Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Good Morning. This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Speaker 1: Today's tip is to keep track of all your responsibilities
Speaker 1: somewhere other than you're busy mind, or, as Christina Senby
Speaker 1: put it to me, corral the bouncing balls. Christina is
Speaker 1: a mom of four, an e er doctor and professor,
Speaker 1: and she also coaches med students and faculty on productivity,
Speaker 1: so she is responsible for keeping a lot of balls
Speaker 1: in the air. Earlier this year, she was a guest
Speaker 1: on the Best of Both Worlds podcast, which I co
Speaker 1: host with Sarah hart Onger. Christina described thinking about time
Speaker 1: use by considering the compass are intended direction in life,
Speaker 1: the clock efficient use of time, and the key mental clarity.
Speaker 1: One thing that gets in the way of mental clarity
Speaker 1: and efficiency, all those nagging thoughts that bounce through our
Speaker 1: brains like balls. You know how this goes. I'm almost
Speaker 1: out of allergy medicine. I have to renew my professional license.
Speaker 1: Is there aftercare? When the kids have half days for
Speaker 1: parent teacher conferences? Who's going to handle event registrations while
Speaker 1: Phil is out of town? What am I do for
Speaker 1: an eye doctor? Appointment, too much bouncing, and we never
Speaker 1: get anything done. But the problem is that no matter
Speaker 1: what we do, life is going to feature a lot
Speaker 1: of bouncing balls. We simply have to learn to deal
Speaker 1: with them. Shun We recommends figuring out a way to
Speaker 1: offload all the nagging tasks and get them out of
Speaker 1: our minds. That way, she says, we can preserve cognitive
Speaker 1: load for the important work our brains need to focus on.
Speaker 1: One of the best ways to do this is to
Speaker 1: create a categorized master to do list. Now, this is
Speaker 1: not your daily task list, which, as listeners know, should
Speaker 1: be a very short list of items. Rather, we are
Speaker 1: talking about a running list of future responsibilities that you
Speaker 1: just don't want to forget. This categorized master list can
Speaker 1: be on paper, such as in a bullet journal, or
Speaker 1: if you prefer digital tools, you could use the notes
Speaker 1: app on your phone. No need to get too specific
Speaker 1: with categories. For most people, categories can be as broad
Speaker 1: as Errand's home desk calls. In other words, consider where
Speaker 1: and when you can perform the task. That's important because
Speaker 1: with an uncategorized task list, available time might not match
Speaker 1: up with doable work you may intend to handle. Tasks
Speaker 1: after your kids are in bed. But whoops, look at
Speaker 1: the task lists and it says get light bulbs from
Speaker 1: home depot, and you can't go to home depot to
Speaker 1: get the hight bulbs and leave the sleeping kids home alone.
Speaker 1: But you could do tasks that would go on the
Speaker 1: home or desk lists. Hence the efficiency of the categorized
Speaker 1: to do list. Some people like to attach every to
Speaker 1: do to a specific time, or at least to a
Speaker 1: specific day when they'll get it done. If that is you,
Speaker 1: you can put it on the calendar for then, though.
Speaker 1: Another option is to time block for general bouncing ball crawling.
Speaker 1: You could schedule an administrative time from one to two
Speaker 1: pm two days a week at work, so you've got
Speaker 1: business hours, and for an hour some weekday evening or
Speaker 1: on the weekend each week, choose some tasks from the
Speaker 1: master list to tackle during this time. That way you
Speaker 1: make progress on the list, but even more importantly, you
Speaker 1: aren't trying to deal with these bouncing balls all the time.
Speaker 1: You know there is a time for calling and refills
Speaker 1: and looking at the school after cares edule, and now
Speaker 1: is not that time, So your brain can relax, get
Speaker 1: this stuff out of your head and your mind will
Speaker 1: be free, or at least relatively so. And in the
Speaker 1: world with a lot of bouncing balls, that may be
Speaker 1: the best we can do. In the meantime. This is Laura.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening, and here's to making the most of
Speaker 1: our time. Hey, everybody, I'd love to hear from you.
Speaker 1: You can send me your tips, your questions, or anything else.
Speaker 1: Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at
Speaker 1: Before Breakfast pod that's B the number four, then Breakfast
Speaker 1: p o D. You can also shoot me an email
Speaker 1: at Before Breakfast podcast at i heeart media dot com
Speaker 1: that Before Breakfast is spelled out with all the letters.
Speaker 1: Thanks so much, I look forward to staying in touch.
Speaker 1: Before Breakfast is a production of I Heart Radio. For
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