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Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.

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Speaker 1: Good Morning. This is Laura, Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.

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Speaker 1: Today's tip is about some strategies you can use to

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Speaker 1: create your best long weekend ever. This episode is first

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Speaker 1: airing at the start of Memorial Day weekend in the US,

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Speaker 1: which is widely viewed as the official start of summer.

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Speaker 1: Monday is a holiday, and many people have a half

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Speaker 1: day planned on Friday as well. If you're listening to

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Speaker 1: this and you've got a trip somewhere exciting, great, But

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Speaker 1: if you don't, or you're curious about how to savor

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Speaker 1: your time in general during future long weekends, here are

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Speaker 1: some ideas that have been helpful for me and might

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Speaker 1: be for you too. First, I like to make a

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Speaker 1: mental map of the weekend. Back when I was dealing

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Speaker 1: with kidnap times, I began thinking of a weekend as

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Speaker 1: consisting of five spots Friday evening, Saturday morning, Saturday post nap,

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Speaker 1: Sunday morning, and Sunday post nap. Now that I'm beyond

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Speaker 1: the nap stage, this is evolved to Friday night, Saturday day,

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Speaker 1: Saturday night, Sunday day, and Sunday night. For a long

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Speaker 1: weekend simply add Monday day and Monday night to the mix.

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Speaker 1: So for a long weekend, we likely have seven chunks

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Speaker 1: of time to assign, and yes, hanging out at the

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Speaker 1: house is completely fine to assign for some of them,

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Speaker 1: but you probably don't want to do that for all seven.

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Speaker 1: It's good to have a balance and to treat some

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Speaker 1: of this extended time off as a little special. That

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Speaker 1: brings us to the question of what makes a good weekend.

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Speaker 1: We all have our own special recipes. Personally, I like

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Speaker 1: to do a date night, eating out somewhere, fancy a

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Speaker 1: long run, singing with my choir at church, and then

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Speaker 1: some sort of family adventure like going to a botanical

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Speaker 1: garden or the zoo or a bike ride. This mix

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Speaker 1: of four things doesn't happen every weekend, but if a

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Speaker 1: weekend does have those four components, I know I'll hit

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Speaker 1: the work week thinking wow, that was pretty good. There's

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Speaker 1: actually some research about what activities make people happiest. For

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Speaker 1: one study, researchers had a slew of people record how

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Speaker 1: they were feeling as they went about their days at

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Speaker 1: certain times when they were asked to report on how

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Speaker 1: they were feeling. Now, you may not be surprised to

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Speaker 1: learn that people were in the best moods during what

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Speaker 1: the researchers called intimate activities, though we can all ponder

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Speaker 1: the image of these people pausing in the middle of

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Speaker 1: such things while they recorded their feelings for research purposes.

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Speaker 1: In any case, a few other activities consistently hit the

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Speaker 1: top of the scale. People loved socializing, believe it or not.

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Speaker 1: They liked exercising too. They felt quite good while engaged

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Speaker 1: in spiritual activities. So for any weekend, long or regular,

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Speaker 1: you could think about these major categories. I recommend doing

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Speaker 1: something social, something physical, and something spiritual. Social is pretty straightforward,

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Speaker 1: a barbecue with friends at your house maybe, or brunch

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Speaker 1: with extended family. Physical is straightforward were two, though a

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Speaker 1: long weekend allows for slightly more adventurous ideas. Instead of

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Speaker 1: just doing a thirty minute run around your neighborhood, you

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Speaker 1: could go for a four hour hike in a nearby

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Speaker 1: state park, or rent canoes and paddle down a local

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Speaker 1: river with your family. I interpret the category of spiritual

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Speaker 1: activities broadly. It could certainly mean going to worship services,

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Speaker 1: but for people who aren't part of an organized religious community,

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Speaker 1: it could mean anything that elevates your soul. You could

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Speaker 1: volunteer somewhere and thus be part of something bigger than yourself.

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Speaker 1: You could do a longer meditation session, read devotional or

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Speaker 1: inspirational literature, are go taking something awe inspiring, like shooting

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Speaker 1: stars while you're camped far from city lights. So map

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Speaker 1: out what you and the people you spend weekends with

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Speaker 1: would like to do in these three categories. Figure out

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Speaker 1: which of the seven long weekend slots you're can assign

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Speaker 1: them to. Then, and this is just as important. We

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Speaker 1: need to minimize the time spent on half two dous

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Speaker 1: and these are just part of life. Even in the

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Speaker 1: best weekend ever, you might still need to run to

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Speaker 1: an a t M or put gas in your car.

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Speaker 1: In a previous episode of Before Breakfast, I recommended doing

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Speaker 1: chores and errands during the work week in order to

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Speaker 1: maximize family and leisure time on the weekend. But if

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Speaker 1: that's not happening and the grocery, shopping and laundry need

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Speaker 1: to get done, I recommend setting a specific window for

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Speaker 1: these things. If you walk around the whole weekend thinking

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Speaker 1: I need to clean my house, you'll feel miserable. You'll

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Speaker 1: do inefficient bits here and there, so the housework bleeds

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Speaker 1: into everything or else. You'll constantly feel guilty about not

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Speaker 1: doing it. But if you assign yourself a time, say

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Speaker 1: Sunday from three to five thirty p m. Before your

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Speaker 1: volunteer session at the food bank, then you can stop

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Speaker 1: thinking about it. If you find yourself looking at your

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Speaker 1: pile of dirty clothes on Saturday morning, you can tell

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Speaker 1: yourself there's a time for laundry, and now is not

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Speaker 1: that time, so you're free to relax and read a book,

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Speaker 1: or t your kids to the park or whatever you've

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Speaker 1: decided to do. So that's my advice for planning a

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Speaker 1: great long weekend. I'd love to hear about your recipe

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Speaker 1: for making the most of your time off. As always,

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Speaker 1: you can email me at Before Breakfast Podcast at I

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Speaker 1: heart media dot com. In the meantime, this is Laura.

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Speaker 1: Thanks for listening and here's to making the most of

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Speaker 1: our time. Hey, everybody, I'd love to hear from you.

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Speaker 1: You can send me your tips, your questions, or anything else.

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Speaker 1: Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at

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Speaker 1: Before Breakfast Pod that's B the number four then Breakfast

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Speaker 1: p o D. You can also shoot me an email

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Speaker 1: at Before Breakfast podcast at i heeart media dot com

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Speaker 1: that Before Breakfast is spelled out with all the letters.

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Speaker 1: Thanks so much, I look forward to staying in touch.

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Speaker 1: Before Breakfast is a production of I heart Radio. For

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