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 understand your weekly rhythms. When you
Speaker 1: know how your energy and commitments EBB and flow, you
Speaker 1: can use this information to plan more effective weeks. Most
Speaker 1: of us have some awareness of our daily rhythms. If
Speaker 1: you are like a lot of people, you may find
Speaker 1: that mornings tend to be a better time for you
Speaker 1: to work on demanding projects. By afternoon, on the other hand,
Speaker 1: you may be rapidly losing steam, or perhaps you know
Speaker 1: that you are on fire at ten pm at night.
Speaker 1: That's why you tell everyone that you are a night owl.
Speaker 1: But you may be less attuned to your weekly of
Speaker 1: them the patterns of mental energy that you experience in
Speaker 1: a typical week. For instance, many folks who work a
Speaker 1: Monday through Friday week find that they are sharpest on
Speaker 1: Tuesdays and Wednesdays. They have a weekend jet lag of
Speaker 1: sorts on Mondays and Friday's feel good for little but
Speaker 1: sliding into the weekend. On the other hand, if you
Speaker 1: plan your weeks on Fridays so you know what you
Speaker 1: need to tackle Monday morning and you plan weekends that
Speaker 1: are rejuvenating and don't involve going to bed past midnight,
Speaker 1: then maybe Monday is go time for you. That is
Speaker 1: important to observe as well. Either way, you want to
Speaker 1: identify your peak days and then plan accordingly. You don't
Speaker 1: want to let those days get packed with low value
Speaker 1: meetings and especially not in the mornings. Make sure any
Speaker 1: peak day morning meeting are about your top priority matters.
Speaker 1: If not, reschedule and try to carve out some peak
Speaker 1: energy time for what productivity expert cal Newport calls deep work.
Speaker 1: As for your lower value days, those might be good
Speaker 1: for batching the little things, scheduling catchups that are nice
Speaker 1: to do but not critical, and getting on top of email. Well,
Speaker 1: not that we will ever be on top of email,
Speaker 1: but if Monday morning is your peak time, you probably
Speaker 1: don't want to spend Monday morning cleaning out your inbox.
Speaker 1: If you haven't answered an email already by Monday morning,
Speaker 1: it can probably wait until Wednesday afternoon. Along with varying
Speaker 1: the kind of work you do during different parts of
Speaker 1: the week, you may decide to vary the length of
Speaker 1: your days based on weekly rhythms as well. If you
Speaker 1: hit Monday morning, ready to go. Maybe you could choose
Speaker 1: to work a longer day, say eight am until seven pm,
Speaker 1: and then nine to five the rest of the week.
Speaker 1: It maybe nine to three on Fridays, or for folks
Speaker 1: who are turbo charged Tuesday through Thursday, Monday and Friday
Speaker 1: could be intentionally shorter days. Another approach is to push
Speaker 1: hard Monday and Tuesday and then have a slightly shorter
Speaker 1: Wednesday to get recharged for the end of the week.
Speaker 1: By being able to anticipate when you'll be at your
Speaker 1: sharpest and when you won't, you can plan your weeks
Speaker 1: in a way that sets you up for success. You
Speaker 1: can manage your energy and manage your workload to make
Speaker 1: more seem possible. In the meantime, this is Laura, Thanks
Speaker 1: for listening, and here's to making the most of our time.
Speaker 1: M Hey, everybody, I'd love to hear from you. You
Speaker 1: can send me your tips, your questions, or anything else.
Speaker 1: Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at
Speaker 1: Before Breakfast Pod that's b E the number four then
Speaker 1: breakfast p o D. You can also shoot me an
Speaker 1: email at Before Breakfast Podcast at i heeart media dot com.
Speaker 1: That Before Breakfast is spelled out with all the letters.
Speaker 1: Thanks so much, I look forward to staying in touch.
Speaker 1: Before Breakfast is a production of I heart Radio. For
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Speaker 1: favorite shows.