Why you should spring clean your calendar

Life is not a set-it-and-forget-it phenomenon

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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 every calendar needs a good spring. Cleaning
Your closets and freezer aren't the only things that need

(00:24):
airing out. A smart schedule requires some maintenance as well.
So I hear all the time from people that their
lives feel too busy. And there's nothing wrong with having
a lot of good things going on, But when people
complain of being too busy, it's often because their lives

(00:46):
feel stuffed with things that they are not so excited about.
Workdays feature tedious meetings stacked back to back. There might
be various volunteer committee meetings or kid activities taking up
evenings and weekends. Some things are what they are for
most people. It's going to be hard to create a

(01:08):
schedule where every moment feels blissful. But just as even
a generally clean house can build up clutter over time,
so a schedule can start to feel a little heavy.
In general, it is easier to add activities than to
get rid of things. Consequently, things accumulate, so just as

(01:32):
even a well run house might need a big clean out,
from time to time, it's wise to think about whether
everything that exists on your calendar should be there, even
if it theoretically fits. When we're scrambling to fit in
the essentials in between everything else, you can wind up
with a few problems. First, you might be spending time

(01:55):
on the wrong stuff. If you compare your current needs
and priorities to scheduled commitments, you may realize they no
longer a line. Perhaps you agreed to things years ago
for very good reasons, but life is different now. The
weekly boot camp that used to provide structure for getting

(02:15):
cardio may be less necessary now that you have a
treadmill at home and a strongly ingrained exercise habit. Or
maybe your business has held on to a long term
client even though you've mostly gone in a different direction
and they're not really paying what you are charging new folks.

(02:35):
Everything needs to end at some point. If your calendar
is full with your past priorities, you may be giving
inadequate attention to what you care most about now. Another
issue with being too tightly scheduled is that stuff comes up.
Maybe everything fits during a perfect week, but what if

(02:55):
you break a tooth? What if you get a last
minute request from an important client. When there is no
open space in your schedule, anything unusual will leave you scrambling.
But maybe most important, if you don't have open space
in your schedule, you end up missing out on opportunities.
That's because open space invites opportunities in a way that

(03:19):
a cluttered calendar can't. If you don't have to race
off to the next thing, you might spend a little
longer chatting with people at that conference and wind up
landing an important new client. Or maybe open space might
mean the opportunity to think about things like why did
your company have such high utility bills last year? And

(03:41):
some open space you might come up with a way
to save a big chunk of cash. Or maybe with
white space, you accept a spontaneous invitation to go out
to lunch with a senior colleague and you get some
helpful mentoring. If your calendar is too cluttered, you might
push these things off because, well, you're busy, but you

(04:03):
don't have to be busy, so this spring, let your
calendar be part of your spring cleaning. In an upcoming episode,
i'll talk about how to do that, but I think
this is a helpful tip in general, life is not
a set it and forget it phenomenon. Everything requires maintenance.

(04:25):
That is true for physical objects, but it's true for
more nebulous things like relationships and of course, a schedule.
It is wise to build in a regular time to
make sure that you are spending your time on what
makes sense. Spring cleaning a schedule creates an opportunity to

(04:46):
do just that. In the meantime, This is Laura. 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,

(05:08):
or feedback, you can reach me at Laura at Laura
vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartMedia.
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