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Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 2: Good Morning.

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Speaker 1: This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's

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Speaker 1: tip is to keep one calendar for both your work

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Speaker 1: and personal life. If you can't do this, and I

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Speaker 1: know there are many reasons people can't, then have at

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Speaker 1: least one place where you can see both work and

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Speaker 1: personal time specific commitments. Being able to see both massively

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Speaker 1: increases the chances that you don't drop any balls that

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Speaker 1: you'll feel terrible about dropping. So first I want to

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Speaker 1: explain my calendar system. Even though I know there are

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Speaker 1: many reasons this won't work for other people, I work

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Speaker 1: for myself, so I actually keep a paper calendar. It's

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Speaker 1: a weekly at a glance calendar that fits in my purse.

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Speaker 1: I put any time specific commitments or need to know

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Speaker 1: information on this calendar as soon as I know these dates.

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Speaker 1: So I've marked the days my kids are off school

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Speaker 1: in the fall, even though that school year is nowhere

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Speaker 1: near starting it. In the upcoming year section in the back,

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Speaker 1: I marked our twenty twenty spring break. Our school district

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Speaker 1: published this calendar.

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Speaker 2: And even though I can assure you I'm not thinking

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Speaker 2: much about the twenty twenty spring break. I know that

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Speaker 2: most likely in the next few months, someone will ask

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Speaker 2: me about a date in March or April of next year.

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Speaker 2: I'd hate to say sure, I'll give a speech then

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Speaker 2: and then find out it's right in the middle of

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Speaker 2: our best opportunity for a family vacation. Another example, when

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Speaker 2: I found out one of my children had a special

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Speaker 2: school event in early June, I put it on the

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Speaker 2: calendar and then chatted about it with my husband. I

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Speaker 2: found out that he was going to be on a

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Speaker 2: work trip then, so that raised the stakes for my

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Speaker 2: being there. I know that he won't be able to go,

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Speaker 2: so I made a note not to schedule over it

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Speaker 2: unless something really really important came up.

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Speaker 1: When people send.

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Speaker 2: Me electronic calendar invites, I note these times in my

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Speaker 2: paper calendar, and maybe just the person who sent the invite,

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Speaker 2: so I can retrieve the details online. I'm generally not

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Speaker 2: copying phone numbers and access codes in that paper calendar.

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Speaker 2: But one of the reasons I like paper is that

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Speaker 2: I can see at a glance if the day is

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Speaker 2: getting too full. I also like to see if a

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Speaker 2: day looks completely open. If it does or looks almost open,

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Speaker 2: I might try to keep it open or transfer something

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Speaker 2: out of that day. I love looking at white space

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Speaker 2: on my calendar. Now I know a lot of people

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Speaker 2: have to keep electronic calendars for work. It makes sense

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Speaker 2: you're supposed to be able to give other people access

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Speaker 2: so they can schedule meetings. Though I have to say

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Speaker 2: this requirement is probably one of the leading causes of

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Speaker 2: the proliferation of meetings in the corporate world. The fact

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Speaker 2: that a time is open does not mean that you

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Speaker 2: need or want to meet, or that a meeting would

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Speaker 2: be the best use of that time. But that's a

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Speaker 2: subject for a different episode. This one is about why

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Speaker 2: you should have all your work in personal commitments in

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Speaker 2: one place, and maybe some people see no reason for this.

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Speaker 2: I mean they work very specific hours and basically never

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Speaker 2: have personal commitments that would come up during these hours.

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Speaker 2: Work is work, home is home.

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Speaker 1: Never the two shall meet.

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Speaker 2: For many of us, though, work life integration is more

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Speaker 2: the name of the game these days. If you have

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Speaker 2: a relatively flexible job, it's very frustrating to schedule a

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Speaker 2: nice but not critical work event at a time when

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Speaker 2: it turns out there's something you really did want to

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Speaker 2: go do in your personal life. It may be complicated

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Speaker 2: to extricate yourself, or you might not be able to

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Speaker 2: and then you'll be kicking yourself. I call this an

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Speaker 2: own goal situation in the game of work life balance.

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Speaker 1: You'd like to avoid that. So, if you do need to.

