Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of my Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Good Morning. This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Speaker 1: Today's tip is to send an email on Friday about
Speaker 1: the weekend to anyone who spend the weekend with. Knowing
Speaker 1: what's coming up and when everyone can have their fun
Speaker 1: can vastly increase the chances that days off will be
Speaker 1: spent well. Long time listeners know that I am a
Speaker 1: big fan of planning weekends. No, this does not defeat
Speaker 1: the purpose of weekends. I am not saying plan every minute.
Speaker 1: And we should also be clear here that planning doesn't
Speaker 1: only mean planning things you don't want to do. I
Speaker 1: am on a mission to rescue planning's reputation. We want
Speaker 1: to plan things that you you want to do. If
Speaker 1: you have a busy life with kids in particular, thinking
Speaker 1: through weekends ahead of time is the only way to
Speaker 1: make sure that the adults can enjoy themselves as well.
Speaker 1: I am something of the cruise director in my family,
Speaker 1: and I suspect many listeners of this podcast serve this
Speaker 1: role in their families too. Now, sometimes this can feel
Speaker 1: unfair because it is labor, and it is often unacknowledged.
Speaker 1: Labor but there are upsides. If you are the cruise director,
Speaker 1: you get to decide what happens and when it happens,
Speaker 1: and there is some real power in that. Indeed, if
Speaker 1: you put at least some thought into making sure that
Speaker 1: any other people in your household get some time for
Speaker 1: their pursuits, you will almost never be challenged on a
Speaker 1: weekend plan. So on Friday afternoons, I plan my week ahead.
Speaker 1: I think about what I want to do professionally, in
Speaker 1: my relationships, and personally too. I think about where these
Speaker 1: things can go. I also take a look at my weekend.
Speaker 1: Some things are already set, like kids sports practices or lessons,
Speaker 1: or in non COVID times, things like birthday parties. Sometimes
Speaker 1: we've arranged for outdoor, masked play dates and such. I
Speaker 1: look at the weather and I think I built what
Speaker 1: I'd like to do and what my husband might want
Speaker 1: to do runs for both of us, sometimes a date
Speaker 1: night if we have babysitter coverage, must us like grocery runs,
Speaker 1: or if it's football season and he'll want to watch
Speaker 1: Texas A and M something like that. It all goes
Speaker 1: on the plan. Then I send my husband an email
Speaker 1: with the itinerary for the weekend, including any questions like
Speaker 1: do you want to drive our six year old to
Speaker 1: rock climbing or should I. If we have long stretches
Speaker 1: of open time, we might decide to rally the kids
Speaker 1: for a family activity like a walk or a visit
Speaker 1: to a zoo or a botanical garden. We make our reservations.
Speaker 1: There are a few upsides to doing this ahead of time. First,
Speaker 1: if we wake up on Saturday and don't know what
Speaker 1: we're doing, we can burn a lot of energy deciding
Speaker 1: which is energy we might need to execute on any
Speaker 1: family activities involving five children. We also can't as easily
Speaker 1: see the whole lay of the land, so then maybe
Speaker 1: one person gets to run outside, but the rain starts
Speaker 1: midday Saturday, and so the other person gets stuck using
Speaker 1: the treadmill, or we don't see opportunities like that. I
Speaker 1: need to get some work done, so it would be
Speaker 1: best for me to take the six year old to
Speaker 1: rock climbing and right while I wait there, which is
Speaker 1: what I am doing right now. The second upside is
Speaker 1: that we can look forward to things. If we know
Speaker 1: we're going to a favorite park or cooking a special meal,
Speaker 1: we can enjoy the anticipation. There's plenty of research finding
Speaker 1: that anticipation accounts for the lion's share of happiness gained
Speaker 1: from any event. Eventually, all good things are over. Eventually
Speaker 1: it will be Monday morning. By planning, we can stretch
Speaker 1: out the time when the good things exist in our
Speaker 1: mental universes. Best to maximize the pleasure anyway we can.
Speaker 1: If you tend to be the planner in your family,
Speaker 1: you might try sending this Friday email too. Once everyone
Speaker 1: has the schedule and answers any lingering questions, you can
Speaker 1: all be on the same page. You can adjust the
Speaker 1: schedule if needed beforehand, which keeps you from burning an
Speaker 1: hour on Saturday arguing, and you'll probably start spending weekends
Speaker 1: better with more time for adult fund around all the
Speaker 1: kid activities. That is a major wind in my book.
Speaker 1: In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and
Speaker 1: here's to making the most of our time. 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 p o D.
Speaker 1: You can also shoot me an email at before Breakfast
Speaker 1: podcast at i heeart media dot com that Before Breakfast
Speaker 1: is spelled out with all the letters. Thanks so much,
Speaker 1: I look forward to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is
Speaker 1: a production of I heart Radio. For more podcasts from
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