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 that having any time to manage is kind
Speaker 1: of like receiving a windfall. When we approach it from
Speaker 1: that mindset, we can move beyond a sense of time
Speaker 1: scarcity and start to ask the more helpful time question
Speaker 1: of what we'd like to do with it. Today's tip,
Speaker 1: like some other recent ones, is from my new book,
Speaker 1: Big Time, which will be published later this week. This
Speaker 1: book is all about practical tips for falling in love
Speaker 1: with your schedule. I know that time management as a
Speaker 1: topic does not necessarily inspire universal affection. There is a
Speaker 1: general sense that there is too much to do and
Speaker 1: too little time to do it. In Why You'll Never
Speaker 1: Finish your to do list is a popular topic for
Speaker 1: productivity writers. Our metaphors do violence with time. We are
Speaker 1: trying to beat the clock when we are not killing time.
Speaker 1: I am also well aware that life often does not
Speaker 1: go as planned, which might speak to the limitations of
Speaker 1: trying to manage time rigidly. But there is another way
Speaker 1: to look at time. Consider for a minute, how you
Speaker 1: might feel if you are handed a winning lottery ticket.
Speaker 1: You are not quite sure why this has happened. It's
Speaker 1: not like you were a regular at the seven to
Speaker 1: eleven buying tickets. One has simply been given to you,
Speaker 1: and now improbably you have a pot of cash to man.
Speaker 1: You could complain that you should have been given more money.
Speaker 1: You could complain that now you have to pay taxes.
Speaker 1: But I hope that your first reaction would be one
Speaker 1: of hopeful possibility of all that you might be able
Speaker 1: to do. I think there is a reasonable argument that
Speaker 1: we should view time the same way. Longtime listeners know
Speaker 1: that one of my random obsessions is the history of
Speaker 1: the early Earth and of how life as we know
Speaker 1: it came to be on this planet. Let's just say
Speaker 1: that when you look at space all around us and
Speaker 1: all that had to happen on our planet for life
Speaker 1: to happen, it is kind of amazing. And then once
Speaker 1: life came to be, it almost got wiped out several times.
Speaker 1: For instance, the end Permian extinction some two hundred and
Speaker 1: fifty two million years ago caused approximately ninety percent of
Speaker 1: the species on Earth to go extinct. Wow, somehow the
Speaker 1: ancestors of the creatures that eventually became us, made it
Speaker 1: through that and later through the asteroid that wiped out
Speaker 1: the dinosaurs, or even if you are not into all
Speaker 1: of that, considered that a slightly different set of historical
Speaker 1: events might not have brought your parents together. And with that,
Speaker 1: a slight change in the moment of your conception means
Speaker 1: that you would not exist as you. None of us
Speaker 1: has any business being here, and yet here you are,
Speaker 1: and here I am too. In other words, with our existence,
Speaker 1: we have already won the lottery. The fact that we
Speaker 1: have time to manage at all is incredibly improbable, and
Speaker 1: yet we do not only do we exist. If you
Speaker 1: are listening to this show, there's a very good chance
Speaker 1: that you were born into or have moved to, a
Speaker 1: free and prosperous society, one that allows for incredible agency
Speaker 1: over the day to day experience of our time. Like
Speaker 1: any lottery winner, we could complain that the prize should
Speaker 1: have been bigger. We could complain about the taxes, just
Speaker 1: as people complain that some people have fewer constraints on
Speaker 1: their time, and that we have to do some things
Speaker 1: with our time. But so much is within our power
Speaker 1: to direct. Most likely it's at least a few hours
Speaker 1: a day, maybe more. Wow. I hope you will consider
Speaker 1: this different mindset. I believe time is big enough for
Speaker 1: what matters to us, and when we start from the
Speaker 1: perspective that time is a completely improbable gift, we feel
Speaker 1: empowered to make choices that help us build the lives
Speaker 1: we want in the time that we've got. In the meantime,
Speaker 1: this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's to making
Speaker 1: the most of our time. Thanks for listening to Before Breakfast.
Speaker 1: If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback, you can reach
Speaker 1: me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast
Speaker 1: is a production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts from iHeartMedia,
Speaker 1: please visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
Speaker 1: listen to your favorite shows.