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 that hard work is good, but make sure
Speaker 1: it is getting you somewhere that you intend to go.
Speaker 1: So I recently heard of someone who, in the words
Speaker 1: of her colleague, runs a marathon on a treadmill. It
Speaker 1: is a striking image. We all probably know somebody who
Speaker 1: is always busy but without accomplishing much. Maybe you have
Speaker 1: a colleague who is always stressed and frowning at her computer,
Speaker 1: but who doesn't seem to produce that much. Perhaps you
Speaker 1: know someone who moves around her house at one hundred
Speaker 1: miles per hour, taking objects from room to room, straightening
Speaker 1: the same pictures again and again, but without the house
Speaker 1: ever feeling tidy enough to stop. Or maybe you have
Speaker 1: a coworker who's always keeping balls in the air for
Speaker 1: a dozen projects, but strangely doesn't seem to finish any
Speaker 1: of them. Maybe you feel like you are running a
Speaker 1: marathon on a treadmill. You are going at the fastest
Speaker 1: pace you possibly can, but you aren't finishing what you
Speaker 1: want to finish. Now in running, treadmills serve their purpose
Speaker 1: I run a few miles on the treadmill when it
Speaker 1: is icy outside or dark at four pm. But if
Speaker 1: you are training for a marathon and running longer distances,
Speaker 1: this would soon become quite maddening to have no real
Speaker 1: sense of forward motion. So how do you get off
Speaker 1: the treadmill and onto the roadway where those twenty six
Speaker 1: miles actually cover twenty six miles. One idea is to
Speaker 1: first focus on your language of productivity. Try to talk
Speaker 1: about what you will accomplish rather than vague projects you
Speaker 1: are randomly working on. Generally, there should be a noun
Speaker 1: and a verb in your place, or even a time limit.
Speaker 1: Email doesn't work. Instead, you could decide to spend thirty
Speaker 1: minutes processing my emails. You will know you have accomplished
Speaker 1: that when you have spent thirty focused minutes addressing what
Speaker 1: is most important in your inbox and capturing tasks into
Speaker 1: your task processing system. Likewise, job search is too vague. Instead,
Speaker 1: you might plan to review a particular job board and
Speaker 1: identify any jobs you want to apply for, or reach
Speaker 1: out to three connections on LinkedIn and ask for their
Speaker 1: help in particular ways. Make sure your plans get you
Speaker 1: going in a particular direction. There is no point being
Speaker 1: busy just to be busy. Just as you use language
Speaker 1: about what you plan to accomplish in the future, you
Speaker 1: can also use the language of accomplishment looking back on
Speaker 1: your time. If you don't already have a way of
Speaker 1: tracking way you have done, consider keeping a spreadsheet where
Speaker 1: you have a row for each day and a column
Speaker 1: for each phase of the day, perhaps morning, afternoon, evening,
Speaker 1: and each cell you jot down your accomplishments in a
Speaker 1: few words, thank edited, banks document and sent it in,
Speaker 1: or drafted agenda for quarterly meeting and sent it around.
Speaker 1: Doing this keeps you focused on what you have gotten done,
Speaker 1: and if you have gotten done, what you set out
Speaker 1: to get done. Give yourself freedom to choose what to
Speaker 1: do next. You don't have to seem busy if you're
Speaker 1: done with your priorities for the morning, great read an
Speaker 1: article related to a topic you are interested in, have
Speaker 1: a cup of coffee with a new colleague, or flesh
Speaker 1: out ideas for a project you want to pitch to
Speaker 1: your boss. When you reach your destination early, you do
Speaker 1: not have to keep running in place. Now. Maybe you
Speaker 1: are not the one who stays busy but doesn't accomplish much.
Speaker 1: Maybe you are a manager and you have a direct
Speaker 1: report who always seems to be running a marathon on
Speaker 1: their treadmill. A lot of the same strategies apply. Use
Speaker 1: the language of accomplishment. Ask what they plan to get done,
Speaker 1: what projects or tasks they completed, any barriers to accomplishment
Speaker 1: they need your help on, et cetera. Also recognize accomplishment,
Speaker 1: not long hours. You don't want your team to think
Speaker 1: you see good employees as those who arrive early and
Speaker 1: stay late and are always talking about just how busy
Speaker 1: they are, so don't praise that behavior. Instead, compliment high
Speaker 1: quality work. People will get the message. You may also
Speaker 1: need to address the treadmill directly. When an employee is
Speaker 1: always busy but doesn't seem to be getting a lot done,
Speaker 1: ask what their top priorities are. Be a guide and
Speaker 1: a thought partner, and making sure their effort is focused
Speaker 1: on those priorities and moving forward on them. It is
Speaker 1: not always obvious how to do this, Having guidance from
Speaker 1: a supervisor can be transformative. No one really wants to
Speaker 1: run a marathon on a treadmill. A few miles are fine,
Speaker 1: but too much treadmill time can be exhausting and not
Speaker 1: all that satisfying. So if that is you, sometimes take
Speaker 1: a step back and refocus, figure out what you want
Speaker 1: to do in any give and unit of time, do it,
Speaker 1: and then celebrate the accomplishment. You won't feel so much
Speaker 1: like you are running in place in the meantime. This
Speaker 1: is Laura, Thanks for listening, and here's to making the
Speaker 1: most of our time. Thanks for listening to Before Breakfast.
Speaker 1: If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback, you can reach
Speaker 1: me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast
Speaker 1: is a production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts from iHeartMedia,
Speaker 1: please visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
Speaker 1: listen to your favorite shows.