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 make sure you have enough time to work.
Speaker 1: While there is nothing wrong with working part time, if
Speaker 1: you are aiming to work a full time schedule and
Speaker 1: you have a lot of flexibility, it can be easy
Speaker 1: to get pulled away unintentionally. Protecting a few more hours
Speaker 1: might make you feel a lot more productive. So I
Speaker 1: will start this episode by acknowledging that for some proportion
Speaker 1: of my listeners this topic might sound ridiculous. If you
Speaker 1: work set hours at a workplace, you don't need to
Speaker 1: protect time to work. Your work hours are your work hours.
Speaker 1: But these days an especially post pandemic, a lot of
Speaker 1: people work differently. They can work from home on occasion,
Speaker 1: at least they can often set their own hours. These
Speaker 1: developments are really and truly wonderful, and I am a
Speaker 1: big fan of them. Most people do work very productively
Speaker 1: from home and flexibly for those of us who do
Speaker 1: have complex personal lives, though occasionally the flexibility can result
Speaker 1: in attempting to burn the candle at both ends. If
Speaker 1: I go to my kids school during the day for
Speaker 1: something and start driving kids around to activities around four
Speaker 1: o'clock and try to run during those hours too. That
Speaker 1: starts cutting down on the available work space. So as
Speaker 1: I am creating the family's schedule for the week, I
Speaker 1: start ving el v's work hours. When will I know
Speaker 1: that I will have quiet, uninterrupted work time since I
Speaker 1: often do exercise during the day when my family has childcare.
Speaker 1: If the total tally of l v's available work hours
Speaker 1: is under thirty five, then I know I will probably
Speaker 1: need to add a night or weekend session. If I
Speaker 1: am going to start feeling like I am on top
Speaker 1: of things, I am very efficient, but tasks take time,
Speaker 1: and if there is less time, then fewer tasks are
Speaker 1: going to get done. I will do what I absolutely
Speaker 1: need to do, but the forward looking, speculative stuff might
Speaker 1: not happen. You might find the same thing. It is
Speaker 1: wonderful that you can drop your kids off at school
Speaker 1: and pick them up, but if the pickups in at
Speaker 1: thirty minutes or more between the travel the car line
Speaker 1: and driving home, that is a lot of time for
Speaker 1: only about ten minutes with your kid. Could you carpool
Speaker 1: some days and extend your work hours by at least
Speaker 1: thirty minutes on those days. Could your child take the
Speaker 1: bus some days, or maybe your child could stay for
Speaker 1: an activity at school twice a week and you'd be
Speaker 1: able to add another sixty to ninety minutes of worktime
Speaker 1: on those days. I will also note that times when
Speaker 1: you feel on call can also be hard to use
Speaker 1: for focused work. So if you have a child who
Speaker 1: often calls for a ride home, perhaps you can work
Speaker 1: out ahead of time what times you will be available
Speaker 1: for this, so you know you can work right up
Speaker 1: and till that time. If you do decide to take
Speaker 1: on school pickups or activity driving or things during the day,
Speaker 1: there is nothing wrong with that. It is one of
Speaker 1: the upsides of a flexible schedule. But part of flexibility
Speaker 1: means that if the work moves, but the work still
Speaker 1: has to be done, it has to go somewhere, and
Speaker 1: so there is nothing wrong with protecting work time for
Speaker 1: let's say, three to four hours on a weekend morning
Speaker 1: while your partner covers. If you have covered more during
Speaker 1: the week, there is nothing wrong with deciding to work
Speaker 1: for ninety minutes at night two to three times per
Speaker 1: week after the kids go to bed. If you have
Speaker 1: taken on personal stuff during the day. That is what
Speaker 1: flexibility entails. Indeed, I would say this is a great
Speaker 1: example of work life balance, even though I know a
Speaker 1: lot of people do not view working at night or
Speaker 1: on the weekends as balanced, But if you have done
Speaker 1: personal stuff during the traditional work day, then it absolutely is.
Speaker 1: I say this because I know a lot of very
Speaker 1: hard working, productive people wind up feeling distracted and like
Speaker 1: they aren't getting as much as they want done. It's
Speaker 1: not because there's anything wrong with them. It is often
Speaker 1: because they are attempting to do thirty five hours worth
Speaker 1: of tasks and thirty available hours. And even if those
Speaker 1: same tasks would take a less efficient colleague forty five
Speaker 1: hours or more, there is a limit on how efficient
Speaker 1: any of us can be. So if you have been
Speaker 1: feeling a bit behind, take a look at how much
Speaker 1: protected uninterrupted work time you actually have. Make sure you
Speaker 1: have enough time to work. I am not saying that
Speaker 1: you should give up on any activities that are important
Speaker 1: to you, but you should make sure that somewhere on
Speaker 1: your schedule there is enough time blocked to feel like
Speaker 1: you don't have to rush. That can make work in
Speaker 1: general feel better. In the meantime. This is Laura, Thanks
Speaker 1: for listening and here's to making the most of our time. Hey, everybody,
Speaker 1: I'd love to hear from you. You can send me
Speaker 1: your tips, your questions, or anything else. Just connect with
Speaker 1: me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at Before Breakfast Pod.
Speaker 1: That's b the number four then Breakfast pod. You can
Speaker 1: also shoot me an email at Before Breakfast podcast at
Speaker 1: iHeartMedia dot com that before Breakfast is spelled out with
Speaker 1: all the letters. Thanks so much. Should I look forward
Speaker 1: to staying in touch. Before Breakfast production of iHeartRadio. For
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