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 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 our 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 our 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 accurate, just aim for a
Speaker 1: rough account of where your time went. On my website
Speaker 1: Laura Vanderkam dot com, you can access the kinds of
Speaker 1: spreadsheets that I use to track time, but it's pretty
Speaker 1: easy to make your own. Put the days of the
Speaker 1: week across the top of the spreadsheet and half hour
Speaker 1: blocks down the left hand side. Mind, go from five
Speaker 1: am to four thirty am. You could also use a
Speaker 1: time tracking app or a notebook or an index card
Speaker 1: or anything you want. Check in three times a day
Speaker 1: and write down what you did since the last time
Speaker 1: you checked in. Then, after you have finished time tracking,
Speaker 1: take out a highlighter and see if you can identify
Speaker 1: any instances of being our foolish. Maybe you made three
Speaker 1: trips to the grocery store last week and each took
Speaker 1: about an hour. Could you make a better plan and
Speaker 1: just go once, or go to a closer store, or
Speaker 1: go at a time when the lines were shorter. If
Speaker 1: you drive to lots of kid activities, can you set
Speaker 1: up carpools? It might take an hour or two to organize,
Speaker 1: that's for sure, but that will pay off and freed
Speaker 1: up hours every week, probably for months and possibly for years.
Speaker 1: If you spend a lot of time cooking or cleaning,
Speaker 1: maybe you can enlist other family members or do things
Speaker 1: more simply. Think grilled cheese sandwiches and a bagged salad
Speaker 1: for dinner rather than three dishes requiring three pans apiece.
Speaker 1: You know what I mean? And the key here, let's
Speaker 1: not at work off the hook This is the equivalent
Speaker 1: of your house payment when it comes to money. If
Speaker 1: you are contracted for a certain number of hours, then
Speaker 1: you need to work that amount of time. But for
Speaker 1: a lot of knowledge work, and particularly in this era
Speaker 1: of remote work, time is far more fluid. There is
Speaker 1: no point searching for hacks to save seconds on email,
Speaker 1: like typing K instead of okay. When you are scheduling
Speaker 1: yourself into thirty minute meetings that could have been handled
Speaker 1: with a two minute phone call, could you check email
Speaker 1: less often? Do you need to work at night after
Speaker 1: the kids go to bed, or you're just doing it
Speaker 1: out of habit? Do you sit at your desk until
Speaker 1: five pm exactly, even though you have accomplished your major
Speaker 1: tasks for the day and no one cares about your
Speaker 1: exact hours. In any case, one of the best reasons
Speaker 1: to be our wise is that it allows you to
Speaker 1: be a little minute lush if you want. One of
Speaker 1: my favorite parts of working for myself is that I
Speaker 1: am almost never stuck in meetings I don't want to
Speaker 1: be in. That is ours that don't disappear down the
Speaker 1: hour glass. If I occasionally want to make an inefficient
Speaker 1: trip to the post office during the work day. It
Speaker 1: is totally fine. How are you our wise with your time?
Speaker 1: You can let me know at Laura at Laura Vanderkam
Speaker 1: dot com. In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for
Speaker 1: 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 E number four then Breakfast p o D.
Speaker 1: You can also shoot me an email at Before Breakfast
Speaker 1: podcast at iHeartMedia dot com. That Before Breakfast is spelled
Speaker 1: out with all the letters. Thanks so much. Should I
Speaker 1: look forward to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is a
Speaker 1: production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts from my
Speaker 1: heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Yea