WEBVTT - Take back your time 2020 - First things first

0:00:03.440 --> 0:00:06.720
<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of my Heart Radio.

0:00:09.480 --> 0:00:14.320
<v Speaker 1>Good Morning. This is Laura, Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.

0:00:15.160 --> 0:00:18.599
<v Speaker 1>Today's tip is the third in a five part series

0:00:19.000 --> 0:00:21.119
<v Speaker 1>on how to take control of your time in the

0:00:21.160 --> 0:00:25.360
<v Speaker 1>new year. This week, I'll be talking about five strategies

0:00:25.720 --> 0:00:27.920
<v Speaker 1>that I know will help you feel less busy and

0:00:28.000 --> 0:00:32.560
<v Speaker 1>get more done because they've definitely helped me. The first

0:00:32.600 --> 0:00:36.920
<v Speaker 1>strategy was to track your time. The second is to

0:00:37.000 --> 0:00:39.680
<v Speaker 1>build in an extra hour for something you'd really like

0:00:39.800 --> 0:00:46.680
<v Speaker 1>to do. The third strategy honor this phrase first things first.

0:00:48.080 --> 0:00:51.320
<v Speaker 1>My fellow productivity types will no doubt recognize this phrase

0:00:51.440 --> 0:00:54.560
<v Speaker 1>from the late Stephen Covey's famous book The Seven Habits

0:00:54.600 --> 0:00:58.320
<v Speaker 1>of Highly Effective People. Noting that people spent a ton

0:00:58.360 --> 0:01:01.560
<v Speaker 1>of time on things that were urgent but not important,

0:01:02.240 --> 0:01:04.399
<v Speaker 1>Covey urged people to spend more time on things that

0:01:04.440 --> 0:01:09.280
<v Speaker 1>were important but not urgent. By putting what he called

0:01:09.560 --> 0:01:14.480
<v Speaker 1>first things into our schedules first, we would massively increase

0:01:14.520 --> 0:01:19.600
<v Speaker 1>the chances that they'd happen. This is pretty much timeless advice.

0:01:20.240 --> 0:01:23.520
<v Speaker 1>Covey's book came out in nineteen ninety, which was before

0:01:23.600 --> 0:01:27.440
<v Speaker 1>people had smartphones. Digging all day long with group, text

0:01:27.440 --> 0:01:31.480
<v Speaker 1>comments and push notifications from apps. I'm not sure what

0:01:31.640 --> 0:01:35.720
<v Speaker 1>was urgent and not important in nineteen but it was

0:01:35.800 --> 0:01:40.560
<v Speaker 1>something people have always managed to waste time. But we

0:01:40.560 --> 0:01:44.040
<v Speaker 1>can choose to waste less time by treating what matters

0:01:44.080 --> 0:01:47.880
<v Speaker 1>to us as if it were urgent. If anyone listening

0:01:47.920 --> 0:01:50.040
<v Speaker 1>to this has watched my ted talk, then you've heard

0:01:50.040 --> 0:01:52.360
<v Speaker 1>me tell a story that's an example of this phenomenon.

0:01:53.240 --> 0:01:55.360
<v Speaker 1>I've seen thousands of time logs over the years, but

0:01:55.440 --> 0:01:57.840
<v Speaker 1>this particular one stood out. It was from a very

0:01:57.880 --> 0:02:00.960
<v Speaker 1>busy lady who worked in finance and had two young children.

0:02:01.720 --> 0:02:04.280
<v Speaker 1>She went out for a Wednesday night for something, only

0:02:04.320 --> 0:02:06.280
<v Speaker 1>to come home to find that her water heater had

0:02:06.280 --> 0:02:09.480
<v Speaker 1>broken and there was now water all over her basement.

0:02:10.680 --> 0:02:12.799
<v Speaker 1>Anyone who has had this happen to them knows it's

0:02:12.840 --> 0:02:15.919
<v Speaker 1>a huge mess, and her time log showed her dealing

0:02:15.960 --> 0:02:20.919
<v Speaker 1>with it, the aftermath, the plumbers, the cleaning crew. All

0:02:20.960 --> 0:02:23.560
<v Speaker 1>this was recorded on her time log and took about

0:02:23.560 --> 0:02:26.200
<v Speaker 1>seven hours of her week, which is quite a bit

0:02:26.200 --> 0:02:29.400
<v Speaker 1>of time. But when we talked about this afterwards, looking

0:02:29.400 --> 0:02:31.840
<v Speaker 1>at her log and discussed it, we said, well, what

0:02:31.880 --> 0:02:34.560
<v Speaker 1>if we'd had this conversation at the start of the week.

