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 a phrase I repeat to myself all
Speaker 1: the time. Plan it in, do it anyway. I find
Speaker 1: I make much better use of my time when I
Speaker 1: think beyond how I feel right now, A better question
Speaker 1: when I think about how I spend my time looking back?
Speaker 1: Will I be happy I did this? Will I be
Speaker 1: happy with this memory? If so, my experiencing self just
Speaker 1: needs to get on board. That phrase experiencing self comes
Speaker 1: from psychologist Daniel Kahneman's work. This Nobel Prize winning researcher
Speaker 1: noted that the self really has multiple identities. There's what
Speaker 1: we're going through right at this instant, the moment when
Speaker 1: you're listening to me tell you about this topic. But
Speaker 1: much of our internal lives actually involved the remembering self,
Speaker 1: the keeper of our memories. You think back to your
Speaker 1: life and the story of what brought you to this moment.
Speaker 1: I actually like to think about this in terms of
Speaker 1: three selves, the experiencing self and the remembering self, but
Speaker 1: also the anticipating self. Another big chunk of our interior
Speaker 1: monologues consists of our plans, hopes, and anxieties about the future.
Speaker 1: You might be commuting on a rainy day, but you're
Speaker 1: thinking about that sunny beach vacation you have planned for August.
Speaker 1: Our brains have an amazing ability to time travel backwards
Speaker 1: and forwards. Here's why this matters as we think about
Speaker 1: how we spend our time. The present is actually an
Speaker 1: incredibly ephemeral moment. In his book The Principles of Psychology,
Speaker 1: William James writes, where is it this present? It has
Speaker 1: melted in our grasp, fled ere, we could touch it,
Speaker 1: gone in the instant of becoming. Back in William James's day,
Speaker 1: there was a lot of strange experimental inquiry into the
Speaker 1: exact length of the present. Our senses can't distinguish between
Speaker 1: things that happen less than about a half second apart,
Speaker 1: and working memory is a maximum of about twelve seconds.
Speaker 1: So the length of the present must be somewhere in there,
Speaker 1: or at least that's what I gather from reading about
Speaker 1: these various experiments. So the present is fleeting. Almost all
Speaker 1: of life is lived by the anticipating and remembering selves.
Speaker 1: We can anticipate for years, we can remember for decades.
Speaker 1: The challenge is that the present, the moment occupied by
Speaker 1: the experiencing self, has a disproportionate effect on our actions,
Speaker 1: and frankly, the experiencing self is a little bit lazy.
Speaker 1: The remembering self will be thrilled to have gone on
Speaker 1: that early morning trail run so she can see the
Speaker 1: gorgeous sun rise over that nearby lake. The experiencing self, well,
Speaker 1: she's comfortable in bed, hitting snooze until the sun is
Speaker 1: high in the sky. The anticipating self thought it would
Speaker 1: be fun to go to an art museum on a
Speaker 1: Friday night when admission is free and there's a bar
Speaker 1: and music, and the remembering self will fondly recall the
Speaker 1: masterpieces and chatting with new friends in line for a cocktail.
Speaker 1: But the experiencing self is tired after work. The experiencing
Speaker 1: self is the one who will have to brave the
Speaker 1: cold and the rain and the Friday night traffic. The
Speaker 1: experiencing self is not happy about this split of labor,
Speaker 1: so she rebels She ignores what the anticipating and remembering
Speaker 1: self want, and justifies this tantrum by pointing out that
Speaker 1: the museum will still be there next Friday, so she's
Speaker 1: just going to watch Netflix instead, immediate pleasure wins out
Speaker 1: over the more effortful sort. One of the best ways
Speaker 1: I've heard this phenomenon described is in philosopher Robert Gruden's
Speaker 1: book Time and the Art of Living. He says, we
Speaker 1: pamper the present like a spoiled child. We indulge its
Speaker 1: whim to scroll through Instagram instead of living a life
Speaker 1: worth taking pictures about. So how do we keep the
Speaker 1: experiencing selves tyranny and check It isn't easy. People are
Speaker 1: bad at considering their future selves in general, which is
Speaker 1: why so few people invest properly for retirement. But that's
Speaker 1: where my mantra comes in. Whenever I find myself listening
Speaker 1: too much to the experiencing self, I repeat my phrase,
Speaker 1: plan it in do it anyway. If my anticipating self
Speaker 1: really wanted to do something, my remembering self will probably
Speaker 1: be glad that I did it. I may be tired,
Speaker 1: but guess what, I'll always be tired, and we draw
Speaker 1: energy from meaningful things. Furthermore, all time passes, whether I
Speaker 1: do anything today or not. Eventually today will be gone,
Speaker 1: Tomorrow will be gone too. Time can be filled with
Speaker 1: what amounts to nothing, or it can be filled with
Speaker 1: something more meaningful. So if you'd like to have time
Speaker 1: feel richer and more meaningful, plan in exciting things the
Speaker 1: many adventures we've talked about in previous episodes, and some
Speaker 1: bigger adventures too. And then when you get to the
Speaker 1: moment and you are wavering because your couch seems inviting,
Speaker 1: repeat this phrase. Plan it in do it anyway You're
Speaker 1: remembering self will thank you. In fact, if you want
Speaker 1: to encourage this mindset in the future, take a moment
Speaker 1: right now to thank your past experiencing self for having
Speaker 1: done something difficult that you can now smile upon. I
Speaker 1: just spent some time looking through photos I took a
Speaker 1: few weeks ago of my kids at a botanical garden.
Speaker 1: They did not want to turn off their video games
Speaker 1: and get in the car. My experiencing self did not
Speaker 1: enjoy that battle. But all that is in the past. Now.
Speaker 1: What is left are these images of sunshine and flowers
Speaker 1: and children in a moment of childhood that will be
Speaker 1: gone before I know it. So what will you decide
Speaker 1: to do anyway today? Feel free to let me know
Speaker 1: at Before Breakfast podcast at i heeart media dot com.
Speaker 1: In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening and
Speaker 1: 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 E 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
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