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 build in travel time. Even if all
Speaker 1: of your meetings are virtual ones, you will keep yourself
Speaker 1: on schedule and you might be able to boost your
Speaker 1: energy levels too. So back in the old pre COVID days,
Speaker 1: people who worked in offices often needed to travel to
Speaker 1: different meetings. You would check which conference room you needed
Speaker 1: to report to for your one o'clock meeting, your two
Speaker 1: o'clock meeting, and so forth. If you worked for a
Speaker 1: big enough company, this could involve a reasonable hike. As
Speaker 1: a result, meetings either needed to end a few minutes
Speaker 1: before the hour, or they would generally all start a
Speaker 1: few minutes after the hour. This is nothing more than
Speaker 1: the natural consequence of people being unable to teleport, but
Speaker 1: it had some upsides. Namely, people had to stand up
Speaker 1: and move around every hour or so they'd get some
Speaker 1: steps in If your office park had different buildings, you
Speaker 1: might also get some fresh air. Even if you had
Speaker 1: back to back meetings. There was a little respite, at
Speaker 1: least for normal people without the clout to have everyone
Speaker 1: come to them. These days, a great Many meetings are virtual,
Speaker 1: and that is awesome. There's less commuting, less time spent
Speaker 1: on airplanes, and that is better for people and better
Speaker 1: for the environment. However, there is more of a temptation
Speaker 1: to have that one o'clock meeting go right up until
Speaker 1: two o'clock and you quickly click on over to your
Speaker 1: next link. Then you go right to three o'clock and boom,
Speaker 1: you click on the next one, and maybe you sneak
Speaker 1: a two minute bathroom break in there somewhere. But if
Speaker 1: people don't need to travel, then you don't technically have
Speaker 1: to end early or start a little later, but it
Speaker 1: is still a good idea to do so. People need breaks,
Speaker 1: They need time to write down the to dos that
Speaker 1: come out of each meeting. They need time to breathe
Speaker 1: and clear their heads, which can help them avoid burnout.
Speaker 1: Taking a few steps every hour or so is better
Speaker 1: for people's health than sitting still. Moving around also helps
Speaker 1: boost people's energy levels. So even if your meetings are virtual,
Speaker 1: build in travel time. If you meet with a lot
Speaker 1: of people from your same organization, then develop a culture
Speaker 1: where you end all meetings ten minutes early, as in
Speaker 1: ten minutes before the hour for standard one hour meetings.
Speaker 1: You could obviously also start all meetings ten minutes late,
Speaker 1: which is really the same thing, but this is sometimes
Speaker 1: hard to explain to outsiders or get them to adopt
Speaker 1: it as easily when they are meeting with you. Ending
Speaker 1: earlier tends to feel more natural. When you are developing
Speaker 1: agendas for meetings, really lean into this. At ten point
Speaker 1: fifty that ten o'clock meeting has wrapped up. If someone
Speaker 1: sends you an agenda that goes for the full hour,
Speaker 1: ask if it can be shortened by a few minutes
Speaker 1: to allow for people to grab a coffee or think
Speaker 1: about their notes, or just note that you will need
Speaker 1: a few minutes of travel time. Maybe people won't even
Speaker 1: think about it. Most people were in that habit a
Speaker 1: few years ago, so unless you only work with people
Speaker 1: whose careers began after twenty twenty, you will probably all
Speaker 1: figure it out. And then when you do get ten
Speaker 1: minutes in between meetings, don't just check email tempting as
Speaker 1: that is. If you are at home, go outside for
Speaker 1: a few minutes, take your bathroom break if you need one,
Speaker 1: of course, but also focus on doing something active with
Speaker 1: this open space. You might be able to boost your
Speaker 1: energy levels by enough to make it through that next
Speaker 1: zoom meeting. And if you've got more than five or
Speaker 1: six of those on any given day, well I don't
Speaker 1: need to tell you that you can use all the
Speaker 1: energy boosts you can get 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 E the number four then
Speaker 1: Breakfast pod. You can also shoot me an email at
Speaker 1: Before Breakfast Podcasts at iHeartMedia dot com that Before Breakfast
Speaker 1: is spelled out with all the letters. Thanks so much.
Speaker 1: Should I look forward to staying in touch. Before Breakfast
Speaker 1: is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio,
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