Second Cup: Make your calendar your to-do list

new book, How to Love Teaching Again. This productivity book is specifically aimed at teachers who want to spend more time helping kids and less time getting caught up in administrative work, but there are tips that people in lots of different professions can use. Jamie point out that for many people, to do lists are not terribly effective. People put down everything that they might like to do in life,

and much of it appears very vague. I mean they'll put things like math grading for teachers, or maybe think about new clients or staffing problems with a question mark what does that even mean? Here is the real psychology of to do lists, Jamie writes. The list becomes so overwhelming that your brain decides there is no way that it can complete everything. That's when you end up using your plan time to gossip with your teacher bestie, or you use your grading time to scroll through social media.

In other words, your to do list isn't a plan for action. Instead, it's an excuse to procrastinate or set yourself up to fail. Now, contrast a poorly constructed to do list with a calendar. As Jamie notes, a calendar is a list of things to do at a specific hour or within a defined window of time on a teacher's calendar. If it is time for teaching reading, the teacher will teach reading. If it is time for a meeting with a parent, the teacher will meet with a parent.

As a general rule, people do these things that are on their calendars, whereas there is pretty good evidence that people do not do a great many things that they put on their to do lists. So why not use your calendar as your to do list? Longtime listeners know that I advocate carving out time on Friday for planning the upcoming week. On Friday, you make your priority list

for the upcoming week. But then, rather than just saying you want to research a potential client, you put it on your calendar for eleven to twelve On Tuesday, rather than saying you want to reach out to Bob, you note that you will do that, along with a few other exploratory emails, on Friday at one pm. This habit

does a few good things. One it acknowledges this truth. Basically, every task takes some amount of time, So if you are not willing to give the task a specific time, that is a pretty good indication that you aren't serious about doing it. So you might migrate that to do that you don't intend to actually do over to what David Allen calls a someday maybe list. It is not an active intention anymore. This also forces you to think

about how long things will take. If you have never managed to write a certain report in less than two hours, then you will need to give that task two hours now. Of course, at some point it might become challenging to find spots for tasks amid the other things that are on your calendar, like meetings, which turn out to be tasks in and of themselves. If these aren't tasks that you value, well, maybe take a good look and see if they need to be there. Maybe they do, maybe

they don't. But using your calendar as your to do list forces you to see that you cannot do eight one hour tasks plus attend three one hour meetings. If you arrive at work at nine and need to leave at five pm for a daycare pickup. That is not a matter of how motivated you are or how good you are at your job. It is just a matter of physics. Now to be sure, Jamie adds the caveat that you are going to need to be somewhat flexible

here life happens. A teacher might plan to do something before school, but a parent asks to meet about a child who is floundering, and the teacher wants to take the opportunity to brainstorm together. Or maybe the fire alarm goes off during a planning period. People in any job can experience the unexpected, So Jamie recommends building in a few open slots on the calendar thirty minutes here and there to absorb tasks that need to move or unexpected ones that come up. She, like me, tries to leave

Friday's available slots as open as possible. I think this idea can work for a great many people who have fairly set schedules, like teachers, or many people in corporate roles with a lot of meetings. It can also be helpful for people in any sort of role who have trouble making short to do lists. Now, if you are a self employed podcaster who has more control over her calendar and who has been tracking her time for eight straight years, maybe you can do things a little differently.

But even if I don't calender my tasks, when I make to do lists for a day, I never put anything on there that I do not truly intend to do and the hours I have. That is the point of using your calendar as a to do list, and so we are really all getting at the same thing. If you try using your calendar as a to do list, let me know how it goes. And if you are a teacher or just like productivity strategies in general, please check out Jamie Sears's book How To Love Teaching Again,

which is newly out this month. 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 E. The number four then Breakfast p o D. 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, should I look forward to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.