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Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.

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Speaker 1: Good Morning. This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.

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Speaker 1: Today's tip is that yesterday is every day. Instead of

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Speaker 1: making assumptions about how you spend your time, just look

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Speaker 1: at how you spent your time yesterday and you'll be

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Speaker 1: able to make far more informed choices. A few weeks ago,

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Speaker 1: the Bureau of Labor Statistics here in the US released

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Speaker 1: results from its annual American Time Use Survey. This survey

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Speaker 1: has thousands of Americans report how they spent time yesterday,

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Speaker 1: that is, during the twenty four hours between four am

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Speaker 1: yesterday morning and four am today. Since the survey covers weekdays, weekends,

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Speaker 1: and holidays and doesn't ask about particular categories of time,

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Speaker 1: but just what happened next, it's generally seen as the

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Speaker 1: most reliable time survey out there. It also contains fascinating

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Speaker 1: insights into how people spend their time. For instance, in

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Speaker 1: the average, Americans slept about nine hours on the day

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Speaker 1: when they were surveyed. Now, when you ask people how

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Speaker 1: much they sleep, pretty much no one is going to

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Speaker 1: tell you nine hours a day. And yet yesterday, when

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Speaker 1: yesterday includes the various days that yesterday might be that

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Speaker 1: is how much people slept. People also didn't work all

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Speaker 1: that many hours yesterday, and we watched a lot of TV.

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Speaker 1: When we think about how we spend our time, we

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Speaker 1: often think more about the impressions we have of our

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Speaker 1: lives than the actual numbers. If we feel tired, we

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Speaker 1: call to mind a short night and say that's how

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Speaker 1: many hours we slept. If we feel overworked, we call

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Speaker 1: to mind the longest day in the past few weeks

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Speaker 1: and say that that is a typical work day. In

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Speaker 1: our minds, we are supremely dedicated to our homes and

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Speaker 1: our families, spending tons of time on housework and child care.

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Speaker 1: In reality, it sometimes turns out to be fewer minutes

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Speaker 1: than we might think. All that is neither here nor there.

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Speaker 1: Yesterday is probably not absolutely typical for anyone, But it

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Speaker 1: can't be completely atypical for everyone, or we aren't using

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Speaker 1: the right definition of the word typical. So what this

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Speaker 1: means is that yesterday can probably give more insights into

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Speaker 1: your life than an assumption of a typical day. If

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Speaker 1: you are trying to get a grasp on your time,

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Speaker 1: look at yesterday. It will tell you a lot. For instance,

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Speaker 1: if you exercised yesterday, that's wonderful. We can be pretty

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Speaker 1: sure that you do exercise at least here and there

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Speaker 1: in your life. If you didn't exercise, well, that certainly

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Speaker 1: doesn't mean you never do. In general, I think that

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Speaker 1: anything that happens three times a week is a habit.

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Speaker 1: But it does mean that exercise is not such a

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Speaker 1: high priority for you that you will make time for

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Speaker 1: it absolutely every single day, because well, there was yesterday.

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Speaker 1: Maybe yesterday was a work day. What did it look like.

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Speaker 1: Maybe you normally think of yourself as working from eight

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Speaker 1: to six every work day, which means that you work

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Speaker 1: fifty hour weeks. But in fact, yesterday you left a

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Speaker 1: little early and kind of took a long lunch. It

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Speaker 1: wasn't a typical day. But if there are days that

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Speaker 1: are less than ten hours long, the odds are pretty

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Speaker 1: good that you are not working quite as many hours

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Speaker 1: as you think you are. The reason this matters is

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Speaker 1: that if you are working forty five hours, you'll need

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Speaker 1: to make different choices with how you're allocating your time. Then,

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Speaker 1: if you are working, say fifty hours, you simply have

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Speaker 1: ten fewer hours to work with than you think you do. Now,

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Speaker 1: maybe yesterday was a weekend or a holiday, so that's

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Speaker 1: clearly not typical. Right, Well, guess what weekend days occur

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Speaker 1: twice each week. That's two out of every seven days,

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Speaker 1: hardly a typical. We may think of things as a

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Speaker 1: daily habit, like I'm always up at six am to

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Speaker 1: write in my journal. But if it didn't happen yesterday

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Speaker 1: on a weekend day, then it is not a daily habit.

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Speaker 1: It may be a frequent habit, and that's great, but

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Speaker 1: not quite as frequent as the picture we're walking around with.

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Speaker 1: Of course, it is quite possible that yesterday was absolutely

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Speaker 1: a typical in some way. Still, if there is any

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Speaker 1: possibility that a day like that will ever occur again

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Speaker 1: in your life, then it needs to be part of

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Speaker 1: the mental picture. I find it funny that sometimes people

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Speaker 1: will keep track of their time and show me their

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Speaker 1: time logs, and their time logs will include something indulgent

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Speaker 1: like let's say a day at the spa. Sounds fun right.

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Speaker 1: Sometimes people will then right on their logs this never happens,

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Speaker 1: even though clearly it did. Never is a very different

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Speaker 1: story from not as much as I want. Never is defeatist.

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Speaker 1: I prefer the story that yes, I go to the

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Speaker 1: spa sometimes and I'd love to go more often. And

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Speaker 1: here's what I'm going to do to make that happen.

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Speaker 1: We want to be sure we are working with the

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Speaker 1: right story. So think about how you spent yesterday. Talk

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Speaker 1: it through four am to four am. Most people can

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Speaker 1: remember the past twenty four hours with relative accuracy. If

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Speaker 1: you're not sure where the time went, look at your

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Speaker 1: calendar or talk to your family members. Then give it

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Speaker 1: a little more thought. Think about where these hours all went.

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Speaker 1: How do you feel about it, What do you like most,

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Speaker 1: What do you want to spend more time doing. What

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Speaker 1: do you want to spend less time doing. Figure this

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Speaker 1: out looking at where the time actually went yesterday, and

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Speaker 1: you will make far wiser choices than when you work

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Speaker 1: from assumptions. In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening,

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Speaker 1: and here's to making the most of our time. Hey, everybody,

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Speaker 1: I'd love to hear from you. You can send me

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Speaker 1: your tips, your questions, or anything else. Just connect with

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Speaker 1: me on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at Before Breakfast Pod

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Speaker 1: that's b E the number four then Breakfast p o D.

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Speaker 1: You can also shoot me an email at Before Breakfast

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Speaker 1: Podcast at iHeartMedia dot com that before Breakfast is spelled

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Speaker 1: out with all the letters. Thanks so much, I look

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Speaker 1: forward to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is a production

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Speaker 1: of I heart Radio. For more podcasts from i heart Radio,

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Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows.