WEBVTT - There are no typical days

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<v Speaker 1>Good morning, This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.

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<v Speaker 1>Every weekday morning, I'll be sharing a strategy to help

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<v Speaker 1>you take your day from great too awesome. In future

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<v Speaker 1>episodes will dive right into the tips, but in these

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<v Speaker 1>first few episodes, I'm introducing myself and I wanted to

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<v Speaker 1>share a little bit about how I spend my time.

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<v Speaker 1>You might call it a typical day or a day

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<v Speaker 1>in the life of Laura with this caveat. I've spent

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<v Speaker 1>the past ten years studying people's schedules, and one of

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<v Speaker 1>the first things I learned is that there are no

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<v Speaker 1>typical days. When we describe a day is typical, what

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<v Speaker 1>we're really saying is that this is how we'd like

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<v Speaker 1>to see ourselves. This is the picture we wish to

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<v Speaker 1>share of our lives. It's often not an actual hour

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<v Speaker 1>by our reality. Just as an example, when you ask

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<v Speaker 1>people to describe a typical day, almost no one describes

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<v Speaker 1>a weekend day, even though Saturday and Monday constitute of

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<v Speaker 1>our days. A few people describe Friday either, even though

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<v Speaker 1>this gets us up to our time. I guess typical

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<v Speaker 1>days only happen Monday through Thursday, even though this is

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<v Speaker 1>barely more than half the week. When we think of typical,

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<v Speaker 1>we think of routine. It's just easier to describe something

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<v Speaker 1>we do repeatedly, even if that repetition happens less frequently

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<v Speaker 1>than you might imagine. That turns out to often be

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<v Speaker 1>the case. Indeed, Big time diary studies often find that

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<v Speaker 1>more than half of respondents say the day they tracked

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<v Speaker 1>was not typical. But this can't be true for the

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<v Speaker 1>majority of people, or we need to change the definition

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<v Speaker 1>of the word typical. It's kind of funny, but what

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<v Speaker 1>this means in practice is that any study that asks

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<v Speaker 1>people how much work they do on a typical day

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<v Speaker 1>or how much they sleep on a typical day is

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<v Speaker 1>going to be misleading. That's why I often ask people

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<v Speaker 1>to describe yesterday, not a typical day Yesterday. Maybe yesterday

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<v Speaker 1>wasn't typical for some reason or another, but it was

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<v Speaker 1>a real day. It really happened, and we can learn

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<v Speaker 1>a lot from that. So I'll give you both versions

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<v Speaker 1>of my life. Just as an exercise, on a typical day,

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<v Speaker 1>which by definition seems to be Monday through Thursday, I

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<v Speaker 1>set my alarm for six am, I get up in shower,

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<v Speaker 1>and then my husband and I spend seven to seven

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<v Speaker 1>fifty having family breakfast and getting kids ready for school.

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<v Speaker 1>At seven fifty are nanny shows up and I drive

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<v Speaker 1>my oldest child to middle school. I come back around

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<v Speaker 1>I check email or do administrative work, and at I

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<v Speaker 1>get the middle two kids out to the bus stop

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<v Speaker 1>by Our nanny is fully on with our littlest kid,

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<v Speaker 1>getting him ready for preschool, taking him, picking him up,

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<v Speaker 1>doing activities with him, and I'm in my home office

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<v Speaker 1>to start my work day. I am to do deep

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<v Speaker 1>work projects first, like writing an at NG. Then I

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<v Speaker 1>deal with emails and phone calls. I grabbed lunch somewhere

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<v Speaker 1>around noon, usually eating at my desk. Then I work

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<v Speaker 1>until two thirty or so, at which point I go

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<v Speaker 1>run outside. My goal is three point one miles. That's

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<v Speaker 1>a five K for any runners out there. I come back,

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<v Speaker 1>change and work until four PM, at which point kids

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<v Speaker 1>start getting off buses. I chat with them and then

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<v Speaker 1>drive to some kid activity or another. We often eat

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<v Speaker 1>dinner somewhere between five and six, depending on the activity

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<v Speaker 1>schedule for the evening. I'm often doing emails or work reading.

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<v Speaker 1>In the middle of all this, my husband comes home

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<v Speaker 1>and hear if he's not traveling. The little guy goes

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<v Speaker 1>to bed between seven thirty and eight. The seven year

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<v Speaker 1>old gets her stories at eight forty five. The big

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<v Speaker 1>boys go up around nine pm to read in the room.

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<v Speaker 1>I may read or work, shut the house, turn the

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<v Speaker 1>boys lights off at ten, and I am to be

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<v Speaker 1>in bed myself before eleven. So that's a typical day.

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<v Speaker 1>Now I'll describe yesterday, which, since I wrote the script

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<v Speaker 1>on a Tuesday, was a Monday. My husband had flown

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<v Speaker 1>to Europe on Sunday night, so he wasn't in the picture.

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<v Speaker 1>I set my alarm for sixty five am, but my

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<v Speaker 1>four year old woke up at five thirty. I was

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<v Speaker 1>definitely not prepared to deal with the day at this point,

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<v Speaker 1>so I got him a snack and let him watch

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<v Speaker 1>YouTube videos from five forty five to sixty five so

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<v Speaker 1>I could go back to sleep. I got up at

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<v Speaker 1>six forty five and spent the next two hours playing

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<v Speaker 1>with kids, getting them breakfast, and doing random household tasks

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<v Speaker 1>that I can't really remember. It was our neighbor's turn

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<v Speaker 1>to drive the car pool to middle school, so there's

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<v Speaker 1>a little extra time in here. I finally got my

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<v Speaker 1>own breakfast at eight fifteen and wolfed it down before

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<v Speaker 1>the bus stop. Fun At eight thirty five, I went

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<v Speaker 1>for a run in my neighborhood since I wasn't sure

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<v Speaker 1>it could happen later. I did not hit three point

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<v Speaker 1>one miles. I came back, got myself cleaned up, and

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<v Speaker 1>did an hour of work before going to my youngest

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<v Speaker 1>child's preschool to celebrate his fourth birthday. I read a

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<v Speaker 1>story and brought snack, and helped everyone get in boots

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<v Speaker 1>and coats to play on the snowy playground. After I

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<v Speaker 1>came home and worked until three, at which point I

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<v Speaker 1>packed my bags and drove to the airport to travel

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<v Speaker 1>to Houston for a speech. I had been told to

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<v Speaker 1>be early because of some potential T s A issues,

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<v Speaker 1>which turned out to be nothing that's good, But then

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<v Speaker 1>I had an hour to kill in the airport. I

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<v Speaker 1>never spend time at the airport well. I got a snack,

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<v Speaker 1>not a virtuous one, and scrolled aimlessly before getting on

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<v Speaker 1>my flight. On the plane, I intended to write something,

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<v Speaker 1>but I wound up reading a magazine for the first hour.

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<v Speaker 1>Then I ate dinner. I read a book I was

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<v Speaker 1>reviewing for the Wall Street Journal, so at least that

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<v Speaker 1>was work, and I listened to a podcast for the

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<v Speaker 1>last half hour while paging through Hemispheres magazine, reading stories

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<v Speaker 1>about United's customer service team. We landed around nine pm

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<v Speaker 1>Eastern time eight pm Central time. I walked through the airport,

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<v Speaker 1>met my driver, and stared out the window at the

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<v Speaker 1>Houston Strip malls as we drove downtown. I checked into

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<v Speaker 1>my room and pretty much crashed, well not really. I

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<v Speaker 1>lay in bed for forty five minutes reading snarky comments

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<v Speaker 1>on Twitter before falling asleep at eleven pm Eastern, which

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<v Speaker 1>was ten pm Central. So there are some similarities between

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<v Speaker 1>a typical day and yesterday, there are also some differences.

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<v Speaker 1>Adding it up, I only did about five hours of

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<v Speaker 1>work yesterday, whereas my description of a typical day easily

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<v Speaker 1>clocks nine or more. Looking at Instagram for an hour

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<v Speaker 1>in the airport isn't work, nor is looking at a

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<v Speaker 1>magazine on the plane. Looking at Twitter in my hotel

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<v Speaker 1>room also isn't work. My description of a typical day

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<v Speaker 1>did not include three hours of low quality leisure time,

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<v Speaker 1>but they happened. On the plus side, visiting my son's

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<v Speaker 1>preschool for an hour isn't typical either, but it happened.

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<v Speaker 1>A typical doesn't mean good or bad. It is what

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<v Speaker 1>it is, just like time itself. This might be an

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<v Speaker 1>interesting exercise for you too. Describe what you think of

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<v Speaker 1>as a typical day and compare it to yesterday. By

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<v Speaker 1>the way, I know exactly how I spent the day

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<v Speaker 1>I just reported because I tracked my time, and I've

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<v Speaker 1>been doing so for the past four years. We'll talk

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<v Speaker 1>more about that in a future episode. But by comparing

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<v Speaker 1>a typical day and a real day, I think you

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<v Speaker 1>can learn a lot about yourself, your life, and what

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<v Speaker 1>matters to you in the meantime. This is Laura. Thanks

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<v Speaker 1>for listening, and here's to making the most of our time. Hey,

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<v Speaker 1>everybody got a tip or a question. You can share

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<v Speaker 1>them with me on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram at Before

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<v Speaker 1>Breakfast Pod. That's be the number four then Breakfast p

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<v Speaker 1>o D. You can also email me at Before Breakfast

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<v Speaker 1>Podcast at iHeart Media dot com for the email to

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<v Speaker 1>spell those words out. I look forward to connecting and

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<v Speaker 1>learning how you make the most of your time.