WEBVTT - When to lower your standards

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.

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<v Speaker 1>Good Morning, This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.

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<v Speaker 1>Today's tip is to make a conscious decision to do

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<v Speaker 1>a just okay job on a few non critical tasks.

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<v Speaker 1>You might be surprised how much time and energy you

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<v Speaker 1>can save. I'm sure most people listening to this podcast

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<v Speaker 1>are the high achieving sorts. We like to do things right.

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<v Speaker 1>We pride ourselves on our high standards. Such diligence is admirable,

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<v Speaker 1>but part of wisdom is recognizing that there are only

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<v Speaker 1>twenty four hours in a day and not everything is

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<v Speaker 1>deserving of our best work. This has common sense. The

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<v Speaker 1>trick is figuring out when it is okay to lower

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<v Speaker 1>your standards. When can and should you drop the ball.

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<v Speaker 1>This requires thinking about your time strategically. The first thing

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<v Speaker 1>I'd recommend doing, the first thing I always recommend doing,

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<v Speaker 1>is tracking your time. Keep track of your time with

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<v Speaker 1>an app or a spreadsheet for a few days, including

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<v Speaker 1>at least one weekend day, or ideally you can track

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<v Speaker 1>your time for an entire week. After you've got the data,

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<v Speaker 1>study your log and ask yourself what activities take more

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<v Speaker 1>time than you really wish to be devoting to them.

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<v Speaker 1>Common culprits include work, housework, errands, and time and transit,

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<v Speaker 1>particularly commuting. Some of these, unfortunately, are what they are.

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<v Speaker 1>It's hard to lower your standards on your commute or

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<v Speaker 1>your drive to your kids school because you need to

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<v Speaker 1>get from point A to point B somewhere or another.

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<v Speaker 1>But other categories are more malleable. For instance, within the

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<v Speaker 1>category of work, you might see that you spend quite

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<v Speaker 1>a bit of time on email, or perhaps you find

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<v Speaker 1>yourself rereading a weekly note you sent to your colleagues

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<v Speaker 1>three times before you hit send. Perhaps you spend more

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<v Speaker 1>than an hour per slide on presentations that, now that

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<v Speaker 1>you think about it, no one pays close attention to anyway.

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<v Speaker 1>Note which activities do not have a direct link to

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<v Speaker 1>your organization's bottom line. Note which activities do not pertain

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<v Speaker 1>to your long term goals. Note which activities won't matter

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<v Speaker 1>in two days, let alone in two years. Flag these

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<v Speaker 1>activities on your time lock, then explore what it might

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<v Speaker 1>mean to consciously decide to give these tasks an eight

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<v Speaker 1>percent effort. Eight percent is still a B on most

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<v Speaker 1>grading scales. It's not a plus level, but it's certainly acceptable.

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<v Speaker 1>Could you cut the time devoted to these tasks by

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<v Speaker 1>or here's the way to think about it. Imagine that

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<v Speaker 1>something huge came up next week, good or bad. Your

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<v Speaker 1>biggest clients showed up in town unexpectedly and wanted to

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<v Speaker 1>spend the day with you talking about future work. Or

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<v Speaker 1>maybe your office shut down for two days because of

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<v Speaker 1>an ice storm. What parts of these tasks would you skip.

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<v Speaker 1>We've all had the experience of cutting corners when we

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<v Speaker 1>had to, and sometimes smart time management means cutting corners

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<v Speaker 1>when we don't have to. I know this is easier

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<v Speaker 1>said than done, and on some things, we want to

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<v Speaker 1>keep our standards as high as possible. With my books,

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<v Speaker 1>I go through multiple drafts and fact check everything, sometimes

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<v Speaker 1>even hiring other people to fact check everything. I read

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<v Speaker 1>every word allowed multiple times to make sure my prose

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<v Speaker 1>sounds right. Being an author is a key part of

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<v Speaker 1>my identity, and I know that the whole point of

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<v Speaker 1>a book is to create something that will still matter

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<v Speaker 1>for years into the future. But a spur of the

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<v Speaker 1>moment blog post does not require the same attention to detail.

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<v Speaker 1>I consciously decide to do one round of editing and

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<v Speaker 1>then hit post. If something needs to be updated later

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<v Speaker 1>I can do so. I've been trying to do this

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<v Speaker 1>on the home front too. My husband and I welcomed

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<v Speaker 1>our fifth child and late December, and through these newborn

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<v Speaker 1>weeks I wound up lowering my standards on just about

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<v Speaker 1>everything else. The Christmas tree stayed up for a long time,

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<v Speaker 1>the mail pile did not get sorted, the house is

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<v Speaker 1>a bit cluttered. Oh well, none of this will really

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<v Speaker 1>matter in the long run, or frankly, in the short

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<v Speaker 1>run either. So spend some time today thinking about how

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<v Speaker 1>you spend your time. Where could you settle for a

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<v Speaker 1>B minus level effort? Feel free to keep doing A

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<v Speaker 1>plus work on anything that truly matters to you. But

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<v Speaker 1>when it doesn't, you can free up all kinds of

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<v Speaker 1>time by doing just an okay job in the meantime.

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<v Speaker 1>This is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's to making

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<v Speaker 1>the most of our time. Hey, everybody, I'd love to

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<v Speaker 1>hear from you. You can send me your tips, your questions,

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<v Speaker 1>or anything else. Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook,

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<v Speaker 1>and Instagram at Before Breakfast Pod that's b E the

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<v Speaker 1>number four then Breakfast p o D. You can also

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<v Speaker 1>shoot me an email at Before Breakfast Podcast at iHeartMedia

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<v Speaker 1>dot Com that before Breakfast is spelled out with all

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<v Speaker 1>the letters. Thanks so much, I look forward to staying

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<v Speaker 1>in touch. Before Breakfast is a production of i heart Radio.

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