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 plan for distracted days. When you
Speaker 1: know there won't be long stretches of time to focus
Speaker 1: and you might be interrupted a lot. You can still
Speaker 1: choose your to do list to get a reasonable amount done.
Speaker 1: I am writing this on a Tuesday that has been,
Speaker 1: to put it charitably, not structured for concentration. I needed
Speaker 1: to bring my car into the shop and arrange to
Speaker 1: pick it up. There was an h FACT crew at
Speaker 1: my house working on the system since the room wasn't
Speaker 1: getting heat. There were three furniture deliveries scheduled, though one
Speaker 1: crew wound up not coming when it turned out the
Speaker 1: dresser they were bringing had been severely damaged at the warehouse. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: my daughter forgot her trumpet for Bandai, and no sooner
Speaker 1: had that been dispatched than I saw my seven year
Speaker 1: old lunchbox still sitting on the kitchen counter, so that
Speaker 1: needed to go to school too. These are all first
Speaker 1: world problems, to be sure, but even beyond that, the
Speaker 1: good news is that I knew most of these issues
Speaker 1: were going to happen not the forgotten trumpet and lunch,
Speaker 1: of course, But I figured that with workmen and furniture
Speaker 1: delivery crews coming in and out, I wasn't going to
Speaker 1: have any long spaces of concentration, So I needed to
Speaker 1: choose to do us for the day that reflected that
Speaker 1: if I did, I might be able to get a
Speaker 1: reasonable amount done. Maybe you too have days where you
Speaker 1: know you will be pulled away a lot. Maybe you'll
Speaker 1: have some time to work, but you don't really know
Speaker 1: how long each window will be. If this is going
Speaker 1: to happen, you can do a few things first, and
Speaker 1: I hope you are doing this already. You should plan
Speaker 1: your life a week at a time. If you spend
Speaker 1: a dedicated chunk of time every week looking at the
Speaker 1: whole of the upcoming week, then you can plan more holistically.
Speaker 1: You could see that one day would feature a lot
Speaker 1: of interruptions, but maybe another day would not. If you
Speaker 1: have some work that requires concentration and other work that
Speaker 1: does not require concentration, you would see that it would
Speaker 1: be inefficient to do the little things on the day
Speaker 1: with open time. Better to save those for the day
Speaker 1: when you'll be pulled in many directions. You can also
Speaker 1: make yourself a very clear list of what you are
Speaker 1: going to attempt on your interrupted day. This serves two purposes. First,
Speaker 1: it is always helpful to work from a list so
Speaker 1: you don't forget things. But more importantly, if you plan
Speaker 1: a small number of doable things for the day, you
Speaker 1: will most likely get through them. Then you can end
Speaker 1: the day feeling good about your productivity, as opposed to
Speaker 1: feeling like you got nothing done. Most likely it wasn't nothing,
Speaker 1: and now you know that, indeed, you might get more
Speaker 1: done than you think. I was only aiming to do
Speaker 1: small things. But when eleven o'clock rolled around and I
Speaker 1: realized that many of the major interruptions had already happened,
Speaker 1: and the next furniture delivery window didn't start for another hour,
Speaker 1: I realized I could make some serious headway. To be sure,
Speaker 1: it is better to build days where you won't get distracted.
Speaker 1: If every day is a constant battle for attention, you
Speaker 1: can get burned out and feel like you are never
Speaker 1: making progress. You might be able to study your schedule
Speaker 1: and work with your manager to enable more concentration, but
Speaker 1: when it's only a few days and you know they
Speaker 1: are coming, you can plan for them, and then you
Speaker 1: can be more accepting of all interruptions. You can appreciate
Speaker 1: the reasons for them again, not the forgotten trumpet or lunch.
Speaker 1: But it will be good to have heat and good
Speaker 1: to have the furniture I ordered, and I will get
Speaker 1: through everything eventually. In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks
Speaker 1: for listening, and 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 E the number four than breakfast p o D.
Speaker 1: You can also shoot me an email at Before Breakfast
Speaker 1: podcast at iHeartMedia dot com that before Breakfast is spelled
Speaker 1: out with all the letters. Thanks so much, I look
Speaker 1: forward to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is a production
Speaker 1: of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts from I Heart Radio,
Speaker 1: visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows.