April 7, 2026 • 5 mins
Even a few minutes can help you calm the chaos and make time for what matters
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning.
This is Laura, Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
tip is that a few minutes of planning is better
than nothing. Even if you don't have time for elaborate
(00:24):
planning for the next day or week, you can get
a lot done in a few minutes, so you are
probably best off doing whatever you can. Longtime listeners know
that I think every busy person needs a designated weekly
planning time. This is when you think about what is
(00:45):
most important to you over the next one hundred and
sixty eight hours. You figure out your responsibilities and any
logistics necessary to make those things happen. If you do
this week after week, planning really shouldn't take that much time,
but sometimes people note that there is a lot going
(01:06):
on and they worry that planning will take a long time.
And the problem with being very busy is that you
probably don't have a lot of time. As we talked
about in a recent episode, it can be smart to
have a rain date for your planning ritual. If you
normally plan for the week on Fridays after lunch, but
(01:28):
your team is slammed with something that is due at
five pm Friday, you will probably not get to have
a nice, leisurely planning session involving washy tape and colored
markers and the like. Feel like those things. Now, if
you can see that time will be tight, perhaps you
should move your planning to earlier in the day, or
do it Saturday or even at five pm Friday as
(01:49):
a palate cleanser. But if you want to stick with
Friday after lunch, even if you can only do a
few minutes, you will probably be better off then if
you did nothing. Here's how you might hone in on
the basics. First, in those few minutes, take a look
at your calendar for the next week. Make sure you
(02:10):
are clear on anything big that is happening. In particular,
you should make sure you've got time built in to
prepare for anything early in the week. It is best
not to be caught off guard. You might scan for
any problems. Are you traveling for work and you're pretty
sure your spouse mentioned a potential trip too. If you've
(02:31):
got kids or anyone else who's dependent on you, this
is going to need to be sorted out. If there
are any out of the ordinary personal events, you need
to make sure happen. You should be prepared for those
as well. See if there's anything you are looking forward to.
If not, quickly try to put something in. You might
text a friend about getting together. Then make sure you
(02:54):
are set for Monday and probably Tuesday. You can always
spend a little time Sunday updating the rest of the week,
or maybe a slot on Monday would work better. But
even if you can't get the whole week planned and
one fell swoop, you will have part of it and
so you won't get caught by surprise by much in
the first part of the week. I know it can
(03:17):
be hard to find bits of time on a busy day,
but even in tiny bits of time you can score
some big wins. If you see you have a huge
presentation on Tuesday, you are most likely going to want
some time on Monday to prepare. If you see a
nice but not critical meeting on Monday, you can go
(03:39):
ahead and try to move that till later in the week,
or perhaps turn it into an email. If you do
this ahead of time, people will be fine. It's when
you do it right before that people get upset by
having moved or canceled this thing. You will have freed
up time and made the week feel a lot like
(04:00):
us rushed. A little bit of planning is a lot
better than none. I do promise that if you do
weekly planning week after week, life will generally get calmer.
You often won't be racing to do stuff on Friday
afternoon because you will have assigned everything on your plate
(04:21):
a spot earlier in the week that said life does happen.
If all you can do is a few minutes, then
do a few minutes. You will probably be glad you did.
In the meantime, This is Laura. Thanks for listening, and
here's to making the most of our time. Thanks for
(04:51):
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
(05:14):
wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning.
This is Laura, Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
tip is that a few minutes of planning is better
than nothing. Even if you don't have time for elaborate
(00:24):
planning for the next day or week, you can get
a lot done in a few minutes, so you are
probably best off doing whatever you can. Longtime listeners know
that I think every busy person needs a designated weekly
planning time. This is when you think about what is
(00:45):
most important to you over the next one hundred and
sixty eight hours. You figure out your responsibilities and any
logistics necessary to make those things happen. If you do
this week after week, planning really shouldn't take that much time,
but sometimes people note that there is a lot going
(01:06):
on and they worry that planning will take a long time.
And the problem with being very busy is that you
probably don't have a lot of time. As we talked
about in a recent episode, it can be smart to
have a rain date for your planning ritual. If you
normally plan for the week on Fridays after lunch, but
(01:28):
your team is slammed with something that is due at
five pm Friday, you will probably not get to have
a nice, leisurely planning session involving washy tape and colored
markers and the like. Feel like those things. Now, if
you can see that time will be tight, perhaps you
should move your planning to earlier in the day, or
do it Saturday or even at five pm Friday as
(01:49):
a palate cleanser. But if you want to stick with
Friday after lunch, even if you can only do a
few minutes, you will probably be better off then if
you did nothing. Here's how you might hone in on
the basics. First, in those few minutes, take a look
at your calendar for the next week. Make sure you
(02:10):
are clear on anything big that is happening. In particular,
you should make sure you've got time built in to
prepare for anything early in the week. It is best
not to be caught off guard. You might scan for
any problems. Are you traveling for work and you're pretty
sure your spouse mentioned a potential trip too. If you've
(02:31):
got kids or anyone else who's dependent on you, this
is going to need to be sorted out. If there
are any out of the ordinary personal events, you need
to make sure happen. You should be prepared for those
as well. See if there's anything you are looking forward to.
If not, quickly try to put something in. You might
text a friend about getting together. Then make sure you
(02:54):
are set for Monday and probably Tuesday. You can always
spend a little time Sunday updating the rest of the week,
or maybe a slot on Monday would work better. But
even if you can't get the whole week planned and
one fell swoop, you will have part of it and
so you won't get caught by surprise by much in
the first part of the week. I know it can
(03:17):
be hard to find bits of time on a busy day,
but even in tiny bits of time you can score
some big wins. If you see you have a huge
presentation on Tuesday, you are most likely going to want
some time on Monday to prepare. If you see a
nice but not critical meeting on Monday, you can go
(03:39):
ahead and try to move that till later in the week,
or perhaps turn it into an email. If you do
this ahead of time, people will be fine. It's when
you do it right before that people get upset by
having moved or canceled this thing. You will have freed
up time and made the week feel a lot like
(04:00):
us rushed. A little bit of planning is a lot
better than none. I do promise that if you do
weekly planning week after week, life will generally get calmer.
You often won't be racing to do stuff on Friday
afternoon because you will have assigned everything on your plate
(04:21):
a spot earlier in the week that said life does happen.
If all you can do is a few minutes, then
do a few minutes. You will probably be glad you did.
In the meantime, This is Laura. Thanks for listening, and
here's to making the most of our time. Thanks for
(04:51):
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
(05:14):
wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Before Breakfast News
Host
Laura Vanderkam
Show Links
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