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 to make over your mornings. What we
Speaker 1: do before breakfast has a profound effect on the rest
Speaker 1: of our day, so being intentional about this time can
Speaker 1: put us in the right frame of mind to be
Speaker 1: effective with all the rest of our hours. I love
Speaker 1: writing about elaborate morning routines. I may be responsible for
Speaker 1: some of those ethereal tales of pre dawn meditation and
Speaker 1: hikes and novel writing you have probably read, so you
Speaker 1: may be interested to know that I have never had
Speaker 1: an elaborate, self actualizing morning routine. I do have a
Speaker 1: morning routine right now in the sense that I feed
Speaker 1: my twelvemonth old first thing when I wake up every morning.
Speaker 1: You can blow off a peloton routine, but good luck
Speaker 1: doing that with a nursing baby. With five children, my
Speaker 1: mornings generally revolve around getting them up and moving and
Speaker 1: hoping nothing too elaborate goes wrong in the process. That said,
Speaker 1: I do have my coffee and I like to sit
Speaker 1: down at my desk and tackle my top priority for
Speaker 1: the day around nine a m. On the days when
Speaker 1: I do knock that top priority out. I feel on
Speaker 1: top of the world, particularly if no one has been
Speaker 1: tardy for school or forgotten some key item. On the
Speaker 1: days when I can exercise first thing in the morning,
Speaker 1: I feel even better. Though I'm also happy with a
Speaker 1: mid afternoon workout as a break. Maybe some day, when
Speaker 1: my life is a little more calm, I'll have time
Speaker 1: for both. In any case, there is nothing inherently magical
Speaker 1: about mornings. You can write that novel at any point
Speaker 1: in the day. You can meditate any time you have
Speaker 1: a few spare minutes, and maybe you should. It will
Speaker 1: put you in a better mood than Twitter will. You
Speaker 1: can read inspirational literature at ten PM, and you could
Speaker 1: go for a noontime run if you'd like to. However,
Speaker 1: many people find it harder to do these things once
Speaker 1: other people's expectations kick in. Maybe no one else in
Speaker 1: your office exercises at lunch, so you don't either. Maybe
Speaker 1: you feel bad if you shut off email for twenty
Speaker 1: minutes to write another two hundred fifty words in that novel.
Speaker 1: Maybe when you close your eyes to meditate at night,
Speaker 1: you fall asleep. I get it. That's why mornings tend
Speaker 1: to work. This is time you can have to yourself
Speaker 1: before other people want a piece of you. When people
Speaker 1: track their time, they often see that they do have
Speaker 1: leisure time. It just comes at night, after the kids
Speaker 1: are in bed and the chores are done. Unfortunately, at
Speaker 1: this point people have no energy, so this time gets
Speaker 1: used for effortless things TV, social media, puttering around. By
Speaker 1: going to bed earlier, you could wake up earlier and
Speaker 1: turn this low quality evening leisure time into higher quality
Speaker 1: morning leisure time, when you can do things like work out, create,
Speaker 1: and so forth. In any case, it might not work
Speaker 1: with your life to have a long morning routine, but
Speaker 1: you might be able to have a little one. Think
Speaker 1: about what one thing you'd like to devote an hour
Speaker 1: or two more or two each week. If you had
Speaker 1: an extra two hours, what would you do with it?
Speaker 1: One hundred twenty minutes a week is twenty four minutes
Speaker 1: for five mornings. Set the alarm half an hour earlier,
Speaker 1: and do whatever it is you'd like to do now.
Speaker 1: You might have to figure out the logistics. If you
Speaker 1: are the only adult in a houseful of children, you
Speaker 1: probably can't leave to go on a twenty minute run outside.
Speaker 1: But maybe you can get a used treadmill cheap off
Speaker 1: Craigslist and put it in the basement. The key is
Speaker 1: to choose something that you truly want to do, Otherwise
Speaker 1: you won't bother getting up. You might for a few
Speaker 1: days we have the motivation to move mountains on day
Speaker 1: one and two. After that not so much. But if
Speaker 1: you feel like you never have time to write and
Speaker 1: suddenly you are really getting into your writing for twenty
Speaker 1: four minutes, five mornings a week, you will start to
Speaker 1: make progress, and day by day this adds up. So
Speaker 1: think about what you'd like to do more of that.
Speaker 1: Life has a way of crowding out. Think about whether
Speaker 1: you could make half an hour in the morning for
Speaker 1: that thing. Set the alarm a little bit earlier, go
Speaker 1: to bed a little bit earlier. Note how you feel
Speaker 1: when you score a victory. First off, My guess is
Speaker 1: that you'll feel like you can conquer the world, and
Speaker 1: that is a great way to go through life. In
Speaker 1: the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's
Speaker 1: to making the most of our time. Hey, everybody, I'd
Speaker 1: love to hear from you. You can send me your tips,
Speaker 1: your questions, or anything else. Just connect with me. On Twitter, Facebook,
Speaker 1: and Instagram at Before Breakfast pod. That's b E the
Speaker 1: number four, then Breakfast p o D. You can also
Speaker 1: shoot me an email at Before Breakfast podcast. At i
Speaker 1: heeart media dot com that before Breakfast is spelled out
Speaker 1: with all the letters. Thanks so much, I look forward
Speaker 1: to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is a production of
Speaker 1: I heart Radio. For more podcasts from my heart Radio,
Speaker 1: visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite chips