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 your resources usable immediately. Do
Speaker 1: whatever prep work is necessary right away, so your resources
Speaker 1: can provide the value you were intending when you sought
Speaker 1: them out. In other words, wash the blueberries as soon
Speaker 1: as you get home from the grocery store. Perhaps you've
Speaker 1: noticed this same phenomenon that I have in my house.
Speaker 1: If we wash the blueberries as soon as we buy
Speaker 1: them and put them in an easily accessible bowl, they
Speaker 1: get eaten. If we just shove them in the fridge
Speaker 1: fruit drawer, well, they often wind up spoiled and have
Speaker 1: to be thrown away. Now, if you think about it,
Speaker 1: this doesn't make a whole lot of sense. It doesn't
Speaker 1: take much time to pull out a handful of blueberries
Speaker 1: from a drawer and wash them, but somehow these extra
Speaker 1: steps become barriers to enjoying them, just as a whole
Speaker 1: carrot seems much more intimidating to wash, peel, and slice
Speaker 1: versus grabbing a baby carrot or a pre cut carrot stick.
Speaker 1: So knowing this about ourselves, we can commit to doing
Speaker 1: a little bit of prep work up front, or to
Speaker 1: spending the cash to have someone else do it while
Speaker 1: we're thinking about it. With any resource, build this prep
Speaker 1: work into the acquisition step. While this does take a
Speaker 1: bit of extra effort, it can be the difference between
Speaker 1: a purchase being used and enjoyed or the purchase being
Speaker 1: completely wasted. There are lots of applications to this tip.
Speaker 1: When you get new clothes, cut off the tags, wash
Speaker 1: your iron them if you need to, and if there's
Speaker 1: something that needs to be altered, take it to the
Speaker 1: tailor right away. There is never going to be a
Speaker 1: better time to do this. Indeed, once your pants sit
Speaker 1: in the closet for a while, they're just going to
Speaker 1: become part of the scenery. Better to consider the trip
Speaker 1: to the tailor to be part of the shopping experience
Speaker 1: so you'll actually get to wear your pants. The same
Speaker 1: thing goes for services you seek out. If you upgrade
Speaker 1: your alarm system so that you can get alerts when
Speaker 1: the front porch camera is triggered, invest the five minutes
Speaker 1: to set up the alerts as soon as the installation
Speaker 1: is done. If it's worth paying the extra money for
Speaker 1: the service, it's worth investing the time so that you
Speaker 1: can actually use it. If you don't, the money is wasted.
Speaker 1: I see this issue all the time with staffing. An
Speaker 1: unfortunate number of organizations are terrible at onboarding new employees.
Speaker 1: What happens, Well, you've got a heavy workload, so you
Speaker 1: feel like you urgently need to hire new staff. But
Speaker 1: once the new people show up at work, the workload
Speaker 1: feels too heavy for you to spend the time training them.
Speaker 1: They waste time and you still feel overwhelmed. But if
Speaker 1: you wash the blueberries in this instance, or actually plan
Speaker 1: out your new employees first few days with every hour
Speaker 1: given in an objective, well, in both cases you'll actually
Speaker 1: get the value you were seeking in the first place.
Speaker 1: And that is a huge to win. So when would
Speaker 1: you benefit from a little bit of prep work? What
Speaker 1: small investment of time can you make today to make
Speaker 1: life work better in the meantime? This is Laura, Thanks
Speaker 1: for listening, and here's to making the most of our time. Hey, everybody,
Speaker 1: I'd love to hear from you. You can send me
Speaker 1: your tips, your questions, or anything else. Just connect with
Speaker 1: me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at Before Breakfast Pod.
Speaker 1: That's b E the number four. Then Breakfast p o D.
Speaker 1: You can also shoot me an email at Before Breakfast
Speaker 1: podcast at i heeart media dot com that Before Breakfast
Speaker 1: is spelled out with all the letters. Thanks so much,
Speaker 1: I look forward to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is
Speaker 1: a production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts from
Speaker 1: my heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. H