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Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of IHeart Radio.

Good morning. This is Laura.

Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.

Today's tip is to try not to give yourself homework.

There are ways to lighten the burden on future you

while still being a team player, if you are strategic about it.

So I am sure many of us have had this experience. In a meeting, someone asks you

to send them a document. You write down a note to yourself to do this. Of course, your day is jam-packed,

so you don't wind up getting around to executing on all these little meeting follow-ups until 6 p.m. or later,

when you'd like to be on your way home.

Or maybe you agree to an informational meeting with someone and agree to help out,

and then spend time afterwards sending lots of introductory emails and information, only to find

out that the person hasn't used all of this.

We want to be team players, but there are ways to make being a team player easier on ourselves.

First, if you are asked to fulfill a quick request, and you are comfortable

doing so, do it right then. So, for instance, if you are asked during a meeting to send

colleagues the agenda from last year's annual meeting, just find it and do it. If someone wants to know the status of

the department budget, don't say you'll send a note later. Send a message to the finance office during

the meeting. They may reply during the meeting so that you can report the answer. But even if they

don't, at least you will have

made the request. So the ball is in someone else's court, at least for a while. Now, if you are

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