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 to put travel time on your calendar. Traveling
Speaker 1: between places takes time, so you may as well account
Speaker 1: for it. Since I write about time management, I am
Speaker 1: fascinated by exactly why people are late to things. Sometimes
Speaker 1: something comes up that was truly unexpected, but more frequently
Speaker 1: people simply have not built all the constituent steps for
Speaker 1: getting somewhere into the equation. A key problem here is
Speaker 1: that people rely on their calendars, but their calendars don't
Speaker 1: include the comprehensive amount of time involved in inactivity. If
Speaker 1: your calendar notes a book club meeting at seven pm
Speaker 1: at your friend Mirra's house, you then have to build
Speaker 1: in the appropriate amount of time to get there. Some
Speaker 1: people are good at remembering this, some are not, but
Speaker 1: it is not necessary to rely on memory or guesswork.
Speaker 1: When you put something on your calendar, you can also
Speaker 1: put any necessary travel time around it. There are two
Speaker 1: ways to do this. One is to include the travel
Speaker 1: time in the event itself. So rather than put a
Speaker 1: seven pm book club meeting on your calendar, you have
Speaker 1: it start at six forty to account for the fifteen
Speaker 1: minute drive and five minutes to get in your car
Speaker 1: and park on the other end, and you can end
Speaker 1: twenty minutes after you think the event will be over.
Speaker 1: Then you put in the description travel time included, so
Speaker 1: you know and don't accidentally leave even earlier. This note
Speaker 1: that travel time is included is particularly helpful if anyone else,
Speaker 1: like an assistant or your spouse, has access to your calendar.
Speaker 1: Another approach is to create distinct calendar events for travel
Speaker 1: to the event, the event itself, and travel home from
Speaker 1: the event. So with this approach, there would be a
Speaker 1: calendar event for six forty to seven for traveling two mirrors,
Speaker 1: another for seven to eight thirty for book club, and
Speaker 1: another for eight thirty to eight fifty for traveling home.
Speaker 1: When you book the event initially, you can schedule travel
Speaker 1: time to and from wherever you are likely to be. Then,
Speaker 1: if you end up having an appointment elsewhere beforehand, or
Speaker 1: if you'll be going somewhere else afterwards, you can adjust
Speaker 1: your calendar events to reflect how long it'll take to
Speaker 1: get to and from these new locations. Even if an
Speaker 1: appointment is just on another floor at work, it is
Speaker 1: not a bad idea to schedule in five minutes of
Speaker 1: travel time because you cannot be in two places at once,
Speaker 1: even at the same address. Now, I know this is
Speaker 1: a bit of extra work, but it is frustrating to
Speaker 1: be constantly running behind. It is frustrating to be the
Speaker 1: person running behind, and it is frustrating to try to
Speaker 1: work with or be friends with someone constantly running behind.
Speaker 1: And even if you are normally running on time, putting
Speaker 1: travel time on the calendar allows you to fully account
Speaker 1: for how much time activities take, and that can keep
Speaker 1: you from feeling rushed. No one likes to be rushed.
Speaker 1: Travel takes time, so there is no point pretending it doesn't.
Speaker 1: Put travel time on the calendar and your schedule is
Speaker 1: a bit more likely to reflect reality. In the meantime,
Speaker 1: this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's to making
Speaker 1: the most of our time. Thanks for listening to Before Breakfast.
Speaker 1: If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback, you can reach
Speaker 1: me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast
Speaker 1: is a production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts from iHeartMedia,
Speaker 1: please visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
Speaker 1: listen to your favorite shows,