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 leave room for opportunity. Why is time?
Speaker 1: Managers know to leave a buffer for things to go wrong,
Speaker 1: but it is also possible that something could go amazingly right.
Speaker 1: You want to leave space for that opportunity. So I
Speaker 1: am sure you have had the experience of feeling like
Speaker 1: your calendar is packed absolutely full. Then someone floats a
Speaker 1: vague idea and you're vaguely interested, but there's no real space,
Speaker 1: so you don't pursue it. I am also sure that, you,
Speaker 1: like me, have had the experience of something random turning
Speaker 1: into something really cool. A getting to know you chat
Speaker 1: turns into a full fledged collaboration. An invite to walk
Speaker 1: with a group some morning turns into several close friendships.
Speaker 1: Now I know this is a balancing act. One of
Speaker 1: the most common productivity tips out there is to say
Speaker 1: no more often, and there's definitely something to that, especially
Speaker 1: if you have trouble with boundaries. On the other hand,
Speaker 1: almost every new cool thing in life comes out of
Speaker 1: a yes. Sometimes the yes is obvious. Why yes, I
Speaker 1: would like a big raise and a promotion thank you,
Speaker 1: But often that yes comes after a few conversations and
Speaker 1: a few follow ups that lead there. So given this
Speaker 1: balancing act, I think the best approach is two part. First,
Speaker 1: be utterly ruthless about saying no to stuff that is
Speaker 1: of zero interest or really doesn't feel like a good
Speaker 1: use of your time. I include regularly scheduled work meetings
Speaker 1: in this. They need to earn their keep on your calendar.
Speaker 1: But then leave some space to be open to opportunity.
Speaker 1: I try to leave Fridays pretty open. If something goes wrong,
Speaker 1: I have room for the overflow. But because I think
Speaker 1: of Fridays as open time, I am also willing to
Speaker 1: put potentially interesting stuff there without viewing it as being
Speaker 1: in competition with everything else I am doing. The upside
Speaker 1: is that then if somebody wants to meet or chat
Speaker 1: about something and it seems like it could be interesting,
Speaker 1: I can set that up on Fridays. I often do
Speaker 1: lunches or coffees on Fridays. Most don't lead to anything.
Speaker 1: Most stuff in life just doesn't, but some does. Perhaps
Speaker 1: you can try to leave a little space open in
Speaker 1: your life for opportunity to On the professional front, maybe
Speaker 1: Fridays would work, or maybe it's some afternoon each week.
Speaker 1: Sometimes you'll need this space for emergencies, but sometimes you
Speaker 1: can use it for being open to randomness. I think
Speaker 1: this can work in our personal lives as well. I
Speaker 1: am a big fan of planning weekends ahead of time,
Speaker 1: but I do get a little concerned when all the
Speaker 1: weekends for the next few months start to look booked up.
Speaker 1: I know that there will be a cool trip, or
Speaker 1: a friend will be visiting town, or someone will throw
Speaker 1: a party that would be fun to go to. Best
Speaker 1: to leave at least a little open space. I will
Speaker 1: be taking a trip in May with a friend that
Speaker 1: she suggested randomly, so I am glad that all my
Speaker 1: May weekends weren't full. Productivity is always about a balance,
Speaker 1: but the truth is that we seldom know before any
Speaker 1: bit of time all the things that we will need
Speaker 1: or want to do by the end of that bit
Speaker 1: of time. We need to leave space for emergencies, because
Speaker 1: we all know that emergencies happen, but good things can
Speaker 1: come up to the good news is that it is
Speaker 1: usually possible to proactively schedule in your priorities and leave
Speaker 1: space for what comes up. Time is vast. A little
Speaker 1: bit of randomness can make your time a lot more fun.
Speaker 1: In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and
Speaker 1: here's to making the most of our time. Thanks for
Speaker 1: listening to Before Breakfast. If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback,
Speaker 1: you can reach me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com.
Speaker 1: Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts
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Speaker 1: wherever you listen to your favorite shows.