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

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Speaker 2: This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's

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Speaker 2: tip is to consolidate your time specific meetings or appointments.

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Speaker 2: The more you can do this, the more open space

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Speaker 2: you can have in the rest of your life, which

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Speaker 2: can allow you to focus more deeply on other things.

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Speaker 2: So here's a question. Let's say you were trying to

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Speaker 2: place three hour long meetings into a workday.

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Speaker 1: You get to pick the times. Where would you choose

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Speaker 1: to put them? So I would probably try to put

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Speaker 1: them at two o'clock, three o'clock, and four o'clock. If

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Speaker 1: I was trying to build in a little space in

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Speaker 1: case one ran over, I might try to do one thirty,

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Speaker 1: two thirty and four. But as much as possible, I

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Speaker 1: would try to put the meetings close together, and I

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Speaker 1: would try to put them later in the day. That

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Speaker 1: would leave the entire morning open for working on projects

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Speaker 1: that couldn't be neatly chopped up into our long blocks.

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Speaker 1: The reason I'd put the meetings in the afternoon is

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Speaker 1: that I tend to have a little less energy in

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Speaker 1: the afternoon. But most people do go to scheduled meetings

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Speaker 1: regardless of how they feel. Most of us have a

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Speaker 1: harder time doing more speculative, creative, or nebulous things when

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Speaker 1: we are flagging. But even if you put all the

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Speaker 1: meetings in the morning, I would still recommend putting them

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Speaker 1: all together. That's because anything time specific on a calendar

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Speaker 1: tends to make people stop what they are doing at

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Speaker 1: least a few minutes before, and then it takes time

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Speaker 1: to get back into focused work afterwards. That can be

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Speaker 1: a problem if you have a bigger task on your

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Speaker 1: to do list that is going to require some time.

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Speaker 1: If you have a meeting at ten o'clock, a meeting

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Speaker 1: at twelve o'clock, and then a meeting at two o'clock,

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Speaker 1: the only slot where you could put a ninety minute

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Speaker 1: task in the day would be by showing up early,

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Speaker 1: or by starting it after three pm, when most people

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Speaker 1: are not really angling to start much new If all

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Speaker 1: your meetings are consolidated, though, then you have multiple places

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Speaker 1: you could start the ninety minute task that at least

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Speaker 1: somewhat raises the chances of it getting done now. Obviously,

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Speaker 1: we don't always get to control when meetings happen. You

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Speaker 1: are trying to bring people together, and those people have

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Speaker 1: their own schedules and their own preferences, but you might

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Speaker 1: be able to exert some control over this. For instance,

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Speaker 1: if you see an upcoming day that looks pretty light

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Speaker 1: and has a big open chunk of time, you might

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Speaker 1: be able to put a block over this open time,

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Speaker 1: put some project name on it, and then any addition

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Speaker 1: meetings will naturally get consolidated with the ones you have.

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Speaker 1: If someone is scheduling meetings for you, you can tell

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Speaker 1: this person that you prefer to consolidate and leave bigger

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Speaker 1: blocks of time open. You can also do a calendar triage.

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Speaker 1: When you are planning out your week or any given day,

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Speaker 1: look at the hard landscape, as David Allen calls time

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Speaker 1: specific appointments. If you have meetings at one in three

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Speaker 1: and then a thirty minute meeting with someone you work

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Speaker 1: closely with at let's say ten in the morning, reach

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Speaker 1: out to that person. Maybe you can handle it with

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Speaker 1: a phone call right then and get it off your calendar,

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Speaker 1: or maybe the person might be able to move the

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Speaker 1: meeting till later in the day or do it later

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Speaker 1: in the week. But do your best to try to

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Speaker 1: consolidate your meetings because that single thirty minute meeting is

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Speaker 1: going to undermine your ability to focus deeply for the

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Speaker 1: entire morning. If that meeting is about your mos most

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Speaker 1: important business issue, that is fine, but is it. Focus

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Speaker 1: and attention are valuable things in their own right. You

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Speaker 1: don't want them to be chopped up if there is

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Speaker 1: no good reason. In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks

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Speaker 1: for listening, and here's to making the most of our time.

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Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to Before Breakfast. If you've got questions, ideas,

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Speaker 1: or feedback, you can reach me at Laura at Laura

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Speaker 1: vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartMedia.

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