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Speaker 1: Welcome to before breakfast, a production of I heart radio.

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Speaker 1: Good morning, this is Laura. Welcome to the before breakfast podcast.

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Speaker 1: Today's tip is about how to feel less overwhelmed when

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Speaker 1: you know you have a very busy stretch of time

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Speaker 1: coming up. Getting clear on what needs to happen and

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Speaker 1: designing these things a time can make even a huge

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Speaker 1: pile of work feel far more doable. I am always

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Speaker 1: telling people to try setting a weekly planning time. Plan

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Speaker 1: on Friday's is rule number two in my upcoming tranquility

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Speaker 1: by Tuesday book. For a reason. I think twenty minutes

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Speaker 1: or so of weekly planning, where you look at the

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Speaker 1: whole week and ask what's important alongside what's happening, can

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Speaker 1: let anyone feel more in control of even a busy life.

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Speaker 1: But I recently received a question from a listener who

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Speaker 1: wasn't sure about this planning. She wrote that sometimes looking

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Speaker 1: at everything that had to happen and everything that hadn't

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Speaker 1: happened from the previous week made her feel overwhelmed. She

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Speaker 1: then had a hard time relaxing going into her weekend

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Speaker 1: because she felt so far behind. I can certainly sympathize.

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Speaker 1: We have all gone through periods when we feel like

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Speaker 1: we are drowning. However, I would note that the volume

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Speaker 1: of stuff you are facing is going to be the

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Speaker 1: same whether you know what you're facing or not. When

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Speaker 1: you know what you're facing, you can make more rational

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Speaker 1: choices about what to tackle. For instance, when we don't

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Speaker 1: know the whole scope of work we need to do,

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Speaker 1: we tend to do whatever is blinking brightest at any

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Speaker 1: given moment, or we do what ever someone is yelling

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Speaker 1: loudest about when they're telling us to hurry up with it.

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Speaker 1: But it makes no sense on Monday to do something

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Speaker 1: smaller that is due on Friday when there is something

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Speaker 1: big that's due on Wednesday that we could make serious

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Speaker 1: progress on. Instead, when we look at everything we have

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Speaker 1: going on, we might also get the courage to offload

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Speaker 1: a few things. Maybe you can't keep all your commitments

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Speaker 1: this week, or maybe you need help. When you see

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Speaker 1: this ahead of time, you can approach this in a

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Speaker 1: more humane way then when you are scrambling at the

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Speaker 1: last minute. Now, if you continually see each Friday that

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Speaker 1: you have undone things from the last week, this can

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Speaker 1: nudge you to make more rational choices. We are not

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Speaker 1: going to get any more hours in the day. So

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Speaker 1: perhaps your idea of what can fit in a day

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Speaker 1: or in a week's problematic. This is good to know,

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Speaker 1: rather more than continually creating expectations that you won't be

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Speaker 1: able to meet. Knowing what we need to do also

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Speaker 1: allows us to make good choices about things that come up.

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Speaker 1: For instance, the week that I am writing this episode,

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Speaker 1: I have committed to doing several things with my kids.

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Speaker 1: I also have the usual complement of work stuff. I

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Speaker 1: had been feeling a little bit overwhelmed about all this,

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Speaker 1: but I saw that Thursday was mostly free. This emboldened

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Speaker 1: me to keep it free from all other little calls

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Speaker 1: or meetings, so I could hunker down and work straight

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Speaker 1: from eight am to three PM, and when I did

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Speaker 1: this I was able to get much of the heads

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Speaker 1: down work done that I needed to do. In any case,

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Speaker 1: I sometimes think of time as a rapidly moving river.

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Speaker 1: When you don't know what you are facing, it's like

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Speaker 1: shooting rapids in a dark cave. Now that is scary.

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Speaker 1: When you do know what you are facing, you're shooting

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Speaker 1: those rapids in a brightly Lit Canyon. The experience is

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Speaker 1: still going to be intense and you'll need to pay

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Speaker 1: attention and work hard, but at least some of the

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Speaker 1: terror is gone. You can make better choices and how

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Speaker 1: you navigate the river, which increases the chances of coming

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Speaker 1: out strong on the other side. In the meantime, this

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Speaker 1: is Laura. Thanks for listening and here's to making the

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Speaker 1: most of our time. Hey, everybody, I'd love to hear

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Speaker 1: from you. You can send me your tips, your questions

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Speaker 1: or anything else. Just connect with me on twitter, facebook

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Speaker 1: and Instagram at before breakfast pot that's B e, the

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Speaker 1: number four, then breakfast P O d. You can also

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Speaker 1: shoot me an email at before breakfast podcast at iheartmedia

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Speaker 1: dot com. That before breakfast is spelled out with all

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Speaker 1: the letters. Thanks so much. I look forward to staying

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Speaker 1: in touch. Before breakfast is a production of I heart radio.

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Speaker 1: For more podcasts from my heart radio, visit the I

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Speaker 1: heart radio APP, apple podcasts or wherever you listen to

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Speaker 1: your favorite shows.