A better way to clear the decks

the day before. So as a general practice, I think it is smart to plan out your next day before you end work for the day the afternoon or evening, before you take five minutes to look at your calendar for the next day and figure out what is happening, you can assign any other pressing tasks around the hard landscape. By doing this before quitting time, you can be strategic.

Maybe you see that you have a task that is going to take ninety minutes if your first meeting is at ten thirty, you could decide to plow right into that task as soon as you show up and likely get it done before the meeting, Whereas if you wait until later in the day, there might not be any ninety minute windows on offer, and if you didn't plan the day before, you wouldn't realize that this was a ninety minute task and that it had to be done

this day until maybe fifteen to twenty minutes into the workday. At that point, there wouldn't be enough time before the first meeting to get it done, and you might be buying yourself a late night. But let's say you don't need to be quite that strategic. I mean, you've got a lot to get through, but you will have at least a few windows. If you make a list of tasks for the next day, likely some will be big and some will be small. It is human nature to

want to cross things off. We like to complete things. When you come into work the next morning and plan to get started on your to do list, you will naturally want to cross off the little things first, like, hey, it's ten am and I've already gotten through six of the eight things I need to do today. Some people even think this practice is smart. They are clearing the decks of little things so they can focus on the battle of doing the big things. The problem is that

the big things might require more energy and focus. Energy and focus tend to dip by later in the day. You may never even get through the big stuff, or at least not focus until later, when again it just might take a lot longer. So if you make tomorrow's to do list. About twenty to thirty minutes before quitting time, you have an opportunity. You can actually go ahead and knock as many of the little things off your list for the next day as possible. You can probably get

through several in a short window. Likely you wouldn't have been doing much during this time anyway. Most of us are kind of unwilling to start anything big after four thirty PM or so. If we don't have to, the little things will feel more doable. But now, when you get to work the next morning, there may be nothing on your to do list for the day but the big stuff you have to do. You are still clearing the decks, but you are doing it in a way

that doesn't distract you or take your highest energy time. Plus, there's no arguing that there's all this other stuff to do first before the big things you have already taken care of it. I find this especially helpful if I've been procrastinating something. When I take everything else off my plate, I'm either doing the big task or I'm twiddling my thumbs. Most likely I'll want to make progress, and in the morning I tend to have more energy to do that,

so consider clearing the decks the night before. You just might start making progress and making work feel more satisfying. In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's to making the most of our time. Thanks for listening to Before Breakfast. If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback, you can reach me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com.

Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts from iHeartMedia, please visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows at