How to Really, Truly Keep Your Workplace Resolutions

last year. I set the bar so high. I set goals and I achieved them. Because goals are hard to attain. That's why goals are hard to attain. I feel like seventeen is already proving itself to be formidable. Yes, but that has not stopped us from making resolutions that you probably won't keep, but you know, we'll try for a little while. Yeah. So, Sam, do you have a workplace near est resolution? Well? I do. I actually have two, and I think one is more workplace related than the other.

I'll start with the workplace one. I have never kept any sort of a to do list. I have this misbegotten notion that I can just keep it all in my head, and as I become older and feebler brained, I think that it would be beneficial for me to keep a to do list every day and refer to it constantly. So I did a little googling on to do lists. Did you know? Yeah, And there's so much competing advice out there. There's like, don't write the to do list, you need a to do list, You're doing

your to do list wrong. One stat I found that said nearly two thirds of professionals right to do lists, but only of them do the tasks on them. Which that's kind of my m O. Like I write down all the things and then just the next day rewrite down all the things. I'm always seeking a new piece of technology to make my life better. Think that that will be the miracle cure didn't be j Novac of the Office fame. He did, he did. I'm not using

his appre you using. I have recently switched over calendar apps. So I was a long time Apple calendar user with a sort of Google Calendar back end. Don't mean to get to in the weeds here, people, but I have switched over to a new calendar app called Fantastical. Two um the sequel, so many unanswered questions from Fantastical one and it's four So I don't pay for apps, no, So of course the psychology for me is like it's

got to be amazing, right, such quality. The one thing I do like about it very much, which you think would appear in other calendar apps, is that you are able to view your tasks and your appointments in the same thing. There's no separate app for the one versus

the other. And that way, when I'm looking at my day, I can sort of see everything that's going on, things I have to do which could happen like sort of in the morning or the afternoon, as well as obviously meetings and phone calls and things like that that are going to happen at a scheduled time. That seems useful because I just make reminders appointments right now, I'll just make them appointments, right The problem I have with that strategy,

which is what I used to do, two things. First of all, you get an alert at a certain time and it's annoying and never at the right time, never the right time, and then you ignore it and it goes away. It's bad, and then you're it's sitting in another app that you're probably not going to go look at, whereas, of course your calendar. I mean, my calendar is up on my screen and stuff all the time, constantly looking at my calendar. I'm so busy. I know, I know

that you make the time for this. So that's one thing that I'm trying to the other one is more of a health related one, but I think it has some ramifications in the workplace. I am going to try to drink less, and by drink, I mean alcohol, not fluids in general, not that I feel like it's ever been a problem, nothing like that. But I'm getting chubby. I mean I've never been super skinny, but like I got on the scale like a week ago and I was like, oh my god. Yeah, it seems like an

easy thing to cut out. Yeah, So I'm saying I am not going to drink from Sunday through Thursday. I will drink on the weekend, which does seem workplace related, because there's a lot of workplace happy hours totally, and drinks with like a person that you might be doing business with or talking to or something like that. Or I had a really long day and I just want a beer after work, right, So, yes, I'm wondering what's going to happen when I have a work related drinking event.

I'm not necessarily saying that I'm not going to drink then. I think, like a cocktail is not going to make or break my pattern, although maybe I'll just get a saltzer with lime. You're going to have to be that guy like, oh, I actually don't drink on Mondays. Yeah, I know. I want to hear your resolutions, so mine aren't kind of relate aided to each other. My first one is that I would like to spend less frivolous time on Twitter. Excellent. Yeah, we have to use Twitter

a lot for our jobs. But I've developed what I think is an unhealthy addiction. Like sometimes my fingers will type t W into the into the browser automatically, and then I'll go there and then I'll close it and then I'll reopen it literally one second later. It's bad, and then the news comes at me really quickly, and it's stressful, and the news stresses me out. And I am in the news business and I have to stay informed. But I don't think as much as I am doing now,

I am going to say that you are correct. Well, I did download this app stay Focused, which lets you set a timer for how long you're allowed to use a website in a given day. But I've already figured out a work around. It's so bad, I'm so addicted. I need help. So that's that's my first resolution, and the other one is related in that I would like to be better at staying focused on one specific given

task at work. I sometimes will be writing a story and it will take me twice or three times as long because I get distracted by things like Twitter, but other things too that I just can't focus. I mean, I think many people, most people are probably that way. I am certainly that way. Do you ever find yourself engaging in what I like to call constructive procrastination? Yeah? Yeah, Like, oh, I'm going to do my expense report. I mean I've got to do it eventually, right, I mean, it needs

to get done. I just did that today, just this morning. Things like that. So I think maybe these are lofty goals that are hard to achieve. I have cleaned grout work in my shower so as to avoid doing other things. Yeah, my old roommate used to clean the entire apartment when she worked from home. I could always tell when she was working from home because the apartment would be really clean. So yeah, there are various ways to stick to these habits.

Just today on Twitter, I saw many links tweeted about how to stick to your New Year's resolutions. And one way that I came across is this website stick. It's spelled s t I C K k oh of course, of course, and it was started by these Yale behavioral

economists and basically you bet against yourself, so it's pretty extreme. So, say you want to stop drinking, you put up something like a hundred dollars a week, and if you drink that week, you have to pay the website one hundred dollars, and that one hundred dollars goes to an anti charity. So say you are pro gun control, they would send the money to the n r A and they say it really works. And you can also point a referee,

so a friend, to keep you honest. Oh so if your self reporting is not reliable, like I didn't drink, privileges can be granted to another person who can actually wrap you out and then that money goes to like the Family Research Council. Yeah, or or whatever your anti charity is. I mean, I'm kind of scared of that.

It's scary. It's a cool idea, but it's it's But since we're not going to do that, we are going to talk to Gretchen Rubin of the Happiness Project fame, and she has another book, Better Than Before, that is all about breaking habits. Thanks so much for joining us today. I'm very happy to be talking to you. So we just went through our workplace resolutions, Sam and I and we want to know how to stick to them. Excellent, only my favorite subject. Excellent. So I guess we should

start with Sam's first. Yeah, tell me what I need to do to make these things stick. Okay, one of your resolutions is to drink less, not to give up drinking altogether, but right, right, right, And that's a surprisingly common resolution. I think you're really smart to kind of have a bright line rule, because what you want to do with resolutions and with habit making generally, is to get out of decisions because every time you try to make a healthy choice, you have the opportunity to make

the wrong choice. So if you're saying there's this block of time where I'm just not going to have a drink, then there's no debate, right, right, So you're you've said that, and then you're planning for when you would that's right, yeah, and really looking forward to it and really okay. So but then the question you and you were very smart in thinking about. But they're going to be these things that come up. And that's what I would call the

strategy of safeguards, which is planning for failure. Right. I mean, if I'm out at work and then somebody says, sorry, let's get a drink. Yes, I'm not sure what to do. But you didn't have a plan. Really, you didn't know you needed one, So you need if then plan if this happens, then this happens. Now what are the challenges that arise? Is it a friend asking for drink? Is it a business dinner where everybody is sharing a glass of wine? Like, what is the challenge that you face?

I think that for me, the more likely scenario is a social occasion which might have some work related benefit. So here you go and you sit down somewhere and the person orders a drink and I say, oh, I'm actually trying to drink less now, which then feels like maybe I'm judge in them, which maybe makes them feel uncomfortable. Also, can I butt in, having a drink in these situations

makes them easier and loosens everybody up. Okay, So in my book Better Than Before, I talk about the twenty one strategies of habit change, and these are the twenty one strategies that you can use to make or break your habits. And you're kind of rolling your eyes because twenty one sounds like a lot, I know, but it's good because some work for some people, enough for others, and some in some situations enough brothers. And I think what you need, first of all is clarity, because what

is the purpose of your rule? And so when are you going to invoke it? Because you could have a specific exception for certain kinds of occasions. You could say to yourself, I'm only going to drink on Friday and Saturday nights, except if I'm at a work event where I feel like having one drink would make me feel significantly more comfortable in this situation, and then you're sort

of you have a planned exception. You're gonna have one drink because wondering to address the concerns that you're having one drink is enough or you could just say I'm going to have a diet coke, but it is easier. The more clear a rule is, like, no drinks except for Friday and Saturday is clear than no drinks except Friday and Saturday except for these exceptions. It's clearer. But maybe you would ultimately fail more because you would come

up against these challenges. I think a lot of times when people try to make resolution or keep habits, they set it up in a way that's just not realistic, and then they fail and they feel like I have no self control, I have no discipline, I can't do anything, whereas, in fact, maybe you're better off saying like, given this exception,

I can stick to my overall rule better. So you're setting yourself up for success because you're being more realistic about what's true about you and how you feel about how you want your life to unfold. Way. Yeah, oh wait, and can I just say one thing quickly about the giving up drinking. I will just say quickly that for some people it's easy to give up a temptation altogether than to be moderate. So you're being moderate, you're having it. Sometimes.

I'm just throwing it out there that for some people, like me with some temptations, whether it's sugar or candy, crush on your phone, or you know whatever, it might be, ruzzle alcohol, it's easier to to give up something altogether. So if you're having a very hard time indulging, sometimes try giving something up altogether. It sounds harder, but for many people it is easier. For me, it's easier to have no sugar than a little bit of sugar. So I just throw that out as an alternate strategy. Okay,

what's yours? So, yeah, I want to try to not be addicted to Twitter, so I'm breaking a bad habit. Okay, So, but you told me that Twitter is something that you do at work, so it's not a temptation at home. Not really. I don't really use it on the weekends or nights. Okay. Do you use it on your phone or on your desktop? My desktop? Okay. So it's always

easier to change your circumstances than to change yourself. And one of the most powerful of the strategies is the twin strategies of convenience and inconvenience, we're much more likely to do something that it's convenient, and we're much less likely to do something if it's inconvenient, so deleted from your desktop Twitter. Problem with that, but you can check it on your phone. And also I use like the browser, so i'd have to I can't delete like Google Chrome.

I go to like Twitter dot com. Basically, okay, well just don't go to Twitter, can you? Can you just not go to Twitter talk And I don't know. I was telling Sam that sometimes my fingers will just type tw and it will open up. I mean, I know it's not magic, And I mean, is there is there like a thing so you could block it on your browser? Yes? I downloaded this app called Stay Focused. It gives you a certain amount of time that you could spend on

a website. So basically I need to make the time short. Right now, I think I have three hours a day to make it short, maybe like fifteen seconds. If you desperately need to check Twitter. You can always look on your phone, but you're just not going to check it on your desk, all right, fifteen seconds? Yeah, because the things, it's always better to set up your circumstances than to try to work on yourself. So just make it really,

really inconvenient to do it. Somebody was saying that she always checked Twitter at home, so she said she had to be doing squats. Well, she checked Twitter, and it's like, there's this a limit how many squats you want to do in a day? She had a really good glutes. Yeah, yeah, but that wouldn't work for you in the workplace. Is there a moment when you can decide that you've become healthier and unblock it or is that just not allowed? Well,

I think it's it's up for everybody to themselves. It sounds like you are feeling very like looking at Twitter makes you very uneasy and unsettled and distracts you. Now, it could be that events in the world will change in such a wonderful, happy way that you're looking at Twitter will just fill you with peace and contentment and joy, and in which case it will be great for you

to go on Twitter. So when that happy moment arrives, you can go back into your stay focused app and change your change says Okay, all right, that it seems extreme, but I'm going to do it. But the strategy of convenience on the strategy of inconvenience or two strategies that work for just about everyone. If you want to do something, make it easier. If you don't want to do something,

make it harder. It's crazy. There's so much hilarious research about They did a study with people at a salad bar, and people took more when they could use spoons instead of tongs, because just using tongs is that much more work that people took less food. We're that susceptible. Wow, I had no idea what tongues or us for many people know the obstacle, but it's you know, it's just that much more difficult. So so yeah, Sam, let's go to your something. What I have is pretty generic. It

just has to do with you know, to do lists. Yeah, I'd like to start using them and keeping to them, and I was curious to know your thoughts about them. So many many people find to do lists helpful. That's the strategy of clarity, because it's very clear what you're expecting of yourself. And it's also the strategy of monitoring because one of the great pleasures of to do list is getting to check off something that you've done, so you know what you've done and what you haven't done.

And also it forces clarity because you're deciding what is going to go on the list. My personal view is that every to do list should begin with one or two things that have either already been accomplished or we'll take less than thirty seconds to do, so that you just start off by crossing something off your to do list the minute you write it down. But you haven't made to do list in the past. Is there any time in your life when you did keep to do lists? I mean I have on occasion I feel like like

you're getting ready for a trip or something. Yeah. Sure, and even I tried it before a little bit here and there. But I think I need to be doing it on a consistent basis. And why do you feel like you haven't been doing it at a consistent base? Well, I feel like I have an over reliance on my memory. I feel like I can keep it all in my head and I want what to do. Yeah, And and what I'm realizing, of course, is that that's no longer.

