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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 by taking three minutes a day

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Speaker 1: to think about how you are spending your time, you

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Speaker 1: can spend your time and far more productive ways. This

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Speaker 1: episode is first airing in early January. Starting next week,

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Speaker 1: I will be leading a large time tracking challenge. If

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Speaker 1: this year is anything like years past, over a thousand

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Speaker 1: people will commit to tracking their time for eight hours

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Speaker 1: with me. They will use a spreadsheet or an app

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Speaker 1: or a notebook from Monday at five am to Sunday night,

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Speaker 1: well Monday morning at four thirty am. They will note

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Speaker 1: what they have been doing. They will make a fairly

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Speaker 1: complete record of an ordinary week of life. There are

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Speaker 1: lots of upsides to tracking time. When you see where

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Speaker 1: the time goes, you can make wise choices about your time.

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Speaker 1: You can diagnose any problems. You can make sure your

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Speaker 1: impression of your life is accurate. If you want to

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Speaker 1: spend more or less time on something, you know what

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Speaker 1: you are working with. The truth sets us free. But

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Speaker 1: even if you're not convinced by that, this might help.

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Speaker 1: Time tracking really only takes three minutes a day. You

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Speaker 1: set up a spreadsheet with the days of the week

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Speaker 1: across the top and half hour blocks from five am

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Speaker 1: to four thirty am down the left hand side. Then

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Speaker 1: you check in three times each day and write down

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Speaker 1: what you've done since the last check in. Some good

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Speaker 1: times to check would be mid morning, when you write

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Speaker 1: down what you've done since you woke up. Late afternoon,

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Speaker 1: either when you leave work or before dinner on a

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Speaker 1: day off, and then before bed. Each check in will

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Speaker 1: only take a minute or so. It is not that

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Speaker 1: hard to remember what we have done over the last

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Speaker 1: five to six hours. What's more complicated is remembering what

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Speaker 1: we have done over the past three days, or three

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Speaker 1: weeks or three years. That is hard. But when only

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Speaker 1: a few hours have passed, our memories are pretty clear,

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Speaker 1: and if we're still be fuddled, we can simply look

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Speaker 1: at our calendars for the day or ask the other

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Speaker 1: people around us who might remember what did we do

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Speaker 1: at noon what happened after that. Even if there is

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Speaker 1: a missing hour or two, it is only an hour

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Speaker 1: or two out of the eight hours in a week.

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Speaker 1: You can catch back up at the next check in.

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Speaker 1: If you do this for a week, three minutes a

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Speaker 1: day for seven days. The whole tracking process will take

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Speaker 1: about twenty one minutes. That is it. In twenty one

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Speaker 1: minutes you can figure out where your time is going

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Speaker 1: with reasonable accuracy. You never have to do it again

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Speaker 1: if you don't want to. But in twenty one minutes

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Speaker 1: you will have learned the answer to the question of

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Speaker 1: how you spend your time, not how you think you

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Speaker 1: spend your time, how you actually do spend it. We

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Speaker 1: spend all kinds of time on things that don't improve

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Speaker 1: our lives, but time tracking will help us spend time better,

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Speaker 1: and doing it takes less time than listening to this

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Speaker 1: pretty short podcast, So why not give it a try

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Speaker 1: over the next week. You can see my time logs

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Speaker 1: over at Laura Vanderkam dot com next week. If you're

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Speaker 1: curious and I'd love to see what you discover in

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Speaker 1: three minutes a day to feel free to send me

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Speaker 1: your observations or even a completed time log at Laura

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Speaker 1: at Laura Vanderkamp dot com. 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. Hey, everybody, I'd love to hear from you.

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Speaker 1: You can send me your tips, your questions, or anything else.

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Speaker 1: Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at

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Speaker 1: Before Breakfast pod. That's B the number four, then Breakfast

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Speaker 1: p o D. You can also shoot me an email

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Speaker 1: at Before Breakfast podcast. At i heeart media dot com

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Speaker 1: that Before Breakfast is spelled out with all the letters.

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Speaker 1: Thanks so much, I look forward to staying in touch.

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Speaker 1: Before Breakfast is a production of I heart Radio. For

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Speaker 1: more podcasts from I heart Radio, visit the i heart

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Speaker 1: Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your

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Speaker 1: favorite shows. H