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 about how to make plans without feeling
Speaker 1: too restricted by your plans. So the title I gave
Speaker 1: this episode is time management Dehumanizing, came from an interesting
Speaker 1: letter I got from a Before Breakfast listener named in Yes.
Speaker 1: She wrote that after listening to the podcast, she always
Speaker 1: felt encouraged to plan things out and schedule her life
Speaker 1: because she believed this would help her set priorities and
Speaker 1: build the life she wants. But then she continued, However,
Speaker 1: calculating in advance what I am going to do in
Speaker 1: my personal and professional life feels a bit overwhelming and
Speaker 1: dehumanizing because everything stops being spontaneous and every single hour
Speaker 1: is planned out. Is your perspective on this any different, Well,
Speaker 1: in a word, yes. First, I'd point out that when
Speaker 1: people talk about time management being dehumanizing, usually they mean
Speaker 1: that it's actually too human controlled. Some parts of time
Speaker 1: are purely natural phenomenon days, years. People tend not to
Speaker 1: feel too restricted by the fact that the sun keeps
Speaker 1: rising and setting over and over again. It's other smaller
Speaker 1: time units, such as hours and minutes that are human inventions.
Speaker 1: These smaller inventions became very important and standardized during the
Speaker 1: Industrial Revolution, when it suddenly mattered when the trains came
Speaker 1: into a station or what time factory workers came for
Speaker 1: their shifts. The idea of scheduling in these small human
Speaker 1: increments is what can sometimes feel alienating and restricting. But
Speaker 1: I don't believe this has to be the case. I mean,
Speaker 1: to me, time management is about freedom. Because I know
Speaker 1: my priorities for any given week, I know that I
Speaker 1: can still make progress even if everything falls apart. If
Speaker 1: I plan my work out well, I won't be rushing
Speaker 1: to meet deadlines. And as I've learned over the years,
Speaker 1: no one likes to feel rushed. Because I think about
Speaker 1: how I'll spend my time on weekends, I tend to
Speaker 1: have pretty good ones with various adventures. I don't feel
Speaker 1: like I lose my weekends to mindless scrolling or chores
Speaker 1: and errands. I also think that there is a huge
Speaker 1: gap between planning every minute or every hour and planning nothing.
Speaker 1: I actually don't recommend that people plan every minute. That's
Speaker 1: because stuff you haven't considered is going to come up always.
Speaker 1: If every minute of a day is booked. When an
Speaker 1: emergency happens, all that other stuff has to be chucked.
Speaker 1: That's why people feel overwhelmed and behind. But if you've
Speaker 1: only booked about fifty percent of your day, then you've
Speaker 1: got room for a whole half day of emergencies before
Speaker 1: you're any worse for wear. So you have my permission
Speaker 1: not to plan every hour. Please don't leave as much
Speaker 1: open space as you can. And then I think you
Speaker 1: can still get the benefits of planning without the feeling
Speaker 1: of restriction by setting some limited intentions for any given day.
Speaker 1: For a week day, what are three professional intentions that
Speaker 1: will help advance me toward my goals? Then what one
Speaker 1: to two things could I do in my personal time
Speaker 1: that would be meaningful or enjoyable for me and the
Speaker 1: people I care about. A weekend might feature three to
Speaker 1: five intentions. That's really not a whole lot. There are
Speaker 1: sixty hours between that six pm Friday beer and that's
Speaker 1: six am Monday morning alarm clock. Five intentions is basically
Speaker 1: a rate of one intention every twelve hours. That can
Speaker 1: leave a lot of open space and no real sense
Speaker 1: of restriction. But then you can also do cool stuff
Speaker 1: that does require planning ahead, such as eating at restaurants
Speaker 1: where it's wise to make a reservation, or going on
Speaker 1: a hike with friends who probably have a busy schedule too,
Speaker 1: or volunteering somewhere that shockingly enough wants their volunteers to
Speaker 1: commit to showing up to me, that's not dehumanizing. Instead,
Speaker 1: it's really the best of both worlds, open space plus
Speaker 1: stuff that you know will make memories. Now, I suspect
Speaker 1: many people who listened to a time management podcast probably
Speaker 1: already agree with me. But if you're the sort who
Speaker 1: finds planning to feel restrictive, I would love to learn
Speaker 1: how you've reached a balance in your life. Feel free
Speaker 1: to email me at Before Breakfast podcast at i heeart
Speaker 1: media dot com. In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks
Speaker 1: for listening, and here's to making the most of our time. Hey, everybody,
Speaker 1: I'd love to hear from you. You can send me
Speaker 1: your tips, your questions, or anything else. Just connect with
Speaker 1: me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at Before Breakfast pod
Speaker 1: that's B the number four then Breakfast p o D.
Speaker 1: You can also shoot me an email at Before Breakfast
Speaker 1: podcast at i heeart media dot com that Before Breakfast
Speaker 1: is spelled out with all the letters. Thanks so much.
Speaker 1: I look forward to staying in touch, but for Breakfast
Speaker 1: is a production of I heart Radio. For more podcasts
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