Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Good Morning, This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Speaker 1: Today's Tip is the fourth in a five part series
Speaker 1: on how to take control of your time in the
Speaker 1: new year. This week, I'll be talking about five strategies
Speaker 1: that I know will help you feel less busy and
Speaker 1: get more done because they've definitely helped me. The first
Speaker 1: tip was to track your time. The second was to
Speaker 1: figure out what you'd like to spend an hour more
Speaker 1: doing per week. The third was to treat your priorities
Speaker 1: with the urgency you'd give to actual emergencies. And the
Speaker 1: fourth is to move time around. Yes, sometimes of day
Speaker 1: are better suited to some things than others, but by
Speaker 1: being flexible about when things happen, you can build a
Speaker 1: full life even if you have an intense job or
Speaker 1: family responsibilities. Many people who track their time are surprised
Speaker 1: to discover that they do have leisure time. The problem
Speaker 1: is that this leisure time often occurs at times that
Speaker 1: are harder to seize. And we might want to write
Speaker 1: the Great American novel, but when you get the kids
Speaker 1: down at eight thirty pm, Netflix looks a lot more appealing.
Speaker 1: Than cranking out a rough draft. And sometimes we have
Speaker 1: stories of when is the right time for things, and
Speaker 1: if these right times don't fit in our lives, we
Speaker 1: give up. I see this all the time from couples
Speaker 1: who'd like to do regular dates, but getting a Saturday
Speaker 1: night sitter is tough, so they give up. Or people
Speaker 1: decide that family dinner is the sign of a functioning
Speaker 1: family and feel bad when work and activity schedules preclude
Speaker 1: it most week days. People who need to log long
Speaker 1: hours at work assume that they just won't see young
Speaker 1: kids who go to bed early during the week, or
Speaker 1: they won't be able to play on a softball team
Speaker 1: that me it's on Tuesday evenings. But when we choose
Speaker 1: to be time management masters who moved time around, none
Speaker 1: of these need to be big problems. For instance, if
Speaker 1: you know you can't be creative at night, well don't
Speaker 1: be creative at night. Try going to bed a little
Speaker 1: bit earlier, waking up a little bit earlier, and writing.
Speaker 1: Then magically you've turned unproductive evening hours into productive morning
Speaker 1: hours just by moving time around. A couple, time doesn't
Speaker 1: only have to happen on Saturday night. Maybe both of
Speaker 1: you cut out of work a little early and meet
Speaker 1: for a quick happy hour some day before us six
Speaker 1: pm daycare pickup. Or maybe you both work from home
Speaker 1: on Fridays, so you schedule a long lunch break during
Speaker 1: this time where your kids are already in school. You
Speaker 1: put the kids in simultaneous karate classes on Saturday mornings
Speaker 1: and go grab coffee together. Then no Saturday night babysitting required.
Speaker 1: As for family dinner, I encourage people to think about
Speaker 1: family meals instead. Maybe everyone gets up and has breakfast together.
Speaker 1: A weekend launch totally counts, so does pizza altogether on
Speaker 1: Sunday nights. It doesn't have to be a pot roast
Speaker 1: at six pm on Tuesdays. And as for weeknight leisure
Speaker 1: or family time, maybe you can move your work hours
Speaker 1: around two. If you want to practice with the softball
Speaker 1: team at six thirty pm on Tuesdays, you arrange to
Speaker 1: leave work by five pm that night. Now the work
Speaker 1: doesn't go away, but after your game is done at
Speaker 1: nine pm, you log back on and do the work
Speaker 1: you would have done between five and seven thirty from
Speaker 1: nine pm. This way, you're trading off work time for
Speaker 1: TV time as opposed to work time for your softball time,
Speaker 1: and that's a tradeoff you might be more interested in making.
Speaker 1: By being flexible about when things happen, we can build
Speaker 1: the lives we want even with very constraints. So today,
Speaker 1: think about what activities you'd like to build into your life.
Speaker 1: Ask if you might make space by being creative. A
Speaker 1: twenty minute jog on the basement treadmill three nights a
Speaker 1: week after the kids go to bed might not seem
Speaker 1: like an ideal solution, but if the alternative is not
Speaker 1: exercising at all, it can still feel pretty good. And
Speaker 1: then you can watch your Netflix guilt free. So how
Speaker 1: will you move time around? What will you do at
Speaker 1: an unorthodox time? You can let me know Before Breakfast
Speaker 1: podcast at i heeart media dot com. In the meantime,
Speaker 1: this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's to making
Speaker 1: the most of our time. Hey, everybody, I'd love to
Speaker 1: hear from you. You can send me your tips, your questions,
Speaker 1: or anything else. Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook
Speaker 1: and Instagram at Before Breakfast pod that's B the number
Speaker 1: four then Breakfast p o D. You can also shoot
Speaker 1: me an email at Before Breakfast podcast at iHeartMedia dot
Speaker 1: com that Before Breakfast is spelled out with all the letters.
Speaker 1: Thanks so much, I look forward to staying in touch.
Speaker 1: Before Breakfast is a production of I heart Radio. For
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