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 a better way to clear the decks
Speaker 1: rather than burn precious morning energy. Doing small tasks, you
Speaker 1: might be able to get through them before quitting time
Speaker 1: the day before. So as a general practice, I think
Speaker 1: it is smart to plan out your next day before
Speaker 1: you end work for the day the afternoon or evening,
Speaker 1: before you take five minutes to look at your calendar
Speaker 1: for the next day and figure out what is happening,
Speaker 1: you can assign any other pressing tasks around the hard landscape.
Speaker 1: By doing this before quitting time, you can be strategic.
Speaker 1: Maybe you see that you have a task that is
Speaker 1: going to take ninety minutes if your first meeting is
Speaker 1: at ten thirty, you could decide to plow right into
Speaker 1: that task as soon as you show up and likely
Speaker 1: get it done before the meeting, Whereas if you wait
Speaker 1: until later in the day, there might not be any
Speaker 1: ninety minute windows on offer, and if you didn't plan
Speaker 1: the day before, you wouldn't realize that this was a
Speaker 1: ninety minute task and that it had to be done
Speaker 1: this day until maybe fifteen to twenty minutes into the workday.
Speaker 1: At that point, there wouldn't be enough time before the
Speaker 1: first meeting to get it done, and you might be
Speaker 1: buying yourself a late night. But let's say you don't
Speaker 1: need to be quite that strategic. I mean, you've got
Speaker 1: a lot to get through, but you will have at
Speaker 1: least a few windows. If you make a list of
Speaker 1: tasks for the next day, likely some will be big
Speaker 1: and some will be small. It is human nature to
Speaker 1: want to cross things off. We like to complete things.
Speaker 1: When you come into work the next morning and plan
Speaker 1: to get started on your to do list, you will
Speaker 1: naturally want to cross off the little things first, like, hey,
Speaker 1: it's ten am and I've already gotten through six of
Speaker 1: the eight things I need to do today. Some people
Speaker 1: even think this practice is smart. They are clearing the
Speaker 1: decks of little things so they can focus on the
Speaker 1: battle of doing the big things. The problem is that
Speaker 1: the big things might require more energy and focus. Energy
Speaker 1: and focus tend to dip by later in the day.
Speaker 1: You may never even get through the big stuff, or
Speaker 1: at least not focus until later, when again it just
Speaker 1: might take a lot longer. So if you make tomorrow's
Speaker 1: to do list. About twenty to thirty minutes before quitting time,
Speaker 1: you have an opportunity. You can actually go ahead and
Speaker 1: knock as many of the little things off your list
Speaker 1: for the next day as possible. You can probably get
Speaker 1: through several in a short window. Likely you wouldn't have
Speaker 1: been doing much during this time anyway. Most of us
Speaker 1: are kind of unwilling to start anything big after four
Speaker 1: thirty PM or so. If we don't have to, the
Speaker 1: little things will feel more doable. But now, when you
Speaker 1: get to work the next morning, there may be nothing
Speaker 1: on your to do list for the day but the
Speaker 1: big stuff you have to do. You are still clearing
Speaker 1: the decks, but you are doing it in a way
Speaker 1: that doesn't distract you or take your highest energy time. Plus,
Speaker 1: there's no arguing that there's all this other stuff to
Speaker 1: do first before the big things you have already taken
Speaker 1: care of it. I find this especially helpful if I've
Speaker 1: been procrastinating something. When I take everything else off my plate,
Speaker 1: I'm either doing the big task or I'm twiddling my thumbs.
Speaker 1: Most likely I'll want to make progress, and in the
Speaker 1: morning I tend to have more energy to do that,
Speaker 1: so consider clearing the decks the night before. You just
Speaker 1: might start making progress and making work feel more satisfying.
Speaker 1: In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and
Speaker 1: here's to making the most of our time. Thanks for
Speaker 1: listening to Before Breakfast. If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback,
Speaker 1: you can reach me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com.
Speaker 1: Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts
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