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 that none feels different from one. Even one
Speaker 1: meeting or time specific commitment per day changes the feeling
Speaker 1: of the day, so be careful how you arrange your schedule.
Speaker 1: Longtime listeners know that I suggest scheduling one anchor event
Speaker 1: a day on vacations or weekends. This is something that
Speaker 1: you can look forward to and that will provide well
Speaker 1: an anchor to the day. You have a reason to
Speaker 1: get up and something to structure the day around, and
Speaker 1: you will know at the end of the day that
Speaker 1: you did something you enjoyed. The day didn't just flutter away. However,
Speaker 1: this concept also works in reverse. If one scheduled event
Speaker 1: a day changes the entire feeling of the day, then
Speaker 1: if you don't want that sort of structure, you could
Speaker 1: recognize that none feels very different from one. It might
Speaker 1: be wise to clear any sort of commitments from a
Speaker 1: day that you would like to have be open. I
Speaker 1: am certainly aware of this when I am deep into
Speaker 1: a writing or editing project and I am planning out
Speaker 1: my weeks. I absolutely love to see a day where
Speaker 1: I don't have anything scheduled. I mean outside of getting
Speaker 1: everyone out the door in the morning and dealing with
Speaker 1: my family after work. I'm talking more about seeing the
Speaker 1: hours between eight am and four pm looking completely clear.
Speaker 1: I like the idea of being able to work at
Speaker 1: my own pace without needing to watch the clock until
Speaker 1: the end of the work day. It's not that having
Speaker 1: one thirty minute call at one pm is such a
Speaker 1: big deal. I mean, it's only thirty minutes. But I
Speaker 1: also know that I will be aware of that phone
Speaker 1: call on my calendar. I will likely stop working by
Speaker 1: twelve fifty or so to make sure I am ready,
Speaker 1: and I won't start anything big after noon that I
Speaker 1: don't want to have interrupted. And you can see how
Speaker 1: this goes. One event changes the entire feel of the day,
Speaker 1: so best to be aware of this. Consequently, when I
Speaker 1: am planning phone calls or interviews or anything else for
Speaker 1: future weeks, I try to batch these things as much
Speaker 1: as possible. If I already have something scheduled for two
Speaker 1: pm on one particular day, I will try to put
Speaker 1: other things on that day rather than putting them on
Speaker 1: different days that might otherwise be open. Also, if I
Speaker 1: am planning my week and looking at it and seeing
Speaker 1: that a given day has one not terribly urgent thing
Speaker 1: on it, I might reach out to the other parties
Speaker 1: and see if they are flexible. They might not be,
Speaker 1: in which case I will deal with it, but if
Speaker 1: they are, maybe I can create an open day. Again.
Speaker 1: I know, not all kinds of work go like this.
Speaker 1: In many corporate environments, it is almost impossible to keep
Speaker 1: a day completely free of meetings. If that is the case,
Speaker 1: then you do like to have some focused, uninterrupted time.
Speaker 1: You might try thinking of lunch as a reset. You
Speaker 1: don't schedule things before twelve thirty pm on a few days,
Speaker 1: if that's possible, and try to preserve that space. I
Speaker 1: know that if I do have to put one thing
Speaker 1: on a day, difference is for around twelve to one pm,
Speaker 1: because I will likely break for lunch at some point anyway,
Speaker 1: so it is not quite as disruptive to the day's
Speaker 1: flow as say a single eleven AM call. Or I
Speaker 1: can put it right before my kids get home, so
Speaker 1: something like three thirty PM, since I know I'll be
Speaker 1: ending soon and I might be watching the clock by
Speaker 1: then anyway. But even so, even one thing that's scheduled,
Speaker 1: changes a schedule. Sometimes that is a good thing. I
Speaker 1: have been home all day on a rainy Saturday with
Speaker 1: my kids, and it can feel crazy. Making better to
Speaker 1: go to the children's museum for a few hours from
Speaker 1: let's say ten to noon and feel like the day
Speaker 1: had an anchor. But sometimes it's less of a good thing.
Speaker 1: If you are preserving space for creative work, it might
Speaker 1: be better to take three calls on one day, then
Speaker 1: one on each of three days. Having two open days
Speaker 1: will allow you to get in the flow and not
Speaker 1: watch the clock. Much as I love time, sometimes being
Speaker 1: off the clock is a wonderful feeling. Indeed, in the meantime,
Speaker 1: this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's to making
Speaker 1: the most of our time. Thanks for listening to Before Breakfast.
Speaker 1: If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback, you can reach
Speaker 1: me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast
Speaker 1: is a production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts from iHeartMedia,
Speaker 1: please visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
Speaker 1: listen to your favorite shows.