Now is good

Seize them moment and save yourself a lot of scheduling work

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Episode Transcript

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 when you are trying to figure out
when to do something, consider the present. Often now is

(00:26):
as good as any other time, and when you do
something now, you will go ahead and get it done.
Busy people often aim to schedule things as far into
the future as possible, perhaps imagining that their future selves
won't feel nearly as stretched as their present selves. Next month,

(00:48):
you won't have a big presentation looming, or treework that
needs to be adjurently scheduled, or a sick kid. And
that may be true. But next month you may be
cover ring for a colleague who is out on medical leave,
or perhaps dealing with the flu yourself, your future self,
may have just as much on her plate as your

(01:09):
present self does. That's why I like to say now
is good whenever I can. If your partner says he
wants to compare calendars sometime to figure out when you
can host his new colleague and her spouse for dinner,
how about comparing calendars now? Just take out your phones

(01:29):
and find some possible dates for dinner. If a colleague
sticks her head in your office to ask if you
could schedule time to talk through a question. You may
be tempted to suggest a time in the future when
you know you are free, but she already has your
attention and you have already stopped what you were doing

(01:49):
so see whether she could talk right. Then you could
just answer her questions now. Of course, if she isn't
ready for this conversation, you'll need to schedule for another time.
But after this has happened a few times, she will
probably get in the habit of asking for a meeting
only after she is prepared for it, and in some cases,

(02:12):
in the process of preparing for a meeting, she'll answer
her own question. If you run into your friend as
you are both walking into the grocery store and she
suggests getting together to catch up sometime, see whether she
wants to chat right. Then you could shop together, or
maybe your grocery store has a coffee shop where you

(02:32):
could chat for fifteen minutes before doing your shopping. If
you are not urgently racing to something else, this might
actually be your best chance for a while. After all,
you are both there, you're going to have to do
a lot of work to make that happen again in
the future. I often say that when you are asked

(02:57):
to take on a responsibility or schedule something for the future,
ask yourself whether you would do it tomorrow. Yes, you
are booked up solid tomorrow, but you will be in
the future too. Would you be tempted to move things
around or cancel things tomorrow in order to fit in
this new opportunity? If so, awesome, But if you don't

(03:19):
want to say yes for tomorrow, you aren't really going
to want to do it in the more distant future either.
The flip side of this truth is that if there
is something you do want or need to do well,
why not do it now. You don't necessarily need to
schedule for the future. You probably have just as much

(03:42):
time now as you ever will if it possibly fits now.
This has the benefit of not requiring an additional layer
of scheduling work. Your future self will be free to
schedule her own time in the meantime. This is Laura.

(04:05):
Thanks for listening, and here's to making the most of
our time. Thanks for 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

(04:34):
production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts from iHeartMedia, please visit
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