WEBVTT - Plan for distracted days

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.

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<v Speaker 1>Good Morning. This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.

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<v Speaker 1>Today's tip is to plan for distracted days. When you

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<v Speaker 1>know there won't be long stretches of time to focus

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<v Speaker 1>and you might be interrupted a lot. You can still

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<v Speaker 1>choose your to do list to get a reasonable amount done.

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<v Speaker 1>I am writing this on a Tuesday that has been,

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<v Speaker 1>to put it charitably, not structured for concentration. I needed

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<v Speaker 1>to bring my car into the shop and arrange to

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<v Speaker 1>pick it up. There was an h FACT crew at

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<v Speaker 1>my house working on the system since the room wasn't

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<v Speaker 1>getting heat. There were three furniture deliveries scheduled, though one

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<v Speaker 1>crew wound up not coming when it turned out the

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<v Speaker 1>dresser they were bringing had been severely damaged at the warehouse. Meanwhile,

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<v Speaker 1>my daughter forgot her trumpet for Bandai, and no sooner

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<v Speaker 1>had that been dispatched than I saw my seven year

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<v Speaker 1>old lunchbox still sitting on the kitchen counter, so that

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<v Speaker 1>needed to go to school too. These are all first

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<v Speaker 1>world problems, to be sure, but even beyond that, the

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<v Speaker 1>good news is that I knew most of these issues

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<v Speaker 1>were going to happen not the forgotten trumpet and lunch,

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<v Speaker 1>of course, But I figured that with workmen and furniture

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<v Speaker 1>delivery crews coming in and out, I wasn't going to

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<v Speaker 1>have any long spaces of concentration, So I needed to

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<v Speaker 1>choose to do us for the day that reflected that

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<v Speaker 1>if I did, I might be able to get a

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<v Speaker 1>reasonable amount done. Maybe you too have days where you

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<v Speaker 1>know you will be pulled away a lot. Maybe you'll

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<v Speaker 1>have some time to work, but you don't really know

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<v Speaker 1>how long each window will be. If this is going

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<v Speaker 1>to happen, you can do a few things first, and

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<v Speaker 1>I hope you are doing this already. You should plan

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<v Speaker 1>your life a week at a time. If you spend

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<v Speaker 1>a dedicated chunk of time every week looking at the

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<v Speaker 1>whole of the upcoming week, then you can plan more holistically.

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<v Speaker 1>You could see that one day would feature a lot

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<v Speaker 1>of interruptions, but maybe another day would not. If you

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<v Speaker 1>have some work that requires concentration and other work that

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<v Speaker 1>does not require concentration, you would see that it would

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<v Speaker 1>be inefficient to do the little things on the day

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<v Speaker 1>with open time. Better to save those for the day

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<v Speaker 1>when you'll be pulled in many directions. You can also

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<v Speaker 1>make yourself a very clear list of what you are

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<v Speaker 1>going to attempt on your interrupted day. This serves two purposes. First,

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<v Speaker 1>it is always helpful to work from a list so

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<v Speaker 1>you don't forget things. But more importantly, if you plan

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<v Speaker 1>a small number of doable things for the day, you

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<v Speaker 1>will most likely get through them. Then you can end

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<v Speaker 1>the day feeling good about your productivity, as opposed to

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<v Speaker 1>feeling like you got nothing done. Most likely it wasn't nothing,

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<v Speaker 1>and now you know that, indeed, you might get more

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<v Speaker 1>done than you think. I was only aiming to do

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<v Speaker 1>small things. But when eleven o'clock rolled around and I

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<v Speaker 1>realized that many of the major interruptions had already happened,

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<v Speaker 1>and the next furniture delivery window didn't start for another hour,

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<v Speaker 1>I realized I could make some serious headway. To be sure,

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<v Speaker 1>it is better to build days where you won't get distracted.

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<v Speaker 1>If every day is a constant battle for attention, you

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<v Speaker 1>can get burned out and feel like you are never

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<v Speaker 1>making progress. You might be able to study your schedule

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<v Speaker 1>and work with your manager to enable more concentration, but

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<v Speaker 1>when it's only a few days and you know they

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<v Speaker 1>are coming, you can plan for them, and then you

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<v Speaker 1>can be more accepting of all interruptions. You can appreciate

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<v Speaker 1>the reasons for them again, not the forgotten trumpet or lunch.

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<v Speaker 1>But it will be good to have heat and good

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<v Speaker 1>to have the furniture I ordered, and I will get

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<v Speaker 1>through everything eventually. In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks

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<v Speaker 1>for listening, and here's to making the most of our time. Hey, everybody,

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<v Speaker 1>I'd love to hear from you. You can send me

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<v Speaker 1>your tips, your questions, or anything else. Just connect with

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<v Speaker 1>me on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at Before Breakfast pod.

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<v Speaker 1>That's b E the number four than breakfast p o D.

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<v Speaker 1>You can also shoot me an email at Before Breakfast

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<v Speaker 1>podcast at iHeartMedia dot com that before Breakfast is spelled

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<v Speaker 1>out with all the letters. Thanks so much, I look

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<v Speaker 1>forward to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is a production

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<v Speaker 1>of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts from I Heart Radio,

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