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 avoid time black holes. It is easy to.
Speaker 2: Drift from intentions, but knowing what you intend to do
Speaker 2: and whether what you are doing matches up with that
Speaker 2: can help you make the most of your time.
Speaker 1: When people track their time, they sometimes discover that they
Speaker 1: lose a lot of time to drifting or puttering, pottering
Speaker 1: or zoning out, as some people describe it. The moment
Speaker 1: comes to record how they spent the last few hours,
Speaker 1: and they realize that some of the time wasn't spent
Speaker 1: on anything they can particularly remember. Maybe some time was
Speaker 1: spent scroll the Internet or wandering around the house tidying
Speaker 1: or opening and closing emails and calendar items. You can
Speaker 1: probably identify your own personal black holes of time, but
Speaker 1: time is precious.
Speaker 2: It pays to be intentional about how you want to
Speaker 2: use a chunk of time, and to notice and course
Speaker 2: correct if you find yourself drifting away from that purpose.
Speaker 2: If you sat down to write a blog post, or
Speaker 2: plan the agenda for your department meeting, or write a
Speaker 2: lesson plan, notice if you find yourself doing something totally unrelated,
Speaker 2: then you can stop and redirect. Of course, your intention
Speaker 2: for your time won't always be to do work. We
Speaker 2: can drift from intended leisure or relationship time too. If
Speaker 2: you plan to spend time with your partner and realize
Speaker 2: you are actually on your phone doing nothing of consequence,
Speaker 2: you can notice that you've drifted and put your phone away.
Speaker 2: If you plan to play with your kids but realize
Speaker 2: that you have actually drifted to tidying, you can stop
Speaker 2: tidying and refocus on the kids. Whatever you have intended
Speaker 2: to do with your time, be sure that you are
Speaker 2: actually doing that if you find that easier in theory
Speaker 2: than in practice, I can offer some strategies that may help. First,
Speaker 2: and this is always the first step, track your time
Speaker 2: for a week or so. Seeing in black and white
Speaker 2: what you actually do with your time is incredibly powerful
Speaker 2: for building self awareness. It may also help to verbalize
Speaker 2: to yourself how you are going to spend the chunk
Speaker 2: of time that is about to start. I am going
Speaker 2: to do laundry now, I am editing this document, I
Speaker 2: am about to connect with my partner. Set an explicit
Speaker 2: intention for the time. When you happen to notice what
Speaker 2: time it is. Because you walk past a clock or
Speaker 2: hear a chime, or look at your watch or phone,
Speaker 2: Recall what you've been doing for the last half hour
Speaker 2: and what you intended to be doing. If you wandered
Speaker 2: away from your intentions, return to what you meant to
Speaker 2: be doing with a period of time. It can also
Speaker 2: be helpful to have a name for when your behavior
Speaker 2: diverges from your intentions. Sometime trackers refer to this as
Speaker 2: being a drift or zoned out, puttering, or entering a
Speaker 2: black hole. Then develop pocket phrases to remind yourself not
Speaker 2: to diverge from your intentions. You might say, don't go adrift,
Speaker 2: or something along those lines. Note how it feels to
Speaker 2: return to what.
Speaker 1: You plan to do. Note also how satisfying it is
Speaker 1: to know how you spend your time. If you are
Speaker 1: tracking your time, you'll be able to record it more effectively.
Speaker 1: If we want to make the most of our time,
Speaker 1: we need to be intentional about where the time is going.
Speaker 1: That means noticing when you go adrift so you can
Speaker 1: get back on course in the meantime. This is Laura,
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening, and here's to making the most of
Speaker 1: our time. Hey, everybody. I'd love to hear from you.
Speaker 1: You 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 pod. You can also shoot me an email at
Speaker 1: Before Breakfast Podcasts at iHeartMedia dot com that Before Breakfast
Speaker 1: is spelled out with all the letters. Thanks so much,
Speaker 1: should I look forward to staying in touch. Before Breakfast
Speaker 1: is a production of iHeartRadio.
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