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 use a timer to help you
Speaker 1: feel more relaxed while moving things along. Most of us
Speaker 1: don't set too many timers in life, except for one
Speaker 1: specific instance, the snooze button. In the morning, you hit
Speaker 1: snooze on your phone and nine minutes later it will
Speaker 1: start beeping again. Long time Before Breakfast listeners know that
Speaker 1: I think snoozing is a terrible idea. Either get up
Speaker 1: the first time, or set your alarm for the time
Speaker 1: you actually intend to get up. But one listener, Carlo,
Speaker 1: rode in to remind me that a snooze button can
Speaker 1: actually be used for good as long as you're not
Speaker 1: using it to go back to sleep. Carlo, for instance,
Speaker 1: uses his snooze button to segment his morning activities in
Speaker 1: a more efficient way. He and his kids need to
Speaker 1: leave the house at a certain time, so he segments
Speaker 1: the hour before they leave into six nine minutes segments
Speaker 1: with a little time change left over. He uses one
Speaker 1: segment to get himself dressed, he uses another to help
Speaker 1: the kids get dressed. He uses a segment to eat
Speaker 1: a quick breakfast. He uses a segment to do some
Speaker 1: morning house chores and a segment to make lunches for everyone.
Speaker 1: Then the last segment is devoted to gathering everyone and
Speaker 1: everything together to get ready to go. This way, he
Speaker 1: doesn't have to keep watching the clock, but he also
Speaker 1: knows quickly if they're running behind, and he can course
Speaker 1: correct before the morning goes off the rails. Carlo reports
Speaker 1: that he's used his snooze button at worked two when
Speaker 1: he's in a time crunch. I set up an alarm
Speaker 1: at a specific time, say four o'clock, and use the
Speaker 1: snooze to plan two or three activity bursts, he says,
Speaker 1: such as answering a complicated email by the first snows,
Speaker 1: sending all his meeting invitations for the next day by
Speaker 1: the second snooze, and planning the next morning's to asks
Speaker 1: by the thirds news. As he reports, this way, I
Speaker 1: have finished several menial tasks and I can feel organized
Speaker 1: for what comes ahead. I think this is a great idea.
Speaker 1: Of course, if nine minutes doesn't work for you, feel
Speaker 1: free to set your phones time or for any other
Speaker 1: amount of time. Lots of people swear by the Pomodoro technique,
Speaker 1: where you set a timer for twenty five minutes, focus
Speaker 1: on something intensely for that time, and then take a break.
Speaker 1: You can set alarms for other things too. Say you're
Speaker 1: in a meeting and you know you need to leave
Speaker 1: on time, but you really want to focus on the
Speaker 1: other person instead of trying to sneak peaks at the
Speaker 1: clock here and there, set an alarm for a few
Speaker 1: minutes before you need to go. The other person will
Speaker 1: hear the alarm too, and so it provides an opening
Speaker 1: to move things along and end things. But you can
Speaker 1: completely relax up until that point. It's a way of
Speaker 1: being off the clock while still being on the clock too.
Speaker 1: Do you set timers? Let me know for what You
Speaker 1: can reach me at Before Breakfast Podcast at i heeart
Speaker 1: media dot com. In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks
Speaker 1: for listening, and here's to making the most of our time.
Speaker 1: Hey everybody, I'd love to hear from you. You can
Speaker 1: send me your tips, your questions, or anything else. Just
Speaker 1: connect with me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at Before
Speaker 1: Breakfast Pod that's B the number four, then Breakfast p
Speaker 1: o D. You can also shoot me an email at
Speaker 1: Before Breakfast Podcast at i heeart media 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
Speaker 1: podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit the art Radio app,
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Speaker 1: H