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 about how to clear out your calendar
Speaker 1: when your day or week becomes unexpectedly busy. We all
Speaker 1: have weeks like this. There's something big you need to
Speaker 1: deal with, but unfortunately your past self packed the week
Speaker 1: completely full with other things. So how do you deal
Speaker 1: with it? I want to share the strategy my friend
Speaker 1: that Lauren Burger uses. Lauren runs the Career Company's career
Speaker 1: Queen dot com and intern queen dot com. She is
Speaker 1: also the author of the book Get It to Gather.
Speaker 1: Here's what she said in an email to me. As
Speaker 1: I write this, I'm looking at my day for tomorrow.
Speaker 1: It's completely booked with a bunch of non urgent and
Speaker 1: non revenue generating calls from eight thirty am to two
Speaker 1: thirty pm. If I'm on the phone all day long,
Speaker 1: how will I accomplish anything on my to do list?
Speaker 1: As a smart business owner, she didn't want to waste
Speaker 1: all this potential time, so her suggestion go through and
Speaker 1: push things. Don't be afraid, don't feel bad, just push
Speaker 1: things out. You have to put yourself first, you have
Speaker 1: to advocate for you. If you don't do it, who will?
Speaker 1: So what exactly does she push out? Here are some
Speaker 1: of the examples she listed. A meeting that I'd classify
Speaker 1: as they want to have but not a need to have,
Speaker 1: for example, an internal meeting with team members about sales strategies.
Speaker 1: Weekly or bi weekly recurring calls where there's no new
Speaker 1: info to share. Oftentimes a quick email can be sent.
Speaker 1: Anything you're setting is a favor to someone else, an
Speaker 1: informational interview, an advice call, something you want to do
Speaker 1: but can't commit to this week. Calls or task items
Speaker 1: that you can have other people will handle for you
Speaker 1: and just get a quick update on. For example, Lauren says,
Speaker 1: I don't need to be on the team brainstorm tomorrow
Speaker 1: where they talk about gift bag ideas for our parties.
Speaker 1: I can just get a quick email update afterwards. Incoming
Speaker 1: sales pitches or demos that aren't urgent, non revenue generating calls,
Speaker 1: or meetings, things that you know won't result in dollars
Speaker 1: until months and months out if ever. So, Lauren was
Speaker 1: studying her schedule for the next day and seeing which
Speaker 1: of these things could be rescheduled now. Many of these
Speaker 1: aren't things that can be put off forever. I'd also
Speaker 1: point out that if you're constantly the person rescheduling stuff,
Speaker 1: eventually people won't want to schedule stuff with you at all,
Speaker 1: so you need to be aware of this. One way
Speaker 1: to solve this issue is to triage your calendar far
Speaker 1: ahead of time. Canceling stuff right before it happens can
Speaker 1: sometimes inconvenience other people if you cancel things a few
Speaker 1: days ahead of time, though people can usually make other
Speaker 1: plans long time before. Breakfast listeners know that I like
Speaker 1: planning weeks on Friday afternoons. When you're doing that, look
Speaker 1: at what's already on your calendar for the next week.
Speaker 1: If there's a lot of stuff that isn't revenue generating
Speaker 1: and really doesn't need to happen for a while, and
Speaker 1: you know there's some other big stuff happening, then take
Speaker 1: the time on Friday to move it, cancel it, or
Speaker 1: delegate it. And in the future, be very careful with
Speaker 1: the word yes. We've talked about only saying yes to
Speaker 1: future things. If you'd say yes tomorrow instead of just
Speaker 1: agreeing when the salesperson asks for a quick call to
Speaker 1: talk to you about that product he's pitching. Actually, picture
Speaker 1: yourself in the future taking time away from something really
Speaker 1: important to your business in order to listen to this pitch.
Speaker 1: Will you be mad at yourself as you're doing it?
Speaker 1: If so, then don't say yes in the first place.
Speaker 1: What will you clear from your calendar today? In the meantime,
Speaker 1: This is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's to making
Speaker 1: the most of our time. M Hey everybody, I'd love
Speaker 1: to hear from you. You can send me your tips,
Speaker 1: your questions, or anything else. Just connect with me on Twitter,
Speaker 1: Facebook and Instagram at Before Breakfast pod that's b the
Speaker 1: number four, then Breakfast p o D. You can also
Speaker 1: shoot me an email at Before Breakfast podcast at i
Speaker 1: heeart media dot com. That Before Breakfast is spelled out
Speaker 1: with all the letters. Thanks so much, I look forward
Speaker 1: to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is a production of
Speaker 1: I Heart Radio. For more podcasts from my Heart Radio,
Speaker 1: visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows.