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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 to use before and after photos and

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Speaker 1: middle photos to track and celebrate progress. In her book

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Speaker 1: Organizing from the Inside Out, author Julia Morgenstern suggests using

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Speaker 1: before and after photos of areas you've organized to motivate

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Speaker 1: your efforts. For example, when you see how much better

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Speaker 1: your pantry looks after you organized it than it did before,

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Speaker 1: you'll be much more motivated to maintain the tidiness of

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Speaker 1: that area, and perhaps you'll be motivated to organize another

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Speaker 1: area too. We're all familiar with the before and after

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Speaker 1: photos from home renovations. The bigger the contrast, the better.

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Speaker 1: But while using before and after photos is great for

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Speaker 1: fueling your projects, I think adding some middle photos to

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Speaker 1: the mix can help in situations where progress is perhaps

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Speaker 1: even more incremental. It can be hard to see change

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Speaker 1: when you look at something every day, but photos taken

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Speaker 1: a little bit of time apart can make change far

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Speaker 1: more apparent. I was thinking of this recently with cleaning

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Speaker 1: out our backyard pool. We'd gone away for a few weeks,

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Speaker 1: and during that time, nature took over, as nature tends

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Speaker 1: to do, returning things to a wild state. We came

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Speaker 1: back to what looked like a pond, green, algae, bugs,

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Speaker 1: the whole bit. I went in each day to clean

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Speaker 1: a little, run the pump, move around the water, and

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Speaker 1: each day didn't look that much different from the day before.

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Speaker 1: But over the course of seven days we went from

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Speaker 1: pond to a reasonably inviting pool. By noting the progress

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Speaker 1: in the middle, I was able to stay motivated even

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Speaker 1: during those middle green days. This incremental nature of progress

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Speaker 1: happens with all sorts of things. Take exercise. If you're

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Speaker 1: starting a new strength training program, for instance, be sure

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Speaker 1: to take a photo of yourself at the beginning. Now

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Speaker 1: you can envision your rippling after photo if you'd like.

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Speaker 1: But we are never really done with our fitness journeys,

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Speaker 1: so be sure to take and appreciate middle photos. Snap

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Speaker 1: a photo one month, in, two months in and so forth.

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Speaker 1: The photos will let you watch as your muscles become

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Speaker 1: more tuned and your posture improves. You don't see this

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Speaker 1: looking in the mirror every day, but you will definitely

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Speaker 1: see it over the course of a few months. Teachers

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Speaker 1: use this technique of using periodic snapshots to demonstrate growth

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Speaker 1: all the time. That's basically what assessments are supposed to do.

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Speaker 1: You check understanding at various points. If you are playing

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Speaker 1: an active role in your kids education this fall, you

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Speaker 1: can use snapshots in time to track their growth too.

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Speaker 1: Video tape your kids reading and save a sample of

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Speaker 1: their writing from the first month of school. Then take

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Speaker 1: another reading video and save another writing sample from around

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Speaker 1: fall break, then from around Thanksgiving, and so forth. With

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Speaker 1: the time laps, your kids progress will be discernible. You

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Speaker 1: and they will feel good about their reading and writing skills,

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Speaker 1: and you'll feel good about your teaching too. There's a

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Speaker 1: certain truism with time management that we overestimate what we

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Speaker 1: can do in the short run, but we underestimate what

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Speaker 1: we can do in the long run. The key to

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Speaker 1: sticking with stuff for the long run is feeling like

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Speaker 1: we're getting somewhere. It can be hard to notice our

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Speaker 1: own progress or our kids when it happens slowly, but

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Speaker 1: when we use before, middle, and after photos or other

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Speaker 1: snapshots in time, we're able to track growth and celebrate it.

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Speaker 1: Photos offer hard evidence that progress is happening, which keeps

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Speaker 1: us feeling good and fired up to make even more

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Speaker 1: progress in the meantime. This is Laura. Thanks for listening

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Speaker 1: and here's to making the most of our time. Hey everybody,

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Speaker 1: I'd love to hear from you. You can send me

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Speaker 1: your tips, your questions, or anything else. Just connect with

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Speaker 1: me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at Before Breakfast Pod

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Speaker 1: that's b E the number four, then Breakfast p o D.

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Speaker 1: You can also shoot me an email at Before Breakfast

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Speaker 1: podcast at i heeart media dot com that Before Breakfast

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Speaker 1: is spelled out with all the letters. Thanks so much,

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Speaker 1: I look forward to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is

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Speaker 1: a production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts from

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Speaker 1: my heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,

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Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. H