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 recognize the choices you're making about
Speaker 1: how you use your time. When you see the opportunity
Speaker 1: cost of your actions more clearly, you'll be able to
Speaker 1: make better choices. Elementary school age kids often enjoy playing
Speaker 1: a game called would you rather? You ask another person
Speaker 1: which of two unappealing and unlikely hypothetical situations they would prefer.
Speaker 1: Would you rather have a slug climb into your ear
Speaker 1: or an ant climb into your nose? Would you rather
Speaker 1: drink a hamburger smoothie or a spinach flavored milkshake? Challenge
Speaker 1: an eight year old to come up with a would
Speaker 1: you rather, and you will likely get some creative and
Speaker 1: gross scenarios. Would you rather? Turns out to be a
Speaker 1: good game for adults to have posed to ourselves too,
Speaker 1: though not about cringe inducing hypotheticals, but rather about how
Speaker 1: we'd like to use our time. Would you rather hit
Speaker 1: snooze or get in a run today? Would you rather
Speaker 1: scroll through Instagram or call your sister? Would you rather
Speaker 1: stay in the warm shower or review your calendar before
Speaker 1: your nine am call. Time is absolutely limited. Even the
Speaker 1: mightiest among us has just twenty four hours in a day,
Speaker 1: and all the money in the world cannot buy you
Speaker 1: a second more. This means that inherent in any use
Speaker 1: of time is the loss of another way we might
Speaker 1: have spent those minutes. If you hit snooze, you will
Speaker 1: sleep a bit more, even if it's not great sleep,
Speaker 1: but you will give up the time to exercise before work.
Speaker 1: If you keep scrolling through Instagram, you will let the
Speaker 1: moment asked for calling your sister in London before she's asleep.
Speaker 1: If you stay in the warm, steamy shower pleasant as that,
Speaker 1: maybe you won't have time to prep for the day
Speaker 1: before you are going full steam. Now. This might seem obvious,
Speaker 1: but the reason this matters is that we often approach
Speaker 1: time with yes or no questions. Do I want to
Speaker 1: hit snooze? Do I want to see what's next in
Speaker 1: my Instagram feed? The default answer is well, sure, why not?
Speaker 1: But when we reframe the question to ask whether we
Speaker 1: would rather do a given easy activity or do something
Speaker 1: else we value, we can answer in a more thoughtful way.
Speaker 1: Choosing wisely lets us spend time in ways that boost
Speaker 1: our happiness and add meeting to our lives. Upon reflection,
Speaker 1: you might prefer to go for a run rather than
Speaker 1: hit snooze. Or maybe you decide that, all things considered,
Speaker 1: you would rather keep sleeping. What you choose is up
Speaker 1: to you, but just realize that you are choosing. The
Speaker 1: choices we are making aren't always obvious, but with practice,
Speaker 1: we can start to recognize them. You may not naturally
Speaker 1: ask yourself, what would you rather drive through the coffee
Speaker 1: shop or browse the poetry section of the bookstore. But
Speaker 1: here's the thing. If you spend twenty minutes now waiting
Speaker 1: for your coffee, by the time you get to the
Speaker 1: bookstore and choose a gift for your friend, it'll be
Speaker 1: time to go to her birthday lunch. But if you
Speaker 1: forego the coffee, you will leave yourself time to check
Speaker 1: out the poetry books after you choose her gift, before
Speaker 1: you drive to the birthday gathering. You are not just
Speaker 1: deciding whether or not to have your almond milk cappuccino.
Speaker 1: You are also deciding whether to have that coffee or
Speaker 1: to peruse the new books in your favorite store. When
Speaker 1: you reframe the choice more comprehensibly, you can decide what
Speaker 1: you'd really rather do. Sometimes times they would you rather
Speaker 1: will relate to one attractive option now and another further
Speaker 1: in the future. Would you rather watch another episode of Hometown?
Speaker 1: Or would you rather wake up well rested? Saying yes
Speaker 1: to TV tonight means a frantic morning tomorrow. Is that
Speaker 1: what you'd rather? Maybe? Maybe not, but that is the
Speaker 1: choice on offer. In my time management fable Juliette School
Speaker 1: of Possibilities, the Wise Juliette explains that when it comes
Speaker 1: to time, we are always choosing. All we can do
Speaker 1: is choose well. But doing that requires actually seeing the choices,
Speaker 1: rather than pretending that they don't exist. So play would
Speaker 1: you rather with your time? Get conscious of what you
Speaker 1: are choosing between, and be intentional about your choices. This
Speaker 1: allows you to choose in a way that creates the
Speaker 1: life you want 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 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. Yeah.