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 get your hybrid schedule right. Lots
Speaker 1: of organizations are moving people back into physical offices at
Speaker 1: least part of the time, but there is a lot
Speaker 1: more flexibility now than in the past, so this can
Speaker 1: be a great opportunity to consider how you work best
Speaker 1: and what might make your work life balance possible. This
Speaker 1: episode was inspired by a question I am getting a
Speaker 1: lot these days. People note that their organizations want them
Speaker 1: to work in the office three days per week and
Speaker 1: at home two days per week. So which days would
Speaker 1: they like to work from home? On some lovel this
Speaker 1: isn't quite the right question. True flexibility means working from
Speaker 1: home when it works best for you, which could change
Speaker 1: week to week. This week, your kid has a special
Speaker 1: lunch at school on Wednesday, so it would be good
Speaker 1: to work from home that day so you can dart
Speaker 1: over and back without losing too much work time. Or
Speaker 1: maybe you look at the traffic Tuesday morning and see
Speaker 1: that there's a gigantic snarl on the bridge you have
Speaker 1: to take to get to the office. Rather than sit
Speaker 1: in a solid hour of traffic, you decide that that
Speaker 1: is a good day to work from home. But I
Speaker 1: know a lot of teams like to coordinate in office
Speaker 1: coverage or when would be best for meetings, and many
Speaker 1: people like to create a weekly rhythm that they can
Speaker 1: plan on, so I understand the impulse to designate which
Speaker 1: days will be work from home days. That just leaves
Speaker 1: the question which days. My first bit of advice, don't
Speaker 1: automatically pick Fridays. This is probably the most common choice
Speaker 1: and pre pandemic. It was basically the only day many
Speaker 1: places would allow people to work from home. But Friday
Speaker 1: tends to end earlier anyways, so if it helps your
Speaker 1: work life balance to be home earlier, you will automatically
Speaker 1: do that on Fridays. You want to find different days
Speaker 1: where your work life balance could be improved. If you've
Speaker 1: got an awful commute, my choice would be to work
Speaker 1: from home on Tuesdays and Thursdays. This can make a
Speaker 1: bad commute more bearable because you never have to do
Speaker 1: it twice in a row. If you have trouble concentrating
Speaker 1: in the office, my vote would be Wednesdays and Thursdays.
Speaker 1: You can schedule your meetings for Mondays and Tuesdays and
Speaker 1: have social time. Then on Wednesdays and Thursdays you can
Speaker 1: hunker down and work from home on your individual deliverables.
Speaker 1: And of course Friday is the slow day with lots
Speaker 1: of other people working from home, then you can probably
Speaker 1: concentrate in the office. Brilliant. If you are experimenting with
Speaker 1: living far from your office, not just a long commute,
Speaker 1: but maybe you have a weekend house or something like that,
Speaker 1: then I'd recommend choosing two consecutive days to work from
Speaker 1: home wherever that home happens to be the most obvious choices.
Speaker 1: Thursday and Friday. You can head out Wednesday night if
Speaker 1: that works for your family's schedule, and head back sometime Sunday.
Speaker 1: The alternative is to use Monday and Tuesday as work
Speaker 1: from home days. I kind of love this idea because honestly,
Speaker 1: I think working from home is more productive than working
Speaker 1: in most offices, but I know it might be hard
Speaker 1: to pull off in many places. Monday and Tuesday do
Speaker 1: tend to be the kickoff days for many projects, and
Speaker 1: those do tend to be the big meeting days, so
Speaker 1: that is something to keep in mind. One idea to
Speaker 1: put out there is to shift hours even on the
Speaker 1: days you do go into the office. There is no
Speaker 1: law that says those hours have to be nine to five,
Speaker 1: as we have seen during the pandemic. If the work
Speaker 1: gets done, when it gets done and where it gets
Speaker 1: done are not quite so relevant. So if your organization
Speaker 1: has pledged to be more flexible and you would really
Speaker 1: prefer to work early, you might see about doing a
Speaker 1: schedule of say seven to three or even six to two.
Speaker 1: If you are more of a night owl, perhaps ten
Speaker 1: to six or eleven to seven would allow you to
Speaker 1: be more productive. Plus, if people stagger their commutes, the
Speaker 1: roads will be better for everyone. In any case, think
Speaker 1: about how you work best, what days you tend to do,
Speaker 1: what kind of work, and what the rest of your
Speaker 1: life looks like. Then think about how a hybrid schedule
Speaker 1: can best support all that. My hope is that there
Speaker 1: will be a lot more happy people when fewer organizations
Speaker 1: are demanding people be in their desks from nine to
Speaker 1: five Monday to Friday. We have seen in the last
Speaker 1: year that this isn't absolutely necessary for most knowledge work.
Speaker 1: Let's keep those lessons to create a better way of
Speaker 1: working moving forward. 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 E the number before then Breakfast p o D.
Speaker 1: You can also shoot me an email at Before Breakfast
Speaker 1: podcast at iHeartMedia dot com that Before Breakfast is spelled
Speaker 1: out with all the letters. Thanks so much, I look
Speaker 1: forward to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is a production
Speaker 1: of I heart Radio. For more podcasts from I heart Radio,
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