Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of IHeart Radio.

Good morning. This is Laura.

Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.

Today's tip is that it is okay to waste a little time.

Efficiency is good, but don't let efficiency become an excuse for not doing something that it would be wise to do.

The other day, I had some video interviews in the morning, so I had done my full hair and makeup for that.

Then a phone call scheduled in mid-afternoon

got canceled. I hadn't run in a while, so this suddenly opened spot was a perfect

opportunity to hop on my treadmill for 30 minutes. The problem? I'd already done my hair and makeup,

and it seemed wasteful to do them again, before I

needed to go to something in the evening. But then I realized how silly this was. I'm pretty

quick at getting ready, so I was only adding another 10 to 15 minutes into my schedule. If I wanted

to exercise, I could do so, and take the 15-minute hit. A little

inefficiency would be okay. So it goes for many things in life. I know everyone listening to this

podcast is incredibly efficient. You think about how to use little minutes of downtime during the day.

Perhaps you even plot out your errands so you only have to make right-hand turns.

I applaud all of this.

But we need to be careful that efficiency doesn't become an excuse for not doing things that matter.

Is it efficient to ask your direct reports about their weekends before beginning that Monday meeting? Nope. But in the long run, a little wasted time at

each meeting might pay you back in people being less likely to quit. Is it inefficient to commute

into the office? Absolutely. And in many

jobs, five days a week is massive overkill. But once or twice a week, when you can chat with

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