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Speaker 2: Keep an electronic calendar for work, how can you make

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Speaker 2: sure you're seeing all your personal commitments too. The most

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Speaker 2: straightforward way is to just put your personal commitments on

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Speaker 2: your work calendar. This is pretty much what my husband does.

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Speaker 2: He notes when I'm gone overnight, so he's aware of this,

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Speaker 2: and his assistant is aware that when he's awaking work

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Speaker 2: travel arrangements he needs to take that in mind.

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Speaker 1: He puts when he's supposed to pick up.

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Speaker 2: A kid somewhere, so he knows he needs to be

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Speaker 2: back in time for that. He puts his and the

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Speaker 2: kid's dental appointments that he covers and things like that.

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Speaker 2: From what I gather, his perspective is that our lives

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Speaker 2: are boring enough that there aren't real privacy concerns. With this,

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Speaker 2: his colleagues are aware that he has a family, and

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Speaker 2: this also helps other people know that if they'd like

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Speaker 2: to meet with him, certain times are better than others.

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Speaker 2: Even if you do have more privacy concerns, You can

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Speaker 2: always just put a code word on your calendar or

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Speaker 2: just label things personal if you're pretty sure you won't

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Speaker 2: forget what that means. So, for instance, if you're seeing

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Speaker 2: a specialist for something that is really none of your

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Speaker 2: colleagues's business, that's how you could still make sure no

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Speaker 2: one schedules you into something for that time unless there's

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Speaker 2: a really good reason. Of course, some people can't access

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Speaker 2: their work calendars at home, which creates a different issue.

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Speaker 2: If you can't see your work schedule on the weekend

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Speaker 2: and you're discussing who can do kid pick up during

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Speaker 2: the week with your spouse when you're talking out a Sunday, well,

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Speaker 2: that's just not going to work. When I ask my

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Speaker 2: followers on Twitter for their suggestions for people who can't

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Speaker 2: or don't want to keep everything on their work calendars,

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Speaker 2: I got a lot of great ideas. Some people can

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Speaker 2: import their work calendars into a Google calendar that they

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Speaker 2: keep as their master life calendar. Some people use apps

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Speaker 2: that allow them to import commitments from multiple places and

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Speaker 2: then see all these commitments in one place on their phones.

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Speaker 2: Fantastical two is one app that got a shout out

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Speaker 2: for that. If an automatic solution isn't going to work,

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Speaker 2: you might need to enter your work schedule manually into

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Speaker 2: your personal calendar and then make notes on your work

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Speaker 2: calendar of times where you can't be scheduled, But as

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Speaker 2: much as possible, make sure you're aware of the whole

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Speaker 2: landscape of time when you're making commitments. If you know

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Speaker 2: your kid has a choire concert on a day when

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Speaker 2: you're supposed to speak at a conference, then you can

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Speaker 2: be empowered to request an early time slot and make

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Speaker 2: it back in time for the concert. That feels like

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Speaker 2: a work life win rather than one of those no

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Speaker 2: one can have at all moments. You can't score that

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Speaker 2: win though, Unless you see the full picture of time,

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Speaker 2: you are one person. You have one set of hours,

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Speaker 2: and that's why I think it's worth trying to keep

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Speaker 2: one calendar. If you need to keep an electronic calendar

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Speaker 2: for work and have come up with a good way

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Speaker 2: to make sure your work and personal commitments are reflected

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Speaker 2: in one place, please let me know. You can email

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Speaker 2: me at Before Breakfast podcast at iHeartMedia dot com. In

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Speaker 2: the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's

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Speaker 2: to making the most of our time.

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Speaker 1: Hey everybody, I'd love to hear from you. You can

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Speaker 1: send me your tips, your questions, or anything else. Just

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Speaker 1: connect with me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at Before

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Speaker 1: Breakfast Pod. That's b E the number four then Breakfast pod.

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Speaker 1: You can also shoot me an email at Before Breakfast

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Speaker 1: podcast at iHeartMedia dot com that Before Breakfast is spelled

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Speaker 1: out with all the letters. Thanks so much, should I

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Speaker 1: look forward to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is a

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Speaker 1: production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the

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Speaker 1: iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your

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Speaker 1: favorite show. Oh to loa