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 a few minutes of planning is better
Speaker 1: than nothing. Even if you don't have time for elaborate
Speaker 1: planning for the next day or week, you can get
Speaker 1: a lot done in a few minutes, so you are
Speaker 1: probably best off doing whatever you can. Longtime listeners know
Speaker 1: that I think every busy person needs a designated weekly
Speaker 1: planning time. This is when you think about what is
Speaker 1: most important to you over the next one hundred and
Speaker 1: sixty eight hours. You figure out your responsibilities and any
Speaker 1: logistics necessary to make those things happen. If you do
Speaker 1: this week after week, planning really shouldn't take that much time,
Speaker 1: but sometimes people note that there is a lot going
Speaker 1: on and they worry that planning will take a long time.
Speaker 1: And the problem with being very busy is that you
Speaker 1: probably don't have a lot of time. As we talked
Speaker 1: about in a recent episode, it can be smart to
Speaker 1: have a rain date for your planning ritual. If you
Speaker 1: normally plan for the week on Fridays after lunch, but
Speaker 1: your team is slammed with something that is due at
Speaker 1: five pm Friday, you will probably not get to have
Speaker 1: a nice, leisurely planning session involving washy tape and colored
Speaker 1: markers and the like. Feel like those things. Now, if
Speaker 1: you can see that time will be tight, perhaps you
Speaker 1: should move your planning to earlier in the day, or
Speaker 1: do it Saturday or even at five pm Friday as
Speaker 1: a palate cleanser. But if you want to stick with
Speaker 1: Friday after lunch, even if you can only do a
Speaker 1: few minutes, you will probably be better off then if
Speaker 1: you did nothing. Here's how you might hone in on
Speaker 1: the basics. First, in those few minutes, take a look
Speaker 1: at your calendar for the next week. Make sure you
Speaker 1: are clear on anything big that is happening. In particular,
Speaker 1: you should make sure you've got time built in to
Speaker 1: prepare for anything early in the week. It is best
Speaker 1: not to be caught off guard. You might scan for
Speaker 1: any problems. Are you traveling for work and you're pretty
Speaker 1: sure your spouse mentioned a potential trip too. If you've
Speaker 1: got kids or anyone else who's dependent on you, this
Speaker 1: is going to need to be sorted out. If there
Speaker 1: are any out of the ordinary personal events, you need
Speaker 1: to make sure happen. You should be prepared for those
Speaker 1: as well. See if there's anything you are looking forward to.
Speaker 1: If not, quickly try to put something in. You might
Speaker 1: text a friend about getting together. Then make sure you
Speaker 1: are set for Monday and probably Tuesday. You can always
Speaker 1: spend a little time Sunday updating the rest of the week,
Speaker 1: or maybe a slot on Monday would work better. But
Speaker 1: even if you can't get the whole week planned and
Speaker 1: one fell swoop, you will have part of it and
Speaker 1: so you won't get caught by surprise by much in
Speaker 1: the first part of the week. I know it can
Speaker 1: be hard to find bits of time on a busy day,
Speaker 1: but even in tiny bits of time you can score
Speaker 1: some big wins. If you see you have a huge
Speaker 1: presentation on Tuesday, you are most likely going to want
Speaker 1: some time on Monday to prepare. If you see a
Speaker 1: nice but not critical meeting on Monday, you can go
Speaker 1: ahead and try to move that till later in the week,
Speaker 1: or perhaps turn it into an email. If you do
Speaker 1: this ahead of time, people will be fine. It's when
Speaker 1: you do it right before that people get upset by
Speaker 1: having moved or canceled this thing. You will have freed
Speaker 1: up time and made the week feel a lot like
Speaker 1: us rushed. A little bit of planning is a lot
Speaker 1: better than none. I do promise that if you do
Speaker 1: weekly planning week after week, life will generally get calmer.
Speaker 1: You often won't be racing to do stuff on Friday
Speaker 1: afternoon because you will have assigned everything on your plate
Speaker 1: a spot earlier in the week that said life does happen.
Speaker 1: If all you can do is a few minutes, then
Speaker 1: do a few minutes. You will probably be glad you did.
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
Speaker 1: from iHeartMedia, please visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
Speaker 1: wherever you listen to your favorite shows.