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Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning.

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Speaker 1: This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's

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Speaker 1: tip is that life administration is real work that takes

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Speaker 1: real time, So a smart schedule takes that into account

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Speaker 1: and builds it in. Lately, I've been hearing from a

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Speaker 1: lot of people who confess that they are falling behind

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Speaker 1: on their personal to dos. Some things are quick. It

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Speaker 1: is easy enough to use that app from your hair

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Speaker 1: salon to schedule an appointment for Saturday, but some things

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Speaker 1: are more involved. I recently registered my five year old

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Speaker 1: for kindergarten next year. This involved tracking down his birth certificate,

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Speaker 1: a recent utility bill, my real estate tax bill, and

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Speaker 1: his immunisation record, plus filling out a lot of different

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Speaker 1: information online. People sometimes wonder why these things just aren't

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Speaker 1: getting done. Sometimes people assume that chaos is the inevitable

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Speaker 1: result of having a lot going on, but I don't

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Speaker 1: think that's true. I think what's generally happening is that

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Speaker 1: people aren't scheduling any sort of time to do these things.

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Speaker 1: People figure they'll get to them at some point, or

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Speaker 1: they'll fit around the edges of everything else. But when

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Speaker 1: some people can take a chunk of time at work

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Speaker 1: when they're sitting at a desk and have a phone

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Speaker 1: and such. But if your work involves doing medical procedures

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Speaker 1: or driving a bus or installing refrigerators, that might not

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Speaker 1: really be feasible. Perhaps this personal work can be done

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Speaker 1: at home, but sometimes when people are home they are

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Speaker 1: taking care of small children. It is a cruel truth

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Speaker 1: that it is hard to focus on registered during a

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Speaker 1: five year old for kindergarten when the five year old

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Speaker 1: is asking you to get him a snack every three minutes.

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Speaker 1: To make progress on your personal to dos, you need

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Speaker 1: to recognize that life administration is real work and it

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Speaker 1: takes real time. As with all work, it is more

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Speaker 1: efficient when you aren't constantly being interrupted, so you need

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Speaker 1: a regular time to do it. For many people, this

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Speaker 1: might mean a slot during the week and on the weekend.

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Speaker 1: You could block out thirty minutes after the kids go

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Speaker 1: to bed on Wednesdays and then a one hour block

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Speaker 1: on Saturday while you and your spouse trade off kid coverage.

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Speaker 1: Or perhaps it's thirty minutes Tuesday night and thirty minutes

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Speaker 1: Thursday night. You want to designate a time so it's

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Speaker 1: not always an option and you feel guilty when you

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Speaker 1: aren't doing it, But when you get to that time,

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Speaker 1: you've managed your energy and you know it's time to

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Speaker 1: get going. This will work for most things, but some

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Speaker 1: personal tasks can only be done during business hours. For instance,

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Speaker 1: if you have a billing issue with your dentist that

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Speaker 1: needs to get resolved, you might need to call between

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Speaker 1: eight and five when they are open. If that's the case,

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Speaker 1: then maybe designate one window during the work week. If

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Speaker 1: you've got a work from home day, maybe you take

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Speaker 1: your lunch break and do it. Or perhaps if you

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Speaker 1: start work at nine, you could use the window from

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Speaker 1: eight to nine when a lot of places are open.

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Speaker 1: Or if you work until four pm but your day

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Speaker 1: care is open until five thirty, you might be able

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Speaker 1: to use the four p m To five pm window

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Speaker 1: once every week or two. Keep a running list of

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Speaker 1: personal to dos, and then split the list between things

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Speaker 1: that are more flexible and things that have to be

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Speaker 1: done during business hours. But don't just assume that these

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Speaker 1: things will happen at some point. Life administration is real work.

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Speaker 1: It takes real time. Even once I had all my documentation,

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Speaker 1: registering my kid for kindergarten still took thirty minutes. It's

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Speaker 1: not a ton of time, but it is not zero either,

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Speaker 1: so best to build these things in in the meantime.

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Speaker 1: This is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's to making

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Speaker 1: the most of our time. Thanks for listening to Before Breakfast.

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Speaker 1: If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback, you can reach

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Speaker 1: me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast

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Speaker 1: is a production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts from iHeartMedia,

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Speaker 1: please visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you

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Speaker 1: listen to your favorite shows.