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Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning,

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Speaker 1: This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's

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Speaker 1: tip is to beware of activity that is posing is productivity,

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Speaker 1: but is actually procrastination. So we've probably all had a

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Speaker 1: task we needed to complete, or an important project we

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Speaker 1: needed to start, but that we kept delaying because it

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Speaker 1: was hard or intimidating. As productive people, we don't like

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Speaker 1: sitting around twiddling our thumbs, So if we are looking

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Speaker 1: to avoid something, we often do something else that looks productive.

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Speaker 1: That might mean preparing extensively for a meeting this afternoon

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Speaker 1: that isn't really all that important, instead of returning a

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Speaker 1: call from a prickly colleague. It could be getting to

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Speaker 1: inbox zero instead of editing a book chapter. I have

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Speaker 1: seen this referred to as procrastivity, a mashup of productivity

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Speaker 1: and procrastination, and I'm guessing we have all been guilty

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Speaker 1: of this at one point or another. I also think

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Speaker 1: it is helpful to give this behavior a name. When

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Speaker 1: a behavior has a name, it is easier to recognize

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Speaker 1: it and redirect ourselves. So if you realize you are

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Speaker 1: doing something that is not especially important in order to

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Speaker 1: avoid something else. Ask yourself, is this procrastivity? If you

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Speaker 1: have to say yes, it is time to make some choices.

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Speaker 1: One option is to just decide to do your high

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Speaker 1: priority task, or at least the next step for it,

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Speaker 1: before you do anything else. Just get it done. If

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Speaker 1: that seems like more than you can do, decide on

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Speaker 1: a specific amount of time you will work on the

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Speaker 1: priority task before you do anything else. Maybe you will

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Speaker 1: spend ninety minutes planning an important presentation you've been putting off.

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Speaker 1: After ninety minutes, you can decide whether to keep going.

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Speaker 1: If you opt to shift gears to do something else,

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Speaker 1: you make a plan for when you'll return to the original,

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Speaker 1: more difficult task. Or maybe you decide that you are

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Speaker 1: not going to do the high priority task now and

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Speaker 1: you will do it at some specific time in the future.

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Speaker 1: In that case, stop doing the procrastivity and do something

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Speaker 1: enjoyable or truly productive instead. Un Tell it is the

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Speaker 1: appointed time for the priority task. When you can recognize

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Speaker 1: and name procrastivity, you can avoid it. There is no

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Speaker 1: point doing fake work. Either do what you are supposed

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Speaker 1: to do or choose what you want you'd actually like

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Speaker 1: to do in the moment. My guess is that it

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Speaker 1: isn't organizing your spice draw. What's something you have done

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Speaker 1: is procrestivity while avoiding something else. I'd love to hear

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Speaker 1: about it. You can reach me at Laura at Laura

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Speaker 1: vandercam dot com. In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks

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Speaker 1: for listening, and here's to making the most of our time.

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Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to Before Breakfast. If you've got questions, ideas,

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Speaker 1: or feedback, you can reach me at Laura at Laura

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Speaker 1: vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartMedia.

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Speaker 1: For more podcasts from iHeartMedia, please visit the iHeartRadio app,

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Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or where however you listen to your favorite shows.