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Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning.

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Speaker 1: This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's

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Speaker 1: tip is that thirty minutes can change your evening. Setting

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Speaker 1: one thirty minute intention for a weekday evening can make

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Speaker 1: the evening feel like it is something to look forward

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Speaker 1: to and can make this time feel like it truly exists.

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Speaker 1: Today's tip comes out of my recent September reset project.

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Speaker 1: I had people track their time during the month of

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Speaker 1: September and then try out several of my favorite time

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Speaker 1: management strategies. One of these strategies was to set evening intentions.

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Speaker 1: That is, to try to make what I like to

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Speaker 1: call the golden hours of each weekday better. Weekday evenings

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Speaker 1: have been something of an obsession for me lately because well,

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Speaker 1: very few people use them well. People are tired after

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Speaker 1: a long day at work or school, or spent caring

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Speaker 1: for family members. This time can feel like a second

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Speaker 1: shift of doing chores and getting people to bed, or

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Speaker 1: sometimes it is spent mindlessly on screen time and puttering

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Speaker 1: things that feel so forgettable that people don't even notice

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Speaker 1: they are doing them. The issue with all this is

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Speaker 1: that many people's evenings are actually quite long. In my projects,

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Speaker 1: I have found that many people are done with work

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Speaker 1: by five thirty or so, and most people are not

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Speaker 1: in bed before ten thirty pm. That is five hours.

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Speaker 1: It's a lot of time to write off as unusable. Now,

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Speaker 1: in my perfect world, people would think through all five

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Speaker 1: hours and think of how to spend this time in

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Speaker 1: ways that were meaningful and enjoyable for themselves and the

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Speaker 1: people they care about. In the real world, I know

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Speaker 1: that it's unrealistic, and we do have obligations for this time.

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Speaker 1: I know I spend a lot of time driving kids around,

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Speaker 1: cooking dinner, supervising bedtimes, and so forth. But almost all

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Speaker 1: of us have some discretionary time. Even if you are

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Speaker 1: caring for kids, or even if you work late or unpredictably,

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Speaker 1: you can probably find thirty minutes. And thinking about what

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Speaker 1: you'd like to do for thirty minutes ahead of time

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Speaker 1: can completely change your evenings. So if you are listening

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Speaker 1: to a show called Before Breakfast in the morning, think

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Speaker 1: about tonight. What could you do for thirty minutes tonight

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Speaker 1: that you would find genuinely enjoyable. What would you look

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Speaker 1: forward to? Maybe it's reading a magazine that just came

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Speaker 1: in the mail. Maybe it's reading a book. Maybe it's

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Speaker 1: doing ah or puzzles, or maybe it's something creative like

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Speaker 1: cross stitching or sketching. Maybe it's having a glass of

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Speaker 1: wine with your partner. Maybe it's calling a friend. Maybe

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Speaker 1: it's going on a family walk or hitting the gym.

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Speaker 1: Maybe it's watching something you have chosen and you are

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Speaker 1: looking forward to, not just whatever the algorithm served up.

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Speaker 1: Whatever it is, think about what you would like to

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Speaker 1: do tonight. Think about where this could go, right when

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Speaker 1: you get home from work, right after dinner, after the

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Speaker 1: kids are in bed, When do you have at least

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Speaker 1: a few minutes of discretionary time do you need to

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Speaker 1: do anything to make your intention happen? When you set

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Speaker 1: an intention and set an intended time and think through

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Speaker 1: the logistics, the odds of you doing something are just

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Speaker 1: much greater. And then when your fun happens, suddenly evenings

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Speaker 1: become or fun. The day isn't over after dinner. There

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Speaker 1: is still time that can be used. I promise that

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Speaker 1: even just thirty minutes can change your evenings. Now it's

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Speaker 1: possible that you will find space for thirty minutes of

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Speaker 1: fun and decide you can stretch this a bit. Thirty

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Speaker 1: minutes of reading becomes forty five. You decide to draw

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Speaker 1: for thirty minutes, and you are still at it an

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Speaker 1: hour later. You won't get any complaining from me about

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Speaker 1: this possibility. But even if only thirty minutes fits, I

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Speaker 1: am guessing you can do thirty minutes and evenings won't

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Speaker 1: be forgettable or draining. They will be a source of

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Speaker 1: real joy in your life. In the meantime, this is Laura.

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Speaker 1: Thanks for listening, and here's to making the most of

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Speaker 1: our time. Thanks for listening to Before Breakfast. If you've

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Speaker 1: got questions, ideas, or feedback, you can reach me at

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Speaker 1: Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast is a

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Speaker 1: production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts from iHeartMedia, please visit

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Speaker 1: the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to

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Speaker 1: your favorite shows.