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 about how to transition more easily from
Speaker 1: one thing to another. Shifting gears can be hard, but
Speaker 1: certain techniques can lead to a little less whiplash and
Speaker 1: a little more satisfaction. I've realized over the years that
Speaker 1: some people feel differently about transition than others do. A
Speaker 1: tiny boat might be able to turn quickly, a big
Speaker 1: tanker needs a long time to shift direction. It's not
Speaker 1: that one kind of boat is better than the other,
Speaker 1: they're just built in entirely different ways. I am more
Speaker 1: of the tiny sailboat type myself. Over years of working
Speaker 1: from home women raising five children, I have learned to
Speaker 1: make use of small bits of time and to consider
Speaker 1: any hour open for work or home life tasks. So
Speaker 1: when I talk about time with people who are concerned
Speaker 1: about their work life balance, one of my favorite suggestions
Speaker 1: is to consider what I call a split shift. You
Speaker 1: leave the office on time, spend the evening with young
Speaker 1: kids who go to bed relatively early, then do some
Speaker 1: more work at night after the kids go to bed.
Speaker 1: That way, you're trading off work time for TV time
Speaker 1: instead of work time for family time. Brilliant, right. Some
Speaker 1: people agree with me that this is brilliant. They try
Speaker 1: it eagerly and tell me how happy they are to
Speaker 1: spend more time with their kids while still putting in
Speaker 1: the hours they need to at work. They finally have
Speaker 1: it all other people, I think this sounds like the
Speaker 1: worst idea ever. Once they are done with work for
Speaker 1: the night they are done, they are not going to
Speaker 1: easily turn the oil tanker around. Starting back up at
Speaker 1: eight p m makes them feel, as one woman wrote,
Speaker 1: ill with self pity or more likely just ineffective. By
Speaker 1: the time they get back into work mode, it would
Speaker 1: be time to go to bed and they'll have to
Speaker 1: get out of work mode again. As an integrator type,
Speaker 1: I can think this sounds ridiculous, but we all have
Speaker 1: to know ourselves. The trouble for the oil tanker types
Speaker 1: of the world is that life demands a lot of transitions,
Speaker 1: and I heartily suggest you build your life to spend
Speaker 1: whole work days focused on one thing if you can,
Speaker 1: but many people find that impossible. We have to transition
Speaker 1: between projects, between meetings and focused work, and now from
Speaker 1: home to work and work to home in many cases
Speaker 1: without the separation of a commute. If you do find
Speaker 1: transitions from one mood to an other hard, then you
Speaker 1: need to come up with ways to train your brain
Speaker 1: to get into the groove more quickly. One of the
Speaker 1: best ways to do that is to have some sort
Speaker 1: of ritual that quickly gets you into work mode and
Speaker 1: quickly out of work mode. If you work from home,
Speaker 1: you could try a fake commute. You walk to a
Speaker 1: local coffee shop, get a big cup to go, and
Speaker 1: walk home and straight into your office. Now you are
Speaker 1: in work mode, not home mode. The feel of that
Speaker 1: big cup of coffee and having physically moved yourself around
Speaker 1: can send your brain the signal that now it is time.
Speaker 1: Another method is to have some sort of go to song.
Speaker 1: You might not even have to play the whole thing.
Speaker 1: Music can powerfully shift the brain into certain modes. That's
Speaker 1: why you feel nostalgic whenever you hear that song that
Speaker 1: was popular around the time of your high school graduation
Speaker 1: or your first love or what have you. Choose a
Speaker 1: song that means now is work time, and you can
Speaker 1: get your brain moving quickly. You can also choose a
Speaker 1: song that means now is not work time and figure
Speaker 1: out how you can relax as quickly as possible to.
Speaker 1: Sometimes sense can do this as well. And I know
Speaker 1: this sounds a little strange, but hear me out. Sense
Speaker 1: very quickly take the brain places pretty much as quickly
Speaker 1: as music. Smell the perfume your grandmother used, and you
Speaker 1: are quickly a little kid hanging out in her kitchen.
Speaker 1: Smell dogwoods on the spring breeze, and you are transported
Speaker 1: to your ten year old bedroom where there was a
Speaker 1: dogwood right outside. So choose an invigorating scent, like a
Speaker 1: cedar scented candle, and then light it when it is
Speaker 1: go time. Do this for several days in a row,
Speaker 1: and your brain will come to associate focus with that scent.
Speaker 1: You can also do certain things to let your brain
Speaker 1: relax a bit more about up coming transitions. For instance,
Speaker 1: if you really want to focus on something without watching
Speaker 1: the clock, then set an alarm for five to ten
Speaker 1: minutes before you need to stop. That way, you can
Speaker 1: get into it knowing that you will have time to
Speaker 1: transition when you need to. You might also get in
Speaker 1: the habit of getting to a natural stopping point with
Speaker 1: your work. Yes, other people interrupt us. Both colleagues and
Speaker 1: family members these days, but we interrupt ourselves sometimes too,
Speaker 1: instead of giving into the urge to check email, which
Speaker 1: is a transition, by the way, which even people who
Speaker 1: hate transitions seem to make effortlessly push through. Until you
Speaker 1: are done with a section of your report, or have
Speaker 1: finished that whole memo, or set the whole agenda for
Speaker 1: your meeting, note the exact next steps. Then you can
Speaker 1: take a break and know that you are teed up
Speaker 1: to start again pretty easily. In any case, I am
Speaker 1: always looking for more suggestions on how to make smoother transitions.
Speaker 1: If you have something that works for you, I'd love
Speaker 1: to hear about it. You can let me know at
Speaker 1: Laura at Laura Vanderkamp dot com. In the meantime, this
Speaker 1: is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's to making the
Speaker 1: most of our time. Hey, everybody, I'd love to hear
Speaker 1: from you. You can send me your tips, your questions,
Speaker 1: or anything else. Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook
Speaker 1: and Instagram at Before Breakfast Pod that's B the number
Speaker 1: four then breakfast p o D. You can also shoot
Speaker 1: me an email at Before Breakfast Podcast at iHeart media
Speaker 1: dot com. That before Breakfast is spelled out with all
Speaker 1: the letters. Thanks so much, I look forward to staying
Speaker 1: in touch. Before Breakfast is a production of I heart Radio.
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