WEBVTT - Put down the duckie

0:00:03.000 --> 0:00:09.360
<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning.

0:00:10.760 --> 0:00:16.680
<v Speaker 1>This is Laura, Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's

0:00:16.680 --> 0:00:20.759
<v Speaker 1>tip is that you may have to temporarily pause something

0:00:21.640 --> 0:00:27.200
<v Speaker 1>in order to pursue something else that is important to you. Or,

0:00:27.400 --> 0:00:31.000
<v Speaker 1>in the words of the song from Sesame Street, you've

0:00:31.000 --> 0:00:33.839
<v Speaker 1>got to put down the ducky if you want to

0:00:33.880 --> 0:00:38.240
<v Speaker 1>play the saxophone. You may now have that song stuck

0:00:38.240 --> 0:00:41.400
<v Speaker 1>in your head, and if so, I am sorry, though

0:00:41.440 --> 0:00:43.080
<v Speaker 1>I do think it's a very good song if you

0:00:43.080 --> 0:00:46.240
<v Speaker 1>want to go look it up. If you haven't watched

0:00:46.320 --> 0:00:50.600
<v Speaker 1>Classic Sesame Street. Let me explain. Ernie wants to play

0:00:50.640 --> 0:00:54.120
<v Speaker 1>the saxophone, but he doesn't want to let go of

0:00:54.160 --> 0:00:59.200
<v Speaker 1>his rubber ducky. This causes all kinds of problems, most

0:00:59.240 --> 0:01:04.640
<v Speaker 1>notably that his ducky squeaks at inopportune times while he

0:01:04.680 --> 0:01:08.920
<v Speaker 1>is playing the sacks. The secret, as his friends explain,

0:01:09.160 --> 0:01:12.240
<v Speaker 1>is to put down the ducky while he is playing

0:01:12.280 --> 0:01:16.280
<v Speaker 1>the sacks. He can always pick it back up later.

0:01:18.000 --> 0:01:21.800
<v Speaker 1>Anne Laura Leconfe invokes the song's words of wisdom in

0:01:21.880 --> 0:01:26.280
<v Speaker 1>her book Tiny Experiments, How to Live Freely in a

0:01:26.319 --> 0:01:30.560
<v Speaker 1>goal obsessed world. She uses the song to capture how

0:01:30.560 --> 0:01:33.880
<v Speaker 1>you may have to pause something to free up time

0:01:33.959 --> 0:01:37.520
<v Speaker 1>to pursue what is important to you. In Ernie's case,

0:01:37.560 --> 0:01:42.320
<v Speaker 1>this was playing the saxophone. In her case, as she explained,

0:01:42.880 --> 0:01:46.319
<v Speaker 1>it was writing the book Tiny Experiments while she was

0:01:46.360 --> 0:01:50.440
<v Speaker 1>pursuing her pH d. She describes how she committed to

0:01:50.480 --> 0:01:55.240
<v Speaker 1>spending five hours per week writing the book. To make

0:01:55.320 --> 0:01:59.360
<v Speaker 1>that possible, she accepted and communicated to her doctoral advisers,

0:02:00.000 --> 0:02:02.960
<v Speaker 1>but she wasn't going to teach as much or publish

0:02:02.960 --> 0:02:07.000
<v Speaker 1>as much in academic contexts as she otherwise would have.

0:02:08.080 --> 0:02:11.920
<v Speaker 1>She had to put down those figurative duckies to have

0:02:11.960 --> 0:02:16.800
<v Speaker 1>the capacity to write her book. Now. I want to

0:02:16.840 --> 0:02:20.000
<v Speaker 1>pause here because I think a lot of the narratives

0:02:20.000 --> 0:02:23.440
<v Speaker 1>out there on work and life and productivity in general

0:02:24.280 --> 0:02:29.160
<v Speaker 1>lean hard into that hard trade offs concept. You know

0:02:29.200 --> 0:02:31.880
<v Speaker 1>how this goes. If you want to start a business,

0:02:32.440 --> 0:02:35.680
<v Speaker 1>you'll need to neglect your family and your health. If

0:02:35.720 --> 0:02:39.120
<v Speaker 1>you are ambitious at work, you must be a terrible parent.

