1
00:00:03,000 --> 00:00:09,360
Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning,

2
00:00:10,640 --> 00:00:16,120
Speaker 1: This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's

3
00:00:16,120 --> 00:00:18,959
Speaker 1: tip is that it is best not to mistake a

4
00:00:19,040 --> 00:00:23,240
Speaker 1: hobby for a necessity. We need to spend some time

5
00:00:23,400 --> 00:00:27,200
Speaker 1: on certain things, but perhaps not as much time as

6
00:00:27,200 --> 00:00:32,640
Speaker 1: people sometimes spend. So I love reviewing people's time logs,

7
00:00:33,200 --> 00:00:36,720
Speaker 1: partly because I am fascinated by the diversity of human

8
00:00:36,760 --> 00:00:41,080
Speaker 1: experiences and how we spend our time. We all need

9
00:00:41,120 --> 00:00:45,280
Speaker 1: to do certain things, such as cooking, cleaning, and getting dressed,

10
00:00:46,040 --> 00:00:49,520
Speaker 1: but people spend wildly varying amounts of time on these things.

11
00:00:50,320 --> 00:00:53,880
Speaker 1: Sometimes there are practical reasons. It's probably going to take

12
00:00:53,960 --> 00:00:56,720
Speaker 1: more time to cook for an eight person family than

13
00:00:56,920 --> 00:01:00,720
Speaker 1: just for yourself. But even if we are looking at

14
00:01:00,720 --> 00:01:05,160
Speaker 1: people in similar situations, say the person who generally cooks

15
00:01:05,480 --> 00:01:09,559
Speaker 1: for a four person family without any major allergies, people

16
00:01:09,600 --> 00:01:13,399
Speaker 1: can spend very different amounts of time on this task.

17
00:01:14,400 --> 00:01:17,639
Speaker 1: One person spends about twenty minutes each night preparing dinner,

18
00:01:18,200 --> 00:01:22,920
Speaker 1: and another spends an hour. Both families are probably not starving,

19
00:01:23,880 --> 00:01:27,800
Speaker 1: and both families are probably not eating total junk, since

20
00:01:27,840 --> 00:01:29,840
Speaker 1: cooking at home tends to wind up being on the

21
00:01:29,840 --> 00:01:35,360
Speaker 1: healthier side. Feeding your household is a necessity, but spending

22
00:01:35,440 --> 00:01:37,840
Speaker 1: an hour cooking dinner each night when it is possible

23
00:01:37,880 --> 00:01:41,320
Speaker 1: to make reasonable meals in thirty minutes just might mean

24
00:01:41,400 --> 00:01:47,880
Speaker 1: that cooking has become a hobby, same with tidying. Keeping

25
00:01:47,880 --> 00:01:50,200
Speaker 1: a home clean and orderly is a necessity so you

26
00:01:50,200 --> 00:01:54,280
Speaker 1: don't live in chaos, but spending both weekend afternoons scrubbing

27
00:01:54,360 --> 00:01:57,480
Speaker 1: so the place is ready for a design magazine photoshoot

28
00:01:57,920 --> 00:02:02,800
Speaker 1: is probably a hobby. Getting dressed is a necessity, but

29
00:02:02,920 --> 00:02:05,720
Speaker 1: spending time being on top of the latest clothing trends

30
00:02:06,200 --> 00:02:08,760
Speaker 1: and making sure those clothing trends are in your closet

31
00:02:09,639 --> 00:02:14,080
Speaker 1: is a hobby. I'd add that sometimes work can become

32
00:02:14,160 --> 00:02:17,440
Speaker 1: something of a hobby too. Working past the point of

33
00:02:17,520 --> 00:02:20,959
Speaker 1: diminishing returns on things that are not due the next

34
00:02:21,080 --> 00:02:23,920
Speaker 1: day because someone thinks it looks good to be seen

35
00:02:24,040 --> 00:02:29,280
Speaker 1: working late means that after hours work has basically become

36
00:02:29,320 --> 00:02:34,240
Speaker 1: a hobby. Now, hobbies are great, whatever people's hobbies. There

37
00:02:34,280 --> 00:02:36,400
Speaker 1: is a lot to be said for spending time on

38
00:02:36,480 --> 00:02:39,760
Speaker 1: things we love and that bring joy to our lives.

39
00:02:40,760 --> 00:02:44,440
Speaker 1: But if you would not actively choose weeknight cooking or

40
00:02:44,520 --> 00:02:47,960
Speaker 1: after hours work as a hobby, then maybe it's time

41
00:02:48,000 --> 00:02:52,320
Speaker 1: to re examine how you are spending your time. Consider

42
00:02:52,400 --> 00:02:56,840
Speaker 1: whether you could spend less time on these activities. Is

43
00:02:56,880 --> 00:02:58,760
Speaker 1: the full amount of time you are spending on them

44
00:02:58,840 --> 00:03:03,480
Speaker 1: necessary or past a certain point? Is this crossing over

45
00:03:03,840 --> 00:03:07,320
Speaker 1: into hobby territory. If it is, that is good to

46
00:03:07,400 --> 00:03:10,440
Speaker 1: know so that you can scale back the amount of

47
00:03:10,480 --> 00:03:13,400
Speaker 1: time you are spending on these things when life gets busy.