0:02:35.160 --> 0:02:37.040
<v Speaker 1>What if at the start of the week, we'd asked,

0:02:37.240 --> 0:02:40.960
<v Speaker 1>could you find seven hours for something that's a priority

0:02:41.000 --> 0:02:45.640
<v Speaker 1>to you, seven hours to train for a triathlon, seven

0:02:45.639 --> 0:02:48.160
<v Speaker 1>hours to set up those coffee dates with the people

0:02:48.200 --> 0:02:51.640
<v Speaker 1>who wanted her to mentor them. Well, no, of course

0:02:51.680 --> 0:02:54.160
<v Speaker 1>she couldn't just find seven hours. I mean, couldn't We

0:02:54.200 --> 0:02:57.840
<v Speaker 1>see how busy she was. But here's the thing. When

0:02:57.840 --> 0:03:00.639
<v Speaker 1>she had to find seven hours because was water all

0:03:00.639 --> 0:03:05.760
<v Speaker 1>over her basement, she found her seven hours. Time is

0:03:05.880 --> 0:03:10.720
<v Speaker 1>highly elastic. We cannot make more time, but time will

0:03:10.760 --> 0:03:14.639
<v Speaker 1>stretch to accommodate what we need or want to put

0:03:14.680 --> 0:03:18.120
<v Speaker 1>into it. And so the key to time management is

0:03:18.160 --> 0:03:22.080
<v Speaker 1>treating our priorities as the equivalent of that broken water heater.

0:03:23.000 --> 0:03:28.080
<v Speaker 1>We choose to get to them first things first. Now

0:03:28.200 --> 0:03:30.919
<v Speaker 1>I know this is easier said than done, but if

0:03:30.960 --> 0:03:33.400
<v Speaker 1>you think about your schedule this week, I want to

0:03:33.520 --> 0:03:36.720
<v Speaker 1>challenge you to look at it through this framework. If

0:03:36.760 --> 0:03:40.920
<v Speaker 1>something crazy happened, good or bad, you'd probably find the

0:03:40.960 --> 0:03:44.320
<v Speaker 1>time to deal with it. If your biggest client asked

0:03:44.320 --> 0:03:46.800
<v Speaker 1>you to come visit because she was about to drop

0:03:46.880 --> 0:03:49.800
<v Speaker 1>contracts for millions of dollars of work in your lap,

0:03:50.680 --> 0:03:53.560
<v Speaker 1>My guess is that you'd go. So what would you

0:03:53.600 --> 0:03:57.280
<v Speaker 1>not do as a result, Well, maybe that meeting about

0:03:57.400 --> 0:04:01.880
<v Speaker 1>office fridge policies would get rescheduled. So here's an idea.

0:04:02.680 --> 0:04:05.640
<v Speaker 1>If you keep saying you want to focus on client development,

0:04:06.040 --> 0:04:09.360
<v Speaker 1>if only you had the time, how about canceling that

0:04:09.440 --> 0:04:13.960
<v Speaker 1>meeting about fridge policies. Now, look at your schedule and

0:04:14.000 --> 0:04:17.479
<v Speaker 1>figure out what you chuck in an emergency, and then

0:04:17.560 --> 0:04:20.520
<v Speaker 1>ask yourself the hard question of whether it deserves a

0:04:20.560 --> 0:04:24.560
<v Speaker 1>place in your life. Now, you might be surprised how

0:04:24.600 --> 0:04:28.760
<v Speaker 1>much time becomes available when you think about putting first

0:04:29.040 --> 0:04:35.279
<v Speaker 1>things first. In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening,

0:04:36.000 --> 0:04:44.839
<v Speaker 1>and here's to making the most of our time. Hey, everybody,

0:04:45.080 --> 0:04:47.200
<v Speaker 1>I'd love to hear from you. You can send me

0:04:47.200 --> 0:04:50.880
<v Speaker 1>your tips, your questions, or anything else. Just connect with

0:04:50.880 --> 0:04:55.280
<v Speaker 1>me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at Before Breakfast Pod

0:04:55.960 --> 0:05:00.320
<v Speaker 1>that's B the number four, then Breakfast p o D.

0:05:01.160 --> 0:05:04.000
<v Speaker 1>You can also shoot me an email at Before Breakfast

0:05:04.120 --> 0:05:08.000
<v Speaker 1>podcast at iHeartMedia dot com. That Before Breakfast is spelled

0:05:08.000 --> 0:05:10.640
<v Speaker 1>out with all the letters. Thanks so much, I look

0:05:10.680 --> 0:05:19.040
<v Speaker 1>forward to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is a production

0:05:19.040 --> 0:05:22.479
<v Speaker 1>of I Heart Radio for more podcasts from I heart Radio,

0:05:22.960 --> 0:05:26.480
<v Speaker 1>visit the i heart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever

0:05:26.560 --> 0:05:27.880
<v Speaker 1>you listen to your favorite shows.