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 figure out each day what you
Speaker 1: might be able to compress or skip if necessary. That way,
Speaker 1: you can get mindfully back on schedule when your day
Speaker 1: isn't going according to plan. I maintain that a great
Speaker 1: many of the things that come up and that people
Speaker 1: use as excuses are entirely foreseeable. Traffic during rush hour,
Speaker 1: a snow day, a client asking for revisions. Who would
Speaker 1: have thought? This is why true time management masters build
Speaker 1: in buffers and make backup plans. They think about what
Speaker 1: might come up, and they think about how they'll cope. However,
Speaker 1: even if we are very careful, things can still disrupt
Speaker 1: the schedule. Sometimes these are good things. If a new
Speaker 1: client wants to spend the morning discussing potential projects, well
Speaker 1: you probably do want to do that. If your back
Speaker 1: up slot is later in the week, you might spend
Speaker 1: a lot of time figuring out how to rework the schedule.
Speaker 1: But there's another option you can try as well. Every day,
Speaker 1: identify one or two things that you do plan to do,
Speaker 1: but that you could eliminate or simplify if the need arose.
Speaker 1: That way, you have an immediate plan of action that
Speaker 1: you don't have to think too much about and can
Speaker 1: possibly still be on track for the day, including for
Speaker 1: things in our personal lives when work runs long. So,
Speaker 1: for instance, when you plan your day, you look at
Speaker 1: your afternoon meeting schedule and identify the one meeting that
Speaker 1: is the least important. When something goes wrong or goes
Speaker 1: fabulously right in the morning, you know exactly which one
Speaker 1: you're skipping, and you already have a plan for how
Speaker 1: you will deal with that. Or you know that in
Speaker 1: the afternoon you plan to give that report another read over,
Speaker 1: but you can also send it over to a direct
Speaker 1: report who can give it one last set of eyes
Speaker 1: instead of yours. The day stays on track and what
Speaker 1: needs to get done gets done. Or maybe you planned
Speaker 1: to cook a new to you dinner for your family
Speaker 1: before going to your yoga class at night. When you
Speaker 1: get caught in far worse than usual traffic coming home
Speaker 1: from work, you know what you'll do. You switch the
Speaker 1: planned menu to grilled cheese sandwiches and an emergency bagged
Speaker 1: salad that you always keep in the fridge. Voila this
Speaker 1: is a less than ten minute production. You can still
Speaker 1: get to your class. When you think ahead of time
Speaker 1: about what you can skip or minimize, then you don't
Speaker 1: have to choose the most obvious thing to skip. The
Speaker 1: default during a busy day would be to go to
Speaker 1: whatever meetings are on the calendar and then stay late
Speaker 1: at work to finish what didn't get done. Or you
Speaker 1: might choose to chuck any personal evening priorities. But that
Speaker 1: isn't the only option. When you think about what can
Speaker 1: go ahead of time, you can think about the choices
Speaker 1: more holistically. Of course, when you think ahead of time
Speaker 1: about what could go in a pinch, you might decide
Speaker 1: to eliminate those things even if the pinch doesn't happen.
Speaker 1: I am fully supportive of that option. Don't accept meeting requests.
Speaker 1: Automatically triage your schedule when you plan your week to
Speaker 1: make sure that you're not just rescheduling things four times
Speaker 1: in a row. If something keeps getting bumped, it's because
Speaker 1: no one truly considers it a priority, so why not
Speaker 1: just get rid of it for good. I'm also a
Speaker 1: fan of being realistic in our personal lives. If you
Speaker 1: frequently choose the same sphere for employing a shortcut like, Hey,
Speaker 1: when things get crazy, I get my groceries delivered. Well,
Speaker 1: why not just keep getting your groceries delivered? Maybe life
Speaker 1: will stop being crazy, but I'm not so sure. In
Speaker 1: any case, it is wise to be proactive and strategic
Speaker 1: about our schedules. When we choose ahead of time what
Speaker 1: can go, then we don't need to dither in the moment.
Speaker 1: We also don't need to make choices under pressure that
Speaker 1: seem obvious but aren't the only option. We can live
Speaker 1: well even when time doesn't go as planned. That is
Speaker 1: exactly what time management masters do 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 iHeart media dot
Speaker 1: com that Before Breakfast is spelled out of all the letters.
Speaker 1: Thanks so much, I look forward to staying in touch.
Speaker 1: Before Breakfast is a production of I Heart Radio for
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Speaker 1: favorite shows.