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Speaker 1: Good morning. This is Laura. Welcome to The New Corner Office,

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Speaker 1: the podcast where we share strategies for thriving in the

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Speaker 1: new world of work, where location and ours are more

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Speaker 1: flexible than in the past. Today's tip is to give

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Speaker 1: yourself the gift of time. Some occasions call for swift,

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Speaker 1: or at least timely turnarounds. There's no reason to dawdle,

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Speaker 1: just todddle, but on big projects or big decisions, allowing

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Speaker 1: yourself a little extra time can make the whole process

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Speaker 1: far more pleasurable. Over the years, I've learned to write

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Speaker 1: really fast. I wrote The New Corner Office, the short

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Speaker 1: book that inspired this podcast, in approximately one month. I

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Speaker 1: have participated in National Novel Writing Month a few times,

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Speaker 1: which involves writing a fifty word draft in thirty days.

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Speaker 1: I write blog posts in thirty minutes or so, which

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Speaker 1: is about the same amount of time each of these

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Speaker 1: scripts take. I'm just used to this, so when my

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Speaker 1: agent mentioned that the deadline for my next book, Tranquility

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Speaker 1: by Tuesday, was going to be in October of two thous,

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Speaker 1: I did a double take. I had almost a year

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Speaker 1: to write a draft. It feels incredibly expansive. I have

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Speaker 1: started work on the book now, but it's kind of

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Speaker 1: fun to know that I can play around with ideas

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Speaker 1: and think about who I'd like to interview and how

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Speaker 1: to describe the research I'm doing. Sometimes time pressure inspires creativity,

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Speaker 1: as constraints do in general, but by removing most immediate

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Speaker 1: time pressure, I will experience a different sort of creativity,

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Speaker 1: one that's more about play rather than the focusing version.

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Speaker 1: I know a lot of people listening to this podcast

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Speaker 1: work in industries that are driven by deadlines, and there

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Speaker 1: is nothing wrong with that. But as long as you

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Speaker 1: know that you are aiming toward a long term goal,

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Speaker 1: giving yourself a little extra time on the way there

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Speaker 1: can be a fun way to make work more enjoyable.

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Speaker 1: Give yourself an extra week to play around with ideas,

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Speaker 1: Give yourself an extra week to talk with different people.

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Speaker 1: Give yourself an extra week for research. You can also

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Speaker 1: give yourself extra time by getting started right away so

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Speaker 1: you have time to come back to things. You can

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Speaker 1: also produce your project, sit on it for a while,

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Speaker 1: take a few days off, and then see it with

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Speaker 1: fresh eyes. The extra time will definitely make it better.

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Speaker 1: There are a few ways to build in this extra time.

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Speaker 1: If you are given a deadline that seems arbitrarily short,

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Speaker 1: ask for reasoning. Maybe there is a good explanation for

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Speaker 1: this timeline that you don't know about. But if not,

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Speaker 1: there is no harm in asking for a longer runway,

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Speaker 1: particularly if you are known as a person who always

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Speaker 1: delivers great work by your deadlines. Curiously, in many cases,

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Speaker 1: I find that people are setting their own tight deadlines

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Speaker 1: for no real reason. Here's one New Year's Day is

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Speaker 1: totally arbitrary. You do not have to decide on your

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Speaker 1: next job move by January one, or figure out the

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Speaker 1: new role you'd like to create at your organization by

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Speaker 1: January one, or write that white paper that is going

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Speaker 1: to make you a thought leader by January one. I mean, sure,

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Speaker 1: that is as good a deadline as any other. But

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Speaker 1: January four is a Monday. Like any other Monday, you

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Speaker 1: will probably be working, so you can keep working on

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Speaker 1: your big project. Then too. We all need time to think,

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Speaker 1: we need time to come up with ideas. Deadlines are focusing,

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Speaker 1: but two tight deadlines keep us from thinking about possibilities.

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Speaker 1: So work with deadlines for sure, but make sure they're

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Speaker 1: not tighter than they need to be, and make sure

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Speaker 1: you don't put things off until the last minute, thus

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Speaker 1: creating time pressure that didn't need to exist. Leaving time

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Speaker 1: to come back to things will make them better. When

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Speaker 1: we have time to play around and experiment and edit,

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Speaker 1: then time feels abundant. That sense of abundance helps us

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Speaker 1: tap into amazing creativity, so we create great things. Why

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Speaker 1: not give it a try. Extra time can be a

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Speaker 1: gift to yourself. In the meantime, This is Laura, thanks

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Speaker 1: for listening, and here's to sixty in the New Corner Office.

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Speaker 1: The New Corner Office is a production of I Heart Radio.

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Speaker 1: For more podcasts, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,

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Speaker 1: or wherever you get your favorite shows. H