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 not be minute wise an hour foolish.
Speaker 1: Get the big stuff right, and then you don't need
Speaker 1: to worry as much about the little things. You have
Speaker 1: probably heard the saying to not be penny wise and
Speaker 1: pound foolish, or I guess dollar foolish if we're using
Speaker 1: American currency. The idea is that people often obsess about
Speaker 1: small amounts of money while giving the big ones a pass.
Speaker 1: You can spend a lot of time and energy trying
Speaker 1: to find the cheapest gallon of milk or line drying
Speaker 1: clothes to save a few cents per load, But wouldn't
Speaker 1: it be better to spend a slightly smaller percent of
Speaker 1: your income on housing and then buy whatever milk you want.
Speaker 1: Or we might spend a lot of time filling out
Speaker 1: surveys online to make a few dollars when that time
Speaker 1: would have been better spent researching compensation in our industries
Speaker 1: and negotiating wisely for the next gig. There are many
Speaker 1: parallels between time and money. They are both limited resources.
Speaker 1: The equivalent saying with time would be to avoid being
Speaker 1: minute wise and hour foolish, and sadly, we are probably
Speaker 1: all guilty of behaving this way. From time to time.
Speaker 1: We become obsessed with hacks for shaving seconds off unloading
Speaker 1: the dishwasher, but don't stop to question why we are
Speaker 1: driving the kids to a dance studio on the other
Speaker 1: side of town when there are closer ones that are
Speaker 1: very similar. Better to put our energy where we can
Speaker 1: get the best returns. So how do we stop being
Speaker 1: minute wise and hour foolish? A great way to start
Speaker 1: is with time tracking. I'll talk more about this topic
Speaker 1: later this week, but in general, if you want to
Speaker 1: spend your time better, it helps to figure out where
Speaker 1: the time is going. Now, for at least a day,
Speaker 1: but ideally a week or two, keep track of how
Speaker 1: you spend every half hour. This log doesn't have to
Speaker 1: be beautifully presented or even one hundred percent accurate, just
Speaker 1: aim for a rough account of where your time went.
Speaker 1: On my website Laura vandercam dot com, you can access
Speaker 1: the kinds of spreadsheets that I use to track time,
Speaker 1: but it's pretty easy to make your own. Put the
Speaker 1: days of the week across the top of the spreadsheet
Speaker 1: and half hour blocks down the left hand side. Mine
Speaker 1: go from five am to four thirty am. You could
Speaker 1: also use a time tracking app or a notebook or
Speaker 1: an index card or anything you want. Check in three
Speaker 1: times a day and write down what you did since
Speaker 1: the last time you checked in. Then, after you have
Speaker 1: finished time tracking, take out a highlator and see if
Speaker 1: you can identify any instances of being our foolish. Maybe
Speaker 1: you made three trips to the grocery store last week
Speaker 1: and each took about an hour. Could you make a
Speaker 1: better plan and just go once, or go to a
Speaker 1: closer store, or go at a time when the lines
Speaker 1: were shorter. If you drive to lots of kid activities,
Speaker 1: can you set up carpools? It might take an hour
Speaker 1: or two to organize, that's for sure, but that will
Speaker 1: pay off and freed up hours every week, probably for
Speaker 1: months and possibly for years. If you spend a lot
Speaker 1: of time cooking or cleaning, maybe you can enlist other
Speaker 1: family members or do things more simply. Think grilled cheese
Speaker 1: sandwiches and a bagged salad for dinner rather than three
Speaker 1: dishes requiring three pounds apiece. You know what I mean?
Speaker 1: And the key here, let's not let work off the hook.
Speaker 1: This is the equivalent of your house payment when it
Speaker 1: comes to money. If you are contracted for a certain
Speaker 1: number of hours, then you need to work that amount
Speaker 1: of time. But for a lot of knowledge work, and
Speaker 1: particularly in this era of remote work, time is far
Speaker 1: more fluid. There is no point searching for hacks to
Speaker 1: save seconds on email, like typing K instead of okay.
Speaker 1: When you are scheduling yourself into thirty minute meetings that
Speaker 1: could have been handled with a two minute phone call,
Speaker 1: could you check email less often? Do you need to
Speaker 1: work at night after the kids go to bed? Are
Speaker 1: you just doing it out of habit? Do you sit
Speaker 1: at your desk until five pm exactly, even though you
Speaker 1: have accomplished your major tasks for the day and no
Speaker 1: one cares about your exact hours. In any case, one
Speaker 1: of the best reasons to be hour wise is that
Speaker 1: it allows you to be a little minute four if
Speaker 1: you want. One of my favorite parts of working for
Speaker 1: myself is that I am almost never stuck in meetings
Speaker 1: I don't want to be in. That is, ours that
Speaker 1: don't disappear down the hour glass. If I occasionally want
Speaker 1: to make an inefficient trip to the post office during
Speaker 1: the workday. It is totally fine. How are you our
Speaker 1: wise with your time? You can let me know at
Speaker 1: Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. In the meantime, this
Speaker 1: is Laura. Thanks for listening and here's to making the
Speaker 1: most of our time. Hey, everybody, I'd love to hear
Speaker 1: from you. You can send me your tips, your questions,
Speaker 1: or anything else. Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook
Speaker 1: and Instagram at Before Breakfast Pod. That's b the number
Speaker 1: four then breakfast pod. You can also shoot me an
Speaker 1: email at Before Breakfast Podcasts at iHeartMedia dot com. That
Speaker 1: Before Breakfast is spelled out with all the letters. Thanks
Speaker 1: so much. Should I look forward to staying in touch.
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