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 that when you are trying to figure out
Speaker 1: when to do something, consider the present. Often now is
Speaker 1: as good as any other time, and when you do
Speaker 1: something now, you will go ahead and get it done.
Speaker 1: Busy people often aim to schedule things as far into
Speaker 1: the future as possible, perhaps imagining that their future selves
Speaker 1: won't feel nearly as stretched as their present selves. Next month,
Speaker 1: you won't have a big presentation looming, or treework that
Speaker 1: needs to be adjurently scheduled, or a sick kid. And
Speaker 1: that may be true. But next month you may be
Speaker 1: cover ring for a colleague who is out on medical leave,
Speaker 1: or perhaps dealing with the flu yourself, your future self,
Speaker 1: may have just as much on her plate as your
Speaker 1: present self does. That's why I like to say now
Speaker 1: is good whenever I can. If your partner says he
Speaker 1: wants to compare calendars sometime to figure out when you
Speaker 1: can host his new colleague and her spouse for dinner,
Speaker 1: how about comparing calendars now? Just take out your phones
Speaker 1: and find some possible dates for dinner. If a colleague
Speaker 1: sticks her head in your office to ask if you
Speaker 1: could schedule time to talk through a question. You may
Speaker 1: be tempted to suggest a time in the future when
Speaker 1: you know you are free, but she already has your
Speaker 1: attention and you have already stopped what you were doing
Speaker 1: so see whether she could talk right. Then you could
Speaker 1: just answer her questions now. Of course, if she isn't
Speaker 1: ready for this conversation, you'll need to schedule for another time.
Speaker 1: But after this has happened a few times, she will
Speaker 1: probably get in the habit of asking for a meeting
Speaker 1: only after she is prepared for it, and in some cases,
Speaker 1: in the process of preparing for a meeting, she'll answer
Speaker 1: her own question. If you run into your friend as
Speaker 1: you are both walking into the grocery store and she
Speaker 1: suggests getting together to catch up sometime, see whether she
Speaker 1: wants to chat right. Then you could shop together, or
Speaker 1: maybe your grocery store has a coffee shop where you
Speaker 1: could chat for fifteen minutes before doing your shopping. If
Speaker 1: you are not urgently racing to something else, this might
Speaker 1: actually be your best chance for a while. After all,
Speaker 1: you are both there, you're going to have to do
Speaker 1: a lot of work to make that happen again in
Speaker 1: the future. I often say that when you are asked
Speaker 1: to take on a responsibility or schedule something for the future,
Speaker 1: ask yourself whether you would do it tomorrow. Yes, you
Speaker 1: are booked up solid tomorrow, but you will be in
Speaker 1: the future too. Would you be tempted to move things
Speaker 1: around or cancel things tomorrow in order to fit in
Speaker 1: this new opportunity? If so, awesome, But if you don't
Speaker 1: want to say yes for tomorrow, you aren't really going
Speaker 1: to want to do it in the more distant future either.
Speaker 1: The flip side of this truth is that if there
Speaker 1: is something you do want or need to do well,
Speaker 1: why not do it now. You don't necessarily need to
Speaker 1: schedule for the future. You probably have just as much
Speaker 1: time now as you ever will if it possibly fits now.
Speaker 1: This has the benefit of not requiring an additional layer
Speaker 1: of scheduling work. Your future self will be free to
Speaker 1: schedule her own time in the meantime. This is Laura.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening, and here's to making the most of
Speaker 1: our time. Thanks for listening to before breakfast. If you've
Speaker 1: got questions, ideas, or feedback, you can reach me at
Speaker 1: Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast is a
Speaker 1: production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts from iHeartMedia, please visit
Speaker 1: the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to
Speaker 1: your favorite shows.