Maybe it was never true at forty two, it is certainly not true, and it's only going to be less true as I get older. Well, one thing also to keep in mind is just in terms of the efficiency of it, is that it frees up your mind. It might be I think that once you start keeping in to do list, you'll realize it kind of frees up some bandwidth because all that stuff that's circulating in your mind trying to help you remember what you need to do and like kind of pinging you throughout the day,

don't forget about this, don't forget about that. Having it to do list can really free that. In fact, like if you have racing thoughts in the middle of the night, you know where you wake up and you can't shut off your mind, you can't come back to sleep. Writing it down helps because that frees up the brain. It's like, well, we don't have to keep thinking about this because it's

been memorialized. You've offloaded it. You've offloaded it, and so you see that there and um, but so how do you make the habit of having it to do It's because it is the kind of thing that you have to do it consistently. So first of all, make it very convenient, like by yourself an attractive pad that's just the right pad for you. Sam's going to get so into that. Things feel easier when they're more pleasant and more beautiful. So like, treat this as a serious thing.

It's not just some nasty scratch pad that you got from free from a bank or something. So when do you think you would do it? Are you gonna do it in the morning, You're gonna do in the evening? Both? What how do you visualize yourself using this? I see myself mostly using it in the evening, possibly but adding things to it as they present themselves. Okay, so you might want to experiment, like is every day a new to do list? Are you going to do a notebook

where it's running forward? Like people have different There's like a lot of cool strategies for people that who are really embraced the to do list. Um, I just keep as simple to do list. And that sounds like what you're talking about. You might start at the very end of the day and really have a period of your day when you're like, this is the last thing I

do before I go home. This is what I do. Like, maybe if there's some other thing that you often do right before you leave, you want to piggyback this habit onto that habit that will help install. So is there something that you typically do at the end of the

day before I leave the office? Not particularly, No, it would be something I think I should probably develop because in and of itself, I usually am like I'm working and then I'm not working right right, right right, So maybe you want to say, like before I pick up my backpack, or like before I you know, pull out my idea or whatever it is, I'm gonna check the to do list and just really try to make it an official part of your day, like something just like

checking your email. You have to check your email one more time before you walk out. You have to check your to do list, because it's only it's help. You're only going to get out of it what you put into it, And so you want to get into the habit of using it regularly and checking it. Um. And I will say some people really resist to do lists. Um. I have my four Tendencies framework, which divides all humanity

into four tendencies. And there's a tendency called the rebel tendency, and they tend to really bridle at to do list. So what you can also think of this as they could do lists. These are the because that you have to do. They're just things that you could do if you feel like it during your day. You could do these things. You could do other things, but you could do these things. No pressure, Becca, you have another resolution, Yes I do. I want to stay more focused on

a given specific task. Okay. So in what's interrupting you? Twitter? Okay, so that's all. So that's gone. So that's good. You're chatting, um, talking to your co workers, workers and friends in person or or something on the internet and in person email, other not really important work tasks, so like doing my expense reports or reading an article, or I am usually working on multiple projects that have given time. So right now I have to finish the story I'm writing, but

I will just do other work for the other projects instead. Okay. So one of the most dangerous forms of procrastination is working. Um, I'm really good at that. So you're working, it's not it's not that you're just like, you know, filling out a crossroad puzzle with your feet up on your desk. Um, So you're doing a productive test, you're doing expensive reports or whatever, but you're not doing what you really want to be doing and what is your highest priority thing.

So one of the things that works for me, UM is to say I'm going to do this task or nothing. I can do this task, or I can like stare into space, but I cannot search the internet, I cannot check Twitter, I cannot talk to a friend, I cannot do expense reports, I cannot do research. You know, like if there's a writer, research is like this wonderful, inexhaustible escape fun. It's so fun and you never run out

of research. Um, so it's this task or nothing. So you're deciding like Okay, I'm gonna work on this story or I'm just gonna stare off into space and just out of sheer boredom, you will end up working on your task. Another thing is I find that sometimes it can be helpful if you're working in a task is to move to another place. So you're like, I'm going to take my laptop. I don't know if this works with your work, but could you like go with your laptop to a place away from your desk so nobody's

around you to talk to you. You're not at your desktop where you're going to see, you know, all everything that's flowing through, and just say I'm only going to open up this document and I'm gonna work within this document. I'm not going to go outside this document, or I'm not going to check my phone, you know, for a good solid hour two hours or whatever is reasonable for you, and and sometimes for me, like just physically moving myself even to a coffee shop, that's an hour. There's a

