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 that there is always downtime. Sometimes we
Speaker 1: can get caught up in just how busy we are,
Speaker 1: but even a full and active life tends to leave
Speaker 1: a reasonable amount of unstructured time. You just have to
Speaker 1: be aware of it. These days, my family is deep
Speaker 1: into fall activity season. I have five kids, four of
Speaker 1: whom are old enough to have lots of interests in
Speaker 1: their own social calendars, so we've got a reasonable amount
Speaker 1: going on karate a Ninja Warrior class, rock climbing, parkour,
Speaker 1: swim lessons, ice skating, fencing, tennis, boy Scouts, trumpet and
Speaker 1: Alto sacks lessons, Science olympiad inquired the last. For both
Speaker 1: a kid and for me, Perhaps one might use the
Speaker 1: word over scheduled, but I wouldn't use that word. Even
Speaker 1: with driving time, there turns out to be a lot
Speaker 1: of unstructured hours in our lives. There are approximately thirty
Speaker 1: two waking hours on Saturday and Sunday, for instance, on
Speaker 1: a weekend with five kid activities taking two hours apiece
Speaker 1: including driving time, plus two hours of church and a
Speaker 1: five hour half day adventure somewhere. That still leaves fifteen
Speaker 1: hours of unstructured time. And since my husband and I
Speaker 1: split the activities and some of them run concurrently, it
Speaker 1: turns out to be even more unstructured hours. The kids,
Speaker 1: in particular wind up with almost too much unstructured time.
Speaker 1: I say too much, since they often wind up on
Speaker 1: their devices with the open hours. Yes, I do entertain
Speaker 1: the fantasy that they will read great books and invent
Speaker 1: wonderful games, and sometimes they certainly do, but even that
Speaker 1: just takes a few hours, and then there are the screens.
Speaker 1: Adults can wind up with a lot of unstructured time too,
Speaker 1: even if it is not true leisure, because we've got
Speaker 1: little kids around or chores to do, there tend to
Speaker 1: be many hours that aren't dedicated to something in particular.
Speaker 1: If you doubt me on this, try tracking your time
Speaker 1: for a week and see how many hours seem somewhat
Speaker 1: nebulous and hard to describe. Random puttering, random child care,
Speaker 1: random quasi leisure. Now, there's nothing wrong with any of
Speaker 1: this time. It can be perfectly fine and relaxing, but
Speaker 1: it is almost universally there, and in reasonable quantities, even
Speaker 1: in very busy lives. The reason to be aware of
Speaker 1: this time is simply so this time can be noticed
Speaker 1: and spent in ways that you would like. When we
Speaker 1: do have a lot going on, it is easy to
Speaker 1: focus on the next thing that has to happen. But
Speaker 1: if the next thing doesn't have to happen for another
Speaker 1: two hours or so, you could do something fun or
Speaker 1: relaxing with that time. But if you are so focused
Speaker 1: on the two hours passing and all you need to
Speaker 1: do and getting to the next thing, then you won't
Speaker 1: do anything fun and that would be a shame. Even
Speaker 1: unstructured time is best spent mindfully, playing with the kids,
Speaker 1: reading a book, watching a chosen TV show, walking around
Speaker 1: outside going to find some sort of adventure. But when
Speaker 1: we aren't aware that this time exists, because we tell
Speaker 1: ourselves the story that we are overscheduled and it doesn't exist,
Speaker 1: then we can't take advantage of it. Best to see
Speaker 1: exactly what time looks like in the meantime. This is Laura.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening, and here's to making the most of
Speaker 1: our time. Hey, everybody, I'd love to hear from you.
Speaker 1: You can send me your tips, your questions, or anything else.
Speaker 1: Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at
Speaker 1: Before Breakfast pod. That's b E the number four, then
Speaker 1: Breakfast p o D. You can also shoot me an
Speaker 1: email at for Breakfast Podcasts at iHeartMedia dot com that
Speaker 1: before Breakfast is spelled out with all the letters. Thanks
Speaker 1: so much, I look forward to staying in touch. Before
Speaker 1: Breakfast is a production of I heart Radio. For more
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