48
00:03:14,760 --> 00:03:17,600
Speaker 1: A rotisserie chicken and a bag salad is great as dinner.

49
00:03:18,800 --> 00:03:21,360
Speaker 1: Angel hair pasa that cooks in less than fifteen minutes,

50
00:03:21,400 --> 00:03:25,960
Speaker 1: plus a jar of sauce also works. As for getting dressed,

51
00:03:26,440 --> 00:03:30,040
Speaker 1: Maybe it's time for a uniform of sorts, something classic

52
00:03:30,120 --> 00:03:32,800
Speaker 1: you can wear in various versions over and over again,

53
00:03:33,480 --> 00:03:36,680
Speaker 1: so you can get dressed in five minutes. If work

54
00:03:36,720 --> 00:03:40,320
Speaker 1: has become your hobby, try taking up a real hobby,

55
00:03:41,120 --> 00:03:43,320
Speaker 1: like signing up for guitar lessons one night a week

56
00:03:43,880 --> 00:03:45,640
Speaker 1: so you have a reason to leave work on time.

57
00:03:46,880 --> 00:03:50,400
Speaker 1: My guess, as the work will still get done. Time

58
00:03:50,880 --> 00:03:55,680
Speaker 1: tends to be reasonably elastic. This truth that time is

59
00:03:55,720 --> 00:03:58,280
Speaker 1: elastic shows up in time data all over the place.

60
00:03:58,880 --> 00:04:01,320
Speaker 1: I study historic time amuse patterns, and One of the

61
00:04:01,320 --> 00:04:05,080
Speaker 1: most interesting is how much less housework women do now

62
00:04:05,480 --> 00:04:08,840
Speaker 1: than they did in the past. Sometimes people think this

63
00:04:08,880 --> 00:04:11,839
Speaker 1: is because of labor saving devices, but looking at when

64
00:04:11,880 --> 00:04:15,200
Speaker 1: the trends happened, I think the more powerful explanation is

65
00:04:15,200 --> 00:04:18,280
Speaker 1: that more women started working for pay, and so they

66
00:04:18,320 --> 00:04:21,960
Speaker 1: weren't in their homes all day. They spent less time

67
00:04:22,000 --> 00:04:25,960
Speaker 1: on housework because they weren't there. But people didn't all

68
00:04:26,000 --> 00:04:29,760
Speaker 1: start living in filth. Indeed, women who don't work outside

69
00:04:29,760 --> 00:04:33,040
Speaker 1: the home now still spend less time on housework than

70
00:04:33,080 --> 00:04:37,440
Speaker 1: women did about fifty years ago. When standards change, they

71
00:04:37,520 --> 00:04:41,080
Speaker 1: change for everyone. It seems that some of the housework

72
00:04:41,080 --> 00:04:43,560
Speaker 1: of the nineteen fifties and sixties was as much a

73
00:04:43,640 --> 00:04:47,200
Speaker 1: hobby as anything else, filling time when the kids were

74
00:04:47,240 --> 00:04:51,360
Speaker 1: at school if there wasn't anything else going on. In

75
00:04:51,400 --> 00:04:54,400
Speaker 1: any case, when you recognize that some things are more

76
00:04:54,600 --> 00:04:58,640
Speaker 1: hobby than necessity, then you can simplify if you want

77
00:04:59,480 --> 00:05:02,200
Speaker 1: this open up time for other things, like hobbies you'd

78
00:05:02,240 --> 00:05:05,920
Speaker 1: enjoy more. Personally, I prefer doing my puzzles or reading

79
00:05:05,960 --> 00:05:08,760
Speaker 1: to cleaning, so that seems like a good trade off

80
00:05:09,040 --> 00:05:14,279
Speaker 1: to me. In the meantime, this is Laura, Thanks for

81
00:05:14,360 --> 00:05:18,760
Speaker 1: listening and here's to making the most of our time.

82
00:05:25,200 --> 00:05:29,520
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to Before Breakfast. If you've got questions, ideas,

83
00:05:29,760 --> 00:05:33,160
Speaker 1: or feedback, you can reach me at Laura at Laura

84
00:05:33,279 --> 00:05:42,560
Speaker 1: vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartMedia.

85
00:05:43,240 --> 00:05:47,200
Speaker 1: For more podcasts from iHeartMedia, please visit the iHeartRadio app,

86
00:05:47,480 --> 00:05:50,719
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

87
00:06:00,080 --> 00:06:00,120
Speaker 1: H