0:02:40.000 --> 0:02:41.840
<v Speaker 1>If you have a big career in a family, there

0:02:41.880 --> 0:02:43.959
<v Speaker 1>is no way that you can have time for friends,

0:02:44.560 --> 0:02:49.320
<v Speaker 1>or exercise or hobbies. I believe that all of this

0:02:49.639 --> 0:02:53.640
<v Speaker 1>is ridiculous. There are one hundred and sixty eight hours

0:02:53.639 --> 0:02:58.040
<v Speaker 1>in a week. You can definitely work fifty hours, spend

0:02:58.080 --> 0:03:01.400
<v Speaker 1>a lot of quality time with your family, see friends

0:03:01.440 --> 0:03:04.080
<v Speaker 1>perhaps twice a week or so, a coffee before work,

0:03:04.320 --> 0:03:07.720
<v Speaker 1>or run on a weekend morning, and get enough sleep,

0:03:08.840 --> 0:03:11.120
<v Speaker 1>and go play in your pickleball league, or sing in

0:03:11.200 --> 0:03:14.359
<v Speaker 1>a choir or whatever one night a week. I promise

0:03:14.840 --> 0:03:19.600
<v Speaker 1>it does all fit. But you might also decide that

0:03:19.680 --> 0:03:22.040
<v Speaker 1>some things mentally are hard to do at the same time,

0:03:23.000 --> 0:03:24.840
<v Speaker 1>much as it is quite hard to hold on to

0:03:24.919 --> 0:03:29.480
<v Speaker 1>a ducky while using your fingers to play a saxophone,

0:03:29.520 --> 0:03:31.760
<v Speaker 1>for instance. Right now, I am working on writing the

0:03:31.800 --> 0:03:35.360
<v Speaker 1>manuscript for the Golden Hours, which is my next nonfiction book.

0:03:36.200 --> 0:03:38.960
<v Speaker 1>As part of that, I am not focusing on writing

0:03:38.960 --> 0:03:42.240
<v Speaker 1>fiction right now. I would like to write fiction again

0:03:42.320 --> 0:03:45.160
<v Speaker 1>in the near future, but I am taking a pause

0:03:45.200 --> 0:03:49.480
<v Speaker 1>from that until my nonfiction manuscript is done during the

0:03:49.520 --> 0:03:53.080
<v Speaker 1>school year. Since I am singing in two choirs, I

0:03:53.120 --> 0:03:56.560
<v Speaker 1>have decided not to train for any longer races. I

0:03:56.640 --> 0:04:01.400
<v Speaker 1>just do a few runs each week. If you pause something,

0:04:01.440 --> 0:04:04.560
<v Speaker 1>this doesn't mean you are giving it up forever. If

0:04:04.560 --> 0:04:07.720
<v Speaker 1>you finish one project like writing a book or training

0:04:07.720 --> 0:04:11.840
<v Speaker 1>for a race, then you possibly have capacity for something else,

0:04:13.080 --> 0:04:15.080
<v Speaker 1>just like Ernie could pick up the ducky after it

0:04:15.200 --> 0:04:19.239
<v Speaker 1>was finished playing the sacks. Once your priority project is finished,

0:04:19.960 --> 0:04:22.440
<v Speaker 1>you can pick up whatever pursuits you set aside or

0:04:22.480 --> 0:04:27.280
<v Speaker 1>scaled back to free up capacity. But this sequencing might

0:04:27.320 --> 0:04:31.280
<v Speaker 1>be a better idea than simultaneously aiming to do too

0:04:31.320 --> 0:04:35.280
<v Speaker 1>many things. So if there is something that's important to you,

0:04:35.360 --> 0:04:38.360
<v Speaker 1>like writing her book was to an Laura, focus on that.

0:04:39.600 --> 0:04:42.280
<v Speaker 1>Decide what other things can get a little less time

0:04:42.320 --> 0:04:47.200
<v Speaker 1>for now so you can energetically pursue that goal. Then

0:04:47.240 --> 0:04:51.440
<v Speaker 1>you can energetically pursue your next goal when the first

0:04:51.480 --> 0:04:57.880
<v Speaker 1>is done. In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening,

0:04:58.800 --> 0:05:08.839
<v Speaker 1>and here's to making them mo of our time. Thanks

0:05:08.839 --> 0:05:13.000
<v Speaker 1>for listening to Before Breakfast. If you've got questions, ideas,

0:05:13.120 --> 0:05:16.520
<v Speaker 1>or feedback, you can reach me at Laura at Laura

0:05:16.640 --> 0:05:26.040
<v Speaker 1>vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartMedia.

0:05:26.600 --> 0:05:30.559
<v Speaker 1>For more podcasts from iHeartMedia, please visit the iHeartRadio app,

0:05:30.839 --> 0:05:34.080
<v Speaker 1>Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.