Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning,
Speaker 1: This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
Speaker 1: tip is that often is pretty much as good as always,
Speaker 1: and often is a lot more achievable in a busy life.
Speaker 1: Today's tip was inspired by someone who was wrestling with
Speaker 1: the question of whether to pick her kid up at
Speaker 1: school each day. She had a new job that allowed
Speaker 1: her to work from home, and she had a reasonable
Speaker 1: amount of control over her time, so it was theoretically
Speaker 1: possible to pick her kid up at school at three
Speaker 1: point thirty basically every day, but driving ten minutes to school,
Speaker 1: waiting ten minutes in the car line, and then driving
Speaker 1: ten minutes home was a thirty minute chunk out of
Speaker 1: the afternoon at in time spent grabbing keys and shoes
Speaker 1: and then gearing back up, and the chunk of time
Speaker 1: got larger. Her kid could take the bus, but she
Speaker 1: felt guilty then that she wasn't spending time with him
Speaker 1: despite the flexible job. But I pointed out that none
Speaker 1: of this was an either or situation. You can do
Speaker 1: things often, but not always. Given that she did have
Speaker 1: flexibility and autonomy with her time, she could structure different
Speaker 1: days to look different. Maybe she could sign her kid
Speaker 1: up for an after school activity that met at the
Speaker 1: school one day a week, so she got a longer
Speaker 1: uninterrupted work day on that day. Two days a week,
Speaker 1: he could take the bus home, and then she would
Speaker 1: say hello to him and then get back to work,
Speaker 1: making the chunk of time taken out of work closer
Speaker 1: to ten minutes rather than thirty. And then two days
Speaker 1: a week she would pick him up at school and
Speaker 1: just be done with work. Then she and her kid
Speaker 1: could hang out and do something fun. She was driving
Speaker 1: every day right at three point thirty, but she was
Speaker 1: spending plenty of time with her kid and taking advantage
Speaker 1: of her flexible schedule. I suspect that many times when
Speaker 1: people say they always do something, they really mean often anyways,
Speaker 1: people who say they always do family dinner often miss
Speaker 1: a night here or there. They do not truly mean
Speaker 1: that the primary breadwinner turns down absolutely all work dinners
Speaker 1: or evening events. They do not mean that when a
Speaker 1: family member goes to visit Grandma and the next date over,
Speaker 1: everyone else zips over there for dinner too. What they
Speaker 1: mean is that they generally eat dinner together unless there
Speaker 1: is a good reason not to, but so it goes
Speaker 1: for most things. Once you decide that often is generally
Speaker 1: as good as always, you open up all sorts of possibilities.
Speaker 1: I often go to bed at eleven PM. I consider
Speaker 1: that my bedtime, but if I have a really good
Speaker 1: book i'm reading, I might stay up later. I often
Speaker 1: practice the piano, but I do not do it every
Speaker 1: single day. I often put my kids to bed, but
Speaker 1: sometimes I am traveling or doing other things at night,
Speaker 1: and that is okay too. What might you choose to
Speaker 1: do often rather than aiming for always? What might that
Speaker 1: make possible in your life? Thinking more broadly is often
Speaker 1: a good thing, because life is seldom either or In
Speaker 1: the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's
Speaker 1: to making the most of our time. Thanks for listening
Speaker 1: to Before Breakfast. If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback,
Speaker 1: you can reach me at Laura at Laura Vancam dot com.
Speaker 1: Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts
Speaker 1: from iHeartMedia, please visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
Speaker 1: wherever you listen to your favorite shows.