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: Yesterday I encouraged you to make time for delight, to
Speaker 1: pause and notice anything unexpected or beautiful. In a similar vein,
Speaker 1: today's tip is to make time for connection. No matter
Speaker 1: how busy you feel, you do have time to engage
Speaker 1: meaningfully with the people around you, both in person and virtually.
Speaker 1: In the long run, moments like these probably matter more
Speaker 1: than many other demands that feel urgent people, it turns out,
Speaker 1: are a good use of time. I keep track of
Speaker 1: my time. I have for five years now, and so
Speaker 1: I know exactly how I spend my hours. When I
Speaker 1: first pulled together this episode, it was February, and I've
Speaker 1: been noticing how long my weekday mornings had become. With
Speaker 1: kids in three different schools plus an infant, everyone was
Speaker 1: on a different schedule. I would be up early feeding
Speaker 1: the baby. Then I'd have my coffee while the middle
Speaker 1: schooler was eating breakfast so he could head off to
Speaker 1: his early morning choir practice, with my husband usually driving him.
Speaker 1: The preschooler would wind up in the kitchen at some
Speaker 1: point after that, followed by the elementary school aged kids.
Speaker 1: I would often be sitting in my kitchen and breakfast
Speaker 1: mode for ninety minutes. In the original version of this episode,
Speaker 1: I mentioned that this was a lot of time, but
Speaker 1: in the grand scheme of things, it wasn't that much time.
Speaker 1: I decided to make my peace with it, because these
Speaker 1: long mornings spent over the breakfast table meant that I
Speaker 1: was available for whatever my kids wanted to talk about
Speaker 1: before they all went their separate ways. Well fast forward
Speaker 1: two months, and these days no one is going much
Speaker 1: of anywhere. Mornings have changed a lot, so of all
Speaker 1: the other hours. We're connecting quite a bit these days,
Speaker 1: more than any of us ever thought we would. There
Speaker 1: are some challenges to this, of course, and there are
Speaker 1: also some upsides. In the past, I was often trying
Speaker 1: to convince myself that, yes, you have time to connect,
Speaker 1: you don't have to race off. Now that there is
Speaker 1: nowhere to go, this is even more apparent. Of course,
Speaker 1: eventually life will get back to something approaching normal. If
Speaker 1: there is any good coming out of all this social isolation,
Speaker 1: I hope it is a recognition that our connections to
Speaker 1: others are incredibly precious. I hope this realization will challenge
Speaker 1: us to see that even in a busy schedule, it's
Speaker 1: worth looking for times to connect. It's worth realizing when
Speaker 1: these times are happening, that you don't actually have to
Speaker 1: rush off to the next thing. This is true for
Speaker 1: family members, for friends, for colleagues, and even for people
Speaker 1: you don't necessarily consider yourself to be all that close to.
Speaker 1: Someday people will be walking back into their offices, and
Speaker 1: when you do walk into that office, you can recognize
Speaker 1: that you have time to say hello to the security guard.
Speaker 1: You have time to ask your colleague about the baseball
Speaker 1: game he was so excited about, and you have time
Speaker 1: to listen to his answer. You have time to look
Speaker 1: the person behind the lunch counter in the eye and
Speaker 1: ask her how she's doing, and to thank her for
Speaker 1: handing you your sandwich. We may appreciate this on some level.
Speaker 1: You know full well that you aren't being efficient by
Speaker 1: deleting email newsletters on your phone while you're in the
Speaker 1: lunch line. When life gets back to normal, will be
Speaker 1: thrilled with humanity for a while, and then we will
Speaker 1: revert to the same bad habits. That's why it helps
Speaker 1: to keep repeating this phrase. People are a good use
Speaker 1: of time. Indeed, connections can make us feel like we
Speaker 1: have more time. For my book Off the Clock, I
Speaker 1: had nine hundred busy people track their time for a day.
Speaker 1: I found that the people who spent the most time
Speaker 1: engaged with family and friends had the most abundant perspective
Speaker 1: on time. They felt like they had more time than
Speaker 1: people who spent an equivalent quantity of time on TV
Speaker 1: or social media. When you keep repeating the phrase that
Speaker 1: people are a good use of time, it helps direct
Speaker 1: you and that split second at the photocopier when you
Speaker 1: decide whether or not to engage with the colleague who
Speaker 1: wants to tell you about her engagement, or when you
Speaker 1: decide to pick up the call from that elderly relative
Speaker 1: that would be so easy to dismiss because you're trying
Speaker 1: to wrap up at work, or when you run into
Speaker 1: a neighbor getting off the subway that you're about to
Speaker 1: get on. You can see that there's another train arriving
Speaker 1: in three minutes, so you can talk about the building's
Speaker 1: seasonal decorations and be fully present, knowing that you weren't
Speaker 1: going to do anything more important in those three minutes. Truly,
Speaker 1: you do have time to connect. You'll still get where
Speaker 1: you need to go, but the journey will be richer
Speaker 1: and more meaningful along the way. How do you make
Speaker 1: time for connection? I hope you'll let me know. You
Speaker 1: can reach me at Before Breakfast podcast at ihart media
Speaker 1: dot com. In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening,
Speaker 1: and here's to making the most of our time. 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 E the number four, then Breakfast p o D.
Speaker 1: You can also shoot me an email at Before Breakfast
Speaker 1: podcast at i heeart media dot com. That Before Breakfast
Speaker 1: is spelled out with all the letters. Thanks so much,
Speaker 1: I look forward to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is
Speaker 1: a production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts from
Speaker 1: I Heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.