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 make a conscious decision to do
Speaker 1: a just okay job on a few non critical tasks.
Speaker 1: You might be surprised how much time and energy you
Speaker 1: can save. I'm sure most people listening to this podcast
Speaker 1: are the high achieving sorts. We like to do things right.
Speaker 1: We pride ourselves on our high standards. Such diligence is admirable,
Speaker 1: but part of wisdom is recognizing that there are only
Speaker 1: twenty four hours in a day and not everything is
Speaker 1: deserving of our best work. This has common sense. The
Speaker 1: trick is figuring out when it is okay to lower
Speaker 1: your standards. When can and should you drop the ball.
Speaker 1: This requires thinking about your time strategically. The first thing
Speaker 1: I'd recommend doing, the first thing I always recommend doing,
Speaker 1: is tracking your time. Keep track of your time with
Speaker 1: an app or a spreadsheet for a few days, including
Speaker 1: at least one weekend day, or ideally you can track
Speaker 1: your time for an entire week. After you've got the data,
Speaker 1: study your log and ask yourself what activities take more
Speaker 1: time than you really wish to be devoting to them.
Speaker 1: Common culprits include work, housework, errands, and time and transit,
Speaker 1: particularly commuting. Some of these, unfortunately, are what they are.
Speaker 1: It's hard to lower your standards on your commute or
Speaker 1: your drive to your kids school because you need to
Speaker 1: get from point A to point B somewhere or another.
Speaker 1: But other categories are more malleable. For instance, within the
Speaker 1: category of work, you might see that you spend quite
Speaker 1: a bit of time on email, or perhaps you find
Speaker 1: yourself rereading a weekly note you sent to your colleagues
Speaker 1: three times before you hit send. Perhaps you spend more
Speaker 1: than an hour per slide on presentations that, now that
Speaker 1: you think about it, no one pays close attention to anyway.
Speaker 1: Note which activities do not have a direct link to
Speaker 1: your organization's bottom line. Note which activities do not pertain
Speaker 1: to your long term goals. Note which activities won't matter
Speaker 1: in two days, let alone in two years. Flag these
Speaker 1: activities on your time lock, then explore what it might
Speaker 1: mean to consciously decide to give these tasks an eight
Speaker 1: percent effort. Eight percent is still a B on most
Speaker 1: grading scales. It's not a plus level, but it's certainly acceptable.
Speaker 1: Could you cut the time devoted to these tasks by
Speaker 1: or here's the way to think about it. Imagine that
Speaker 1: something huge came up next week, good or bad. Your
Speaker 1: biggest clients showed up in town unexpectedly and wanted to
Speaker 1: spend the day with you talking about future work. Or
Speaker 1: maybe your office shut down for two days because of
Speaker 1: an ice storm. What parts of these tasks would you skip.
Speaker 1: We've all had the experience of cutting corners when we
Speaker 1: had to, and sometimes smart time management means cutting corners
Speaker 1: when we don't have to. I know this is easier
Speaker 1: said than done, and on some things, we want to
Speaker 1: keep our standards as high as possible. With my books,
Speaker 1: I go through multiple drafts and fact check everything, sometimes
Speaker 1: even hiring other people to fact check everything. I read
Speaker 1: every word allowed multiple times to make sure my prose
Speaker 1: sounds right. Being an author is a key part of
Speaker 1: my identity, and I know that the whole point of
Speaker 1: a book is to create something that will still matter
Speaker 1: for years into the future. But a spur of the
Speaker 1: moment blog post does not require the same attention to detail.
Speaker 1: I consciously decide to do one round of editing and
Speaker 1: then hit post. If something needs to be updated later
Speaker 1: I can do so. I've been trying to do this
Speaker 1: on the home front too. My husband and I welcomed
Speaker 1: our fifth child and late December, and through these newborn
Speaker 1: weeks I wound up lowering my standards on just about
Speaker 1: everything else. The Christmas tree stayed up for a long time,
Speaker 1: the mail pile did not get sorted, the house is
Speaker 1: a bit cluttered. Oh well, none of this will really
Speaker 1: matter in the long run, or frankly, in the short
Speaker 1: run either. So spend some time today thinking about how
Speaker 1: you spend your time. Where could you settle for a
Speaker 1: B minus level effort? Feel free to keep doing A
Speaker 1: plus work on anything that truly matters to you. But
Speaker 1: when it doesn't, you can free up all kinds of
Speaker 1: time by doing just an okay job 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 E the
Speaker 1: number four then Breakfast p o D. You can also
Speaker 1: shoot me an email at Before Breakfast Podcast at iHeartMedia
Speaker 1: dot Com that before Breakfast is spelled out with all
Speaker 1: the letters. Thanks so much, I look forward to staying
Speaker 1: in touch. Before Breakfast is a production of i heart Radio.
Speaker 1: For more podcasts from i heart Radio, visit the i
Speaker 1: heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to
Speaker 1: your favorite shows.