Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Good Morning. This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Speaker 1: Today's tip is to figure out which problem to solve first.
Speaker 1: Sometimes your efforts will be a lot less efficient if
Speaker 1: you don't do things in the right order. Long time
Speaker 1: listeners know that my family moved a few weeks ago.
Speaker 1: Unpacking boxes for a family of seven takes a long time.
Speaker 1: While we decluttered before moving. There is always just a
Speaker 1: lot of stuff and it is not always clear where
Speaker 1: it can go in a new space. This has led
Speaker 1: to some unpacking impasses. For instance, my daughter has a
Speaker 1: huge pile of boxes still in her bedroom. Most of
Speaker 1: these have toys in them. She had a shelf with
Speaker 1: cubbies in the old house, but it wasn't pretty rough shape,
Speaker 1: so we had to get rid of it. We ordered
Speaker 1: a new one, but it turns out that it needs
Speaker 1: to be assembled, so now her room has a big
Speaker 1: box with unassembled furniture in it and big boxes with
Speaker 1: toys in him. I tried to start unpacking the toys,
Speaker 1: but realized I would go nowhere until the cubby was built,
Speaker 1: so I switched my focus. I am finding a home
Speaker 1: for all the stuff that is currently sitting where the
Speaker 1: cubby shelves will go. Then I'm going to enlist the
Speaker 1: child who is an ace with Ikea style furniture assembly
Speaker 1: to build his sister's shelves over the weekend, and then
Speaker 1: we will be able to unpack the toy boxes quite quickly.
Speaker 1: Trying to solve this problem in any other order is
Speaker 1: just going to result in frustration. Maybe you too, our
Speaker 1: face sing a bit of an impasse. These can happen
Speaker 1: in all sorts of situations. You want to get a
Speaker 1: different job, but you think you'll need new skills. The
Speaker 1: problem is that you don't have the time to learn
Speaker 1: those skills because you are so busy at your current job.
Speaker 1: Or your team is missing deadlines because you are understaffed.
Speaker 1: But because you are understaffed, no one has the time
Speaker 1: to look at resumes, so you just keep floundering around.
Speaker 1: Or maybe you got so far as to bring on
Speaker 1: somebody new, but no one has had the time to
Speaker 1: train her, and so she is not nearly as helpful
Speaker 1: as you suspect she could be. It is so easy
Speaker 1: to get stuck, But when you find yourself in one
Speaker 1: of these situations, take a few minutes to pause and think,
Speaker 1: I mean, we're talking five minutes here. This isn't going
Speaker 1: to be endless. List out the various issues, then look
Speaker 1: at them which should happen first. It is quite possible
Speaker 1: that the other problems will continue to deteriorate a bit
Speaker 1: as you focus on the first problem. Maybe they will
Speaker 1: deteriorate at a faster rate than they were before. But
Speaker 1: which one problem would then allow you to solve the
Speaker 1: others quicker? I am not sure what the answer will be, though, generally,
Speaker 1: taking an hour to train someone will pay back that
Speaker 1: investment pretty quickly. That's going to be a better use
Speaker 1: of an hour than tromping to another status meeting to
Speaker 1: report that everyone is still behind on doing their jobs.
Speaker 1: When you are stuck on writing something, Figuring out the
Speaker 1: thesis statement tends to help a lot solve that problem,
Speaker 1: and the question of which examples you need and whose
Speaker 1: expertise you need to draw upon tends to become more
Speaker 1: clear as we unpack and do renovations. I have realized
Speaker 1: that sometimes rooms will become messier as I solve the
Speaker 1: primary problem. But once the primary problem is solved, the
Speaker 1: other things go fast. So figure out which problem to
Speaker 1: solve first, you will still have a mess for a while,
Speaker 1: but things will be better than they were in the meantime.
Speaker 1: This is Laura. Thanks for listening and here's to making
Speaker 1: the most of our time. Hey, everybody, I'd love to
Speaker 1: hear 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 the number four,
Speaker 1: then Breakfast p o D. You can also shoot me
Speaker 1: an email at Before Breakfast podcast at iHeartMedia dot com
Speaker 1: that Before Breakfast is spelled out with all the letters.
Speaker 1: Thanks so much, I look forward to staying in touch.
Speaker 1: Before Breakfast is a production of I heart Radio. For
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