Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning.
Speaker 1: This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
Speaker 1: tip is to leave space for opportunity. When we feel
Speaker 1: overwhelmingly busy, we decide we don't have the capacity to
Speaker 1: take on anything new, which tends to push exciting new
Speaker 1: opportunities away. Better to have enough mental space to evaluate
Speaker 1: everything on its own merits. For many parents, the end
Speaker 1: of the school year feels incredibly busy. Each week there
Speaker 1: might be some schedule change due to testing or end
Speaker 1: of year field trips. There are concerts and recitals and banquets.
Speaker 1: Keeping track of all of it can be challenging. There
Speaker 1: is a marked increase in mental load, as we call it.
Speaker 1: In my new book, Big Time, I wrote about some
Speaker 1: interesting research from political scientists finding that when people have
Speaker 1: a sense of carrying a heavy mental load, they are
Speaker 1: less likely to participate in public life in general. I
Speaker 1: would imagine this applies to other things as well. You
Speaker 1: might not pitch that big new idea at work when
Speaker 1: you are struggling to keep track of everything that is
Speaker 1: going on. You might not reach out to get together
Speaker 1: with a potential new friend you find fascinating because well,
Speaker 1: who has time for that. A few busy weeks each
Speaker 1: year are okay, that is not permanent. But in general,
Speaker 1: in life, we don't want to walk around with a
Speaker 1: story that we are so busy that there is no
Speaker 1: time for anything new. In many cases, new adventures and
Speaker 1: opportunities would be great ways to spend our time. So
Speaker 1: we want to make sure our lives aren't so cluttered
Speaker 1: with things we are less excited about that we don't
Speaker 1: want to take on new things. So how do we
Speaker 1: do that? Longtime listeners know that I am a big
Speaker 1: fan of having a designated weekly planning time. It is
Speaker 1: good to make sure you are on top of things,
Speaker 1: which is the purpose of planning. But it is not
Speaker 1: just that. When I know I have a regular time
Speaker 1: for planning, I also know I don't have to spend
Speaker 1: the rest of my time planning. As we are writing this,
Speaker 1: I have just learned that an upcoming day about six
Speaker 1: weeks in the future is going to be logistically complicated.
Speaker 1: Now I could spend the next six weeks stewing about that,
Speaker 1: or I could just make a note to figure that
Speaker 1: out during my next weekly planning session. It is also
Speaker 1: helpful to evaluate everything in your life with an eye
Speaker 1: toward whether it's something you are excited about or something
Speaker 1: you are not excited about. Now, I am not saying
Speaker 1: you get out of the stuff you aren't excited about,
Speaker 1: but you might be able to get out of some
Speaker 1: of it. Certainly, over six to twelve months you could
Speaker 1: probably offloat a lot. You also want to be protective
Speaker 1: of your mental and temporal space. Don't cut your work
Speaker 1: hours too short, even if you work flexibly. Perhaps maybe
Speaker 1: you could pick up your kids at school every day,
Speaker 1: but maybe you don't want to do this every day.
Speaker 1: You might carpool or enlist some other help, or use
Speaker 1: aftercare because some days you want to make sure your
Speaker 1: workdays feel a little bit longer so you can have
Speaker 1: that sense of spaciousness that allows you to ponder new possibilities.
Speaker 1: It is in that space that you will send an
Speaker 1: email to someone you haven't talked with in a while
Speaker 1: wind up with a fruitful collaboration. It is in that
Speaker 1: space that you will read to the end of an
Speaker 1: article and have an idea that will lead to a breakthrough.
Speaker 1: We can all be more efficient, but space is what
Speaker 1: allows us to think and create, So don't sell this
Speaker 1: space short. In your schedule. A busy season is one thing,
Speaker 1: but when life feels overwhelmingly busy for the long haul,
Speaker 1: that is a problem. But I am also guessing it
Speaker 1: is something that over the long haul, you can do
Speaker 1: something about. In the meantime. This is Laura. Thanks for listening,
Speaker 1: and here's to making the most of our time. Thanks
Speaker 1: for listening to Before Breakfast. If you've got questions, ideas,
Speaker 1: or feedback, you can reach me at Laura at Laura
Speaker 1: vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartMedia.
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