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Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good morning. This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's tip is that by adding one little bit of strategic thinking time to your weekly planning session, you can make sure that your planning time pays off. Today's tip is based on the conversation I had recently with Ben Meir for this podcast. Ben is the author of the new book, How to Be Good at Life, and he is known online as the systems guy. Ben, like me, does weekly planning, looking ahead at the upcoming week and seeing what's going on. But then he mentioned something you could do if you have a few extra minutes of planning time. Look and see if there is some aspect of your life where you could build a system that would pay off in the future. In a few minutes, you might be able to solve a nagging problem. And if you keep doing this week after week, life is going to be pretty good. I really like this idea. When we do our weekly planning, we have already set aside a little bit of time to think about the future. So why not extend this just a bit and solve a future problem? Often in life, we know that taking a few minutes to set something up might solve a lot of recurring problems. For instance, if you take a few minutes to think of your closest friends and family members and then put their birthdays into your calendar and perhaps an alert for a week before so you can mail a card, you will never forget anyone's birthday again. This will make you seem like a much more considerate person. It is not hard to do it, but it does take a little bit of time. And there's no obvious time to set up this system. So people don't. And then your niece is texting you from her birthday party and you're like, oh yeah, darn. So where do you make the time? You take 10 minutes after your weekly planning session this week and think about that as a system and set it up. Now it's done. You can add people as you meet them, but at least the initial work is completed and making life better. Long-time listeners know I am a big fan of planning your upcoming weeks on Fridays. Ben plans his weeks on Sundays. He calls them Systems Sundays. And that works for him. The truth is the time doesn't matter so much as that you actually do it. And if you are going to set aside the time to plan, why not take a few more minutes to make life even better? I am sure if you spend a few minutes thinking about it, you could come up with various systems that might make sense in your life. For instance, maybe you need a better laundry system. Maybe you realize that people are putting clean laundry back in the hampers to transfer them, but then sometimes this gets mixed in with dirty clothes before everything gets put away. This is a problem. So you think about it and order some laundry baskets. So those can be the clean signal. Or maybe you need to think through your family's 15 favorite meals so that you can choose from those when you are meal planning for the week. Right after your weekly planning is a great time To get that set up. Maybe you want to be more organized about using points and miles for travel. Set up a spreadsheet with what you have and how you hope to use all this. Some week after your planning time. So start making a list. That could be your first post-planning system to think about. And then, week after week, you can just choose one. Spend a few minutes setting it up. then your future self will be thanking you. Again and again. 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, or feedback, you can reach me at laura.mc. Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts from iHeartMedia, please visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good morning. This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's tip is that by adding one little bit of strategic thinking time to your weekly planning session, you can make sure that your planning time pays off. Today's tip is based on the conversation I had recently with Ben Meir for this podcast. Ben is the author of the new book, How to Be Good at Life, and he is known online as the systems guy. Ben, like me, does weekly planning, looking ahead at the upcoming week and seeing what's going on. But then he mentioned something you could do if you have a few extra minutes of planning time. Look and see if there is some aspect of your life where you could build a system that would pay off in the future. In a few minutes, you might be able to solve a nagging problem. And if you keep doing this week after week, life is going to be pretty good. I really like this idea. When we do our weekly planning, we have already set aside a little bit of time to think about the future. So why not extend this just a bit and solve a future problem? Often in life, we know that taking a few minutes to set something up might solve a lot of recurring problems. For instance, if you take a few minutes to think of your closest friends and family members and then put their birthdays into your calendar and perhaps an alert for a week before so you can mail a card, you will never forget anyone's birthday again. This will make you seem like a much more considerate person. It is not hard to do it, but it does take a little bit of time. And there's no obvious time to set up this system. So people don't. And then your niece is texting you from her birthday party and you're like, oh yeah, darn. So where do you make the time? You take 10 minutes after your weekly planning session this week and think about that as a system and set it up. Now it's done. You can add people as you meet them, but at least the initial work is completed and making life better. Long-time listeners know I am a big fan of planning your upcoming weeks on Fridays. Ben plans his weeks on Sundays. He calls them Systems Sundays. And that works for him. The truth is the time doesn't matter so much as that you actually do it. And if you are going to set aside the time to plan, why not take a few more minutes to make life even better? I am sure if you spend a few minutes thinking about it, you could come up with various systems that might make sense in your life. For instance, maybe you need a better laundry system. Maybe you realize that people are putting clean laundry back in the hampers to transfer them, but then sometimes this gets mixed in with dirty clothes before everything gets put away. This is a problem. So you think about it and order some laundry baskets. So those can be the clean signal. Or maybe you need to think through your family's 15 favorite meals so that you can choose from those when you are meal planning for the week. Right after your weekly planning is a great time To get that set up. Maybe you want to be more organized about using points and miles for travel. Set up a spreadsheet with what you have and how you hope to use all this. Some week after your planning time. So start making a list. That could be your first post-planning system to think about. And then, week after week, you can just choose one. Spend a few minutes setting it up. then your future self will be thanking you. Again and again. 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, or feedback, you can reach me at laura.mc. Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts from iHeartMedia, please visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
