Set an alarm

Don't let time get away from you

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
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 hours are more
flexible than in the past. Today's tip is for when
you're away from your computer for periods of time during

(00:25):
the work day, set an alarm on your phone to
remind you of your next scheduled event. You'll feel more
calm and focused too. When you work remotely, it's easy
to wind up away from your desk. Maybe you're helping
with online schooling, or you're doing a chore that has
to be done during work hours. When this happens, you

(00:47):
can wind up feeling disconnected from your schedule. For some people,
this leads to anxiety about missing appointments and frequent calendar
checks to see what they have next. For other people,
being away from their computer it leads to losing track
of time and missing appointments, which isn't good either. Setting
an alarm on your phone to remind you when you

(01:08):
need to head back to your desk can help you
make sure that you don't miss things. It can also
help you stop worrying when you're away from your computer
about when you need to be back. The process itself
is pretty simple. When you step away from your desk
for something that might take more than a minute or
two lunch, folding, laundry, whatever it is, set an alarm

(01:31):
for ten minutes before your next scheduled commitment. If you're
leaving your house, set the alarm for a little earlier,
since you'll need to build and travel time. When the
alarm on your phone goes off, if you're not already
back at your desk, you'll have a reminder and enough
time to get there now. Occasionally, when the alarm goes off,

(01:51):
you'll be doing something that can't be ended in time
for your next appointment. Perhaps you've taken a kid to
the doctor and the doctor is running behind that it's
not ideal, but at least when the alarm goes off,
you'll think about the upcoming appointment so you can make
a plan for what to do about it, like rescheduling
or taking the call from your phone instead of your computer.

(02:12):
Instead of using an alarm, some people prefer to set
up their phone calendars to sync with their work calendars.
The calendar notification on your phone can serve the same
purpose as an alarm, as long as the notification is
fairly loud and comes the right amount of time before
the appointment, and as long as you're not so used
to phone notifications that you ignore them. The point is

(02:33):
to set some external reminder of the time so you
don't have to constantly keep the time in the active
part of your brain. That can allow you to relax
and enjoy time rather than worry about what's coming next.
In the meantime, this is Laura, thanks for listening, and

(02:54):
here's the succeeding in the New Corner Office. The New
Corner Office is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts,
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your favorite shows.