WEBVTT - Plan focused work early

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning,

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<v Speaker 1>This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's

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<v Speaker 1>tip is to plan time for focused work early in

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<v Speaker 1>the day. We have all heard about the value of

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<v Speaker 1>scheduling time for heads down, deep work free from interruptions.

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<v Speaker 1>This is time when you are not available for meetings,

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<v Speaker 1>when your email and Slack notifications are turned off, and

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<v Speaker 1>when your door is literally and metaphorically closed. Focused work

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<v Speaker 1>time lets you produce more work, and generally better work

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<v Speaker 1>than if you are never able to give a challenging

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<v Speaker 1>project the full attention it deserves. Deep work can be fun.

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<v Speaker 1>It feels great to get law in a project rather

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<v Speaker 1>than playing whack a mole responding to the messages that

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<v Speaker 1>come in through various channels. It all sounds great, but

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<v Speaker 1>the question of when to schedule such deep work arises

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<v Speaker 1>For many people. It's going to be good to schedule

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<v Speaker 1>this early in the day. Indeed, you might even aim

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<v Speaker 1>to schedule your most important focused work before breakfast. If

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<v Speaker 1>you work for yourself or set your own hours, or

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<v Speaker 1>work from home, early in the morning has many upsides.

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<v Speaker 1>People are less likely to interrupt you, even if sometimes

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<v Speaker 1>interruptions are the work. As we learned in a recent episode,

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<v Speaker 1>there are fewer emails and slack messages coming in at

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<v Speaker 1>say six thirty in the morning than later, which means

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<v Speaker 1>that turning off notifications is generally going to be less problematic.

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<v Speaker 1>Almost no one is going to set a meeting with

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<v Speaker 1>you at six am, and if they do, you you

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<v Speaker 1>probably gave your consent for it to be there, And

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<v Speaker 1>this is a very different matter. If you get your

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<v Speaker 1>focused work done early, then perhaps you could end work

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<v Speaker 1>early too, And for people who have school age kids,

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<v Speaker 1>being around for the afternoon shift might be a real upside. Now,

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<v Speaker 1>if you work for a larger organization, I am not

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<v Speaker 1>saying you need to work more hours logging hours before breakfast.

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<v Speaker 1>If you have general set hours, what you could do

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<v Speaker 1>is just aim to get in on the earlier side

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<v Speaker 1>of what is acceptable and use this as focused time.

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<v Speaker 1>Years ago, I worked in a place where most people

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<v Speaker 1>got in around ten am. By getting in closer to nine,

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<v Speaker 1>I had time to work in the quiet, and since

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<v Speaker 1>I was catching a specific express bus home, no one

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<v Speaker 1>really questioned my walking out the door to meet it.

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<v Speaker 1>In general, people drift in and drift to work at

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<v Speaker 1>most organizations. Over a period of time in the morning,

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<v Speaker 1>you might be easily able to get an hour or

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<v Speaker 1>even more of focus time before people start looking for you. Plus,

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<v Speaker 1>many people have more ability to focus in the morning.

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<v Speaker 1>After that first cup of coffee, we feel like we

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<v Speaker 1>can take on the world now. Protecting this time might

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<v Speaker 1>sometimes be challenging, but maybe sometimes not. In a lot

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<v Speaker 1>of cultures, there might be a general practice against scheduling

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<v Speaker 1>meetings before nine or even nine thirty, given the drifting

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<v Speaker 1>in factor. If you are asked to meet at nine,

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<v Speaker 1>you could try moving it a little later. I might

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<v Speaker 1>have something at nine, you could say, and if the

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<v Speaker 1>person is flexible, potentially you can move the meeting to

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<v Speaker 1>later in the day. There may also be a great

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<v Speaker 1>many days when you just naturally don't have something before

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<v Speaker 1>ten or eleven because no one has scheduled it. If

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<v Speaker 1>you look at your calendar, perhaps the day before, and

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<v Speaker 1>see this open time, then plan on those being your

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<v Speaker 1>focused mornings, get your coffee, take a quick calendar check,

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<v Speaker 1>and then dive in. You can break at nine forty

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<v Speaker 1>five to go grab some breakfast as a mid morning break,

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<v Speaker 1>and you may feel like you have already won the

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<v Speaker 1>day before Breakfast right. The length of your focused work

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<v Speaker 1>times and their frequency will vary depending on your job,

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<v Speaker 1>but I would venture to guess that almost everyone needs

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<v Speaker 1>at least some focus work time every week, and most

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<v Speaker 1>of us would probably benefit from more focused time than

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<v Speaker 1>we are currently getting. I am not saying you need

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<v Speaker 1>to work longer, but sometimes doing this work early and

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<v Speaker 1>a little bit earlier than most people are at work

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<v Speaker 1>will buy you a lot of flexibility later in the

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<v Speaker 1>day that might be worth changing your schedule a little bit.

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<v Speaker 1>In the meantime. This is Laura. Thanks for listening, and

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<v Speaker 1>here's to making the most of our time. Thanks for

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<v Speaker 1>listening to Before Breakfast. If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback,

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<v Speaker 1>you can reach me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com.

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<v Speaker 1>Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts

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