Don't do just one more thing

How to stop being late

Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.
Good Morning, This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Today's tip is to stop trying to squeeze in just
one more thing. Instead of being more efficient, you generally
just make yourself late, which is no fun for anyone.

(00:27):
Since I write and speak about time, I've spent a
lot of time studying other people's relationships with time, including
what time we show up for things. As I'm writing
this episode, many of us haven't left the house for
a while. But as life opens back up, we'll start
needing to get from one place to another. We'll need
to get to these places at certain times. I am

(00:49):
almost comically punctual to things myself, as you might imagine,
and there are upsides to this, though there are also downsides.
I show up awkwardly early to parties. I could be
on the verse urge of solving my most important business problem,
but I will stop working on it two minutes before
reaching a solution to call someone right at ten am,
just because that's the time on my calendar. I know

(01:11):
that other folks find themselves chronically late to things, and
so I've tried to study why that is. With an
open mind, I know that in many cases it's not
actually because the person is engaged in some sort of
weird power play to demonstrate that his or her time
is more important than everyone else's. It turns out that
late people are wildly optimistic. They think it takes twenty

(01:32):
minutes to get to work because it did one time
five years ago, and that has now become the remembered standard,
even though it's taken closer to thirty or thirty five
minutes every other time since. Another way this optimism plays out,
late people think they can fit in just one more
thing before they leave. They can send one more email,

(01:53):
they can tidy up the kitchen. It's just a little
thing and won't take much time, and then they've taken
this task off their plates for the future, so it's
all a win, right. Well, No, the email winds up
taking more than one minute to write, and then you
see something hot in your inbox and have to look
in Boom, there goes twenty minutes. Now the buffer for
anything going wrong is gone. As for freeing up some

(02:17):
imagined time in the future, well, has there ever been
a time when the kitchen is clean for good or
you are completely done emailing. These are tasks that expand
to fill all available space. You haven't saved time for
yourself later by trying to squeeze them in. You've just
given these tasks more time and made yourself rushed and

(02:37):
harried in the process. So if you find yourself falling
into this trap next time you've got two minutes before
you need to be out the door, just go. Don't
think of this as wasted time. Think of it as
sanity space. And by the way, the time won't wind
up existing anyway. Chronically, late people tend to be very

(02:58):
bad at time estimation. You think it takes ten minutes
to get to church, so when you see it's services
start at ten, you think, brilliant. Time to take out
the trash. But it doesn't take ten minutes to get
to church. It takes fifteen because you have to get
everyone in the car, and then you can't actually leap
straight out of the car into the pews. You have

(03:18):
to park and walk in. And since you took out
the trash too, now you're really late in life. It's
good to be efficient, but it's even better to be effective.
The tendency to squeeze in just one more thing results
in feeling like there isn't enough time. We're more productive
in life when we feel that time is abundant rather

(03:39):
than scarce. Stop trying to squeeze in just one more
thing and you'll feel more sure of this abundance in
the meantime. This is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's
to making the most of our time. Hey, everybody, at

(04:00):
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,
then Breakfast p o D. You can also shoot me
an email at Before Breakfast podcast at i heeart media

(04:20):
dot com. That Before Breakfast is spelled out with all
the letters. Thanks so much, I look forward to staying
in touch. Before Breakfast is a production of I Heart Radio.
For more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the i
heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to

(04:41):
your favorite shows.