little library where I work, um outside my office. We're just being there. I'm like, okay, I'm only doing this one thing while I'm in this place. Do you think that m yeah, I think it would work. I would need to just bring my laptop to work, which is something I should do. I think Sam does this. When do you do that? When I have a lot of writing to do? Yeah, don't come into the office. Yeah,

that's what a lot it's it is. Can I just say though, as a workplace phenomenon, it's pretty funny that now universally whatever field, people are in there like, well, if I really want to get work done, I don't

come into the That's right. If I do have to be in the office to say, there is a meeting I have to attend, so I'm gonna have to be here, I will bring my laptop and then I have found in our building particularly there are some very empty floors with like banks of empty desks and countertops, and I will go and find a spot up there, and I will set up and exactly as you described. I will go full screen. Yeah, I will go straight into my Google doc or my Microsoft word doc. Nothing else. Um,

I'll put on some headphones. You've got to make like a bat cave. Yeah, yeah, you know, and you just shield yourself off. And also, I think just the occasion of being somewhere else this is my special works, not just where I hang out. Yeah, yeah, I think that would work. So because not everyone has our exact what are you talking about, I mean I think they're common.

It would be good to know some kind of a general framework for keeping resolutions and habits that other people could use, well, some of the ones that tend to work the most universally. And as they say, like um, one of the big mistakes that people make with habits and resolutions is to think, well, I should be able to do this, you know, like, well, if this is important to me, I should be able to get up

early and do it first thing. Or if this is important to me, I should be able to sit at my desk and do it and ignore Twitter or whatever. There is nothing, there's nothing that you should be able to do. It's only what works for you. There's no right way, there's no wrong way. Just because Steve Jobs did something or your sister in law did something doesn't mean that's the right way. There's no magic, one size

fits all solution. That being said, I will say that a couple of things that tend to work for a lot of people. One is monitoring. Monitoring has kind of an uncanny power, and the more we just pay attention to how much we're doing something, we tend to do a better job. Whether that's how many networking calls were making or how many you know, how much we're spending, or what we're eating, how many stuffs were taking. Just knowing how much you're doing something tends to push you

in the right direction. So any kind of monitoring that you can do, um, I know there are apps where you can. They will tell you at the end of the day, how much time did you spend on Facebook? And sometimes just knowing, like, oh my goodness, I had no idea you know that alone, just that information. Another one is scheduling. So for most people, UM, knowing that something is going to be on the schedule makes it

easier to do. So it's not just I'm going to check my to do list, it's I'm going to check my to do list right before I leave work every single day, because it's when it's on the schedule, or like every day, I'm gonna update my expenses. When are you going to do that? At nine am, I'm going to do that, or during my lunch hour, I'm gonna do that. Because something that can be done at anytime is often done at no time. And the more specifically you can say when something's going to happen, and the

more inviolable it can be. So it's like a dentist appointment. It's not an optional thing that you can do if you feel like it, because a lot of times you probably won't feel like it. It's got to be something that you feel like, well, it's on the calendar, I've got to do it. Another thing that really helps people, and this is a sort of a different way to think about it, is what I would call the strategy of foundation, because when we're trying to keep our resolutions,

we're asking something of ourselves. Usually we're we're doing a deprivation, maybe like drinking less alcohol, or it's an imposition like it's a new thing, like I'm gonna I'm gonna give up Twitter. What does a deprivation, or I'm gonna impose. Uh now I'm gonna need to go to this different FLOORI to work on my laptop. That's an imposition. And

we do better when we have more self mastery. And so getting enough sleep, getting a little bit of exercise, making sure that you're not too hungry, these help you keep yourself from getting so frazzled that you can't ask anything of yourself. And weirdly, also clutter. Clutter is something that a lot of people say makes them just feel overwhelmed and tired. So I try to make you have

the habit of the to do list. I try to make a habit of every night kind of cleaning off my workspace because I feel that I feel more energized and more I have more self command when I'm not drowning in papers and notes and books that are half open and ten coffee mugs and so those kinds of things help you ask more of yourself. I am ready

to conquer the world. Yeah, and thank you. And you have some other places where people can learn about these things, right, yes, yes, So my book of the Happiness Project and Better Than Before is specifically all about habits. Um I blog every day at Gretchen Reuben dot com about my adventures in happiness and good habits. I have a podcast, Happier with Gretchen Reuben, and also I just launched a family podcast.

