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 schedule some low key days. If you
Speaker 1: can see that a stretch of time is going to
Speaker 1: be busier than other stretches, try to keep a few
Speaker 1: days relatively unscheduled. You might wind up needing the time,
Speaker 1: but even if you don't, you will probably appreciate having it.
Speaker 1: So mid February was a bit of a blur for me.
Speaker 1: My husband was gone for a long weekend that wound
Speaker 1: up being incredibly busy with kid stuff and with my stuff.
Speaker 1: We then left shortly after that for a five day
Speaker 1: family trip toy World. We came home and immediately had
Speaker 1: a bunch of scheduled stuff like kid doctor appointments on
Speaker 1: the next day. By the time I looked up after
Speaker 1: this ten day stretch, I was feeling behind on everything.
Speaker 1: I hadn't done an email triage in ages, so there
Speaker 1: was all kinds of stuff lurking in my inbox. Calls
Speaker 1: and meetings and life maintenance that had been punted forward
Speaker 1: now had to be dealt with. But fortunately I hadn't
Speaker 1: scheduled much After Wednesday, of that particular week. And as
Speaker 1: I looked at my relatively open Wednesday and Thursday, with
Speaker 1: nothing scheduled until late afternoon, I breathed a sigh of relief.
Speaker 1: I could get caught up, and I did, and then
Speaker 1: after getting mostly caught up, I could walk around and
Speaker 1: brainstorm some ideas and just generally enjoy the feeling of
Speaker 1: open space. Perhaps you two are going through a busy time,
Speaker 1: or you can see a busy stretch coming up. I
Speaker 1: know that when I can remember a month or two
Speaker 1: ahead of time what all the days and dates of
Speaker 1: a month are, that is a sign that there is
Speaker 1: a lot going on. Why, yes, I did know that
Speaker 1: May eighth is a Wednesday, because I had already looked
Speaker 1: at multiple things scheduled that week more than two months ahead. Yes,
Speaker 1: we will be battening down the hatches. But when you
Speaker 1: take a step back, look at your calendar holistically and
Speaker 1: see this, you can also try to schedule in some
Speaker 1: lower key days even during the busy times. If Monday, Tuesday,
Speaker 1: and Wednesday of an upcoming week are absolutely swamped, be
Speaker 1: extremely judicious about Thursday and Friday. If anything non urgent
Speaker 1: tries to land on those days, kick it forward a week.
Speaker 1: Here is why inevitably something will go wrong or something
Speaker 1: will come up on those jam packed days. When it does,
Speaker 1: you will need a space to put it. The more
Speaker 1: days that are jam packed, the more trouble you will
Speaker 1: have finding a spot. I needed to get one of
Speaker 1: my kids in to see a specialist about something, and
Speaker 1: when they had a cancelation on one of my low
Speaker 1: key days, I was able to take it without disaster.
Speaker 1: Ensuing I had been contacted about multiple potential radio interviews
Speaker 1: while I was away with my family. Now I wasn't
Speaker 1: going to do a radio interview from Disney World, but
Speaker 1: since I am not exactly breaking news, I could tell
Speaker 1: those producers that Wednesday was wide open, so I was
Speaker 1: still able to appear on a few of those shows.
Speaker 1: Even if you don't need the time, though, you will
Speaker 1: probably be glad you have it. Since I had a
Speaker 1: few low key days after my busy stretch, I was
Speaker 1: able to take a leisurely stroll through the prior two
Speaker 1: weeks of my inbox. I could send more thoughtful responses
Speaker 1: to the people who had reached out to me. Perhaps
Speaker 1: the more thoughtful responses made up for the lack of
Speaker 1: timeliness in my responses or maybe not, but hey, I
Speaker 1: could think about future ideas for my various content calendars.
Speaker 1: I felt a lot less frantic. Perhaps you will feel
Speaker 1: the same. So to day, take a look at your calendar.
Speaker 1: If you can see a tough stretch coming up, see
Speaker 1: if you can give yourself a day or two to
Speaker 1: thaw out. See if you can do your best to
Speaker 1: protect that time. Maybe you won't be able to, but
Speaker 1: it might be worth trying. We can't run at a
Speaker 1: frenzied pace forever without our batteries running out. Blocking in
Speaker 1: a day or two to recharge means the machine can
Speaker 1: run longer in the meantime. This is Laura. Thanks for listening,
Speaker 1: and here's to making the most of our time. Thanks
Speaker 1: for listening to Before Breakfast. If you've got questions, ideas,
Speaker 1: or feedback, you can reach me at Laura at Laura
Speaker 1: vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartMedia.
Speaker 1: For more podcasts from iHeartMedia, please visit the iHeartRadio app,
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.