Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: Good Morning, This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Speaker 2: Today's tip is about one way to keep yourself from
Speaker 2: over committing. By thinking through each week ahead of time,
Speaker 2: you can see what is already happening or needs to happen,
Speaker 2: and so you won't add on anything new unless there
Speaker 2: is a really good reason, because most likely there won't
Speaker 2: be any space. On Friday, a few weeks ago, I
Speaker 2: was planning my upcoming week as I usually do, and
Speaker 2: I was reminded that it was going to be a
Speaker 2: tight week. I was gone much of Monday and Tuesday.
Speaker 2: Wednesday was booked solid with local events. I had Thursday
Speaker 2: and Friday to be at my desk, but we were
Speaker 2: leaving Saturday for a family trip, so all the packing
Speaker 2: would have to fit in there too. In other words,
Speaker 2: I had approximately half a week to fit in not
Speaker 2: only the stuff from that week, but anything that had
Speaker 2: to happen in advance of the week i'd be gone
Speaker 2: as well. When I saw that, I quickly opted not
Speaker 2: to schedule a phone call that I wanted to do
Speaker 2: but didn't need to happen immediately. It could take place
Speaker 2: after I was back at my desk two weeks later.
Speaker 2: At least that was one fewer things stacked onto the pile.
Speaker 2: I am guessing that you too, wind up with weeks
Speaker 2: like that. Every minute is accounted for or will need
Speaker 2: to be spent preparing for something happening in the near future.
Speaker 2: The problem happens when we don't realize we are going
Speaker 2: to house such weeks. If I were just making things
Speaker 2: day by day, I might have seen that I was
Speaker 2: free after three pm on Wednesday, so that would be
Speaker 2: a good time for the call. But at three pm
Speaker 2: on Wednesday, I was going to need to do all
Speaker 2: the work that didn't happen Monday and Tuesday, and likely
Speaker 2: a lot of the stuff I would have done on
Speaker 2: Thursday and Friday too, since those days wound up booked
Speaker 2: up with calls that did need to happen. We over
Speaker 2: commit when we don't know exactly what is on our plates.
Speaker 2: If you plan your weeks ahead of time, though, and
Speaker 2: see what's going on personally and professionally, you will be
Speaker 2: able to make more rational choices about what fits and
Speaker 2: what doesn't. You might still decide to take something on,
Speaker 2: but you will know you are squeezing it in and
Speaker 2: you will know that most likely something else will need
Speaker 2: to go. I like to do this weekly planning on
Speaker 2: Fridays for a lot of reasons. But whenever you do.
Speaker 3: It, make sure you look at everything that is happening
Speaker 3: in the upcoming week. Make sure you know what it is.
Speaker 3: Then look ahead a little and see if you are
Speaker 3: about to face any crunches coming up. If so, figure
Speaker 3: out what you need to do to get ahead of those.
Speaker 3: Then you can see what space is left. My guess
Speaker 3: is that many times the answer is not much. So
Speaker 3: that can nudge you to not take on optional things
Speaker 3: or to push things forward if they can be pushed forward.
Speaker 3: When you do that, you'll have a lot on your plate,
Speaker 3: but you won't be over committed, and that increases the
Speaker 3: chances that everything that needs to get done will get
Speaker 3: done in the meantime. This is Laura. Thanks for listening,
Speaker 3: and here's to making the most of our time.
Speaker 1: Hey, everybody, I'd love to hear from you. You can
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Speaker 1: Breakfast Pod that's b E the number four then breakfast Pod.
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Speaker 1: podcasts at iHeartMedia dot com that Before Breakfast is spelled
Speaker 1: out with all the letters, thanks so much, should I
Speaker 1: look forward to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is a
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Speaker 1: favorite shows. A head girl, mm hmm