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Good morning. This is Laura.

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Welcome to The New Corner Office, the

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podcast where we share strategies

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for thriving in the new world of

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work, where location and

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ours are more flexible than

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in the past. Today's

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tip is to give yourself the

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gift of time. Some

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occasions call for swift, or at least

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timely turnarounds. There's

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no reason to dawdle, just todddle,

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but on big projects or big decisions,

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allowing yourself a little extra

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time can make the whole process

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far more pleasurable. Over

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the years, I've learned to write really

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fast. I wrote The

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New Corner Office, the short book that inspired

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this podcast, in approximately

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one month. I have participated

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in National Novel Writing Month a few times,

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which involves writing a fifty word

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draft in thirty days. I

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write blog posts in thirty minutes or so, which

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is about the same amount of time each of these scripts

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take. I'm just used

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to this, so when my agent

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mentioned that the deadline for my next book,

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Tranquility by Tuesday, was going

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to be in October of two thous, I

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did a double take. I had almost

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a year to write a draft. It

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feels incredibly expansive.

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I have started work on the book now, but it's kind

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of fun to know that I can play around

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with ideas and think about who

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I'd like to interview and how to describe

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the research I'm doing. Sometimes

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time pressure inspires creativity, as

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constraints do in general, but

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by removing most immediate time

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pressure, I will experience a

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different sort of creativity, one

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that's more about play

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rather than the focusing version. I

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know a lot of people listening to this podcast work

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in industries that are driven by deadlines,

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and there is nothing wrong with that.

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But as long as you know that you are aiming toward

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a long term goal, giving

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yourself a little extra time on the way there

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can be a fun way to make work

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more enjoyable. Give

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yourself an extra week to play around with

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ideas, Give yourself

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an extra week to talk with different people. Give

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yourself an extra week for research. You

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can also give yourself extra time by

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getting started right away so

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you have time to come back to things. You

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can also produce your project, sit

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on it for a while, take a few days

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off, and then see it with fresh eyes.

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The extra time will definitely make

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it better. There

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are a few ways to build in this extra

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time. If you are given

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a deadline that seems arbitrarily

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short, ask for reasoning.

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Maybe there is a good explanation for this timeline

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that you don't know about. But if

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not, there is no harm in asking

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for a longer runway, particularly

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if you are known as a person who always

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delivers great work by your deadlines.

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Curiously, in many cases, I find that people

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are setting their own tight deadlines

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for no real reason. Here's

3:25

one New Year's Day is

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totally arbitrary. You do

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not have to decide on your next

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job move by January one,

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or figure out the new role you'd like to create at

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your organization by January

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one, or write that white paper

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that is going to make you a thought leader by January

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one. I mean, sure, that is

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as good a deadline as any other. But

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January four is a Monday. Like any

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other Monday, you

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will probably be working, so

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you can keep working on your big project.

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Then too. We

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all need time to think, we

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need time to come up with ideas. Deadlines

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are focusing, but two

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tight deadlines keep us from thinking about

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possibilities. So work

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with deadlines for sure, but

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make sure they're not tighter than

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they need to be, and

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make sure you don't put things off until the last

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minute, thus creating time pressure

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that didn't need to exist. Leaving

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time to come back to things will make

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them better. When

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we have time to play around and experiment

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and edit, then time feels

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abundant. That sense

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of abundance helps us tap into amazing

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creativity, so we

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create great things. Why

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not give it a try. Extra

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time can be a gift to

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yourself. In

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the meantime, This is Laura,

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thanks for listening, and here's

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to sixty in the New Corner

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Office. The

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New Corner Office is a production of

5:08

I Heart Radio. For more podcasts,

5:10

visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple

5:12

Podcasts, or wherever you get your favorite

5:14

shows. H