Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Good Morning. This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Speaker 1: This week we're talking about tips from Gretchen Reuben's new
Speaker 1: book Outer Order, inter Calm. Today's tip is to assign
Speaker 1: each day its own task. Gretchen tells us that I
Speaker 1: love Laura Ingles Wilder's book Little House in the Big Woods,
Speaker 1: and even as a child, I was fascinated by the
Speaker 1: idea of assigning a particular household chore to each day
Speaker 1: of the week. According to Laura Ingles Wilder, wash on Monday,
Speaker 1: iron on Tuesday, mend on Wednesday, churn on Thursday, clean
Speaker 1: on Friday, bake on Saturday, rest on Sunday. Gretchen notes
Speaker 1: that this approach can be adapted to the work week
Speaker 1: for tasks that are best done periodically. You might update
Speaker 1: spreadsheets on Monday, process expense receipts on Tuesday, work on
Speaker 1: monthly reports on Wednesday, invoice on Thursday, make phone calls
Speaker 1: on Friday. The upside of such rules is that working
Speaker 1: regularly on projects becomes a habit. You know you'll never
Speaker 1: fall too far behind on your expense reports. If every
Speaker 1: Tuesday you take a little bit of time to work
Speaker 1: on them. Gretchen cautions, however, that this notion of assigning
Speaker 1: certain kinds of work to certain days might not appeal
Speaker 1: equally to each of the four tendencies. The Four Tendencies
Speaker 1: is a research backed personality framework that Gretchen came up
Speaker 1: with that is about how people respond to different expectations,
Speaker 1: both outer expectations and inner ones. She found that people's
Speaker 1: responses tended to fall into four categories. Upholders respond well
Speaker 1: to both inner and outer expectations. Questionners don't like outer
Speaker 1: expectations but are good with inner ones. Obligers have trouble
Speaker 1: keeping promises to themselves, but would never let anyone else down.
Speaker 1: Rebels don't like expectations in general, whether they come from
Speaker 1: inside or outside. If you'd like to find out your tendency,
Speaker 1: you can take the quiz at quiz dot Gretchen Reuben
Speaker 1: dot com, and of course it's explained in her book
Speaker 1: The Four Tendencies. In case you're curious, eye, this is
Speaker 1: Laura here and an upholder, which was probably obvious to
Speaker 1: anyone who listened to the episode about my nine plus
Speaker 1: day running streak. I'll also fesce up to being the
Speaker 1: person behind the anonymous anecdote in Gretchen's book The Four Tendencies, who,
Speaker 1: despite being deep in labor with her fourth child, insisted
Speaker 1: that her husband observe all traffic laws on the way
Speaker 1: to the hospital and park in the correct lot. Gretchen
Speaker 1: is also an upholder, and as she noted, the idea
Speaker 1: of a daily schedule for tasks fills her with delight.
Speaker 1: But she says, if you think the schedule seems arbitrary,
Speaker 1: you're probably a question er. If you're wondering if you'll
Speaker 1: be able to stick to this schedule, you're likely to
Speaker 1: be an obliger. If the very thought of being trapped
Speaker 1: by a schedule makes you want to run out the
Speaker 1: door and into the big woods, you're probably a rebel.
Speaker 1: So do you like the idea of assigning each day
Speaker 1: a task? I do this with my blog, doing certain
Speaker 1: sorts of posts on Monday's, Tuesdays, and Friday's. I generally
Speaker 1: planned my weeks on Friday's, and I sent in the
Speaker 1: following week's lineup for the Before Breakfast podcast on Monday's.
Speaker 1: Let me know what you think of the idea and
Speaker 1: which tasks you assigned to which days you could also
Speaker 1: let me know which of the four tendencies best describes you.
Speaker 1: As always, you can email me at Before Breakfast podcast
Speaker 1: at i heeart media dot com. In the meantime, this
Speaker 1: is Laura. Thanks for listening and here's to making the
Speaker 1: most of our time. Hey, everybody, I'd love to hear
Speaker 1: from you. You can send me your tips, your questions,
Speaker 1: or anything else. Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook
Speaker 1: and Instagram at Before Breakfast pod. That's B the number four,
Speaker 1: then breakfast p o D. You can also shoot me
Speaker 1: an email at Before Breakfast podcast at i heeart media
Speaker 1: dot com. That Before Breakfast is spelled out with all
Speaker 1: the letters. Thanks so much, I look forward to staying
Speaker 1: in touch. Before Breakfast is a production of I Heart Radio.
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