Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of my Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Good Morning. This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Speaker 1: Today's tip is that sometimes you can just declare the
Speaker 1: day done. Not always. Sometimes we've got reserves left that
Speaker 1: we can tap. But if things aren't working, you can
Speaker 1: achieve a lot of peace by deciding to just try
Speaker 1: again tomorrow. I love to write, but sometimes the words
Speaker 1: come easier than others. A few years ago, when I
Speaker 1: was writing a weekly column for a particular publication, I
Speaker 1: needed to turn in my work on Fridays. I aimed
Speaker 1: to be done on Wednesdays, but sometimes Wednesdays got away
Speaker 1: from me. Then I wrote on Thursday. That was usually fine,
Speaker 1: but I well remember one time when I just could
Speaker 1: not make the piece work. I tried different openings. I
Speaker 1: tried all my tricks, like writing the thesis statement and
Speaker 1: working from there, or writing the last paragraph. First. I
Speaker 1: did that and then realized that the last paragraph was terrible. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: hours were burning away and I was getting nowhere. Finally
Speaker 1: I realized that I just couldn't do it, at least
Speaker 1: not then I was done working. I stopped and read
Speaker 1: for the last half hour before I had to take
Speaker 1: over kid duties. I made some space on Friday morning
Speaker 1: to try again, and after sixteen hours away from the piece,
Speaker 1: I figured out something else I could do. It wasn't
Speaker 1: exactly prize winning, but it got done and I didn't
Speaker 1: spend sixteen hours banging my head against the wall. Perseverance
Speaker 1: is great. I am a big fan of perseverance in general.
Speaker 1: In life. I think people give up way too early.
Speaker 1: But here's the problem with how this plays out. On
Speaker 1: certain projects. You can see quite clearly that you aren't
Speaker 1: making progress, but as a productive and conscientious person, you
Speaker 1: feel guilty about stopping, so you don't and you just
Speaker 1: keep wasting time. You won't relax, but you also won't
Speaker 1: get anything done either. This is really the worst of
Speaker 1: all worlds. So here's an idea. If you can't stop
Speaker 1: spinning your wheels, then just declare the day done. When
Speaker 1: you declare the day done, you can give yourself permission
Speaker 1: to stop working. You can go do something fun without
Speaker 1: feeling bad about it. You might even consciously consider this
Speaker 1: to be flex time. You are ending the work day
Speaker 1: an hour early today, and you will start an hour
Speaker 1: early tomorrow. Since most people are more focused and have
Speaker 1: more energy in the morning, you will probably show up
Speaker 1: on fire and solve whatever problem eluded you in the
Speaker 1: late afternoon. Now, of course, you have to be careful
Speaker 1: about this. Declaring the day done isn't the same as
Speaker 1: giving up when you aren't making progress on something. Identify
Speaker 1: a new time in your schedule when you can tackle
Speaker 1: the problem. If there isn't a time, well you better
Speaker 1: use the time that you originally allocated. We can do
Speaker 1: amazing things if our incentives are right. Maybe right now
Speaker 1: you are finding it impossible to craft an incisive memo.
Speaker 1: But if someone showed up and offered you one thousand
Speaker 1: dollars to turn that memo around in two hours, you
Speaker 1: would probably do it. You'd find inner reserves that you
Speaker 1: didn't know you had. It's not that you can't write
Speaker 1: the memo. It's just that right now you don't want to.
Speaker 1: And you know what, that can be all right, as
Speaker 1: long as you have started enough ahead of your deadline
Speaker 1: that you've got the time. You can flex this time
Speaker 1: to take advantage of energy peaks and valleys. Give it
Speaker 1: a good shot. But if you just can't get something
Speaker 1: to work, go ahead and declare the day done. Go
Speaker 1: do something to relax and take your mind off the problem.
Speaker 1: My guess is that by giving it some space you
Speaker 1: will actually come up with a solution, which means that
Speaker 1: declaring the day done might have been productive after all,
Speaker 1: it will definitely be more fun 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 i heeart media
Speaker 1: dot com that Before Breakfast is spelled out with all
Speaker 1: the letters. Thanks so much, I look forward to staying
Speaker 1: in touch. Before Breakfast is a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: For more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the i
Speaker 1: heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to
Speaker 1: your favorite shows. Four