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

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Speaker 1: This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's

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Speaker 1: tip is about a better way to clear the decks

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Speaker 1: rather than burn precious morning energy. Doing small tasks, you

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Speaker 1: might be able to get through them before quitting time

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Speaker 1: the day before. So as a general practice, I think

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Speaker 1: it is smart to plan out your next day before

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Speaker 1: you end work for the day the afternoon or evening,

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Speaker 1: before you take five minutes to look at your calendar

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Speaker 1: for the next day and figure out what is happening,

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Speaker 1: you can assign any other pressing tasks around the hard landscape.

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Speaker 1: By doing this before quitting time, you can be strategic.

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Speaker 1: Maybe you see that you have a task that is

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Speaker 1: going to take ninety minutes if your first meeting is

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Speaker 1: at ten thirty, you could decide to plow right into

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Speaker 1: that task as soon as you show up and likely

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Speaker 1: get it done before the meeting, Whereas if you wait

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Speaker 1: until later in the day, there might not be any

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Speaker 1: ninety minute windows on offer, and if you didn't plan

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Speaker 1: the day before, you wouldn't realize that this was a

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Speaker 1: ninety minute task and that it had to be done

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Speaker 1: this day until maybe fifteen to twenty minutes into the workday.

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Speaker 1: At that point, there wouldn't be enough time before the

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Speaker 1: first meeting to get it done, and you might be

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Speaker 1: buying yourself a late night. But let's say you don't

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Speaker 1: need to be quite that strategic. I mean, you've got

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Speaker 1: a lot to get through, but you will have at

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Speaker 1: least a few windows. If you make a list of

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Speaker 1: tasks for the next day, likely some will be big

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Speaker 1: and some will be small. It is human nature to

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Speaker 1: want to cross things off. We like to complete things.

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Speaker 1: When you come into work the next morning and plan

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Speaker 1: to get started on your to do list, you will

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Speaker 1: naturally want to cross off the little things first, like, hey,

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Speaker 1: it's ten am and I've already gotten through six of

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Speaker 1: the eight things I need to do today. Some people

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Speaker 1: even think this practice is smart. They are clearing the

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Speaker 1: decks of little things so they can focus on the

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Speaker 1: battle of doing the big things. The problem is that

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Speaker 1: the big things might require more energy and focus. Energy

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Speaker 1: and focus tend to dip by later in the day.

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Speaker 1: You may never even get through the big stuff, or

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Speaker 1: at least not focus until later, when again it just

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Speaker 1: might take a lot longer. So if you make tomorrow's

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Speaker 1: to do list. About twenty to thirty minutes before quitting time,

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Speaker 1: you have an opportunity. You can actually go ahead and

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Speaker 1: knock as many of the little things off your list

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Speaker 1: for the next day as possible. You can probably get

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Speaker 1: through several in a short window. Likely you wouldn't have

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Speaker 1: been doing much during this time anyway. Most of us

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Speaker 1: are kind of unwilling to start anything big after four

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Speaker 1: thirty PM or so. If we don't have to, the

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Speaker 1: little things will feel more doable. But now, when you

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Speaker 1: get to work the next morning, there may be nothing

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Speaker 1: on your to do list for the day but the

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Speaker 1: big stuff you have to do. You are still clearing

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Speaker 1: the decks, but you are doing it in a way

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Speaker 1: that doesn't distract you or take your highest energy time. Plus,

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Speaker 1: there's no arguing that there's all this other stuff to

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Speaker 1: do first before the big things you have already taken

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Speaker 1: care of it. I find this especially helpful if I've

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Speaker 1: been procrastinating something. When I take everything else off my plate,

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Speaker 1: I'm either doing the big task or I'm twiddling my thumbs.

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Speaker 1: Most likely I'll want to make progress, and in the

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Speaker 1: morning I tend to have more energy to do that,

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Speaker 1: so consider clearing the decks the night before. You just

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Speaker 1: might start making progress and making work feel more satisfying.

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Speaker 1: In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and

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Speaker 1: here's to making the most of our time. Thanks for

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

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Speaker 1: you can reach me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com.

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Speaker 1: Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts

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