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 build in travel time. Even if all
Speaker 1: of your meetings are virtual ones, you will keep yourself
Speaker 1: on schedule and you might be able to boost your
Speaker 1: energy levels too. So back in the old pre COVID days,
Speaker 1: people who worked in offices often needed to travel to
Speaker 1: different meetings.
Speaker 2: You would check which conference room you needed to report
Speaker 2: to for your one o'clock meeting, your two o'clock meeting,
Speaker 2: and so forth. If you worked for a big enough company,
Speaker 2: this could involve a reasonable hike. As a result, meetings
Speaker 2: either needed to end a few minutes before the hour,
Speaker 2: or they would generally all start a few minutes after
Speaker 2: the hour. This is nothing more than the natural consequence
Speaker 2: of people being unable to teleport, but it had some upsides. Namely,
Speaker 2: people had to stand up and move around every hour
Speaker 2: or so they'd get some steps in If your office
Speaker 2: park had different buildings, you might also get some fresh air.
Speaker 1: Even if you had back to back meetings. There was
Speaker 1: a little respite, at least for normal people without the
Speaker 1: clout to have everyone.
Speaker 2: Come to them.
Speaker 1: These days, a great Many meetings are virtual, and that
Speaker 1: is awesome. There's less commuting, less time spent on airplanes,
Speaker 1: and that is better for people and better for the environment. However,
Speaker 1: there is more of a temptation to have that one
Speaker 1: o'clock meeting go right up until two o'clock and you
Speaker 1: quickly click on over to your next link. Then you
Speaker 1: go right to three o'clock and boom, you click on
Speaker 1: the next one, and maybe you sneak a two minute
Speaker 1: bathroom break in there somewhere. But if people don't need
Speaker 1: to travel, then you don't technically have to end early
Speaker 1: or start a little later, but it is still a
Speaker 1: good idea to do so. People need breaks, They need
Speaker 1: time to write down the to dos that come out
Speaker 1: of each meeting. They need time to breathe and clear
Speaker 1: their heads, which can help them avoid burnout. Taking a
Speaker 1: few steps every hour or so is better for people's
Speaker 1: health than sitting still. Moving around also helps boost people's
Speaker 1: energy levels. So even if your meetings are virtual, build
Speaker 1: in travel time. If you meet with a lot of
Speaker 1: people from your same organization, then develop a culture where
Speaker 1: you end all all meetings ten minutes early, as in
Speaker 1: ten minutes before the hour for standard one hour meetings.
Speaker 1: You could obviously also start all meetings ten minutes late,
Speaker 1: which is really the same thing, but this is sometimes
Speaker 1: hard to explain to outsiders or get them to adopt
Speaker 1: it as easily when they are meeting with you. Ending
Speaker 1: earlier tends to feel more natural. When you are developing
Speaker 1: agendas for meetings, really lean into this. At ten point
Speaker 1: fifty that ten o'clock meeting has wrapped up. If someone
Speaker 1: sends you an agenda that goes for the full hour,
Speaker 1: ask if it can be shortened by a few minutes
Speaker 1: to allow for people to grab a coffee or think
Speaker 1: about their notes, or just note that you will need
Speaker 1: a few minutes of travel time. Maybe people won't even
Speaker 1: think about it. Most people were in that habit a
Speaker 1: few years ago, so unless you only work with people
Speaker 1: whose careers began after twenty twenty, you will probably all
Speaker 1: figure it out. And then when you do get ten
Speaker 1: minutes in between meetings, don't just check email tempting as
Speaker 1: that is. If you are at home, go outside for
Speaker 1: a few minutes, take your bathroom break if you need one,
Speaker 1: of course, but also focus on doing something active with
Speaker 1: this open space. You might be able to boost your
Speaker 1: energy levels by enough to make it through that next
Speaker 1: zoom meeting. And if you've got more than five or
Speaker 1: six of those on any given day, well I don't
Speaker 1: need to tell you that you can use all the
Speaker 1: energy boosts you can get in the meantime. This is Laura.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening, and here's to making the most of
Speaker 1: our time. Hey, everybody, I'd love to hear from him.
Speaker 1: You can send me your tips, your questions, or anything else.
Speaker 1: Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at
Speaker 1: Before Breakfast Pod. That's b E the number four then
Speaker 1: Breakfast pod. You can also shoot me an email at
Speaker 1: Before Breakfast Podcasts at iHeartMedia dot com That before Breakfast
Speaker 1: is spelled out with all the letters. Thanks so much.
Speaker 1: Should I look forward to staying in touch. Before Breakfast
Speaker 1: is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio,
Speaker 1: visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
Speaker 1: to your favorite shows.