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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 write down the thoughts you have during

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Speaker 1: deep work blocks so you can get them out of

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Speaker 1: your head and get back to work. Today's tip comes

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Speaker 1: from Eric Fisher, host of the long running podcast Beyond

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Speaker 1: the to Do List. Eric was recently a guest on

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Speaker 1: this show. Eric noted how easy it is to be

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Speaker 1: perpetually distracted with new information coming at us through our

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Speaker 1: many screens, with thoughts about various topics popping into our minds.

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Speaker 1: For instance, maybe you've been absorbed in a spreadsheet of

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Speaker 1: sales data until you realize you need to reschedule a

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Speaker 1: meeting that falls on yam Kapor, or you have an

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Speaker 1: idea for a marketing stre for next season. Or you

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Speaker 1: remember it's your college roommate's birthday. Why that you forgot

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Speaker 1: to pick up the dry cleaning. You know you were

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Speaker 1: supposed to be working on the sales data, But what

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Speaker 1: do you do with the unrelated thoughts during what's supposed

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Speaker 1: to be focused worktime. Eric advised taking what he called

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Speaker 1: a meditational approach. When you are meditating, you might acknowledge

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Speaker 1: the thought you were having and then let it pass. Likewise,

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Speaker 1: Eric advises, if you are in the middle of working

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Speaker 1: on something and you have an unrelated thought, acknowledge the

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Speaker 1: thought by writing it down literally put pencil to paper,

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Speaker 1: and then let the thought move away. By writing down

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Speaker 1: the thought, you avoid interrupting your blocked work time to

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Speaker 1: deal with it. This is time to analyze the sales

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Speaker 1: data spreadsheet, so you stick with analyzing the sales data.

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Speaker 1: This is not the time to reschedule the meeting or

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Speaker 1: call your friend to say happy birthday. I know some

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Speaker 1: people try to resist unrelated thoughts and push them away,

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Speaker 1: but then you are at risk of forgetting the thought altogether.

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Speaker 1: Or if you try to maintain your focus on the

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Speaker 1: task at hand while remembering the thought for later, you

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Speaker 1: wind up consuming precious brain space. Clearly, you need to

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Speaker 1: get the thought out of your head so you can

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Speaker 1: get back on task. Eric is adamant that you need

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Speaker 1: to capture these off topic thoughts on paper, and this

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Speaker 1: does have some upsides. It is simple. You just write

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Speaker 1: it down on paper that is near you, and unlike

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Speaker 1: emailing yourself or putting something in a notes app or

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Speaker 1: in your digital calendar, you won't risk getting pulled away

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Speaker 1: into other things. As in, you email yourself a note

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Speaker 1: for later, and then while in your inbox you see

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Speaker 1: a very exciting email from your manager and next thing

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Speaker 1: you know, your deep work block of time is gone.

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Speaker 1: Paper doesn't do this to you. That said, if you

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Speaker 1: know yourself and know you can email yourself responsibly without

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Speaker 1: looking at anything else, I think that does work too.

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Speaker 1: Your choice. Then, when you are done with your original task,

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Speaker 1: you can process your notes either right then or during

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Speaker 1: a designated later time. If you emailed yourself and you

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Speaker 1: process your primary inbox to current, you can deal with

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Speaker 1: it then. But this process out of your head and

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Speaker 1: back to work gives you the best of both worlds.

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Speaker 1: You capture your thought and you don't interrupt your blocked

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Speaker 1: work time. You maintain your focus and get everything done

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

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

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Speaker 1: listening to Before Breakfast. If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback,

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Speaker 1: you can reach me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com.

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Speaker 1: Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts

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Speaker 1: from iHeartMedia, Please visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or

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Speaker 1: wherever you listen to your favorite shows.