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 assign yourself one task beyond life maintenance
Speaker 1: each weekend. When you assign yourself one task, it's more
Speaker 1: likely to happen, and then you can move on to
Speaker 1: something else. I am sure you, like many of us,
Speaker 1: have all kinds of ongoing personal projects. You want to
Speaker 1: get curtains for the guest room. You want to clean
Speaker 1: out a space in the garage for a work bitch.
Speaker 1: You want to empty out those boxes that have been
Speaker 1: sitting in the living room for a year after your move,
Speaker 1: and find the floor of the laundry room under the
Speaker 1: pile of sheets you are not sure if you want
Speaker 1: to save or not. Okay, that last one is me.
Speaker 1: Often these lists of personal tasks wind up quite long.
Speaker 1: You tell yourself you will get to them on the weekend,
Speaker 1: but then the weekend has its usual amount of kid
Speaker 1: stuff and basic life maintenance like groceries and laundry. Plus
Speaker 1: you want to relax. All the tasks you could do
Speaker 1: seem overwhelming, and you either feel like you spend all
Speaker 1: your time doing them but aren't sure what you've accomplished,
Speaker 1: or you do nothing. Why bother? It just feels like
Speaker 1: too much. But there is another approach. Assign yourself one
Speaker 1: task beyond life maintenance per weekend. So yes, you do
Speaker 1: the laundry and get your groceries and anything else you
Speaker 1: do to make regular functioning possible. Then pull one task
Speaker 1: from your long list and focus on that, just one.
Speaker 1: Figure out roughly how long it will take and when
Speaker 1: you can do it. If all that is uncertain, decide
Speaker 1: on a certain quantity of time, as in I will
Speaker 1: spend two hours dealing with the boxes in the living room,
Speaker 1: Then do it. You might be surprised at what you
Speaker 1: can get through when you put all your energy into
Speaker 1: one thing instead of spreading it around six different projects. Plus,
Speaker 1: you will feel less guilty. You know that this weekend
Speaker 1: you do the living room boxes, you do not need
Speaker 1: to worry about anything else. Next week you can do
Speaker 1: the laundry room, or clean out space in the garage
Speaker 1: or something along those lines. There is a time to
Speaker 1: do those things. Now is not that time? And guess
Speaker 1: what you will start to make it through your list.
Speaker 1: I am happy to report that a few weekends ago
Speaker 1: I emptied out four boxes in the living room. Then
Speaker 1: the next weekend I tackled the laundry room. Next weekend
Speaker 1: I will do the one big box in the foyer
Speaker 1: with all the stuff that seems to resist classification. Bit
Speaker 1: by bit, it all gets done and I don't feel
Speaker 1: so overwhelmed. So maybe think about this for your weekend
Speaker 1: task list too. If you divvy up projects with someone
Speaker 1: else in your household, maybe each of you can take
Speaker 1: one assignment for the weekend. This could be mutually agreed upon,
Speaker 1: so there are no bad feelings. Why isn't So and
Speaker 1: so hanging those pictures well, because this is the weekend
Speaker 1: for taking those bins of old toys to the donation center.
Speaker 1: Next weekend is picture hanging weekend. It is all good.
Speaker 1: In the meantime, This is Laura. Thanks for listening, and
Speaker 1: here's to making the most of our times. Hey, everybody,
Speaker 1: I'd love to hear from you. You can send me
Speaker 1: your tips, your questions, or anything else. Just connect with
Speaker 1: me on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at before Breakfast Pod
Speaker 1: that's b the number four then breakfast Pod. You can
Speaker 1: also shoot me an email at before Breakfast Podcasts at iHeartMedia.
Speaker 1: That before Breakfast is spelled out with all the letters.
Speaker 1: Thanks so much. Should I look forward to staying in touch.
Speaker 1: Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts
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