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Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning,

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Speaker 1: This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's

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Speaker 1: tip is that you shouldn't assign yourself tasks that you

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Speaker 1: aren't actually going to do. It's better to be honest

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Speaker 1: about what you plan to get done, so you can

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Speaker 1: treat your to do list as a contract with yourself.

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Speaker 1: In years of talking about productivity, I know some people

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Speaker 1: take pride in having a lengthy to do list. There

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Speaker 1: are like a thousand items on it, ten thousand, or

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Speaker 1: it stretches for eight pages in a word document, or

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Speaker 1: it has long and nebulous items on it, like right book,

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Speaker 1: to which I say, that is not a to do list.

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Speaker 1: It might be a list of something, but it is

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Speaker 1: not a to do list. A to do list is

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Speaker 1: a list of things you actually intend to do in

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Speaker 1: a defined period of time. It could be a weekly

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Speaker 1: to do list or more commonly, a daily to do list.

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Speaker 1: But the key thing is that whatever length of time

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Speaker 1: you are choosing, the only things that should go on

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Speaker 1: this list are things you actually intend to do in

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Speaker 1: that time. In other words, don't assign yourself work if

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Speaker 1: you won't do it. There is no virtue in putting

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Speaker 1: something on a to do list and then not doing it,

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Speaker 1: it is just as not done as if you never

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Speaker 1: put it on the list in the first place, only

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Speaker 1: now you feel bad about it too, which is even

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Speaker 1: worse of an outcome. Ideally, a to do list is

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Speaker 1: a contract with yourself. When you put something on it,

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Speaker 1: you are telling yourself that you will in fact do it.

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Speaker 1: In the time your to do list covers, you develop

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Speaker 1: the discipline of knowing exactly what you can do and

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Speaker 1: doing whatever you say you will do. That way, you

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Speaker 1: can feel confident putting an item on a future to

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Speaker 1: do list knowing you will do it. Then you don't

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Speaker 1: feel panicked about assigning a thing that is due Friday

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Speaker 1: to Wednesday instead of Tuesday, because you know whatever you

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Speaker 1: assigned to Tuesday will happen Tuesday, and whatever you assigned

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Speaker 1: to Wednesday will happen Wednesday. Now. Of course, whenever I

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Speaker 1: say this, people point out the obvious, what if something

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Speaker 1: comes up, what if life happens, to which I say,

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Speaker 1: of course, things are going to come up. Life never

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Speaker 1: goes exactly as planned. Your to do list needs to

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Speaker 1: reflect things that you will do, even when the normal

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Speaker 1: emergencies happen. A kid is sick, the babysitter is late,

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Speaker 1: you get stuck behind an accident on the way to work,

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Speaker 1: a colleague's plane is delayedid you get a big last

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Speaker 1: minute request from a top client. While these things might

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Speaker 1: not all be normal, none of them are out of

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Speaker 1: the realm of possibility. You don't need to prepare for

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Speaker 1: things that are let's say, a one out of a

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Speaker 1: thousand chance or less. If a meteorite strikes your office building,

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Speaker 1: everyone will have bigger problems than that client proposal being late,

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Speaker 1: but they're being extra Traffic when it's raining isn't some

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Speaker 1: sort of crazy unknown. You want to be sure that

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Speaker 1: even if these normal, abnormal things happen, the items on

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Speaker 1: your to do list should be things you will get through.

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Speaker 1: The obvious conclusion from that is that the list needs

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Speaker 1: to be short. Clearly, if you'd need to pick up

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Speaker 1: a sick kit at one PM and the power would

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Speaker 1: go out in your house for eight hours, you would

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Speaker 1: not be able to get to a huge number of things.

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Speaker 1: Most people can only choose about three, maybe five major

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Speaker 1: things beyond the hard landscape of the day. But that

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Speaker 1: is okay because the act of creating a to do

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Speaker 1: list should be the act of choosing. When you create

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Speaker 1: a to do list, you are saying that these are

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Speaker 1: the things that are most important for me to do today.

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Speaker 1: These are the things that even if everything else goes wrong,

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Speaker 1: I want to complete the act of choosing forces prioritization,

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Speaker 1: and that is not a bad thing. If the sun

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Speaker 1: is shining and the world is good, and you get

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Speaker 1: through your to do list by ten am, by all

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Speaker 1: means go find some more things to do. I'm sure

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Speaker 1: you have a running list somewhere. That's that ten thousand

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Speaker 1: item lists that people are so proud of. But to

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Speaker 1: do means today. So don't assign yourself work if you

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Speaker 1: don't actually intend to do it. You will find yourself

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Speaker 1: much more productive if you are honest about this. In

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

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Speaker 1: to making the most of our time. Thanks for listening

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Speaker 1: to Before Breakfast. If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback,

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Speaker 1: you can reach me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com.

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Speaker 1: Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts

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Speaker 1: wherever you listen to your favorite shows,