Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning. This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's tip is that if you can't work, plan, even if your current self doesn't feel like doing anything, you might be willing to think about what future you should be doing. That can turn what might feel like wasted time into something far more productive. So longtime listeners know that one of my favorite time management rules is to plan your
upcoming weeks on Friday afternoons. When I tell people about this rule, I first explain the idea of planning your life in weeks, think about the upcoming one hundred and sixty eight hours and what's important to you professional and personally. I promise that this is a life changing practice. But once people have their heads around that, inevitably the follow up question is why Friday afternoons. The answer is that if you work a Monday to Friday week, it is
really hard to start anything new on Friday afternoons. Most people are drifting into the weekend at that point. But if you can't actually execute on any of your priorities, at least maybe you can define what those priorities will be for upcoming days. And then future you, who hopefully has more vim and vigor than Friday, you can tackle them. That's why Friday is my weekly planning day. But you
can convert any low energy time into plan time. We have all had those days you meant to work on a big project in the afternoon, but you just got back from lunch and frankly, you would rather take a nap. Unfortunately, you work somewhere that this is frowned upon. If that is the case, why not use this time for planning something else. It could be your full upcoming week, but it could just be defining your to do list for tomorrow. You could plan your upcoming weekend. Or here's an idea,
you could do some longer range planning. Make a summer fun list, a list of things you'd like to do to enjoy your summer and make summer memories. You could work on your list of one hundred dreams. This exercise, which was shared with me by career coach Caroline Seniza Levine years ago, is basically a long unedited bucket list. You could put items like travel to New Zealand or singing Carnegie Hall on there, but you can also put stuff like visit that state park that's thirty minutes away
that you keep meaning to go to but haven't. Or it could be trying that new gelato place or replacing your leaky coffee maker. If a list of one hundred dreams isn't inspiring, you plan something random, like next year's Christmas vacation or that hobby themed vacation you want to pitch to your best friend. Or if you're like me and have to come up with ideas again and again, you might look through discarded ideas from last year and plan November's podcast topics. Now one of several things might
happen if you plan when you can't work first. Sometimes people find planning energizing. As you picture yourself writing a collection of seasonal sonnets, or visiting Iceland or going on a full bike ride through the Grand Tetons, you might start to feel more excited about life. Maybe you'll even be excited enough to make a tiny bit of progress
on whatever project you've been putting off. But if that doesn't happen, at least now you've got a cool plan for next week or next weekend or next November's podcasts, which is something you didn't have before. You may not feel like doing anything today but tomorrow's schedule. That is a work of art with time allocated to all your priorities. You've planned some fun weekend get togethers from now until August. You've picked out which operas you want to listen to
in your car on your commute. Who knows what you have planned. When you plan when you can't work, you are in fact working, and in many cases you are doing higher value you work than you would have been doing anyway. The satisfying life is all about turning intentions into reality. If you plan when you can't work, you are one step closer to that happening. In the meantime. This is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's to making the most of our time. Hey everybody, I'd love to
hear from you. You can send me your tips, your questions, or anything else. Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at Before Breakfast Pod. That's b the number four than Breakfast pod. You can also shoot me an email at Before Breakfast Podcasts at iHeartMedia dot com. That Before Breakfast is spelled out with all the letters. Thanks so much, I look forward to staying in touch. Before
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