One is called Radical Candor, which is all about how not to be the boss you hate and how not to hate the boss you have. And an other side Hustle school for people are trying to start a side hustle. So those are two podcasts that are kind of in a family with my podcast Happier with Gretchen Reuben about concrete ways to make your life better great, can't wait to take a list, and thanks so much, thank you, thank you. So we gave Gretchen our specific resolutions and

she had some encouraging yeah words. I would say, she had some ideas for how we can break our habits that I think other people could use for their resolutions. Like she really liked you had a specific resolution with rules instead of saying I want to lose weight. No, you have to have something more concrete than that. Yeah, what you do? You're so smart you already knew that. But we'll see if you know, there's absolutely no guarantee.

Should talk about measuring things? Yeah, and I think that if there's a way, can we find a way Becca to quantify your Twitter consumption so that you can see real results right from your abstinence from that? Well, she mentioned an app to see how long you're spending on websites. So maybe I'll do that. Do that? I mean, I was on vacation last week and didn't check Twitter really at all, and I feel great. Yes, so maybe I'll just feel better. That's right, that's the hope. I think

you will. My own experience has led me to believe that you will. Thank you. Yeah. So she also with the Twitter thing, if you're trying to break a bad habit like that, she suggested making it hard. So, for example, I don't really keep snacks around my apartment because you need them, because I would eat them immediately. And it's really embarrassing when I have any guests over because I'm just I'm like, I don't have food. Sorry, sorry, um.

But yeah, and then making things you want to do easy. Right, if I were to want to start working out, and I am not saying that I am, but if I did, I wouldn't say I know what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna wake up at four thirty in the morning and go running in January. No, No, I'd go during lunch exactly.

I was reading another one of these how to keep Habits guides and somebody gave the example of, you know, you make your coffee every morning, so pair that habit with some other good habit that you want to start, like he gave for example, eating an apple wonderful. I don't know. I don't do that in the morning, but there's good fiber there. That's it's nutritious. Anyway, given all of our new knowledge, do you think you'll keep yours? I am pretty optimistic about this. I feel like I'm

going to be able to see it through. I'm actually more optimistic about the drinking than I am about the to do Look. Yeah, same for you. Do you think that once you lose a certain amount of weight you'll go back to drinking? Perhaps not. Perhaps I'll feel better not drinking as much, and I'll want to keep that feeling. I think one thing is for damn sure, whether or not we keep these resolutions, there will continue to be an industry dedicated to helping us understand and keep these resolutions.

So many blog posts and books every year, um all right, and now it's time for happyig takes, Happy fake takes. Okay, Sam, what is your half formed opinion for this week? The first one? Becca, I'm coming out of the gates strong and in this miserable wintry season. I would like to make an endorsement galoshes oh Man, that something I associate

with Dad's hold on. Let me make my point. If you go to work in the morning and there's tons of snow and sleet and muck on the ground, you are likely to it on a pair of heavy winter boots, correct. But then you get to the office and you may not want to wear those same boots all day long because now you're in a perfectly climate controlled environment and they're big and heavy. Many people will bring an extra pair of shoes. However, that good old fashioned rubber overshoe

is exactly what you need. You put it on so that you can trape through puddles, and when you get to the office you just pull them off and boom. Regular shoes, Dad product, no genius product. I saw yesterday a man walking in the rain in New York City with a kid. You not plastic bags over his shoes. That's a man who cares about his footwear. It's time to have a little comeback for the Golosh. All right,

coming out strong for the Galosh. There we go, Decca, you have something not very well thought out that you would like to share? Yes, yes, actually it's not mine. It's from a friend of mine, Julia. Hello Julia. Um. He is a fan of the half big Take and said that her hat big take is that when she schedules meetings, she really tries her very hardest to cluster them. Also, they're back to back to back to back. Okay, so her calendar is a nice like clump of meetings because

then you know you've been there. You have a meeting at one, and then another two thirty, and then you have that wasted time in there. Yeah, there's not really enough time to do anything important, and it's true, it kind of eats up your whole day. So how I'm curious though? Obviously meetings are determined by lots of different people, so how does she kind of make sure that it

all fits into her framework? So I asked her this and she said that she just asks people to move them around, and if they don't show them move around. The meetings that she has the most control over with fewer people or where she's leading it. I mean, it doesn't always work out. But she set me a screenshot of her calendar and it was very clustered, very clumped. I like that idea. Yeah, I think that's actually a pretty good idea. Yeah, all right, and that has been

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