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 to make time for you a habit. Even
Speaker 1: if you are not entirely sure what hobbies or passions
Speaker 1: you'd like to pursue, carving out time for yourself can
Speaker 1: help you start to figure this out. In my most
Speaker 1: recent book, Tranquility by Tuesday, I talk about my nine
Speaker 1: favorite time management rules that can help people calm the
Speaker 1: chaos and make time for what matters. One of those rules,
Speaker 1: rule number seven, to be exact, is to take one
Speaker 1: night for you. I challenge busy people to spend a
Speaker 1: few hours a week on something that is not work
Speaker 1: and is not caring for family. It is just for you.
Speaker 1: Doing so can make life feel more sustainable and joyful. Ideally,
Speaker 1: this night for you involves a commitment to something you
Speaker 1: find energizing. I sing an a choir on Thursday nights.
Speaker 1: Some people have a regular tennis game with a partner,
Speaker 1: or play on a softball team, or attend a painting class,
Speaker 1: or volunteer at a food bank every Wednesday after work.
Speaker 1: These are all great ideas, but sometimes people tell me
Speaker 1: that they are not sure what they would do with
Speaker 1: their night off. They don't have a particular passion or
Speaker 1: hobby that seems to lend itself to this, or if
Speaker 1: they do, there might not be great opportunities for that
Speaker 1: thing in their community. I do think that in this
Speaker 1: wide world, and especially we consider all the virtual options
Speaker 1: out there, people can come up with something. But even
Speaker 1: if you are not sure what you would do, I'd
Speaker 1: strongly suggest committing to take a few hours a week
Speaker 1: to explore your interests in the hopes of figuring it out.
Speaker 1: Time for you can be a habit even if you're
Speaker 1: not totally sure what you will do with it. If
Speaker 1: you've got young kids, there are obvious logistical challenges with this,
Speaker 1: so if you've got a co parent, one great idea
Speaker 1: is just to trade off. Each of you gets one
Speaker 1: night off each week and you cover for each other.
Speaker 1: On your night off. Just go do something. Visit a friend,
Speaker 1: go to a bookstore, sit in a coffee shop, take
Speaker 1: a walk, go to the gym, maybe go to a
Speaker 1: movie or anything along those lines. It doesn't have to
Speaker 1: be perfect, it just has to be reasonably enjoyable. The
Speaker 1: next week, during your time off, do the same thing.
Speaker 1: Or do something else see what you enjoy. If you
Speaker 1: keep finding yourself doing something similar, that might be a
Speaker 1: clue to your interests. If you always wind up in
Speaker 1: your town's museum or galleries, you might enjoy an art class.
Speaker 1: If you find you really enjoy a particular class at
Speaker 1: your gym, you can start thinking of yourself as a
Speaker 1: regular and get to know the other attendees. Or you
Speaker 1: can use this time to sit in a coffee shop
Speaker 1: and think about what you enjoyed as a kid and
Speaker 1: brainstorm ways to do this now. If you don't have
Speaker 1: someone who can easily cover for your kids, this is
Speaker 1: obviously more complicated. I do think that having one night
Speaker 1: off a week might be a reasonable use of babysitting
Speaker 1: funds over the long run. Getting one night off each
Speaker 1: week can make you a more present and how person.
Speaker 1: But if that is not going to fly, you might
Speaker 1: also be able to build up a community of other
Speaker 1: folks in similar circumstances who can cover for each other.
Speaker 1: A friend gets Tuesday night off and you take her kids,
Speaker 1: and she takes your kids on Thursday nights. But by
Speaker 1: figuring out a way to build this time into your life,
Speaker 1: you will start thinking about what you'd like to do
Speaker 1: with it. You will start approaching your leisure time with
Speaker 1: more intention. You will start thinking about possibilities rather than
Speaker 1: assuming that there is no time. You do have time
Speaker 1: that one night a week you take for you. After
Speaker 1: a few weeks of trying different things, you might have
Speaker 1: more insight into what you enjoy. Or you can start
Speaker 1: following the clues. You find your aerobics class at the
Speaker 1: GEM reasonably interesting, but a fellow attendee mentions that she
Speaker 1: start at a tap dancing class at a nearby studio
Speaker 1: and loves it. You go try that out and just
Speaker 1: like that, you find a new passion that will have
Speaker 1: you looking forward to Tuesday nights. Make time for you
Speaker 1: a habit, and you will start to figure out what
Speaker 1: you like to do. It really is as simple as that.
Speaker 1: In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and
Speaker 1: here's to making the most of our times. 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 the number four then Breakfast po D. You
Speaker 1: can also shoot me an email at Before Breakfast podcasts
Speaker 1: at iHeartMedia dot com that before Breakfast is spelled out
Speaker 1: with all the letters, thanks so much, should I look
Speaker 1: forward to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is a production
Speaker 1: of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.