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 that during times when you are likely to
Speaker 1: be interrupted, choose work that is interruptible. We all have
Speaker 1: some sorts of work that are easier to pause and
Speaker 1: pick back up than others. So make smart choices for
Speaker 1: times when you will experience interruptions, and you will avoid
Speaker 1: frustration and probably get more done. So my weekday mornings
Speaker 1: are fairly drawn out. I have five kids at four
Speaker 1: different schools with different start times. I'm usually not managing
Speaker 1: all of this on my own, but even with a
Speaker 1: husband and child care help, I know that until everyone
Speaker 1: is out of the house, I am not going to
Speaker 1: have complete quiet. But that doesn't mean I can't get
Speaker 1: anything done. Ar nanny comes to work at eight a m.
Speaker 1: And leaves with the little boys for school around eight
Speaker 1: forty a m. I am not officially on during those
Speaker 1: forty minutes with the kids, but the odds of a
Speaker 1: kid interrupting me for something are quite high, so I
Speaker 1: choose interruptible work. This means that I answer blog comments
Speaker 1: or emails from readers. I'll fill out my time log
Speaker 1: I'll tackle administrative matters, or maybe work on a content
Speaker 1: calendar for my newsletters or various shows. Then once the
Speaker 1: little boys are in the car and out of the
Speaker 1: house at eight forty, it's time to switch over to
Speaker 1: deeper work. This is when I get going on harder
Speaker 1: writing or editing or recording. I am far less likely
Speaker 1: to be interrupted, so I choose work that I would
Speaker 1: prefer not to have be interrupted. Maybe for you, the
Speaker 1: interruptions aren't kids who can't find their trumpet or water bottle.
Speaker 1: Maybe it's a junior colleague who always has questions at
Speaker 1: the beginning of the day. Or maybe your interruptions come
Speaker 1: from a contractor who asks a question every five minutes
Speaker 1: for his first hour at your house. Maybe you have
Speaker 1: to transfer from one train line to another before you
Speaker 1: get a nice long stretch where you can sit and focus.
Speaker 1: Whatever the nature of your interruptions, it pays to be
Speaker 1: honest about them and to notice when you are most
Speaker 1: likely to experience interruptions and when you may be able
Speaker 1: to block some time for uninterrupted work. If you know
Speaker 1: a period of time is likely to be full of interruptions,
Speaker 1: choose tasks that you can easily get into and out
Speaker 1: of For most of us, that is stuff like processing email,
Speaker 1: like copy editing, paying bills, filling out forms. You'll be
Speaker 1: able to check these things off your list and be
Speaker 1: free to dive into your most important work at a
Speaker 1: better time. Now, to be sure, we do need to
Speaker 1: be careful about this. If you do have potential deep
Speaker 1: work time, you don't want to spend the first forty
Speaker 1: five minutes of it clearing the decks, So be clear
Speaker 1: that this is interruptible time before you wade into the shallows. Also,
Speaker 1: if you have a life where the interruptions never stop,
Speaker 1: maybe you need to do something about that, like renting
Speaker 1: an office if you are working from home, or establishing
Speaker 1: some office hours for interacting with colleagues. But if your
Speaker 1: day just features the normal mix of interruptible time and
Speaker 1: focus time, then choose the right work for the right time.
Speaker 1: If you are going to be interrupted, choose interruptible work.
Speaker 1: We all have some and it probably does have to
Speaker 1: get done eventually, so better not to choose time for
Speaker 1: it that could have been better spent doing something else
Speaker 1: in the meantime. This is Laura. Thanks for listening, and
Speaker 1: here's to making the most of our talk. Thanks for
Speaker 1: listening to Before Breakfast. If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback,
Speaker 1: you can reach me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com.
Speaker 1: Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts
Speaker 1: from iHeartMedia, please visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
Speaker 1: wherever you listen to your favorite shows.