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 look at the next year's schedule. Many
Speaker 1: organizations and institutions create their calendars a year or more
Speaker 1: ahead of time, and the calendar already exists for pretty
Speaker 1: much any future year that you might be alive to experience.
Speaker 1: So why not look ahead a little bit so you
Speaker 1: can be prepared. So a year or so ago, my
Speaker 1: choir director was mentioning choosing a work for the spring concert,
Speaker 1: and he noted that in twenty twenty four we could
Speaker 1: choose a longer, more challenging work for late spring, since Easter,
Speaker 1: which we also sing a lot for, would be early.
Speaker 1: I hadn't really thought about that, but sure enough, I
Speaker 1: looked at the calendar and saw that Easter would be
Speaker 1: March thirty. First, I looked at my kid's school calendar,
Speaker 1: which the district had posted a year ahead of time, too,
Speaker 1: and saw that spring break would be the last week
Speaker 1: of March, a reality which can suggest slightly different planning
Speaker 1: than when it's in late April. I then decided to
Speaker 1: keep looking ahead and saw that since Christmas falls on
Speaker 1: a Wednesday in twenty twenty four. That year's Christmas break
Speaker 1: that is the one that straddles twenty twenty four into
Speaker 1: twenty twenty five, will be almost two weeks long. I
Speaker 1: have been fantasizing about a trip to the Southern Hemisphere,
Speaker 1: and while I don't know if that will happen, that
Speaker 1: would be a much better year to do it than
Speaker 1: a year when the kids only get a week off
Speaker 1: over the holidays. Yes, all of this is a long
Speaker 1: time in the future, and yes I planned far ahead
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty and wound up with everything canceled. Still,
Speaker 1: there are certain things that are unlikely to happen if
Speaker 1: you don't plan ahead, and looking at the upcoming calendar
Speaker 1: can help you think about possibilities. So why not take
Speaker 1: a little time to do it. If your kid's school
Speaker 1: calendar for upcoming years has been published, look at it.
Speaker 1: If you are part of another huge institution, like a university,
Speaker 1: you can look at those calendars too. Certain holidays that
Speaker 1: move around each year, like Easter or Thanksgiving, might be
Speaker 1: worth studying, and it might be helpful to see the
Speaker 1: day of the week that holidays fall on too. That's
Speaker 1: because when something like the fourth of July happens on
Speaker 1: a Wednesday, that winds up being a peak week for traveling,
Speaker 1: since many offices will be closed for part of it.
Speaker 1: But many people don't look at this, and they noticed
Speaker 1: this only a few weeks before. If you look enough
Speaker 1: ahead of time, you could put in a request for
Speaker 1: time off if you need to do that. You can
Speaker 1: also avoid randomly scheduling stuff like a doctor's appointment for
Speaker 1: the week of July fourth that you are just going
Speaker 1: to wind up canceling once you see the holiday falls
Speaker 1: midweek and you know you'll want to be gone. You
Speaker 1: can also avoid getting caught unaware. If school ends on
Speaker 1: a Monday or Tuesday in June. Most camps won't start
Speaker 1: until the Monday after. If you will need to work,
Speaker 1: best to know that you'll need to figure out coverage
Speaker 1: for those days. More lead time just means more options anyway.
Speaker 1: I know we can spend too much time pondering the future.
Speaker 1: I am well aware of that. However, I don't think
Speaker 1: there's any problem with just being generally aware of the
Speaker 1: contours of the future. Given that many institutions do create
Speaker 1: their schedules quite a bit ahead of time. This allows
Speaker 1: you the chance to plan ahead for days off and
Speaker 1: to make more seamless transitions. You don't need to solve
Speaker 1: all problems or seize all possibilities, but it becomes easier
Speaker 1: to do so when you know at least roughly what
Speaker 1: the calendar looks like. So look ahead to next year's
Speaker 1: schedule and you can start figuring out how to make
Speaker 1: the upcoming years the best they can possibly be. In
Speaker 1: the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's
Speaker 1: to making the most of our time. Hey, everybody, I'd
Speaker 1: love to hear from you. You can send me your tips,
Speaker 1: your questions, 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 than 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.
Speaker 1: Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts
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