The New Corner Office: Use those waiting minutes

Don't let little bits of time slip away

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:05):
Good morning. This is Laura. Welcome to the New Corner Office,
the podcast where we share strategies for thriving in the
new world of work, where location and ours are more
flexible than in the past. Today's tip is to use
those waiting minutes. Little bits of time during the day

(00:27):
can be wasted, but they can also be used, and
doing so can buy you more time in the future.
In a perfect world, everyone would dial into calls or
video meetings at the exact same time. There would never
be miscommunications about meeting logistics, everyone would be prompt. In

(00:47):
the real world, you're often sitting by yourself on Zoom
at one o'clock, waiting for someone who doesn't log on
until one oh six, or sometimes one ten, or something
even worse than that. If you are usually the punctual one,
and I suspect this is the case for a great
many of my podcast listeners. This can be frustrating. But

(01:08):
while these waiting minutes are easy to waste, they don't
have to be wasted. Having a go to activity for
waiting minutes can open up various possibilities for your time.
For instance, I use waiting minutes to think up ideas
for future episodes, of this podcast and others. Sometimes I

(01:28):
use them to fill in my time log I can
do logistical things for my blog, like upload pictures or
format things. One obvious idea is to check email, and
no doubt a lot of waiting time is spent deleting emails,
but since email expands to fill the available space, I
don't think this is actually the best use of time.

(01:51):
You won't gain time by deleting those newsletters that you
can't remember subscribing to, but you will gain time by
doing small tasks that will other wise clog up your
schedule and make you feel like you have a lot
on your plate, even if you don't so figure out
what those tasks are for. You have whatever materials you

(02:12):
need handy, and then when you dial in and you
find yourself waiting, you can do one of these things. Though.
Just as a pro tip here, if someone is always
five to ten minutes late, it is okay to keep
working until five minutes after the start time yourself. I
know this feels incredibly hard for punctual people, but at

(02:33):
least this way you know you aren't wasting more time
in the meantime. This is Laura. Thanks for listening and
here's the succeeding in the new Corner Office. The New
Corner Office is a production of I Heart Radio. For
more podcasts, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,

(02:55):
or wherever you get your favorite shows.