Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning.
Speaker 1: This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
Speaker 1: tip is to take a quick glance forward a week
Speaker 1: or two when you are planning your week. This can
Speaker 1: help you feel more prepared for just about anything. Longtime
Speaker 1: listeners know that I am a big fan of planning
Speaker 1: on Fridays. Indeed, plan on Fridays is one of my
Speaker 1: nine core time management rules that I write about in
Speaker 1: Tranquility by Tuesday, my book that will be out later
Speaker 1: this year. On Fridays, take a few minutes to plan
Speaker 1: the week ahead. Think about your top priorities in the
Speaker 1: categories of career, relationships, and self. Plan when you will
Speaker 1: do these things, what is already on your calendar, Make
Speaker 1: a plan to meet any obligations and deal with any
Speaker 1: tricky spots. That's it, You've got this. I have been
Speaker 1: planning this way for years and it helps me hit
Speaker 1: Monday ready to go. I even enjoy my weekends more
Speaker 1: because I'm not worried about what is coming up on Monday.
Speaker 1: I know what is coming up and I have a
Speaker 1: plan to deal with it. It is really the best
Speaker 1: way I know to calm the chaos and make time
Speaker 1: for what matters. But there is one small extra step
Speaker 1: that is helpful to take when you plan your upcoming week.
Speaker 1: Take a quick glance forward through the next week or
Speaker 1: two to see if there is anything major sitting on
Speaker 1: your calendar. Are there any big deadlines you should be
Speaker 1: thinking about, anything that's going to require more than a
Speaker 1: few hours to prepare for. If so, you probably want
Speaker 1: to devote sometime to that on the upcoming weeks to
Speaker 1: do list. The reason is that if you have something
Speaker 1: big do on a Monday or Tuesday, and you plan
Speaker 1: your upcoming weeks on Fridays, you might realize the existence
Speaker 1: of this impending deadline for the first time on the Friday,
Speaker 1: that is, right before the Monday or Tuesday. Now, you
Speaker 1: do still have a few days to work on it,
Speaker 1: so it is better than realizing this Sunday night or
Speaker 1: Monday morning. But you probably don't want to get this
Speaker 1: news on Friday when you are sliding into weekend mode,
Speaker 1: So get in a habit of taking a quick look
Speaker 1: forward a week or two. Most things can be dealt
Speaker 1: with in a few hours, and so they can be
Speaker 1: planned on Friday for the upcoming week. But when you
Speaker 1: flag something that might require a little more attention, you
Speaker 1: can be a bit more proactive. In my case, I
Speaker 1: realize the other day that I have scheduled a few
Speaker 1: interviews with people on Mondays in recent weeks, and I
Speaker 1: like to be respectful of their time, which means giving
Speaker 1: myself a few days to think through the best questions
Speaker 1: to ask. I could do it on Friday afternoon for
Speaker 1: Monday morning, but if I flag it a week ahead,
Speaker 1: I can spend some time on Thursday and Friday thinking
Speaker 1: about it. Most likely the interview will be better, or
Speaker 1: sometimes there won't be anything too out of the ordinary
Speaker 1: coming up, but you can see that a future week
Speaker 1: will be so full that you will want to pull
Speaker 1: a few priorities forward. If the immediately upcoming seven days
Speaker 1: is a lighter week, you could do that, or you
Speaker 1: could make preparations for smarter relationship building. If you see
Speaker 1: that you are going to a conference in two to
Speaker 1: three weeks, you can make time ahead of time to
Speaker 1: reach out to people and plan to get together. Or
Speaker 1: maybe you will note that one of your kids has
Speaker 1: a half day at school. Maybe you could plan ahead
Speaker 1: to take off early that day or take a longer
Speaker 1: lunch so you can spend some time together. It is
Speaker 1: usually best to know these things a little more than
Speaker 1: a week ahead if you want to keep that time clear.
Speaker 1: Now again, I want to stress that most stuff doesn't
Speaker 1: require this. Your future self will not be incompetent. You
Speaker 1: don't need to lay out outfits, or meal plan or
Speaker 1: even figure out run of the mill work stuff more
Speaker 1: than a few days ahead of time. You will be
Speaker 1: able to figure these things out when you need to
Speaker 1: figure them out. But no one likes to be blindsided
Speaker 1: or wind up with a much heavier workload some week
Speaker 1: than necessary. Taking a quick glance a week or two
Speaker 1: ahead keeps this from happening. Incorporate this practice into your
Speaker 1: Friday place and you will feel on top of things
Speaker 1: in the meantime. This is Laura. Thanks for listening, and
Speaker 1: 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 then breakfast pod. You
Speaker 1: can also shoot me an email at Before Breakfast Podcast
Speaker 1: at iHeartMedia dot com. That before Breakfast is spelled out
Speaker 1: with all the letters. Thanks so much, sh I look
Speaker 1: forward to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is a production
Speaker 1: of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.