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 not lose those minutes right before
Speaker 1: a phone call or meeting. These minutes are incredibly easy
Speaker 1: to waste, but with a little thought, they don't need
Speaker 1: to be spent on things that don't matter. I know
Speaker 1: many people are working from home at least occasionally these days,
Speaker 1: and work from home days can wind up with various
Speaker 1: virtual meetings scattered all over the calendar. You don't need
Speaker 1: to go anywhere, so you don't need to stop what
Speaker 1: you're doing too long before the meeting, but you do
Speaker 1: need to stop other things at some point in order
Speaker 1: to start promptly. So in my case, an eleven o'clock
Speaker 1: call on the calendar means that by ten fifty five
Speaker 1: I have stopped doing much of Note. I pull up
Speaker 1: the link and then fiddle around until it is the
Speaker 1: right time to click in. Now, to be sure this
Speaker 1: isn't a ton of fiddling. Wasting three or four minutes
Speaker 1: a few times a day is not going to be
Speaker 1: the difference between a well lived life and one that
Speaker 1: is squandered. Still, I do believe that even mere minutes
Speaker 1: are worth honoring by using them. Well. That doesn't mean
Speaker 1: doing more stuff just to do more stuff. It means
Speaker 1: recognizing that small bits of time can allow for good
Speaker 1: habits that over time add up. For instance, I have
Speaker 1: been trying to do a few more abdominal strengthening exercises
Speaker 1: after I realize some back pain I've been dealing with
Speaker 1: probably stemmed from a weak core. It turns out that
Speaker 1: a plank pose and some bicycle crunches only take two
Speaker 1: to three minutes to do. That fits perfectly in the
Speaker 1: time between when I have found the link and when
Speaker 1: I click in. By tying these exercises to this specific
Speaker 1: found time, I make them happen, and the more I
Speaker 1: do them, the stronger I become. Now, of course, I
Speaker 1: probably wouldn't be doing these crunches if I were in
Speaker 1: a cubicle. But the good news is that exercise is
Speaker 1: far from the only thing you can do in these
Speaker 1: chunks of time. Maybe it is consciously focusing on your
Speaker 1: breathing for two minutes when you are concentrating and doing
Speaker 1: nothing else. Two minutes can feel like quite a long time,
Speaker 1: but this is an opportunity to warm up your discipline
Speaker 1: and willpower. Before you begin your meeting, you could write
Speaker 1: a few words in a journal. You can read a
Speaker 1: poem if you've got a book of poetry on your desk.
Speaker 1: You can look over your eating agenda again, or think
Speaker 1: about the other people who will be in your meeting
Speaker 1: and maybe think about one thing you admire about each
Speaker 1: of them. Having those thoughts in mind will definitely put
Speaker 1: you in a more constructive place for your tenth zoom
Speaker 1: call of the day. In person meetings require going somewhere,
Speaker 1: but I have found that the same dynamic often plays
Speaker 1: out at least for people who make a point of
Speaker 1: being punctual. If you've got a meeting in a nearby
Speaker 1: conference room at noon, you stop other work a few
Speaker 1: minutes before, But since it doesn't actually take ten minutes
Speaker 1: to walk to the conference room, and since you don't
Speaker 1: want to arrive too early, you pause for a few minutes,
Speaker 1: using this time for something else. For what likely another
Speaker 1: glance at the inbox, But your inbox will always be there.
Speaker 1: Consciously building other habits can let you use this time
Speaker 1: to make ress on bigger things. It does add up,
Speaker 1: so as you go about your day, make a point
Speaker 1: of not wasting those few minutes before a phone caller meeting.
Speaker 1: Figure out what small action you can tie to this
Speaker 1: time and that you can do repeatedly. This will allow
Speaker 1: you to make the most of these little minutes rather
Speaker 1: than seeing them slip through your hands like sand through
Speaker 1: an hour glass. No doubt your meetings already feel like that.
Speaker 1: Sometimes no need to lose the minutes before them. Two.
Speaker 1: In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and
Speaker 1: here's to making the most of our time. Hey, everybody,
Speaker 1: I'd love to hear from you. You can send me
Speaker 1: your tips, your questions, or anything else. Just connect with
Speaker 1: me on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at Before Breakfast pod.
Speaker 1: That's B the number four, then Breakfast p o D.
Speaker 1: You can also shoot me an email at Before Breakfast
Speaker 1: podcast at iHeart media dot com. That Before Breakfast is
Speaker 1: spelled out with all the letters. Thanks so much, I
Speaker 1: look forward to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is a
Speaker 1: production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts from my
Speaker 1: heart Radio, visit the i Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.