Speaker 1: Good morning. This is Laura. Welcome to the New Corner Office,
Speaker 1: the podcast where we share strategies for thriving in the
Speaker 1: new world of work, where location and ours are more
Speaker 1: flexible than in the past. Today's tip is to use
Speaker 1: those waiting minutes. Little bits of time during the day
Speaker 1: can be wasted, but they can also be used, and
Speaker 1: doing so can buy you more time in the future.
Speaker 1: In a perfect world, everyone would dial into calls or
Speaker 1: video meetings at the exact same time. There would never
Speaker 1: be miscommunications about meeting logistics, everyone would be prompt. In
Speaker 1: the real world, you're often sitting by yourself on Zoom
Speaker 1: at one o'clock, waiting for someone who doesn't log on
Speaker 1: until one oh six, or sometimes one ten, or something
Speaker 1: even worse than that. If you are usually the punctual one,
Speaker 1: and I suspect this is the case for a great
Speaker 1: many of my podcast listeners. This can be frustrating. But
Speaker 1: while these waiting minutes are easy to waste, they don't
Speaker 1: have to be wasted. Having a go to activity for
Speaker 1: waiting minutes can open up various possibilities for your time.
Speaker 1: For instance, I use waiting minutes to think up ideas
Speaker 1: for future episodes, of this podcast and others. Sometimes I
Speaker 1: use them to fill in my time log I can
Speaker 1: do logistical things for my blog, like upload pictures or
Speaker 1: format things. One obvious idea is to check email, and
Speaker 1: no doubt a lot of waiting time is spent deleting emails,
Speaker 1: but since email expands to fill the available space, I
Speaker 1: don't think this is actually the best use of time.
Speaker 1: You won't gain time by deleting those newsletters that you
Speaker 1: can't remember subscribing to, but you will gain time by
Speaker 1: doing small tasks that will other wise clog up your
Speaker 1: schedule and make you feel like you have a lot
Speaker 1: on your plate, even if you don't so figure out
Speaker 1: what those tasks are for. You have whatever materials you
Speaker 1: need handy, and then when you dial in and you
Speaker 1: find yourself waiting, you can do one of these things. Though.
Speaker 1: Just as a pro tip here, if someone is always
Speaker 1: five to ten minutes late, it is okay to keep
Speaker 1: working until five minutes after the start time yourself. I
Speaker 1: know this feels incredibly hard for punctual people, but at
Speaker 1: least this way you know you aren't wasting more time
Speaker 1: in the meantime. This is Laura. Thanks for listening and
Speaker 1: here's the succeeding in the new Corner Office. The New
Speaker 1: Corner Office is a production of I Heart Radio. For
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Speaker 1: or wherever you get your favorite shows.