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Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning,

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Speaker 1: This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's

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Speaker 1: tip is to focus on what you got done during

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Speaker 1: the day, not the hours or effort you put in. Now.

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Speaker 1: To be fair, you can't accomplish most big things without

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Speaker 1: putting in time and effort. But it is the outcome,

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Speaker 1: not the time itself, that tends to matter most. Today's

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Speaker 1: tip comes from a recent episode of hbr's Idea Cast.

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Speaker 1: We're a guest reminded leaders that it's not about the inputs,

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Speaker 1: it's not about the number of hours you put in.

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Speaker 1: It's about the results you achieve. And as a manager,

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Speaker 1: you shouldn't push people to work longer out hours. You

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Speaker 1: should push people to achieve more results and enable them

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Speaker 1: to do so. Focusing on results is wise advice when

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Speaker 1: we are managing ourselves or managing others. It's easy to

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Speaker 1: get caught up in the story that being a good

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Speaker 1: worker means putting in the longest hours, but really being

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Speaker 1: a good worker is about delivering good stuff. To keep

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Speaker 1: your focus on results, build a routine of asking yourself,

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Speaker 1: maybe at lunch and at the end of the workday,

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Speaker 1: what you produced, not the hours you put in or

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Speaker 1: what you worked on, but the specific tasks or parts

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Speaker 1: of tasks that you completed. With your team, you can

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Speaker 1: use language like accomplish or produce and complete to help

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Speaker 1: them focus on what got done. You can even go

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Speaker 1: beyond recalling and talking about what you produced to actually

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Speaker 1: write it down. Consider maintaining a work log that lists

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Speaker 1: what you accomplished each day. This isn't an exhaustive list

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Speaker 1: of every task you performed in every meeting you attended.

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Speaker 1: Think of it as being more like a one line

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Speaker 1: a day journal that captures the day's highlights, rather than

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Speaker 1: a lengthy, dear diary chronicle that describes every moment. For instance,

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Speaker 1: a person's work log entry for a day might say

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Speaker 1: developed department budget for next year, and gave feedback to

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Speaker 1: Jenny about running tighter meetings and looked through resumes for

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Speaker 1: the new position. Another person's log might say fulfilled orders,

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Speaker 1: recelaved last week, an updated e commerce site with new

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Speaker 1: merchandise available, or for another person, came up with two

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Speaker 1: ideas for sermon series, edited this Sunday sermon, approved changes

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Speaker 1: to the church calendar, and called for parishioners. Whatever the

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Speaker 1: specifics of your job. Your worklog includes your main accomplishments

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Speaker 1: of the day. Keeping a log makes visible the progress

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Speaker 1: that you are making, so you can notice it and

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Speaker 1: celebrate it. A log also reveals when you are not

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Speaker 1: making progress. If all you could say is that you

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Speaker 1: attended a lot of meetings and answered a lot of

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Speaker 1: emails and you can't think of anything that changed in

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Speaker 1: the world as a result of all those meetings and emails,

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Speaker 1: well that is a prompt to rethink what you're doing.

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Speaker 1: Not that you need to put in more hours, but

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Speaker 1: that you need to get more done. You may not

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Speaker 1: need to keep a work log all the time, but

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Speaker 1: it could be helpful to do so for a week

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Speaker 1: or so if you want to understand why you are

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Speaker 1: making slow progress or why you are feeling pulled in

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Speaker 1: a lot of directions. There may be some interesting answers

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Speaker 1: that are worth exploring. When we focus on results, we

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Speaker 1: get more done, and when we are less worried about

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Speaker 1: the hours we are putting in, we may also have

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Speaker 1: more time for pursuits outside of work. That is a

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Speaker 1: win for everyone. If you try keeping a work log,

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Speaker 1: let me know how it goes. You can reach me

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Speaker 1: at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. In the meantime,

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Speaker 1: this is Laura. Thanks for listening and here's to making

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Speaker 1: the most of our time.

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Speaker 2: Hey, everybody, I'd love to hear from you. You can

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Speaker 2: send me your tips, your questions, or anything else. Just

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Speaker 2: connect with me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at Before

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Speaker 2: Breakfast Pod. That's b E the number four than Breakfast pod.

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Speaker 2: You can also shoot me in email at Before Breakfast

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Speaker 2: Podcasts at iHeartMedia dot com that before Breakfast is spelled

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Speaker 2: out with all the letters. Thanks so much. Should I

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Speaker 2: look forward to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is a

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Speaker 2: production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the

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Speaker 2: iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your

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Speaker 2: favorite shows.