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 about how to keep current on your work
Speaker 1: even if there are long periods of time when things
Speaker 1: can't happen as they normally do. You might not swim ahead,
Speaker 1: but you can keep treading water, and that is better
Speaker 1: than going under. I love what I do for a living,
Speaker 1: and I also love having lots of adventures. Summer is
Speaker 1: a particularly good time for adventures, and so I realized
Speaker 1: recently that I had two stretches of multiple weeks where
Speaker 1: I would only be at my desk for a few days.
Speaker 1: I would likely have the ability to answer a few
Speaker 1: emails and such wealth traveling around, but I wouldn't be
Speaker 1: able to record much, and conditions wouldn't be optimal for
Speaker 1: any intense work or lots of phone calls at set
Speaker 1: times either. Fortunately, in life, I think it's possible to
Speaker 1: avoid dropping too many balls with a little planning. I
Speaker 1: try to keep treading water during busy times by doing
Speaker 1: a few things first. As longtime listeners know, I do
Speaker 1: a weekly planning session. Every Friday. I look at the
Speaker 1: upcoming week and I decide what is most important. I
Speaker 1: look at what I have committed to and make a
Speaker 1: plan for meeting those commitments while making steps toward long
Speaker 1: term goals. If I realize I am going to be
Speaker 1: gone a lot over the next few weeks, I will
Speaker 1: also look forward to the next few weeks and figure
Speaker 1: out if if there is anything big that needs to
Speaker 1: happen right on the other side of travel or other
Speaker 1: periods of unavailability. If so, I'll make sure I'm aware
Speaker 1: of that and that I know just how much time
Speaker 1: I might have available to deal with it then. And
Speaker 1: this is key. I make sure to protect a few
Speaker 1: periods of focused time when I am sitting at my desk,
Speaker 1: and it doesn't have to be all that much. During
Speaker 1: my first two week stretch of being on the road
Speaker 1: a lot, I managed to push all recordings plus pretty
Speaker 1: much all virtual meetings into two days at my desk
Speaker 1: that were very long and very carefully planned. I then
Speaker 1: also managed to write a lot of smaller things and
Speaker 1: bits of time like at night in my hotels. I
Speaker 1: didn't move any big projects forward. We also got done
Speaker 1: what I absolutely had to get done. Your work probably
Speaker 1: looks different from mine. Everybody's work looks different, but in
Speaker 1: many cases you can keep treading water with just a
Speaker 1: few focused days. That's one reason that I suggest people
Speaker 1: who run their own businesses perhaps take vacations that go
Speaker 1: from let's say Wednesday to Wednesday. That way, each business week,
Speaker 1: you have two business days to deal with stuff, and
Speaker 1: so basically everything that has to happen can go in there.
Speaker 1: You can enjoy a week off without some of the
Speaker 1: heavy lifting that an actual Monday to Friday week off
Speaker 1: sometimes entails. You might also try this if you have
Speaker 1: a lot of flexibility or run your own show and
Speaker 1: want to take a longer trip somewhere. I'm going to
Speaker 1: be at the beach for two weeks later this summer,
Speaker 1: followed by a week off the road, but I am
Speaker 1: planning to do two to three focused days in the
Speaker 1: middle of the beach rental where I plow through pretty
Speaker 1: much everything that has to happen for the next week
Speaker 1: or two. That way, I won't miss any deadlines that
Speaker 1: I have previously agreed to. I think you can often
Speaker 1: get through a lot of what absolutely has to happen
Speaker 1: in more flexible jobs in any given week in a
Speaker 1: short amount of time. Really like ten to twenty hours
Speaker 1: of focused work. Now, obviously that is not the case
Speaker 1: in work like dentistry, where you are on or you're off,
Speaker 1: or if you are flying planes or teaching second graders
Speaker 1: and work like that. And even if you do have
Speaker 1: an information focused job, you can't work ten to twenty
Speaker 1: hours a week indefinitely and keep moving forward. But if
Speaker 1: you are careful about what you do and organize your
Speaker 1: work well, you can tread water and then start swimming
Speaker 1: forward when you're back at your desk full time in
Speaker 1: a week or two. That's certainly better than drowning when
Speaker 1: you are just trying to have the sort of adventures
Speaker 1: that summer seems to allow in the meantime. This is Laura.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening, and here's to making the most of
Speaker 1: our time.
Speaker 2: Hey, everybody, I'd love to hear from you. You can
Speaker 2: send me your tips, your questions, or anything else. Just
Speaker 2: connect with me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at Before
Speaker 2: Breakfast Pod that's b E the number four then Breakfast pod.
Speaker 2: You can also shoot me an email at Before Breakfast
Speaker 2: Podcast at iHeartMedia dot com. That Before Breakfast is spelled
Speaker 2: out with all the letters. Thanks so much. I look
Speaker 2: forward to staying in touch Before Breakfast is a production
Speaker 2: of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Speaker 2: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.