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 your calendar and your lived life
Speaker 1: can look very different. By paying attention to the differences,
Speaker 1: you can become more effective with your time. When this
Speaker 1: episode is first airing in January, I am leading a
Speaker 1: time tracking challenge where hundreds of people are logging their
Speaker 1: time for a week. We are all trying to figure
Speaker 1: out where the time really goes so we can make
Speaker 1: wise decisions. If that sounds good to you, then feel
Speaker 1: free to join in. You just write down what you're
Speaker 1: doing as often as you remember, and keep going for
Speaker 1: a week. Then you can cell reflect or change. When
Speaker 1: I suggest people try tracking their time for a week,
Speaker 1: I've had a few folks simply send me their calendars.
Speaker 1: On some level, it makes sense, and hey, it sounds
Speaker 1: far more efficient to email an existing file than to
Speaker 1: actually write down your activities for a week. But there
Speaker 1: are a few problems with this approach. First, many people's
Speaker 1: calendars don't cover the hours outside say seven am to
Speaker 1: nine pm. I mean, the hours might exist on the calendar,
Speaker 1: but people tend not to actually put things in those slots,
Speaker 1: and yet life continues to be lived in those slots.
Speaker 1: Something happened. But what if people primarily use their calendars
Speaker 1: for work, then their weekends might also not contain much
Speaker 1: information as to what's going on. And yet that time
Speaker 1: is real time too. It really happened, and it really counts.
Speaker 1: But even if you're the rare sort who actually put
Speaker 1: on your calendar what you intended to do all one
Speaker 1: sixty eight hours of the week, including when you plan
Speaker 1: to go to sleep and wake up, you can immediately
Speaker 1: see that there is going to be an issue. Life
Speaker 1: is not going to go exactly as you planned all
Speaker 1: one sixty eight hours of the week. Some night, you
Speaker 1: might stay up later than expect it, or go to
Speaker 1: bed earlier. Some morning, you'd intend to shower at a
Speaker 1: certain point, but you'd get an unexpected phone call and
Speaker 1: might be laid out the door. You might cancel a
Speaker 1: meeting and spend that time on something else. A family
Speaker 1: outing ends at nine pm, not eight pm, because you
Speaker 1: were all having a good time. Whatever you put on
Speaker 1: your calendar is going to wind up diverging from how
Speaker 1: you actually spend the one d sixty eight hours of
Speaker 1: the week. And that is fine, how would anyone know
Speaker 1: exactly what life would look like in the future If
Speaker 1: we did know that, we do far more cool things
Speaker 1: with that knowledge than just be able to guess exactly
Speaker 1: how long the traffic delays would be on Thursday versus Friday.
Speaker 1: So don't think of your calendar as a time log.
Speaker 1: These are separate things. However, you can learn a lot
Speaker 1: by comparing a time log that is a trapped record
Speaker 1: of how you actually spent your time with your calendar.
Speaker 1: One thing you will learn which time estimates are off.
Speaker 1: Maybe you always block sixty minutes for a twice a
Speaker 1: week meeting that has a bad habit of taking ninety minutes.
Speaker 1: Once you see that discrepancy, you can start blocking in
Speaker 1: a longer amount of time, or at least not planning
Speaker 1: anything important for right afterwards. Or you could chat with
Speaker 1: your fellow meeting attendees to see if you could be
Speaker 1: more realistic about what you need to get done. You
Speaker 1: might also see what is realistic for your energy levels
Speaker 1: and what is not. Perhaps you constantly wind up canceling
Speaker 1: your Thursday night plans you don't do what you'd put
Speaker 1: on your calendar. That's good to know. Maybe you are
Speaker 1: just worn out by the end of the week. That
Speaker 1: might be a good night to leave open, or alternately,
Speaker 1: schedule something you know you will not cancel. And finally,
Speaker 1: you see how much other time there is a calendar
Speaker 1: of stuff that went from say, seven in the morning
Speaker 1: to seven at night Monday to Friday. Might make you
Speaker 1: feel like life was absolutely full. But that is only
Speaker 1: sixty hours. There are sixty eight hours in a week.
Speaker 1: Where does the other time go? If you work long
Speaker 1: hours Monday to end of day Thursday, you might feel
Speaker 1: like that is all your time. You have no work
Speaker 1: life bound. Let's but that is only half of the week.
Speaker 1: Where does the other half go? It's worth asking this
Speaker 1: question and maybe revising your story. So yes, calendars are great.
Speaker 1: We need calendars to tell us what we plan to
Speaker 1: do with our time. Just remember that they seldom match
Speaker 1: up exactly with reality and they seldom contain all our time.
Speaker 1: Best to get a holistic picture in the meantime. This
Speaker 1: is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's to making the
Speaker 1: most of our time. Hey, everybody, I'd love to hear
Speaker 1: from you. You can send me your tips, your questions,
Speaker 1: or anything else. Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook,
Speaker 1: and Instagram at Before Breakfast pod that's B the number four,
Speaker 1: then Breakfast p o D. You can also shoot me
Speaker 1: an email at Before Breakfast podcast. At iHeartMedia 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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