Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of my Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Good Morning. This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Speaker 1: Today's tip is to look at the syllabus literally if
Speaker 1: you are a student, and metaphorically if you are not.
Speaker 1: By knowing what's coming up and what we will be
Speaker 1: responsible for knowing, we can plan our time in a
Speaker 1: far more rational fashion. Looking back, I've realized that I
Speaker 1: am really lucky that I did as well in school
Speaker 1: as I did. It took me a long time into
Speaker 1: college to realize that teachers often distributed a syllabus at
Speaker 1: the start of the year, and that this was a
Speaker 1: useful document. If I thought about it much, then I
Speaker 1: probably just viewed it as a way to know what
Speaker 1: was assigned week to week or see when the term
Speaker 1: paper would be due. Only several years in did I
Speaker 1: realize that I could look at the syllabus at the
Speaker 1: beginning of the semester and plan out my reading and studying,
Speaker 1: making sure I understood what would be expected of me
Speaker 1: at any given point. I could plan my time to
Speaker 1: make sure that the heavy weeks had the space to
Speaker 1: absorb what they needed to, or that I worked ahead
Speaker 1: during lighter weeks. Now perhaps you were a better, more
Speaker 1: organized student than I was. But as we go into
Speaker 1: back to school season, I am continually amazed at how
Speaker 1: many people don't look at what is coming up and
Speaker 1: make a plan to deal with it. We don't look
Speaker 1: at the syllabus. For instance, we might know vaguely that
Speaker 1: there is a big work deadline in November, and also
Speaker 1: that one of our kids will want to visit college then,
Speaker 1: and another will have a big sports season, and Thanksgiving
Speaker 1: is going to happen in there too, so a lot
Speaker 1: of our colleagues will be requesting addition all days off.
Speaker 1: But we wait until November to acknowledge all this, and
Speaker 1: then we see this all crashing down and inevitably drop
Speaker 1: the ball on something now. To be sure, we don't
Speaker 1: want to spend our lives thinking about upcoming logistics. In
Speaker 1: a recent episode, I mentioned remembering that things won't be
Speaker 1: perfect on day one. You do not need to solve
Speaker 1: all problems ahead of time. That said, there is a
Speaker 1: difference between recognizing that you will be able to solve
Speaker 1: things as they come up and not even knowing what
Speaker 1: is coming up. So take some time each week to
Speaker 1: think about your life holistically. I like to plan on
Speaker 1: Friday afternoons, I look at the upcoming week. My primary
Speaker 1: goal is to plan the next week, but then I
Speaker 1: also look forward in my calendar over the next few
Speaker 1: weeks too. If I see, for instance, that I'm going
Speaker 1: to be giving a speech on a topic I have
Speaker 1: not spoken about before, and I'm off from work for
Speaker 1: three days the week before that speech, well best to
Speaker 1: give that speech sometime before the vacation week. Otherwise I
Speaker 1: am going to feel crunched. I'll either need to work
Speaker 1: on the speech during vacation, which is kind of problematic,
Speaker 1: or I won't do a good job. That's not a
Speaker 1: good idea either, and the scenario would be entirely avoidable
Speaker 1: by thinking about what's coming up and planning ahead. In
Speaker 1: any case, if you are a student, do yourself a
Speaker 1: huge favor and look at the syllabus. Don't let this
Speaker 1: take you sixteen years to figure out. Do it now.
Speaker 1: Look ahead, get a calendar for the school year and
Speaker 1: write down when assignments will be due and what you'll
Speaker 1: need to read each week, and figure out when you
Speaker 1: can plan these things in. Look at when anything big
Speaker 1: is happening in your personal life too, so you can
Speaker 1: figure that out. If your cousin's wedding is the same
Speaker 1: weekend as a big paper, it's going to be due
Speaker 1: on Monday. That doesn't mean that you either need to
Speaker 1: skip the wedding or do a bad job. You just
Speaker 1: have to work on the paper ahead of time during
Speaker 1: a lighter week so you will get to do both.
Speaker 1: And if you are an adult who is not in school,
Speaker 1: you can look at the syllabus metaphorically. Take some time
Speaker 1: this week to review what is coming up in your life.
Speaker 1: Some stuff might be in your calendar already and some
Speaker 1: stuff you just know because it always happens that your
Speaker 1: work is busy in the beginning of February. If you
Speaker 1: know this, you can plan ahead. If you see that
Speaker 1: your child's musical at school is also during the first
Speaker 1: week of February, you know that you'll have to juggle
Speaker 1: your busy season stuff and push things forward a day
Speaker 1: or two, or you'll need to work ahead. Either could work,
Speaker 1: but when you have a plan, you can get to
Speaker 1: everything you want to do. That makes work life balance
Speaker 1: feel far more possible. 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 i heeart media dot com
Speaker 1: that Before Breakfast is spelled out with all the letters.
Speaker 1: Thanks so much, I look forward to staying in touch.
Speaker 1: Before Breakfast is a production of I heart Radio. For
Speaker 1: more podcast tests from I heart Radio, visit the i
Speaker 1: heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to
Speaker 1: your favorite shows. H