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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 there is no such thing as productivity debt.

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Speaker 1: Rather than viewing each day as a race to catch up,

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Speaker 1: why not view anything more than getting through the day

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Speaker 1: as a big win That can make getting things done

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Speaker 1: a lot more pleasant. Today's tip comes from a recent

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Speaker 1: conversation between Sarah Hart Hunger and Oliver Berkman. Sarah, who

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Speaker 1: co hosts my other podcast, Best of Both Worlds, is

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Speaker 1: also the host of a podcast called Best Laid Plans.

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Speaker 1: Oliver is the author of the book four Thousand Weeks

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Speaker 1: Time Management for Mortals. Oliver's book notes that we will

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Speaker 1: all die not having done the vast majority of the

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Speaker 1: things we could do. On some level, that sounds depressing,

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Speaker 1: but on another level it's pretty liberating. As he told

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Speaker 1: Sarah on Best Laid Plans, given our inevitable mortality and

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Speaker 1: the limit on what we can do, there is no

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Speaker 1: productivity debt. You don't wake up in debt, and if

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Speaker 1: you work hard all day maybe you will get to

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Speaker 1: zero instead. Given that we will never do all the

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Speaker 1: things we could do, why not view each day as

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Speaker 1: a zero baseline, and anything you get done beyond sitting

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Speaker 1: in bed eating potato chips is a big win. You

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Speaker 1: don't need to struggle to save yourself and to justify

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Speaker 1: your existence through what you do. You are here as

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Speaker 1: you are, and whatever progress if you make is great. Now,

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Speaker 1: perhaps that sounds like giving up, but the truth is

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Speaker 1: we often flounder around precisely because we feel like we

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Speaker 1: have so much to do and we are constantly behind.

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Speaker 1: We flit from thing to thing and stay connected when

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Speaker 1: focus would be better because we are so behind on

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Speaker 1: email and messages and whatever else. But if you accept

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Speaker 1: that getting any task done is a victory, all of

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Speaker 1: this becomes a lot less stressful. You see something you

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Speaker 1: feel it would be good to do, and you do it,

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Speaker 1: and then you do something else, and doing this you

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Speaker 1: wind up getting a lot done. It is still not

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Speaker 1: much compared with the void of the universe, but it

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Speaker 1: is never going to be much. At least it is something.

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Speaker 1: When I am having a day that doesn't feel particularly productive,

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Speaker 1: I try to adopt this mindset. Maybe I didn't come

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Speaker 1: up with the next perfect book idea, but there are

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Speaker 1: a great many books I could write, But won't because

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Speaker 1: I will shuffle off this mortal coil before I get

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Speaker 1: to them. Maybe I wrote a blog post in it

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Speaker 1: made someone smile, or some one listened to one of

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Speaker 1: the thousand Existing Before Breakfast episodes and had a slightly

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Speaker 1: happier day as a result. I don't have to justify

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Speaker 1: my existence, as no one has to justify their existence.

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Speaker 1: But if the baseline is zero, any little bit of

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Speaker 1: progress can be celebrated as a win. Maybe you can

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Speaker 1: tell yourself the same thing. You don't wake up in

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Speaker 1: productivity debt and need to work it off. You wake

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Speaker 1: up with a day in front of you that can

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Speaker 1: be filled with something. What you fill it with is

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Speaker 1: at least partially up to you. There should be no

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Speaker 1: pressure to bend the arc of the universe, because frankly,

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Speaker 1: no one is going to bend the arc of the universe.

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Speaker 1: Without that pressure, you can just do what you'd like

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Speaker 1: to do or what you feel needs doing, and go

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Speaker 1: to bed satisfied that you made those choices. That sounds

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Speaker 1: like a much happier way to live in the meantime.

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Speaker 1: This is Laura, Thanks for listening, and here's to making

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Speaker 1: the most of our time. Hey, everybody, I'd love to

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Speaker 1: hear from you. You can send me your tips, your questions,

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Speaker 1: or anything else. Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook

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Speaker 1: and Instagram at Before Breakfast Pod. That's b the number

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Speaker 1: four then Breakfast pod. You can also shoot me an

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Speaker 1: email at before Breakfast podcast. At iHeartMedia dot com that

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Speaker 1: before Breakfast is spelled out with all the letters. Thanks

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

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Speaker 1: Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts

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Speaker 1: from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever

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Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows.