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 to make a Friday punch list. When
Speaker 1: little tasks come up during the week, make a list
Speaker 1: of them. This way you can batch them, doing them
Speaker 1: all at once and keeping them from taking over the
Speaker 1: rest of your week. The more I study people's work schedules,
Speaker 1: the more important I see it is that we match
Speaker 1: the right work to the right time. If you tackle
Speaker 1: a challenging task when you have the most energy and
Speaker 1: discipline and focus, maybe you can get it done. If
Speaker 1: you try to tackle the challenging task when you're going
Speaker 1: to get interrupted and when you have less energy, it
Speaker 1: probably won't get done, or if it does, it will
Speaker 1: take a lot longer than it could have. And yet, unfortunately,
Speaker 1: many people don't really think about this when they create
Speaker 1: their work schedules. And even if you don't really have
Speaker 1: control over when you have meetings, you may have control
Speaker 1: over when you tackle tasks and whether you do so
Speaker 1: during high energy times that aren't spoken for. If you
Speaker 1: begin the day by clearing the decks, that is, doing
Speaker 1: all those little tasks that can stack up, you might
Speaker 1: feel really productive. But you might only get to those
Speaker 1: little tasks before your first meeting, and then that's over,
Speaker 1: and then you only have a twenty minute gap before
Speaker 1: a call, and then it's lunch, and then you feel
Speaker 1: like you need a nap, and well, you see how
Speaker 1: this goes. One way to avoid this is to let
Speaker 1: the little things stack up. If you actually have to
Speaker 1: do something immediately, well that's fine, do it. But I'm
Speaker 1: actually not a really big fan of that time management
Speaker 1: rule that if something only takes two minutes, you should
Speaker 1: just do it. Life can disappear into two minute tasks.
Speaker 1: Our best and most productive time can likewise disappear into
Speaker 1: two minute tasks. I think we are better off batching
Speaker 1: those two minute tasks and then plowing through them together
Speaker 1: at a time when we don't have a ton of
Speaker 1: energy for doing other things. So that's why I've taken
Speaker 1: to making what I call a Friday punch list. In construction,
Speaker 1: a punch list is all those tasks that come up
Speaker 1: during the project that you didn't necessarily know about ahead
Speaker 1: of time. You tackle those all together at the end
Speaker 1: of the project. I think this has some good parallels
Speaker 1: for other tasks too. When little tasks come up during
Speaker 1: the week, paying a bill that's not immediately do, sending
Speaker 1: a Foeman somewhere changing it to get a reservation. I
Speaker 1: add these to the punch list. Friday's tend to be
Speaker 1: a low energy time. Most people aren't raring to start
Speaker 1: new things on Friday's, particularly Friday afternoons. But this can
Speaker 1: be a good time for planning the week ahead, and
Speaker 1: it can also be a good time for tackling little
Speaker 1: things when the opportunity cost is low. No need to
Speaker 1: clear the decks before doing deep work. You do the
Speaker 1: deep work and then clear the decks right before the weekend. Now,
Speaker 1: I have suggested this idea of various places, and I've
Speaker 1: gotten a surprising amount of pushback about it. First, I
Speaker 1: think it's that that two minute rule is pretty ingrained
Speaker 1: for people. But honestly, I suspect that one of the
Speaker 1: reasons people like doing little tasks during the week is
Speaker 1: that it feels really productive. Who knows if I am
Speaker 1: making progress on my most important goals, but I know
Speaker 1: for sure that I ordered that birthday present and sent
Speaker 1: that form over to HR. It feels good to cross
Speaker 1: things off. But when we deny ourselves these easy winds.
Speaker 1: We can use that desire for productivity to actually get
Speaker 1: important things done. We will still get to the little things,
Speaker 1: just not yet, not right now, not when we are
Speaker 1: capable of doing bigger things. And as for that other excuse,
Speaker 1: I hear from people that the little things will weigh
Speaker 1: on me and I won't remember them, so I'll have
Speaker 1: to spend mental energy keeping track of them if I
Speaker 1: don't do them immediately. Well, that's what a list is for.
Speaker 1: When it's on a list that you know you'll look at,
Speaker 1: you won't forget these items. And when you do have
Speaker 1: a time for them, say two o'clock on Friday afternoon,
Speaker 1: you know you'll do them. Things put on a list
Speaker 1: to be done at a certain time don't weigh on you.
Speaker 1: They become like an upcoming dental appointment. It's on your calendar,
Speaker 1: ready to happen, but its existence doesn't exactly keep you
Speaker 1: from living a productive life. So if you have a
Speaker 1: lot of little things to do, consider making a Friday
Speaker 1: punch list. You'll tackle these items on Friday. You'll get
Speaker 1: your deep work done and then clear the decks too.
Speaker 1: In the meantime. This is Laura, thanks for listening, and
Speaker 1: here's to making the most of our time. Hey everybody,
Speaker 1: I'd love to hear from you. You can send me
Speaker 1: your tips, your questions, or anything else. Just connect with
Speaker 1: me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at Before Breakfast Pod.
Speaker 1: That's b E the number four, then Breakfast p o D.
Speaker 1: You can also shoot me an email at Before Breakfast
Speaker 1: podcast at iHeart media dot com that Before Breakfast is
Speaker 1: spelled out with all the letters. Thanks so much, I
Speaker 1: look forward to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is a
Speaker 1: production of I heart Radio. For more podcasts from I
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