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 pay attention to what matters, not
Speaker 1: just what's happening. When we look at our days and weeks,
Speaker 1: it's easy to focus mostly on the scheduled commitments. But
Speaker 1: those scheduled commitments probably aren't the sum total of what
Speaker 1: we should be doing with our time. It is important
Speaker 1: to keep them in perspective. For some people, there is
Speaker 1: a lot of alignment between their schedules and their professional priorities.
Speaker 1: Medical professionals, hair stylists, and tutors, for instance, do most
Speaker 1: of their work during appointments with particular people. Sure there
Speaker 1: is some preparation and follow up, but if you perform
Speaker 1: sixteen medical procedures in a day, or cut and style
Speaker 1: a dozen people's hair, what matters and what happens are
Speaker 1: pretty much the same. For many knowledge workers, though this
Speaker 1: isn't the case. We have to focus on what we
Speaker 1: are producing. It is not enough to show up for
Speaker 1: various scheduled commitments. A day's accomplishments are not necessarily the
Speaker 1: four meetings on the schedule. It's what happens as a
Speaker 1: result of these meetings and how you move forward on
Speaker 1: your other ongoing projects that tends to matter most. In
Speaker 1: a recent episode, we talked about asking why before when
Speaker 1: Before you schedule a meeting, you want to know why
Speaker 1: the meeting is happening. This tip is related to that.
Speaker 1: It's about making sure there is a lot of why
Speaker 1: going on in your job, even if there seems to
Speaker 1: be a lot of when going on too. Perhaps you
Speaker 1: have a weekly status meeting about a big project, so
Speaker 1: naturally you attend that meeting every week, but that doesn't
Speaker 1: mean that anything has happened on this project. You also
Speaker 1: have to make progress between the meetings. The fact that
Speaker 1: the meeting appears on your schedule and happens isn't necessarily
Speaker 1: evidence that you've done much of anything. Or maybe you
Speaker 1: have client meetings but your work isn't complete when the
Speaker 1: meeting is over. The question that matters is what are
Speaker 1: you doing that will help the client achieve her goals. Unfortunately,
Speaker 1: as they think about their schedules, a lot of people
Speaker 1: don't flip this mental switch. A day with six meetings
Speaker 1: might be deemed a full day. A day with one
Speaker 1: or none might be a light day. But is it
Speaker 1: if you came up with an idea for a new
Speaker 1: business line or the right way to pitch a new
Speaker 1: client on that light day, you would get a lot
Speaker 1: more done than you might during six chickens. But the
Speaker 1: tendency is to see the hard landscape, as David Allen
Speaker 1: would put it, as the day, and it is part
Speaker 1: of the day, but it is probably not the only
Speaker 1: thing that needs to happen. The key is to recognize
Speaker 1: that you can have back to back appointments all day
Speaker 1: long but still not add much of value for your
Speaker 1: employer or your career. This is a hard truth, but
Speaker 1: if it is any consolation, it is not a new truth.
Speaker 1: I have been reading War and Peace this year, one
Speaker 1: short chapter per day, and Tolstoy writes of a main character,
Speaker 1: Prince Andre, getting himself appointed to a commission to reform
Speaker 1: the Russian military. He spends days calling upon various dignitaries,
Speaker 1: waiting to see them, going to see someone else, dealing
Speaker 1: with everyone's politics, repeating the same information. As Tolstoy writes,
Speaker 1: he was so busy for whole days to gather that
Speaker 1: he had no time to think about the fact that
Speaker 1: he was doing nothing. I don't want you to fall
Speaker 1: into this trap where you're so busy that you are
Speaker 1: getting nothing done. For many knowledge workers, scheduled calls and
Speaker 1: appointments are certainly tools to help you do your job.
Speaker 1: They might be critical components of your job, particularly if
Speaker 1: you're in management, but they are seldom the only component.
Speaker 1: I think it helps to think about this when you
Speaker 1: are planning your weeks. On Friday afternoons or whenever you plan,
Speaker 1: don't just look at your scheduled commitments for the week.
Speaker 1: Also consider what priorities you need to make progress on.
Speaker 1: What projects and deliverables are important for you and your
Speaker 1: organization right now. Know exactly what needs to be done
Speaker 1: by next Friday. Do you need to train a new employee,
Speaker 1: write a report for a client, host the first event
Speaker 1: for an employee, volunteering initiative. All of these might involve
Speaker 1: scheduled commitments, but there is also an outcome to keep
Speaker 1: your mind on, So make sure you don't make the
Speaker 1: mistake of seeing scheduled commitments as the point of what
Speaker 1: you're doing. Ideally, they are helping you get to the
Speaker 1: point if you focus on what matters rather than what's
Speaker 1: happening in the meantime. This is Laura. Thanks for listening
Speaker 1: 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 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. Before Breakfast is
Speaker 1: a production of I heart Radio. For more podcasts from
Speaker 1: I heart Radio, visit the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Yea