Speaker 1: Good morning. This is Laura. Today's tip is to be
Speaker 1: nice to your future self. Have you ever had the
Speaker 1: experience of looking at what's on your calendar for the
Speaker 1: week and saying, Oh, my goodness, why did I agree
Speaker 1: to this? What on earth was I thinking? Maybe it's
Speaker 1: something that is theoretically interesting, your fun, but you've just
Speaker 1: got so much going on right now, and you're committed
Speaker 1: to this thing, and so you are kicking yourself for
Speaker 1: saying yes. Does this sounds familiar? Well, if you're human,
Speaker 1: I'm betting it does. I've spent a lot of time
Speaker 1: thinking about why exactly we agree to things. I think
Speaker 1: that what happens is that it's hard to say no.
Speaker 1: And the further something is in the future, the more
Speaker 1: we feel like we're assigning it to a completely different person.
Speaker 1: We're telling ourselves, oh, June, it will never be June,
Speaker 1: or perhaps the conversation with yourself goes something like this, Oh,
Speaker 1: June me won't be busy. June me is going to
Speaker 1: have tons of time. I mean, you do look at
Speaker 1: your June calendar and it looks pretty clear at the moment, right, So, yeah,
Speaker 1: June me can totally do this. But here's the thing.
Speaker 1: Come June, you're going to be the exact same person
Speaker 1: you are now. You're going to be just as busy.
Speaker 1: You're gonna have just as much going on, only now
Speaker 1: you will also have this other commitment that you are
Speaker 1: lukewarm about in March, stacked onto the pile. So here's
Speaker 1: a better question to ask yourself. When you are asked
Speaker 1: to do something in the future. Would I do this tomorrow? Now?
Speaker 1: Of course you protest, I'm busy tomorrow. I'm booked up
Speaker 1: solid tomorrow, which is somewhat the point because you will
Speaker 1: be in June as well, But consider this, would you
Speaker 1: be tempted to move stuff around or cancel things in
Speaker 1: order to fit in this new opportunity? If you would, awesome,
Speaker 1: You're gonna be just as excited in June. So go
Speaker 1: ahead and say yes. I promise you won't be kicking
Speaker 1: yourself about it. But if the answer is absolutely not,
Speaker 1: no way, would I ever take this on for tomorrow,
Speaker 1: probably that should be your answer for June two, because
Speaker 1: when we think about tomorrow, we can think rationally about
Speaker 1: the opportunity costs in a way that we just can't
Speaker 1: for days that are far in the future. When you're
Speaker 1: asked to do something. The question you should ask yourself
Speaker 1: is not am I free? Which is often the question
Speaker 1: that we're asking ourselves about things that occur many months
Speaker 1: from now. The question is is this a better use
Speaker 1: of my time than the other things I could be
Speaker 1: doing tomorrow? You know exactly what you could be doing,
Speaker 1: you know exactly what else is on your plate, and
Speaker 1: you know just how much energy you'll have in a
Speaker 1: way that it's really hard to picture for the future.
Speaker 1: Here's some additional motivation for being more careful with the
Speaker 1: word yes. If you say yes to stuff that's only
Speaker 1: a four or five on a ten point scale, you're
Speaker 1: gonna be too busy to say yes to the things
Speaker 1: that are a nine or a ten. You'll already be
Speaker 1: committed to stuff, and so you won't be able to
Speaker 1: take on some great new opportunity, and that would be
Speaker 1: a shame. So what low value thing are you going
Speaker 1: to say no to today? What four or five point
Speaker 1: thing are you going to decide just shouldn't be in
Speaker 1: your life in the future. Let's say no and free
Speaker 1: up space for a ten. This is Laura, Thanks for listening,
Speaker 1: and here's to making the most of our time. Hey,
Speaker 1: everybody got a tip or a question. You can share
Speaker 1: them with me on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram at Before
Speaker 1: Breakfast Pod. That's be the number four then Breakfast p
Speaker 1: o D. You can also email me at Before Breakfast
Speaker 1: Podcast at iHeart media dot com. For the email, just
Speaker 1: spell those words out. I look forward to connecting and
Speaker 1: learning how you make the most of your time.