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Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.

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Speaker 1: Good Morning. This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.

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Speaker 1: Today's tip is to plan your early finished fun. Deciding

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Speaker 1: what you'll do after you complete a task gives you

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Speaker 1: something to look forward to and keeps you from dilly

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Speaker 1: dallying on a project for longer than it requires. The

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Speaker 1: more you study your time, the better you get at

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Speaker 1: anticipating how long a given task will take. For instance,

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Speaker 1: I know it takes me about forty five minutes to

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Speaker 1: write a blog post. Writing drafts for a week's worth

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Speaker 1: of Before Breakfast episodes can take ninety minutes to two

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Speaker 1: and a half hours, depending on how long the episodes are.

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Speaker 1: One upside of tracking my time for the last six

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Speaker 1: years is that I've gotten better at estimating time. This

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Speaker 1: is a really useful skill for making challenging but doable schedules.

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Speaker 1: Some tasks, though, can expand to fill the available space.

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Speaker 1: One way to avoid that is to allocate a reasonable

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Speaker 1: quantity of time to the task, but then choose something

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Speaker 1: you will do when you finish early. That way, you

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Speaker 1: will look for ways to be efficient. You'll push through

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Speaker 1: rather than getting distracted with other things. For instance, suppose

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Speaker 1: your task for your lunch break is to write up

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Speaker 1: your patient notes from the morning. You might decide that

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Speaker 1: if you write up the notes efficiently and finish before

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Speaker 1: your lunch break ends, you'll go outside and eat your

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Speaker 1: lunch in the sun. If your task for the afternoon

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Speaker 1: is to prep for a job interview, you could decide

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Speaker 1: that if you finish preparing before it's time to pick

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Speaker 1: up your daughter from school, you'll go to the boutique

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Speaker 1: near her school and find a great accessory to add

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Speaker 1: flair to your inter you outfit. If your task for

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Speaker 1: the morning is to write up and circulate the minutes

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Speaker 1: and next steps from a big meeting held the previous day,

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Speaker 1: you could decide that, if you finish early, you'll listen

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Speaker 1: to a recorded webinar a colleague recommended about running effective meetings.

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Speaker 1: Deciding on the specific early finished fun activities will motivate

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Speaker 1: you to work with purpose. You're not rushing through your

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Speaker 1: important tasks. You're just approaching them with focus. You're refusing

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Speaker 1: to let your mind wander, and after you're done, you're

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Speaker 1: not going to continue fiddling with your work without adding

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Speaker 1: more value. You're completing the task well and efficiently. And

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Speaker 1: then you're having fun, specific fun, not the random and

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Speaker 1: inefficient email checks that we often use to fill this

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Speaker 1: time in your personal life. Early finished fund can really

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Speaker 1: be well fun finished sending in your kids school registration

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Speaker 1: forms and you can work on a puzzle for the

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Speaker 1: next one minutes. But during the work day, it might

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Speaker 1: make sense to think about early finished fund that will

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Speaker 1: boost your overall productivity. A walk could do that, but

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Speaker 1: so could a chat with your work best friend or

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Speaker 1: the enthusiastic junior staff. Or you're mentoring in certain kinds

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Speaker 1: of work. Seeing the beneficiaries of the fruits of your labor,

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Speaker 1: customers and action kids in your programs can be very motivational.

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Speaker 1: So go be energized by seeing the why behind your tasks,

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Speaker 1: or choose early finished fund that's about learning. Watch a

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Speaker 1: ted talk, read an article, read a book chapter that

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Speaker 1: sort of thing, And there can be a place for

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Speaker 1: frivolous early finished fund too. If you have put in

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Speaker 1: the expected hours and fulfilled your responsibilities, then consider yourself

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Speaker 1: free to go to the movies or bake a special

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Speaker 1: career meet a friend for happy hour. So today, as

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Speaker 1: you look at the tasks you need to complete, consider

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Speaker 1: whether you could motivate yourself to work productively and efficiently

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Speaker 1: by making a plan for early finish fun. If you do,

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Speaker 1: you can let me know how it goes at Laura

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Speaker 1: at Laura Vanderkamp dot com. In the meantime, this is Laura.

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Speaker 1: Thanks for listening, and here's to making the most of

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Speaker 1: our time. Hey, everybody, I'd love to hear from you.

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Speaker 1: You can send me your tips, your questions, or anything else.

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Speaker 1: Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at

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Speaker 1: Before Breakfast Pod that's b E the number four, then

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Speaker 1: Breakfast p o D. You can also shoot me an

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Speaker 1: email at Before Breakfast Podcast at iHeart media dot com

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Speaker 1: that Before Breakfast is spelled out with all the letters.

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Speaker 1: Thanks so much, I look forward to staying in touch.

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Speaker 1: Before break Fist is a production of I heart Radio.

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Speaker 1: For more podcasts from I heart Radio, visit the i

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Speaker 1: heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to

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Speaker 1: your favorite shows. H