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 stop trying to squeeze in just
Speaker 1: one more thing. Instead of being more efficient, you generally
Speaker 1: just make yourself late, which is no fun for anyone.
Speaker 1: Since I write and speak about time, I've spent a
Speaker 1: lot of time studying other people's relationships with time, including
Speaker 1: what time we show up for things. As I'm writing
Speaker 1: this episode, many of us haven't left the house for
Speaker 1: a while. But as life opens back up, we'll start
Speaker 1: needing to get from one place to another. We'll need
Speaker 1: to get to these places at certain times. I am
Speaker 1: almost comically punctual to things myself, as you might imagine,
Speaker 1: and there are upsides to this, though there are also downsides.
Speaker 1: I show up awkwardly early to parties. I could be
Speaker 1: on the verse urge of solving my most important business problem,
Speaker 1: but I will stop working on it two minutes before
Speaker 1: reaching a solution to call someone right at ten am,
Speaker 1: just because that's the time on my calendar. I know
Speaker 1: that other folks find themselves chronically late to things, and
Speaker 1: so I've tried to study why that is. With an
Speaker 1: open mind, I know that in many cases it's not
Speaker 1: actually because the person is engaged in some sort of
Speaker 1: weird power play to demonstrate that his or her time
Speaker 1: is more important than everyone else's. It turns out that
Speaker 1: late people are wildly optimistic. They think it takes twenty
Speaker 1: minutes to get to work because it did one time
Speaker 1: five years ago, and that has now become the remembered standard,
Speaker 1: even though it's taken closer to thirty or thirty five
Speaker 1: minutes every other time since. Another way this optimism plays out,
Speaker 1: late people think they can fit in just one more
Speaker 1: thing before they leave. They can send one more email,
Speaker 1: they can tidy up the kitchen. It's just a little
Speaker 1: thing and won't take much time, and then they've taken
Speaker 1: this task off their plates for the future, so it's
Speaker 1: all a win, right. Well, No, the email winds up
Speaker 1: taking more than one minute to write, and then you
Speaker 1: see something hot in your inbox and have to look
Speaker 1: in Boom, there goes twenty minutes. Now the buffer for
Speaker 1: anything going wrong is gone. As for freeing up some
Speaker 1: imagined time in the future, well, has there ever been
Speaker 1: a time when the kitchen is clean for good or
Speaker 1: you are completely done emailing. These are tasks that expand
Speaker 1: to fill all available space. You haven't saved time for
Speaker 1: yourself later by trying to squeeze them in. You've just
Speaker 1: given these tasks more time and made yourself rushed and
Speaker 1: harried in the process. So if you find yourself falling
Speaker 1: into this trap next time you've got two minutes before
Speaker 1: you need to be out the door, just go. Don't
Speaker 1: think of this as wasted time. Think of it as
Speaker 1: sanity space. And by the way, the time won't wind
Speaker 1: up existing anyway. Chronically, late people tend to be very
Speaker 1: bad at time estimation. You think it takes ten minutes
Speaker 1: to get to church, so when you see it's services
Speaker 1: start at ten, you think, brilliant. Time to take out
Speaker 1: the trash. But it doesn't take ten minutes to get
Speaker 1: to church. It takes fifteen because you have to get
Speaker 1: everyone in the car, and then you can't actually leap
Speaker 1: straight out of the car into the pews. You have
Speaker 1: to park and walk in. And since you took out
Speaker 1: the trash too, now you're really late in life. It's
Speaker 1: good to be efficient, but it's even better to be effective.
Speaker 1: The tendency to squeeze in just one more thing results
Speaker 1: in feeling like there isn't enough time. We're more productive
Speaker 1: in life when we feel that time is abundant rather
Speaker 1: than scarce. Stop trying to squeeze in just one more
Speaker 1: thing and you'll feel more sure of this abundance in
Speaker 1: the meantime. This is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's
Speaker 1: to making the most of our time. Hey, everybody, at
Speaker 1: love to hear from you. You can send me your tips,
Speaker 1: your questions, 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 i heeart media
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 my heart Radio, visit the i
Speaker 1: heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to
Speaker 1: your favorite shows.