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Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of my 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 to use whatever time, freedom and flexibility

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Speaker 1: you might have, Especially these days work hours are a

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Speaker 1: little less set. You might be able to do more

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Speaker 1: than you imagine. It's been years since I've needed to

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Speaker 1: report to an office every day as a condition of employment,

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Speaker 1: and yet on the vast majority of work days I

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Speaker 1: spend most of the time I have childcare sitting at

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Speaker 1: my desk. It makes sense. I liked my projects, but

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Speaker 1: I've been trying to remind myself that I don't have

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Speaker 1: to do them from nine to five. If I want

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Speaker 1: to do something else, I can as long as the

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Speaker 1: projects I have committed to do get done. And so

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Speaker 1: a few weeks ago I decided to change things up.

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Speaker 1: I bought a ticket for a local art museum for

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Speaker 1: eleven am on Tuesday. I left a little after ten am.

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Speaker 1: I spent a lovely hour in the near empty museum,

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Speaker 1: looking at Andrew wyatth and Grandma Moses paintings and a

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Speaker 1: festive dull house too. I was home by one o'clock

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Speaker 1: feeling like I had had the most marvelous adventure. If

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Speaker 1: you are expected to be in an office building from

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Speaker 1: nine to five every week day, it's a little harder

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Speaker 1: to do things like this, But a lot of people

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Speaker 1: are working from home these days. Working from home allows

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Speaker 1: some inherent time flexibility. You might be able to sign

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Speaker 1: on early, like at seven am instead of nine am,

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Speaker 1: and then take two hours off in the middle of

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Speaker 1: the day. Or you could start later, like thirty am

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Speaker 1: and just work later too, or not take a lunch break.

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Speaker 1: You're working the same number of hours, you're just working

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Speaker 1: them a little differently. That can allow for some during

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Speaker 1: the day adventures. Of course, there's a reason people are

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Speaker 1: working from home right now. Many things are closed and

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Speaker 1: so the pool of potential adventures is a little smaller

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Speaker 1: than it might be. But still it would be quite

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Speaker 1: possible to drive fifteen minutes to a park, walk for

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Speaker 1: an hour there, and then drive fifteen minutes home. There's

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Speaker 1: something liberating about doing such things in the middle of

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Speaker 1: an ordinary work day. It makes time feel different. Plus,

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Speaker 1: I know I can't tell myself a story that I

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Speaker 1: have no time for fun. Clearly I do. Just look

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Speaker 1: at what I did on that Tuesday morning. Even people

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Speaker 1: who work in traditional offices might sometimes have more freedom

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Speaker 1: and flexibility than they think. I've seen a lot of

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Speaker 1: time logs over the years, and I remember one from

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Speaker 1: a woman who had been telling herself, I'm not the

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Speaker 1: kind of person who can leave for an hour at

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Speaker 1: lunch every day to exercise. Then she said, well, why not,

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Speaker 1: I can become that kind of person. She didn't have

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Speaker 1: the sort of job where she needed to punch in

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Speaker 1: and punch out. She mostly set her own schedule so

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Speaker 1: she could leave sometime open, and she decided to start

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Speaker 1: taking a boot camp class nearby over her lunch break

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Speaker 1: a few days per week. She didn't exactly announce it,

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Speaker 1: though she didn't exactly apologize for it either, And you

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Speaker 1: know what, she had her best year ever because she

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Speaker 1: returned in the afternoon ready to focus, or at least

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Speaker 1: she was far more focused than she would have been

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Speaker 1: if she'd been trying to work through lunch eating a

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Speaker 1: sad desk salad. Now you have to know your situation.

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Speaker 1: If this really won't fly in your workplace, fine, but

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Speaker 1: you might try baby steps, a fifteen minute walk in

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Speaker 1: the middle of the day. Did anyone notice, my guests,

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Speaker 1: is no, everyone lives in their own little worlds. Your

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Speaker 1: manager is not going to worry about exactly how much

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Speaker 1: desk time a highly productive and well performing employee is clocking.

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Speaker 1: She has a lot of other things to worry about.

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Speaker 1: If fifteen minutes is okay, probably twenty will be too,

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Speaker 1: maybe thirty. Use your freedom, it's your life. That time

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Speaker 1: looking at Andrew Wyatt paintings felt a lot more fulfilling

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Speaker 1: than cleaning out my inbox. Time passes one way or another,

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Speaker 1: Best to use it well. 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 E the number four, then

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

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Speaker 1: email at Before Breakfast podcast at iHeartMedia dot com. That

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

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

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Speaker 1: Breakfast is a production of I Heart Radio. For more

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Speaker 1: podcasts from I heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app,

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Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows,