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 Sears'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 out that for
Speaker 1: many people, to do lists are not terribly effective. People
Speaker 1: put down everything that they might like to do in life,
Speaker 1: and much of it appears very vague. I mean they'll
Speaker 1: put things like math grading for teachers, or maybe think
Speaker 1: about new clients or staffing problems with a question mark
Speaker 1: what does that even mean? Here is the real psychology
Speaker 1: of to do lists, Jamie writes. The list becomes so
Speaker 1: overwhelming that your brain decides there is no way that
Speaker 1: it can complete everything. That's when you end up using
Speaker 1: your plan time to gossip with your teacher bestie, or
Speaker 1: 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 your to do list? Longtime listeners know
Speaker 1: that I advocate carving out time on Friday for planning
Speaker 1: the upcoming week. On Friday, you make your priority list
Speaker 1: for the upcoming week. But then, rather than just saying
Speaker 1: you want to research a potential client, you put it
Speaker 1: on your calendar for eleven to twelve On Tuesday, rather
Speaker 1: than saying you want to reach out to Bob, you
Speaker 1: note that you will do that, along with a few
Speaker 1: other exploratory emails, on Friday at one pm. This habit
Speaker 1: does a few good things. One it acknowledges this truth. Basically,
Speaker 1: every task takes some amount of time, So if you
Speaker 1: are not willing to give the task a specific time,
Speaker 1: that is a pretty good indication that you aren't serious
Speaker 1: about doing it. So you might migrate that to do
Speaker 1: that you don't intend to actually do over to what
Speaker 1: David Allen calls a someday maybe list. It is not
Speaker 1: an active intention anymore. This also forces you to think
Speaker 1: about how long things will take. If you have never
Speaker 1: managed to write a certain report in less than two hours,
Speaker 1: then you will need to give that task two hours now.
Speaker 1: Of course, at some point it might become challenging to
Speaker 1: find spots for tasks amid the other things that are
Speaker 1: on your calendar, like meetings, which turn out to be
Speaker 1: tasks in and of themselves. If these aren't tasks that
Speaker 1: you value, well, maybe take a good look and see
Speaker 1: if they need to be there. Maybe they do, maybe
Speaker 1: they don't. But using your calendar as your to do
Speaker 1: list forces you to see that you cannot do eight
Speaker 1: one hour tasks plus attend three one hour meetings. If
Speaker 1: you arrive at work at nine and need to leave
Speaker 1: at five pm for a daycare pickup. That is not
Speaker 1: a matter of how motivated you are or how good
Speaker 1: you are at your job. It is just a matter
Speaker 1: of physics. Now to be sure, Jamie adds the caveat
Speaker 1: that you are going to need to be somewhat flexible
Speaker 1: here life happens. A teacher might plan to do something
Speaker 1: before school, but a parent asks to meet about a
Speaker 1: child who is floundering, and the teacher wants to take
Speaker 1: the opportunity to brainstorm together. Or maybe the fire alarm
Speaker 1: goes off during a planning period. People in any job
Speaker 1: can experience the unexpected, So Jamie recommends building in a
Speaker 1: few open slots on the calendar thirty minutes here and
Speaker 1: there to absorb tasks that need to move or unexpected
Speaker 1: ones that come up. She, like me, tries to leave
Speaker 1: Friday's available slots as open as possible. I think this
Speaker 1: idea can work for a great many people who have
Speaker 1: fairly set schedules, like teachers, or many people in corporate
Speaker 1: roles with a lot of meetings. It can also be
Speaker 1: helpful for people in any sort of role who have
Speaker 1: trouble making short to do lists. Now, if you are
Speaker 1: a self employed podcaster who has more control over her
Speaker 1: calendar and who has been tracking her time for eight
Speaker 1: straight years, maybe you can do things a little differently.
Speaker 1: But even if I don't calender my tasks, when I
Speaker 1: make to do lists for a day, I never put
Speaker 1: anything on there that I do not truly intend to
Speaker 1: do and the hours I have. That is the point
Speaker 1: of using your calendar as a to do list, and
Speaker 1: 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: most of our time. 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 E. The
Speaker 1: number four then Breakfast p o D. You can also
Speaker 1: shoot me an email at Before Breakfast Podcasts at iHeartMedia
Speaker 1: dot com that before Breakfast is spelled out with all
Speaker 1: the letters, Thanks so much, should I look forward to
Speaker 1: staying in touch. Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartRadio.
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