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 use time when you're working but
Speaker 1: others aren't for deeper work. Make the most of time
Speaker 1: when you'll have few meetings or requests to make progress
Speaker 1: on projects requiring more concentration, and you will be amazed
Speaker 1: by what you can get done. Many of us have
Speaker 1: had the experience of working on a day when a
Speaker 1: lot of other people are not working. Maybe it's that
Speaker 1: you've decided not to take time off between Christmas and
Speaker 1: New Year's or another common vacation day like the day
Speaker 1: after Thanksgiving. Sometimes people choose to work a half day
Speaker 1: on a weekend or offset hours. Back when I used
Speaker 1: to travel for work, I've noticed that every time I
Speaker 1: flew to the West Coast, I'd wake up around four
Speaker 1: thirty in the morning, Since it felt like seven thirty
Speaker 1: to me, I could work for three to four hours
Speaker 1: before my first meeting and feel like I was getting
Speaker 1: all kinds of stuff done. In any case, working at
Speaker 1: times when others aren't creates prime conditions for focus. Most
Speaker 1: people aren't going to schedule a meeting for Saturday morning
Speaker 1: or four five am. Most people aren't even going to
Speaker 1: be sending new messages at this time. And while I
Speaker 1: can tell you to just ignore your inboxer phone, many
Speaker 1: people have trouble doing that. If you work in an office,
Speaker 1: using these off hours means you won't have folks stopping
Speaker 1: by or distracting you with background noise. Now I am
Speaker 1: not saying you should always work on weekends or early
Speaker 1: mornings just to get some quiet, but on the days
Speaker 1: when you do get some of this time, well use it.
Speaker 1: Figure out which projects most deserve of these uninterrupted stretches
Speaker 1: of time. Which projects will get more traction when you
Speaker 1: can devote longer to them than the fifteen minutes of
Speaker 1: quiet time you usually get. Maybe you want to focus
Speaker 1: on something strategic, developing ideas or plans for a new project,
Speaker 1: or figuring out how to refine an existing service or
Speaker 1: reconfigure your team. Extended chunks of time are great for
Speaker 1: long format writing as well a presentation, a book proposal,
Speaker 1: performance reviews for your direct reports that feel well thought through.
Speaker 1: All of these are great ideas. I know it's tempting
Speaker 1: to think, Hey, I have fewer messages coming in so
Speaker 1: I can finally clean out my inbox. But the truth
Speaker 1: is you can process email and edit a deck of
Speaker 1: slides or organize your desk anytime, so you are probably
Speaker 1: better off handling those activities when your workplace sis a
Speaker 1: buzz and your schedule is tightly packed. Reserve times that
Speaker 1: you're working and others aren't for those things that usually
Speaker 1: don't happen but should now. Of course, it's not always
Speaker 1: possible to anticipate when you'll get this time. Maybe, for instance,
Speaker 1: you've got child care on a snow day when many
Speaker 1: other people don't, so you'll get this time, but you
Speaker 1: might not know that more than a day ahead. But
Speaker 1: if you and your spouse, for instance, decide to each
Speaker 1: give each other three hours to work every other weekend, well,
Speaker 1: you know you will be getting this time, so plan
Speaker 1: for it. Figure out what qualifies as high priority deep
Speaker 1: work for you, and then don't put anything in there
Speaker 1: that would interrupt this time. Even a quick phone check
Speaker 1: in with someone might distract your brain if you're watching
Speaker 1: the clock for the appointed time, stopping deep work before
Speaker 1: and then cycling in after. Best to keep the schedule
Speaker 1: clear an open span of time when you know you'll
Speaker 1: be able to concentrate is awesome. So if you are
Speaker 1: working while others play, commit to making the most of it,
Speaker 1: you might start looking for other opportunities to make this
Speaker 1: quiet time happen to 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 you.
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 the number four, then breakfast
Speaker 1: p o D. You can also shoot me an email
Speaker 1: at Before Breakfast podcast at iHeart media dot com that
Speaker 1: Before Breakfast is spelled out with all the letters. Thanks
Speaker 1: so much, I look forward to staying in touch. Before
Speaker 1: Breakfast is a production of I Heart Radio. For more
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Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.