Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning.
Speaker 1: This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
Speaker 1: tip is to focus on one sphere of your work
Speaker 1: at a time. Today's tip, like another this week, comes
Speaker 1: from psychologist Tessa West. She is a professor at New
Speaker 1: York University and author of the book Job Therapy, Finding
Speaker 1: Work that Works for You. West explains that jobs have
Speaker 1: different spheres, that is, different areas that require different sorts
Speaker 1: of tasks. For instance, the spheres of my work are
Speaker 1: my two podcasts, Before Breakfast and Best of Both Worlds,
Speaker 1: my blog and newsletters, speaking and writing books. For a teacher,
Speaker 1: the spheres of work might be less in planning, grading,
Speaker 1: providing extra support tailored to students' needs, and other things.
Speaker 1: A freelance graphic designer's spheres might be design administrative matters
Speaker 1: like billing and marketing, or she might think of the
Speaker 1: spheres of her work as each of her major clients.
Speaker 1: Wes says that people are more productive and interruptions are
Speaker 1: less costly when they generally stay within a sphere for
Speaker 1: a while, rather than switching among different spheres of their work.
Speaker 1: This makes sense to me if I am spending the
Speaker 1: morning on before breakfast. There is an elegance and efficiency
Speaker 1: to writing scripts, then reviewing audio files from a previous
Speaker 1: batch of recordings, then brainstorming topics for future episodes. If
Speaker 1: I need to let in the plumber to fix a leak,
Speaker 1: it is fairly easy to get back in the zone
Speaker 1: of before breakfast once he's gone, because I was so
Speaker 1: focused on it before the interruption. On the other hand,
Speaker 1: if I had spent the morning writing before breakfast scripts,
Speaker 1: making notes for my next book, and working out travel
Speaker 1: arrangements for a speech i'm giving, I would have been
Speaker 1: less efficient to start with, and recovering from the plumber's
Speaker 1: interruption would have taken longer because I might not be
Speaker 1: so sure what to work on after. Given that we
Speaker 1: can be more productive and less vulnerable to interruptions when
Speaker 1: we're working within one sphere of our work, West suggests
Speaker 1: planning each day by identifying the spheres you'll work in
Speaker 1: that day and the tasks you'll do within each sphere.
Speaker 1: Then she advises working in one sphere at a time,
Speaker 1: not switching back and forth among the spheres planned for
Speaker 1: the day. She suggests doing the miscellaneous tasks associated with
Speaker 1: a given sphere, like emails right after you complete the
Speaker 1: other work within that sphere. It could also be helpful
Speaker 1: to plan work within a given sphere around the same
Speaker 1: time that you will have meetings related to that sphere.
Speaker 1: West suggests using physical cues like a whiteboard with color
Speaker 1: coded tasks or post it notes on your desk to
Speaker 1: remind you of your spheres and your tasks within itach.
Speaker 1: I think working within one's sphere at a time could
Speaker 1: work well for many people. Much like time blocking, working
Speaker 1: in one sphere at a time will make you as
Speaker 1: focused as possible and will probably lead to some insights
Speaker 1: because your brain is in one particular space. What's more,
Speaker 1: I suspect that planning which spheres you'll work on in
Speaker 1: a given day also helps ensure that you actually work
Speaker 1: in all the intended spheres of your core work. Over time,
Speaker 1: it is easy to realize you have spent a whole
Speaker 1: day on email and meetings, or a whole day in
Speaker 1: reactive mode dealing with what's urgent without even touching a
Speaker 1: particular aspect of your work or a major project that
Speaker 1: you know is due soon. Planning which spheres you'll work
Speaker 1: in lets you avoid that you probably won't work in
Speaker 1: every sphere every day, particularly if you have a lot
Speaker 1: of spheres, but you can be sure that over the
Speaker 1: course of a week or so, you will invest time
Speaker 1: in all of them. So if it feels like your
Speaker 1: workdays are all over the place, consider planning your days
Speaker 1: to stay in your sphere. You may just find yourself
Speaker 1: feeling much more effective in the meantime. This is Laura.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening, and here's to making the most of
Speaker 1: our time. Thanks for listening to Before Breakfast. If you've
Speaker 1: got questions, ideas, or feedback, you can reach me at
Speaker 1: Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast is a
Speaker 1: production of iHeartMedia. Or more podcasts from iHeartMedia, please visit
Speaker 1: the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to
Speaker 1: your favorite shows.