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Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning,

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Speaker 1: This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's

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Speaker 1: tip is to improve your defaults. Much of what we

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Speaker 1: do in life is routine, which means that small changes

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Speaker 1: can make a big difference. Today's tip was inspired by

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Speaker 1: my recent September Reset project. During the month of September,

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Speaker 1: I had lots of people track their time and then

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Speaker 1: try using some of my favorite time management strategies in

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Speaker 1: their lives. They then reflected on the results. Some of

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Speaker 1: those strategies involved planning in new things like adventures and

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Speaker 1: evening intentions an open space. One of the challenges people

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Speaker 1: faced was overcoming the inertia of doing the same things

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Speaker 1: over and over again. And don't get me wrong, routines

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Speaker 1: can be great. They can make good choices automatic, but

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Speaker 1: some defaults aren't so positive. For instance, a lot of

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Speaker 1: people have the default that once they get their kids

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Speaker 1: in bed at night, or once they finish their chores,

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Speaker 1: they sit down and watch something. If it's a favorite

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Speaker 1: show that was planned for and anticipated, great, If it's

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Speaker 1: just screen time because that's the default, well does that

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Speaker 1: have to be the default? Maybe the default could be

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Speaker 1: twenty minutes of hobby time and then screens, or twenty

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Speaker 1: minutes of chatting or reading and then screens. Even if

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Speaker 1: one party definitely wants to zone out on the couch,

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Speaker 1: that doesn't mean everyone needs to. You might set your

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Speaker 1: default that you sit with your partner on the couch,

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Speaker 1: but you read with headphones in are there, but being

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Speaker 1: together doesn't require that your default be something that you

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Speaker 1: are not excited about. Or maybe your default is that

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Speaker 1: you lie in bed scrolling for a while before it's

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Speaker 1: time for sleep. That is an easy default, but maybe

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Speaker 1: something else relaxing could take its place. Could you lie

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Speaker 1: in bed and look at magazines or look at pretty

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Speaker 1: coffee table books ordered from the library. That's not so

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Speaker 1: different from looking at Instagram. But you will change your default,

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Speaker 1: and maybe over time you can start making your default

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Speaker 1: reading real books. In any case, whenever you find yourself

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Speaker 1: doing something automatically, you might note why is this a

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Speaker 1: positive default? Is it a default you are happy about,

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Speaker 1: or is it a default that you might be able

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Speaker 1: to upgrade with minor tweaks. Sometimes life forces a change

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Speaker 1: to our defaults. Maybe you move or get a new job,

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Speaker 1: or start working in the office instead of remotely. Maybe

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Speaker 1: your kids change schools, or you have a new childcare arrangement,

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Speaker 1: or they start playing different sports. In my case, I

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Speaker 1: kept getting bumped out of a particular social media app.

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Speaker 1: I really have no idea why, but maybe this was

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Speaker 1: a good thing. Perhaps I shouldn't reset my password and

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Speaker 1: take it as a sign to change my default of

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Speaker 1: scrolling there. When I am sitting at my youngest child's

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Speaker 1: room waiting for him to fall asleep, well that is

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Speaker 1: another default I'd like to change. But he will grow

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Speaker 1: up eventually. How about you? What are your defaults? Other

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Speaker 1: ways to upgrade them? I'd love to hear what you

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Speaker 1: come up with. You can always reach me at Laura

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Speaker 1: at Laura vandercam dot com. In the meantime, this is Laura.

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Speaker 1: Thanks for and here's to making the most of our time.

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Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to Before Breakfast. If you've got questions, ideas,

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Speaker 1: or feedback, you can reach me at Laura at Laura

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Speaker 1: vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartMedia.

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Speaker 1: For more podcasts from iHeartMedia, please visit the iHeartRadio app,

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Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.