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 that it is okay to end it.
Speaker 1: If something isn't proving to be a wise use of
Speaker 1: anyone's time, it is best to acknowledge that and move
Speaker 1: on rather than continuing to devote time to it. I've
Speaker 1: been talking in a few recent episodes about how to
Speaker 1: be more resilient with time mastering. Time management is all
Speaker 1: about creating a schedule that works with life as it is,
Speaker 1: not as we wish it would be. I mean, when
Speaker 1: does anything go perfectly? With investments, we talk about not
Speaker 1: throwing good money after bad. Once money is spent, it
Speaker 1: is spent, and sometimes a little bit more can help matters. Yes,
Speaker 1: you should probably pay for that five car repair or
Speaker 1: rather than spend thirty dollars on a new car, but
Speaker 1: economists warn to be where these sunk cost fallacy. If
Speaker 1: no one is excited about a new product your business
Speaker 1: thought about launching, and it looks like launching it will
Speaker 1: require a lot more investment, well, probably better to walk away,
Speaker 1: even if you've spent a lot on the process. Already
Speaker 1: spending more won't get that money back, because nothing will.
Speaker 1: It's sunk. Better not to make more losses now. The
Speaker 1: same is true with time. If you have booked an
Speaker 1: hour to meet with someone and it is clear within
Speaker 1: the first few minutes that the two of you cannot
Speaker 1: accomplish what you set out to do, there is no
Speaker 1: point hemming and hawing and trying to rescue the conversation.
Speaker 1: The fact that you booked an hour doesn't mean you
Speaker 1: need to spend an hour. Same with your personal life.
Speaker 1: If you really aren't enjoying a movie, it's okay to
Speaker 1: stop watching it. I mean, maybe the movie will redeem itself,
Speaker 1: but most likely you will be happier using the time
Speaker 1: to go for a walk or read a book instead.
Speaker 1: If you are training for a race and you are
Speaker 1: supposed to run ten miles but you feel terrible after two,
Speaker 1: it is okay to stop and try again another day.
Speaker 1: The key is to see the red flags for when
Speaker 1: something is an unproductive or generally bad use of your
Speaker 1: time and figure out how you can be flexible rather
Speaker 1: than rigid with your plans. In general, to do this,
Speaker 1: it helps to have a purpose for any such chunk
Speaker 1: of time. What is this meeting? Supposed to accomplish. What
Speaker 1: are you trying to do during this block of deep
Speaker 1: work time? And yes, you can have a purpose for
Speaker 1: leisure time as well. You want to relax and decompress
Speaker 1: in the ninety minutes after your kids go to bed
Speaker 1: and before you go to bed, is what you're doing
Speaker 1: accomplishing that? If so? Great, But if you are watching
Speaker 1: a show you don't like, or reading a book you
Speaker 1: don't like, or halfheartedly checking email, you can acknowledge that
Speaker 1: this is not contributing to that goal and you can
Speaker 1: stop doing it. There is no point in being sad
Speaker 1: about the time already spent. The future is still yours
Speaker 1: to redirect. Now. I know this is one thing with
Speaker 1: a TV show or book, or even a bad meeting,
Speaker 1: it's another if you are considering abandoning something big, like
Speaker 1: writing a novel or building a side hustle. It can
Speaker 1: be hard to recognize what is a red flag that
Speaker 1: this is an unproductive use of time, and what is
Speaker 1: just being busy or discouraged. So here's an idea for
Speaker 1: things like that. Give yourself a deadline for when you
Speaker 1: can officially decide to quit, making sure that the deadline
Speaker 1: is just a little bit in the future. This will
Speaker 1: help you determine if this is the equivalent of a
Speaker 1: car repair or if it's more like a dollar car
Speaker 1: repair on a car that is worth far less than that.
Speaker 1: So if you have set a goal to write five
Speaker 1: thousand words a week on your novel and it just
Speaker 1: doesn't seem to be happening, commit to this goal for
Speaker 1: two more weeks. Right the next ten thou words, how
Speaker 1: do you feel about them? Maybe you will pull yourself
Speaker 1: out of a slump and be excited to keep going.
Speaker 1: But if you still want to walk away, fine, you'll
Speaker 1: know this is not just a momentary blip. Same with
Speaker 1: the side hustle. Decide that you will decide at the
Speaker 1: end of the order go full in until then then
Speaker 1: you can continue or end it. While people can make
Speaker 1: more money, we cannot make more time. Once time is spent,
Speaker 1: it is gone and we will never get it back.
Speaker 1: This is true for other people just as much as
Speaker 1: it is true for you. So if a meeting isn't
Speaker 1: going well, it is actually a gift to give other
Speaker 1: people their fifty minutes back. Yes, it might have been
Speaker 1: a mistake to commit this time. We can learn from
Speaker 1: this mistake in the future. But once the lesson has learned,
Speaker 1: there is no point in continuing to spend the time.
Speaker 1: We can do great things with that time as long
Speaker 1: as we aren't choosing to do things that aren't worth
Speaker 1: the bother. In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening,
Speaker 1: and here's to making the most of our time. M
Speaker 1: Hey everybody, I'd love to hear from you. You can
Speaker 1: send me your tips, your questions, or anything else. Just
Speaker 1: connect with me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at Before
Speaker 1: Breakfast pod that's b E the number four, then Breakfast
Speaker 1: p o D. You can also shoot me an email
Speaker 1: at Before Breakfast podcast at i heeart media dot com
Speaker 1: that Before Breakfast is spelled out with all the letters.
Speaker 1: Thanks so much, I look forward to staying in touch.
Speaker 1: Before Breakfast is a production of I Heart Radio. For
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