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 set upper and lower bounds. When
Speaker 1: you set guidelines on what makes for a good amount
Speaker 1: of progress, you will keep yourself from burning out or
Speaker 1: failing to get things done. Today's tip, like another one
Speaker 1: this week, comes from Greg McEwen's new book, Effortless. The
Speaker 1: book is about how to make actions that matter easier.
Speaker 1: He notes that when we embark on big projects, we
Speaker 1: often fail to pace ourselves. We can be very excited
Speaker 1: at the beginning and bite off more than we can chew,
Speaker 1: which then leaves us unmotivated to tackle the task at all.
Speaker 1: After a bit, a few days of nothing start to
Speaker 1: add up, and then it is hard to get restarted. Fortunately,
Speaker 1: there's an alternative, As Greg writes, we can establish upper
Speaker 1: and lower bounds simply use the following rule. Never less
Speaker 1: than x, never more than Y. So, for instance, if
Speaker 1: you are aiming to hit certain sales numbers for the month,
Speaker 1: you might decide that you will never make fewer than
Speaker 1: five sales calls a day, and you will never make
Speaker 1: more than ten sales calls a day. Now, sure in theory,
Speaker 1: you might feel like you could make fifteen on some
Speaker 1: good day, maybe twenty, But by leaving a little bit
Speaker 1: on the table on the good days, you can feel
Speaker 1: motivated to hit the lower bound. On the bad days,
Speaker 1: you are never completely tapped out, so you can muster
Speaker 1: the effort to get over the bar. Same with writing
Speaker 1: a book. You might decide that you will never write
Speaker 1: fewer than five words on a work day, and you
Speaker 1: will never write more than a thousand. When you keep
Speaker 1: this promise to yourself, you will be able to map
Speaker 1: out exactly when you will hit your word targets within
Speaker 1: a range, because you know there won't be long days
Speaker 1: of nothing that you will have to work unsustainably hard
Speaker 1: to recover from. Setting an upper bound can also keep
Speaker 1: things from being draining. If you aim to call a
Speaker 1: certain extended family member every week, and some of those
Speaker 1: conversations can be a bit too you know, intense. You
Speaker 1: might decide that a call is never less than five minutes,
Speaker 1: but it is never more than sixty minutes. That rule
Speaker 1: gives you permission to sign off when the time is
Speaker 1: done and limit the total time while still keeping your commitment.
Speaker 1: Finding the right range keeps us moving at a steady
Speaker 1: pace so we make consistent progress. Greg writes, the lower
Speaker 1: bound should be high enough to keep us feeling motivated
Speaker 1: and low enough that we can still achieve it even
Speaker 1: on days when we're dealing with unexpected chaos. The upper
Speaker 1: bound should be high enough to constitute good progress, but
Speaker 1: not so high as to leave us feeling exhausted. So
Speaker 1: think about a big goal that you'd like to make
Speaker 1: regular progress toward. Figure out what would be a good pace,
Speaker 1: what can you commit to hitting even on the worst days,
Speaker 1: and what feels like maximum sustainable progress for the upper bound.
Speaker 1: Figure this out and you will stop making excuses and
Speaker 1: just get stuff done in the meantime. This is Laura.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening, and here's to making the most of
Speaker 1: our time. Hey, everybody, I'd love to hear from you.
Speaker 1: You can send me your tips, your questions, or anything else.
Speaker 1: Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at
Speaker 1: Before Breakfast Pod that's b E the number four then
Speaker 1: breakfast p O D. You can also shoot me an
Speaker 1: email at Before Breakfast Podcast at iHeart media dot com
Speaker 1: That Before Breakfast is spelled out with all the letters.
Speaker 1: Thanks so much. I look forward to staying in Touch
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