Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning.
Speaker 2: This is Laura, Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
Speaker 2: tip is to try to keep your leisure time free
Speaker 2: of little to dos. Yes, the to dos need to
Speaker 2: get done, but by separating the two you can feel
Speaker 2: productive and more relaxed. So I am sure that you,
Speaker 2: like me, have a lengthy list of small tasks that
Speaker 2: you need to tackle. For instance, I found myself on
Speaker 2: a Saturday recently with a list that included buying a
Speaker 2: train ticket, getting a new microphone, updating the week's childcare
Speaker 2: schedule with some new information, buying a birthday present, and
Speaker 2: so forth. These things do need to get done, and
Speaker 2: for many people weekends and evenings are when they tend
Speaker 2: to happen. But weekends and even also the time one
Speaker 2: generally hopes to relax, and so this can create a conflict.
Speaker 2: You might feel guilty if you are not purchasing that
Speaker 2: train ticket, so then you are not totally relaxed. Or
Speaker 2: you do it and then fifteen minutes later you remember
Speaker 2: something else you were supposed to do, and this continues
Speaker 2: for hours and you feel like you are always doing something.
Speaker 2: So a better approach is to identify some spot of
Speaker 2: your evening or weekend that would be hard to use
Speaker 2: for anything fun. If you've got kids, this might be
Speaker 2: time you are sitting on the sideline of a practice
Speaker 2: waiting for them, or maybe you have gone to a
Speaker 2: drop off birthday party but it's not worth it to
Speaker 2: go home after dropping the kid off, just to turn
Speaker 2: right back around, find a coffee shop, or get the
Speaker 2: Wi Fi code for the gymnastics gym.
Speaker 1: Bring your laptop and use this time to get to work.
Speaker 1: If this doesn't describe your weekends, then maybe designate a
Speaker 1: time that you probably.
Speaker 2: Won't be using for anything exciting, say when your other
Speaker 2: half is off exercising, or the two of you wouldn't
Speaker 2: be doing anything together, or maybe earlier in the day
Speaker 2: before you're likely to meet up with friends. Then use
Speaker 2: this time to plow through your list. The upside is
Speaker 2: that now you've used time that you wouldn't have been
Speaker 2: using for particularly great leisure, and you have cleared the decks,
Speaker 2: so it will be easier to just focus on having
Speaker 2: fun the rest of the time. You don't have some
Speaker 2: little part of your brain thinking train ticket which can
Speaker 2: contaminate your leisure time. Now to be clear, I am
Speaker 2: perfectly fine with you enjoying yourself, even if you haven't
Speaker 2: purchased that train ticket yet. Sometimes, if my younger kids
Speaker 2: are otherwise occupied, I actually tell myself, Okay, I am
Speaker 2: not going to do any half to dos for the
Speaker 2: next hour. Then I set a timer and relax and
Speaker 2: then get to the to dos later. But I know
Speaker 2: this is challenging for some people, just as some people
Speaker 2: find it challenging to relax in a messy house. So
Speaker 2: if that is the case for you, figure out how
Speaker 2: to confine your to dos to a small period of
Speaker 2: time so they don't contaminate everything else. Pure leisure is
Speaker 2: really great if you can get it, and I absolutely
Speaker 2: want that for you. In the meantime, this is Laura.
Speaker 2: Thanks for listening, and here's to making the most of
Speaker 2: our time. Thanks for listening to Before Breakfast. If you've
Speaker 2: got questions, ideas, or feedback, you can reach me at
Speaker 2: Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast is a
Speaker 2: production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts from iHeartMedia, please visit
Speaker 2: the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to
Speaker 2: your favorite shows.