Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning,
Speaker 1: This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
Speaker 1: tip is to plan and reflect at about the same time.
Speaker 1: Just as it's important to figure out how you'd like
Speaker 1: to spend your time, reflecting on where the time really
Speaker 1: went can make better planning choices possible in the future.
Speaker 1: Longtime listeners know that I think everyone should have a
Speaker 1: designated weekly planning time. I like the idea of planning
Speaker 1: on Fridays for the upcoming week, but the key is
Speaker 1: that you have some regular time where you'd look forward,
Speaker 1: figure out your priorities, figure out the logistics, and get
Speaker 1: clear on what you need and want to do. It
Speaker 1: is fine to just do this looking forward, but if
Speaker 1: you want to get the most out of your planning sessions,
Speaker 1: it might help to take just two minutes or so
Speaker 1: to look back on the previous week. Look at your
Speaker 1: priority list. Did everything happen if so, awesome? If not?
Speaker 1: Why not? Was the list too ambitious? Was life too unpredictable?
Speaker 1: Did you decide you didn't want to do something or
Speaker 1: it wasn't the best use of your time. Did something
Speaker 1: take a lot longer than you expected? Or perhaps less
Speaker 1: time than you expected. There are a few upsides to
Speaker 1: looking back. One is that if something didn't happen, you
Speaker 1: can make a choice about whether to assign it to
Speaker 1: the next week, or maybe you can make it happen,
Speaker 1: or maybe you can make it happen in the next
Speaker 1: thirty minutes or so if you like. It's a reminder
Speaker 1: of what you thought was important and becomes a moment
Speaker 1: to choose whether to continue with that thought or change it.
Speaker 1: The second upside, though, is just more practice at figuring
Speaker 1: out how long things take. Time. Estimation is hard. It
Speaker 1: is hard to know exactly what will fit in a week.
Speaker 1: But if you look back and see what did fit
Speaker 1: in a week, and you do this again and again,
Speaker 1: you will get a better sense of what can fit
Speaker 1: in a week in the future. I know that for
Speaker 1: me this has been a real upside of a dedicated
Speaker 1: weekly planning practice for many decades. Now I look back
Speaker 1: on what I did, and that lets me know what
Speaker 1: I can do. I tend to make more restrained choices
Speaker 1: for the upcoming week than I might have because I
Speaker 1: know that stuff can come up. Stuff always comes up.
Speaker 1: When I'm more careful about assigning myself work for the week.
Speaker 1: That means I probably will get everything crossed off by
Speaker 1: the end of the week. I have a long working
Speaker 1: list of other priorities, so I can always go pull
Speaker 1: something from that if I have extra time. But long
Speaker 1: term reflecting and planning means that the amount of stuff
Speaker 1: I plan to do tends to match the amount of
Speaker 1: time I have. But long term reflecting and planning means
Speaker 1: that the amount of stuff I plan to do tends
Speaker 1: to match the amount of time I have. Not always,
Speaker 1: but mostly you can do this for shorter planning periods too.
Speaker 1: I tend to create my to do list for the
Speaker 1: next day at the end of each work day. This
Speaker 1: also gives me a chance to look over the list
Speaker 1: for the day that just ended. Did I get through everything,
Speaker 1: did I have a lot of extra time, or was
Speaker 1: I perhaps racing to get through things. This helps me
Speaker 1: make rational choices for the next day, and I think
Speaker 1: it can help you make good choices for your to
Speaker 1: do list too. Sometimes people find planning and creating priority
Speaker 1: lists to be a source of strung because they don't
Speaker 1: get through everything and that makes them feel behind. Reflection
Speaker 1: helps build in a check on this. You know that
Speaker 1: last week and the week before, and the week before
Speaker 1: there was a certain amount of space. Most likely that
Speaker 1: will be the case for the next week too. Planning
Speaker 1: and reflection go hand in hand, so take just a
Speaker 1: moment to reflect and your planning will be a lot
Speaker 1: more effective. In the meantime, This is Laura, Thanks for listening,
Speaker 1: and here's to making the most of our time. Thanks
Speaker 1: for listening to Before Breakfast. If you've got questions, ideas,
Speaker 1: or feedback, you can reach me at Laura at Laura
Speaker 1: vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartMedia.
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