WEBVTT - Track downtime at work

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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 track your downtime at work. Some jobs

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<v Speaker 1>require you to be there for a certain number of

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<v Speaker 1>hours and deal with things as they come up. Sometimes

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<v Speaker 1>there might be downtime you can use for things that

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<v Speaker 1>feel meaningful for your employer or for yourself. But it

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<v Speaker 1>helps to know what kind of time you are working with.

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<v Speaker 1>So a lot of jobs involve accomplishing certain tasks, but

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<v Speaker 1>others are about being responsive to what is going on.

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<v Speaker 1>Maybe respond to tech needs as they come up, or

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<v Speaker 1>security calls, or you are greeting visitors at a front desk.

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<v Speaker 1>Someone needs to be there. A receptionist can't exactly say, hey,

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<v Speaker 1>I have greeted people so well for the first six

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<v Speaker 1>hours of my shift that I can leave early. The

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<v Speaker 1>job is to be there in case someone shows up.

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<v Speaker 1>If you have had a job like that, or you

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<v Speaker 1>are in one now, you know that some days can

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<v Speaker 1>be frenzied. The service calls are coming left and right.

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<v Speaker 1>Other days, however, might be a bit slow. When I

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<v Speaker 1>was in college, I sometimes worked overnight shifts at the

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<v Speaker 1>campus student center, if someone needed something or if there

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<v Speaker 1>was a security concern, I had to triage that, but

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<v Speaker 1>a lot of the time I was just hanging out

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<v Speaker 1>and occasionally making rounds. I am kind of embarrassed to

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<v Speaker 1>report how much of that time I spent surfing the

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<v Speaker 1>early version of the web. I remember reading a lot

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<v Speaker 1>of forum posts and refreshing to see if maybe someone

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<v Speaker 1>in some other time zone had posted anything new. It's

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<v Speaker 1>kind of sad, but it is understandable because the problem,

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<v Speaker 1>of course, is that this work downtime is really hard

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<v Speaker 1>to use well. On any given day, you might have

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<v Speaker 1>no time, or you might have a lot of time.

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<v Speaker 1>Downtime might come in two minute chunks, or you might

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<v Speaker 1>get an hour, so it is hard to plan what

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<v Speaker 1>to do, hence the scrolling. But it is not impossible

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<v Speaker 1>to use this time well, and a key part of

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<v Speaker 1>using this downtime effectively is knowing as much about its

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<v Speaker 1>contours as you can, so try tracking it. It might

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<v Speaker 1>help to use some sort of time tracking app because

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<v Speaker 1>we're going to get very granular here for a few days.

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<v Speaker 1>Whenever your downtime starts, you hit start, and then when

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<v Speaker 1>you get a request or need to deal with something,

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<v Speaker 1>you hit stop, you will see how much downtime you have.

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<v Speaker 1>For instance, it would be good to know that in

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<v Speaker 1>an eight hour shift, it is highly likely that you

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<v Speaker 1>will have two and a half to three hours that

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<v Speaker 1>aren't spoken for. Seeing that chunk of time might motivate

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<v Speaker 1>you to think about what might be possible, whether that's

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<v Speaker 1>working on new projects for your employer, or if it's

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<v Speaker 1>an option where you work doing something like reading. You'll

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<v Speaker 1>also get some sense of the rhythms. For instance, maybe

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<v Speaker 1>the first four hours of your shift tend to feature

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<v Speaker 1>a lot of things you need to deal with, but

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<v Speaker 1>then the second four hours tends to be a lot lighter.

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<v Speaker 1>Or maybe you'll see that most of your time confetti

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<v Speaker 1>comes in five to ten minutes spurts, so you can

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<v Speaker 1>start to think of what will fit in that time.

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<v Speaker 1>It is highly unlikely that you'll get an hour, at

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<v Speaker 1>least not in this job, so you don't need to

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<v Speaker 1>worry yourself about that. Instead, you can make a list

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<v Speaker 1>of five to ten minute things that you could do.

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<v Speaker 1>In any case, people tend to feel more satisfied when

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<v Speaker 1>they are not spending a ton of time scrolling around online. Yes,

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<v Speaker 1>you may be getting paid for this time, so there's that,

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<v Speaker 1>but that doesn't mean you want to waste it. As

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<v Speaker 1>long as you respond quickly to requests, there's nothing better

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<v Speaker 1>about scrolling than say, reading a book and working on

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<v Speaker 1>a certification for a future job might be even better.

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<v Speaker 1>Knowing how much time you have to work with can

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<v Speaker 1>help you see if the latter might be possible. In

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<v Speaker 1>the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's

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<v Speaker 1>to making the most of our time. Thanks for listening

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<v Speaker 1>to Before Breakfast. If you've got questions, ideas, is 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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<v Speaker 1>from iHeartMedia, please visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or

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