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 remember that almost every activity or project
Speaker 1: involves a little bit of planning or administrative time. There's
Speaker 1: really nothing wrong with that, but it is important to
Speaker 1: recognize this tax on your time so you can organize
Speaker 1: your life efficiently. This episode is first airing on April fifteenth,
Speaker 1: which has historically been Tax Day in the United States,
Speaker 1: the day when people's tax returns from the previous year
Speaker 1: are due. I know a great many people file earlier
Speaker 1: if they are expecting a refund, A great many other
Speaker 1: folks file a six month extension. But April fifteenth is
Speaker 1: at least least the day people are most likely to
Speaker 1: think about paying taxes. I think a lot of us
Speaker 1: can hold two thoughts in mind simultaneously. First, that taxes
Speaker 1: are necessary to pay for an orderly society with schools
Speaker 1: and roads and emergency responders. That's all good. Second, we
Speaker 1: don't want to pay more than we need to, so
Speaker 1: we take advantage of things like tax advantage retirement accounts,
Speaker 1: and it turns out that we pay a tax of
Speaker 1: sorts with our time too. Any project you undertake is
Speaker 1: going to have some planning or administrative component. If you
Speaker 1: take a vacation, someone needs to plan it and purchase
Speaker 1: tickets and find a dog sitter and things like that.
Speaker 1: Even if you outsource a lot of the logistics by
Speaker 1: hiring a travel agent, you'll want to talk to that
Speaker 1: person about what you like and your budget and things
Speaker 1: like that. Plus you have to find that person. Every
Speaker 1: work project involves at least a few meetings or filing
Speaker 1: reports or making presentations. Again, there's nothing wrong with this.
Speaker 1: Tax taxes are necessary, But once you acknowledge that every
Speaker 1: project has a tax of sorts and that your time
Speaker 1: is absolutely limited, then you start to see that there
Speaker 1: are more or less efficient ways to organize life. If
Speaker 1: you have a great many projects going at once, you
Speaker 1: will be paying that administrative tax on all of them,
Speaker 1: and it can start to feel like paying taxes is
Speaker 1: all you are doing. Limit the number of projects you
Speaker 1: have going on and any given time, on the other hand,
Speaker 1: and you can limit the administrative time as an overall
Speaker 1: proportion of your hours. So, for instance, let's just say
Speaker 1: you've got five projects going at work that you are
Speaker 1: flitting back and forth between every one of those projects
Speaker 1: requires two hours of administrative time per week, so that
Speaker 1: is ten hours per week of this time tax. If
Speaker 1: you've got three projects going, on the other hand, then
Speaker 1: that is only six hours of tax, which freeze up
Speaker 1: half a day for making progress on the projects themselves. Now,
Speaker 1: maybe it is not possible to limit the overall number
Speaker 1: of projects. But what I often see happen is that
Speaker 1: people are working on five things that are due over
Speaker 1: the next two months. Maybe it might be possible to
Speaker 1: work on three things, finish them in one month, and
Speaker 1: then take on three projects the next month too. Then
Speaker 1: you have cut the overall administrative tax and you have
Speaker 1: gotten more done. This is one reason I like to
Speaker 1: set quarterly goals for the year. I might know that
Speaker 1: I want to work on a particular project, but I
Speaker 1: also know that I won't be starting it until Q three.
Speaker 1: That's fine. I can know what will happen and know
Speaker 1: I will concentrate on it then, but not incur the
Speaker 1: administrative tax on my time any earlier. Now, obviously, we
Speaker 1: can't always control the total number of moving parts in life,
Speaker 1: nor do we choose to. I have five children, and
Speaker 1: they all require their own tax on my time, so
Speaker 1: to speak one I pay willingly. I simply have to
Speaker 1: acknowledge that, no matter how efficient I am, arranging activities
Speaker 1: and dealing with medical needs and such for five kids
Speaker 1: will take more time than if I had one or two.
Speaker 1: So it goes. I also like to do varied things
Speaker 1: in my working life. That means my administrative tax is
Speaker 1: going to be a little higher than it could be.
Speaker 1: But in general, rather than spend a little less time
Speaker 1: on more things, it might be better to spend more
Speaker 1: time on fewer things and then start the next project
Speaker 1: when one of the current ones is done. The projects
Speaker 1: may take as long as they take, so you probably
Speaker 1: won't change how many you are getting done overall, but
Speaker 1: doing fewer at once limits the administrative tax on your time,
Speaker 1: and that can make life feel a little less crutched
Speaker 1: in the meantime. This is Laura. Thanks for listening, and
Speaker 1: here's to making the most of our time. Thanks for
Speaker 1: listening to Before Breakfast. If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback,
Speaker 1: you can reach me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com.
Speaker 1: Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts
Speaker 1: from iHeartMedia, please visit the iHeartRadio, app, Apple podcasts, or
Speaker 1: wherever you listen to your favorite shows.