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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 about how to master unexpected free moments.

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Speaker 1: Downtime can appear in our lives in many ways, but

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Speaker 1: when we learn to view it as an opportunity rather

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Speaker 1: than an annoyance, we can build a more resilient schedule

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Speaker 1: and have a lot more fun in our lives. I've

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Speaker 1: been talking in a few recent episodes about resiliency, and

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Speaker 1: I'll continue to do so over the next few months.

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Speaker 1: When it comes to time, we need to deal with

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Speaker 1: life as it is and not as we wish it

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Speaker 1: would be. Now. Of course, we know that we can

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Speaker 1: make plans for time we know we'll have, but it's

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Speaker 1: harder to make good choices with time we don't know

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Speaker 1: we'll have. That makes sense, but the problem is that

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Speaker 1: life can feature a lot of unexpected free moments. Sometimes

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Speaker 1: this suddenly free time can feel like a relief, like

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Speaker 1: when a meeting you know is going to be unpleasant

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Speaker 1: is canceled few But other times you get a call

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Speaker 1: from the school nurse that a sick child needs to

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Speaker 1: be picked up. Now you are home from work, but

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Speaker 1: none of your responsibilities changed, and so you need to

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Speaker 1: deal with that, which can be stressful either way. Though,

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Speaker 1: it might help to view suddenly open time strategically. Make

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Speaker 1: a list of things that would either be wise to

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Speaker 1: do or enjoyable to do, and when you get some

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Speaker 1: open time, see what items you can tackle. Best case scenario,

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Speaker 1: you can work ahead, tackle parts of long term projects,

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Speaker 1: or have a little more fun than you otherwise would

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Speaker 1: for that wise to do list. Well, we all have

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Speaker 1: projects that we can see taking shape in the future.

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Speaker 1: Each week I need to write and produce five episodes

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Speaker 1: of Before Breakfast, I can see that there are future

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Speaker 1: weeks when it might be more challenging to write those

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Speaker 1: five episodes. So when I've got some extra time, as

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Speaker 1: it turns out, I do right now, when I've finished

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Speaker 1: something else early, I can write ahead banked episodes become

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Speaker 1: part of my time. Emergency fund work done in the

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Speaker 1: past opens up time in the future when I might

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Speaker 1: really need it. Maybe you know that you will need

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Speaker 1: to write up evaluations of all your direct reports next

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Speaker 1: month when a two hour meeting is canceled, Well, you

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Speaker 1: could start deleting random stuff from your inbox, or you

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Speaker 1: could realize that the evaluations will need to get done eventually,

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Speaker 1: and you can get a head start future you will

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Speaker 1: be a happy you. Of course, we aren't always be

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Speaker 1: uber productive with unexpected free time. If you are suddenly

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Speaker 1: home with a sick kid, for instance, well that is

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Speaker 1: your primary focus, but there might be enjoyable things you

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Speaker 1: could do with this unexpected time, like watching a favorite

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Speaker 1: movie or starting a series that's on your want to

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Speaker 1: see list while you are stuggled up with the kid

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Speaker 1: on the sofa. These things can be hard to think

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Speaker 1: up in the moment when you get a message that

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Speaker 1: your friend is running. When you get a message that

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Speaker 1: your friend is running thirty minutes late to meet you,

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Speaker 1: the inclination is just to check email or scroll through

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Speaker 1: social media. These things are easily accessible, They are easy

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Speaker 1: to do. You won't automatically think, hey, I'm going to

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Speaker 1: send notes to two former clients that I've been meaning

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Speaker 1: to reach out to unless you have already made a

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Speaker 1: wise to do list and know that that's on there.

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Speaker 1: But if you do know, well, suddenly that late friend

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Speaker 1: has created found time for investing in your business. Is growth?

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Speaker 1: What an opportunity? When one of those clients replies that, hey,

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Speaker 1: I've been meaning to reach out to you because we

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Speaker 1: have this project. We're starting well. You might even wind

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Speaker 1: up thanking your friend for being late. So today, make

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Speaker 1: a list of things you might do with unexpected time.

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Speaker 1: Think of small tasks that could help you work ahead

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Speaker 1: and create a time emergency fund or little actions that

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Speaker 1: could have a big impact. You can also make a

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Speaker 1: list of fun activities that you do when time opened up.

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Speaker 1: If you had an extra hour in a day, what

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Speaker 1: would you do with it? A canceled meeting means you've

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Speaker 1: got that hour time to make the most of it.

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Speaker 1: In the meantime. This is Laura Uh. Thanks for listening,

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Speaker 1: and here's to making the most of our time. Hey, everybody,

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Speaker 1: I'd love to hear from you. You can send me

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Speaker 1: your tips, your questions, or anything else. Just connect with

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Speaker 1: me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at Before Breakfast pod

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Speaker 1: that's B the number four then breakfast p o D.

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Speaker 1: You can also shoot me an email at Before Breakfast

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

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Speaker 1: is spelled out with all the letters. Thanks so much,

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Speaker 1: I look forward to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is

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Speaker 1: a production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts from

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Speaker 1: my heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple podcasts,

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Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. I