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 choose a spot for spillover work. Many
Speaker 1: people will have weeks that either feature extra work that
Speaker 1: doesn't fit into their normal work hours, or else we
Speaker 1: might lose some chunk of our usual work hours to
Speaker 1: personal obligations. When that is the case, choosing ahead of
Speaker 1: time which extra slots would work best can make these
Speaker 1: weeks feel more calm. You can also make sure that
Speaker 1: the extra work doesn't displace important personal priorities. So during
Speaker 1: a recent week, I wound up doing a multi hour
Speaker 1: work session on a Thursday night. I tend not to
Speaker 1: do much work in the evenings, but I was in
Speaker 1: a hotel room and I had planned to work during
Speaker 1: the day, but I had the opportunity to spend time
Speaker 1: with people who were in town. In general, I believe
Speaker 1: that people are a good use of time. So I
Speaker 1: saw those folks in the afternoon, knowing that I had
Speaker 1: eight to ten thirty pm open that night for work.
Speaker 1: I knew it was better to work then then to
Speaker 1: try to fit those tasks into the weekend, which was
Speaker 1: going to be full of kids stuff. The time in
Speaker 1: my hotel room would just be spent scrolling or maybe
Speaker 1: watching TV. Better to use that time. It was the
Speaker 1: least disruptive spillover spot. Few people enjoy working at night
Speaker 1: on weekends, But if work sometimes doesn't fit during regular
Speaker 1: hours and it needs to get done and you have
Speaker 1: some say over your working time, then you have a choice.
Speaker 1: You can identify a time in advance that won't be
Speaker 1: disruptive to the rest of your life and use that,
Speaker 1: or you can wait until things become more dire and
Speaker 1: use whatever time is right there, which might require canceling
Speaker 1: plans or losing out on sleep. I think the former
Speaker 1: is the better option. So even if work isn't particularly
Speaker 1: busy right now, look at your weekly schedule and identify
Speaker 1: a slot or two that might be available for spillover work.
Speaker 1: For people with young kids, the time after the kids
Speaker 1: go to bed at night would be an obvious one.
Speaker 1: If they are down at eight and you go to
Speaker 1: bed at ten thirty, you could make up two hours
Speaker 1: on any given night during a rough week. Choosing two
Speaker 1: to three nights for the second shift would buy you
Speaker 1: an extra four to six hours without giving up time
Speaker 1: with your kids. If you don't think you'll have the energy,
Speaker 1: try going to bed earlier and waking up early and
Speaker 1: using these quiet morning hours a few days a week
Speaker 1: to get the extra work done. For some people, the
Speaker 1: weekend might be better. If you have a co parent,
Speaker 1: you might work out a trade where each of you
Speaker 1: takes the kids one morning or one afternoon. You use
Speaker 1: the time to work and the other person can use
Speaker 1: their time to do whatever. Or perhaps there is another
Speaker 1: weekend slot that would work without causing much disruption. For instance,
Speaker 1: maybe someone needs to take a kid to swim practice
Speaker 1: and generally hangs out there during the practice. You could
Speaker 1: bring your laptop and use that time while still doing
Speaker 1: the driving. Or in my family, on Sundays, the usual
Speaker 1: activity schedule means I'm home and done driving about an
Speaker 1: hour before my husband gets back with our youngest. It
Speaker 1: is pretty easy to use that hour on a usual
Speaker 1: weekend to work if I happen to have some spillover.
Speaker 1: Even if you don't have kids, maybe you and a
Speaker 1: significant other normally hang out on the weekends. If that
Speaker 1: person has some time that they normally do something else,
Speaker 1: like going for long bike rides on Saturday mornings, that
Speaker 1: is a very easy spillover time. Knowing that ahead of
Speaker 1: time means you don't have to change your weekend plans together.
Speaker 1: If you've got extra work that has to get done,
Speaker 1: you know you will be able to use that time.
Speaker 1: Many of us have some spillover spot we could use.
Speaker 1: If you know when this is, then you can plan
Speaker 1: to use it when you need to. But if you
Speaker 1: haven't thought about it, you'll get to the weekend and
Speaker 1: be facing down a huge Monday deadline and you will
Speaker 1: have to start canceling things. This will make your family
Speaker 1: or friends far more annoyed with you. This is the
Speaker 1: sort of thing that leads to resentment and then to
Speaker 1: people feeling like work and family or work in relationships
Speaker 1: are inevitably at odds. But plan ahead to identify a
Speaker 1: non disruptive spillover spot, and maybe they don't have to be.
Speaker 1: It is not necessarily fun to work at night or
Speaker 1: on the weekend, but when you choose which night or
Speaker 1: which weekend spot you use, it can be far more tolerable.
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
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