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 try some work puttering time. If
Speaker 1: you have open space in your work schedule and nothing
Speaker 1: immediately pressing, try not setting a goal and not relying
Speaker 1: on your usual time killers. You just might come up
Speaker 1: with some interesting things to pursue. I know that on
Speaker 1: many work days it feels like every minute and more
Speaker 1: is spoken for. But maybe you have a week where
Speaker 1: you've just knocked it out of the park up until Wednesday.
Speaker 1: You've finished all your top priority work and even gotten
Speaker 1: a bit ahead of things. You have a few hours
Speaker 1: around your normal Thursday and Friday commitments. Now what Oftentimes
Speaker 1: people wind up feeling almost unproductive in this open space.
Speaker 1: You are not going to solve the world's problems in
Speaker 1: a few hours, or even rework your business model, or
Speaker 1: hire new employees or anything big like that. Often people
Speaker 1: just delve into their inboxes and try to make a
Speaker 1: dent there. But since email expands to fill the available space,
Speaker 1: this can feel even more like a waste of time. See,
Speaker 1: you might want to consider another option, which is what
Speaker 1: I call work puttering. If you think about puttering. It
Speaker 1: is usually in a home context. People putter around the yard,
Speaker 1: doing a little weeding here, a little pruning there, moving
Speaker 1: something in the garden and then moving it back. People
Speaker 1: putter around the house too, picking up a room and
Speaker 1: then seeing if maybe that end table would look better
Speaker 1: in another spot. It's not particularly intentional. It's more experimental,
Speaker 1: just seeing what works and what doesn't. We can do
Speaker 1: this at work too, if you've got some open space,
Speaker 1: see what you're thinking about, See what catches your attention,
Speaker 1: See what you think you'd like to spend more time on,
Speaker 1: See who you think about. I interviewed someone recently who
Speaker 1: did some of this work puttering on a Friday, and
Speaker 1: in that open space, she came up with an idea
Speaker 1: for someone who would be good to interview for her
Speaker 1: organization's podcast. It was a slightly out of the box idea,
Speaker 1: but it was a good one. Or maybe you actually
Speaker 1: read that article you've been saving in your inbox. You
Speaker 1: could read it all the way to the end. You
Speaker 1: could follow a thread looking up a new bit of
Speaker 1: information once you read that article and mull over all
Speaker 1: of it like a gardener pondering if she needs some
Speaker 1: more impatience or petunias. The idea is to have some
Speaker 1: time where there is no intended outcome. Now, don't get
Speaker 1: me wrong, it is good to be intentional about time,
Speaker 1: but that means having some time where we pursue things
Speaker 1: a bit randomly. Not only do we occasionally get good
Speaker 1: ideas or have people bubble up to the top of
Speaker 1: our minds. This can make us feel like time is
Speaker 1: more abundant. We have space. It feels a little more open.
Speaker 1: So why not try some work puttering time. Much of
Speaker 1: time should be directed so we get done what we
Speaker 1: need to get done in a reasonable number of hours.
Speaker 1: But a little puttering time can make it all feel
Speaker 1: more sustainable, so it's worth seeking out in the meantime.
Speaker 1: This is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's to making
Speaker 1: the most of our time. Hey, everybody, I'd love to
Speaker 1: hear from you. You can send me your tips, your questions,
Speaker 1: or anything else. Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook
Speaker 1: and Instagram at Before Breakfast pop that's B the number four,
Speaker 1: then breakfast p o D. You can also shoot me
Speaker 1: an email at Before Breakfast podcast at i heeart media
Speaker 1: dot com. That Before Breakfast is spelled out with all
Speaker 1: the letters. Thanks so much. Should I look forward to
Speaker 1: staying in touch. Before Breakfast is a production of I
Speaker 1: heart Radio. For more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit
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