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Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I 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 pair little tasks with things you

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Speaker 1: already do. By pairing habits, you'll be less likely to

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Speaker 1: forget them. We all have little things we know we

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Speaker 1: should do regularly. Maybe it's flossing or writing in a journal.

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Speaker 1: It can be very powerful to make these good decisions automatic,

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Speaker 1: but building habits is hard. That's why I'm always on

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Speaker 1: the lookout for ways to make habit building easier. So

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Speaker 1: I love this suggestion that I received from Before Breakfast

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Speaker 1: listener Peggy. She wrote in that I realize I have

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Speaker 1: a habit that helps me with getting little things done

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Speaker 1: that can be overlooked. I try to combine two or

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Speaker 1: more tasks so that I don't forget one of them.

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Speaker 1: She gave me a few examples of pairings that worked

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Speaker 1: well in her life. When I make my bed in

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Speaker 1: the morning, she says, I pray. If I see my

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Speaker 1: bed isn't made, I know I forgot to pray. Also,

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Speaker 1: Peggy notes that she injured a muscle in her leg

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Speaker 1: at one point and knows she needs to stretch it.

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Speaker 1: I was forgetting to stretch it after running, as I'm

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Speaker 1: usually short on time in the morning, she says. I

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Speaker 1: found when I am in the shower and conditioning my

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Speaker 1: hair after a run, I just stretched that particular muscle

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Speaker 1: for a few minutes while I let my conditioner sit.

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Speaker 1: I had problems for years with this muscle, but once

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Speaker 1: I started this routine, it hasn't been a problem. Praying

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Speaker 1: and stretching are frequent tasks, but other little things don't

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Speaker 1: need to be done nearly as often. There are a

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Speaker 1: few tasks I have to do once a month, Peggy writes,

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Speaker 1: I finally realized I needed to combine them all on

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Speaker 1: the same day. The first of each month, I put

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Speaker 1: in a new pair of contacts, budget and write out

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Speaker 1: checks to my kids music and dance teachers, wash my

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Speaker 1: vacuum filters, and do the cleaning cycle on my washing machine.

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Speaker 1: I have written down my monthly items on my phone,

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Speaker 1: and I do them all at once. I think these

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Speaker 1: are ideas. All sorts of little habits can be paired

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Speaker 1: with others. For instance, I've suggested in previous episodes that

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Speaker 1: people keep time logs. It's empowering to know where the

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Speaker 1: time goes, but It's also easy to forget to write

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Speaker 1: down where the time went until so much time has

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Speaker 1: passed that you no longer remember. So I suggest that,

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Speaker 1: at least during the work day, people pair time tracking

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Speaker 1: with bathroom breaks. When you come back from a bathroom break,

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Speaker 1: write down what you did since the last one. Or

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Speaker 1: here's another opportunity for pairing. I don't know about you,

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Speaker 1: but my car has a tendency to accumulate a lot

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Speaker 1: of trash. Now, when I'm putting gas in my car,

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Speaker 1: I set the handle to keep pumping, and then I

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Speaker 1: clean out the car. This feels like a real win

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Speaker 1: because I wasn't using that time for anything important anyway,

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Speaker 1: and now I have a much cleaner vehicle. I don't

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Speaker 1: watch TV much, and I almost never watch it live,

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Speaker 1: but if you're watching something with commercials, this can be

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Speaker 1: a great time to do something like stretching or strength training.

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Speaker 1: Or you can use the time while food heats up

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Speaker 1: in the microwave. In our house, we stack mail on

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Speaker 1: the counter under our microwave, and it has a tendency

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Speaker 1: to pile up. If I sort the mail anytime I'm

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Speaker 1: using the microwave, I can avoid losing important notes in

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Speaker 1: the mess now. To be clear, I don't think we

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Speaker 1: need to pack every minute of every day. People can

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Speaker 1: go a little overboard with pairing. I have personally been

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Speaker 1: mocked in more than one article for the idea of

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Speaker 1: using microwave time for anything. But I also do know

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Speaker 1: that small things done repeatedly add up habits are powerful.

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Speaker 1: But relying on our conscious minds to remember to do

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Speaker 1: all the things we know we should do, it's just

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Speaker 1: asking for failure. Pairing new habits with things we already

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Speaker 1: do greatly increases the chances that we stick with them.

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Speaker 1: Just ask Peggy, whose leg injury is no longer bothering

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Speaker 1: her and who's keeping a spiritual commitment. She decided to

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Speaker 1: make two. What happens do you pair together? I'd love

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Speaker 1: to hear about them. Please email me your pairs Before

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Speaker 1: Breakfast podcast at i heeart media dot com. 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. Hey, everybody, I'd love to

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Speaker 1: hear from you. You can send me your tips, your questions,

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Speaker 1: or anything else. Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook

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Speaker 1: and Instagram at Before Breakfast Pod. That's b E the

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Speaker 1: number four. Then Breakfast p o D. You can also

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Speaker 1: shoot me an email at Before Breakfast podcast at iHeart

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Speaker 1: media dot com that Before Breakfast is spelled out with

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Speaker 1: all the letters. Thanks so much, I look forward to

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Speaker 1: staying in touch. Before Breakfast is a production of I

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Speaker 1: heart Radio. For more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit

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Speaker 1: listen to your favorite shows. M