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Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning.

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Speaker 1: This is Laura, Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's

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Speaker 1: tip is that work is a perfectly good reason to

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Speaker 1: decline to do something. Even if you work flexibly, no

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Speaker 1: one else is going to protect your work hours for you.

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Speaker 1: If you are serious about doing big things, then you

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Speaker 1: need enough space to work. So if someone works full

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Speaker 1: time in an office, most people understand that they will

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Speaker 1: not be readily available for certain things. When the neighbors

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Speaker 1: dog walker cancels, they do not ask if you can

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Speaker 1: cover if they know that you are sitting in an

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Speaker 1: office thirty minutes away. Men who work full time in particular,

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Speaker 1: seem not to attract these sorts of requests. I know

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Speaker 1: from stories people send me that even if the male

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Speaker 1: half of a two parent family is listed as the

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Speaker 1: first contact for the school, the school will often still

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Speaker 1: call the woman because it's assumed that the man is

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Speaker 1: working and can't be interrupted. Mom, on the other hand,

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Speaker 1: is free game. This is of course frustrating in families

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Speaker 1: where mom is working far less flexibly than dad, but

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Speaker 1: cultural assumptions can run pretty deep. Now, I would note

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Speaker 1: that even so called not flexible work turns out to

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Speaker 1: be more flexible than people often think. It was once

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Speaker 1: assumed that medicine wasn't flexible at all. When women became

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Speaker 1: a higher percentage of physicians, all of a sudden, people

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Speaker 1: started writing think pieces about medicine being a flexible career.

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Speaker 1: In a lot of cases, people who work full time

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Speaker 1: in offices could in fact volunteer somewhere during the day,

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Speaker 1: or pick someone up from the airport or run a carpool.

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Speaker 1: It would just be inconvenient, and they might need to

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Speaker 1: explain themselves, and what they're being asked to do is

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Speaker 1: not as high a priority as the inconvenience they would face.

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Speaker 1: Work provides a ready reason to say no that people

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Speaker 1: don't really question. Hence, the existence of work often keeps

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Speaker 1: these requests from ever even bubbling to the surface. Even

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Speaker 1: if you work flexibly, though this can still be the case,

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Speaker 1: the inconvenience factor or the opportunity cost feels bigger to

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Speaker 1: you than doing whatever it is that people think you

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Speaker 1: can do. If morning hours are your most productive hours

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Speaker 1: of the day, then just because you theoretically could drive

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Speaker 1: your kids to school every morning doesn't mean you should.

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Speaker 1: Just because you theoretically could do a dentist appointment at

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Speaker 1: ten a m. Doesn't mean you should. The dentist probably

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Speaker 1: offers other appointments that are not during your peak productive times.

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Speaker 1: So if they call and ask if you can move

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Speaker 1: yours will you'll be working. They need to find a

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Speaker 1: different spot that works for you. If someone asks you

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Speaker 1: to do something at a time when you would like

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Speaker 1: to be working, you can simply announce that you can't,

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Speaker 1: even if you do not have something scheduled at that moment.

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Speaker 1: This is time that you can use for long term projects,

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Speaker 1: or to pitch new work, or to reach out to people,

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Speaker 1: or to think. Those may all be more valuable to

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Speaker 1: you than whatever else you could theoretically be doing. If

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Speaker 1: you like, you can use the phrase I wish I could,

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Speaker 1: but I'll be working even if you are not on

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Speaker 1: the clock, even if you don't have a scheduled meeting,

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Speaker 1: even if you don't have a looming deadline. It is

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Speaker 1: absolutely valid to protect your worktime. Frankly, it may be

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Speaker 1: even more important to protect your worktime if you work flexibly,

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Speaker 1: because no one else is going to protect it for you.

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Speaker 1: If the little white lie of claiming you are wishing

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Speaker 1: to do whatever it is doesn't sit well, and I'll

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Speaker 1: admit that it doesn't really for me. Then skip that

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Speaker 1: part of the statement. You can simply say I'll be

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Speaker 1: working or sorry, that doesn't work, I'll be working now.

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Speaker 1: Of course, there are exceptions, as there are for people

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Speaker 1: in offices too. If a close fender family member has

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Speaker 1: an emergency and needs you, you want to be there

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Speaker 1: for them. But I would use the same standards if

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Speaker 1: you work flexibly, as if you worked in an office

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Speaker 1: and had to ask your boss's permission to tend to

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Speaker 1: an urgent matter, it would need to be a really

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Speaker 1: good reason. For other cases, if you were planning to work,

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Speaker 1: you can just decline your work is valid even if

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Speaker 1: it doesn't look exactly like other people's work. It still

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Speaker 1: takes time and your time is valuable in the meantime.

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Speaker 1: This is Laura, Thanks for listening to making the most

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Speaker 1: of our time. Thanks for listening to Before Breakfast. If

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Speaker 1: you've got questions, ideas, or feedback, you can reach me

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Speaker 1: at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast is

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Speaker 1: a production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts from iHeartMedia, please

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Speaker 1: visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen

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Speaker 1: to your favorite shows,