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Speaker 1: They just write around a missing figure or quote by

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Speaker 1: using the initials t K. This means to come. The

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Speaker 1: K is a funny way of abbreviating the word come.

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Speaker 1: You don't need to worry about the origins of that.

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Speaker 1: But the point is that you can stick in the

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Speaker 1: initials t K and then know that you will go

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Speaker 1: find that statistic later. You don't have to let the

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Speaker 1: lack of the exact statistic or quotes stop you. You

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Speaker 1: put finding the figure on the later list, and then

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Speaker 1: you keep going making the best use of your time.

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Speaker 1: If you try keeping a later list, let me know

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Speaker 1: how it goes. You can email me at Laura at

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Speaker 1: Laura vandercam dot com. In the meantime, this is Laura.

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Speaker 1: Thanks for listening, and here's to succeeding in the New

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Speaker 1: Corner Office. The New Corner Office is a production of iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 1: wherever you get your favorite shows.