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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 to seek out that sweet spot where

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Speaker 1: your projects are not too easy and not too hard.

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Speaker 1: No one likes to be frustrated, but no one likes

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Speaker 1: to be bored either, and working to get this right

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Speaker 1: can make a life a little more satisfying. I recently

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Speaker 1: completed a one thousand piece puzzle that was a bit,

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Speaker 1: well hard, and not in a good way. I don't

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Speaker 1: mind so much if two hundred pieces are black night Sky.

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Speaker 1: When I get to that part of a puzzle, I

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Speaker 1: sort by shape and work by process of illumination. The

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Speaker 1: problem with this particular puzzle was that the pieces were

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Speaker 1: quite small and could plausibly fit in multiple play uses.

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Speaker 1: The cuts weren't exact enough that you could be sure

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Speaker 1: if you were right or wrong. As I neared the end,

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Speaker 1: it became clear that there was an error in another

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Speaker 1: part of that night Sky that needed to be unwound.

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Speaker 1: This was difficult, and not really a good difficult. Now

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Speaker 1: I am working on another puzzle and it's a very

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Speaker 1: different experience. There are still a thousand pieces, so it's

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Speaker 1: going to take a while. There are big patches of

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Speaker 1: single colors or patterns. However, when you see a piece,

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Speaker 1: you know immediately which section of the puzzle it goes in.

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Speaker 1: I am seeing progress much faster than I did with

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Speaker 1: the other puzzle. It is feeling a lot more fun

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Speaker 1: and incidentally also more fun than I would probably find

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Speaker 1: a piece puzzle that is a half hour project and

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Speaker 1: not exactly going to keep me entertained for long. That

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Speaker 1: magical place where things are difficult but doable can put

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Speaker 1: us in a state of flow, that feeling where time

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Speaker 1: seems to stand still. I can look at the clock

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Speaker 1: and realize I've been working on that puzzle for forty

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Speaker 1: five minutes without realizing it. Hopefully you have some activities

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Speaker 1: that put you in that state as well. I love

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Speaker 1: that point in writing where I'm working on a book

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Speaker 1: chapter or an article and the hard first draft is done.

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Speaker 1: I'm editing and I can see that each round of

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Speaker 1: edits makes it better. There are problems, but those are

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Speaker 1: problems that are within my capacity to solve. I am

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Speaker 1: making progress bit by bit. What makes you feel like that,

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Speaker 1: Maybe it's singing with a group that is a little

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Speaker 1: bit better than you you're working hard to keep up,

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Speaker 1: but the group sounds amazing. Maybe it's following a challenging

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Speaker 1: set of instructions to build furniture or a lego set.

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Speaker 1: Maybe it's learning new music for an instrument you play

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Speaker 1: that third time playing through a piece can be where

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Speaker 1: the magic happens. Maybe you're reading a novel that's a

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Speaker 1: little bit more opaque than your usual fines, but because

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Speaker 1: you have to pay attention, you are seeing all kinds

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Speaker 1: of symbolism and connections woven into the plot. Pay attention

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Speaker 1: to these things. If something is unpleasant or you find

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Speaker 1: yourself putting it off, maybe the frustration level is a

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Speaker 1: bit too much. But if you're breezing through and finding

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Speaker 1: yourself thinking of other things, well that's not really ideal either.

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Speaker 1: You want to be fully absorbed. Being fully absorbed means

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Speaker 1: you don't have space to think about all those things that, frankly,

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Speaker 1: aren't that fun to think about. We can be completely

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Speaker 1: in the moment. When you know where that sweet spot is,

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Speaker 1: you can seek it out. I know I'll likely be

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Speaker 1: buying more of this particular kind of puzzle. I love

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Speaker 1: a challenge, but it has to be the right kind

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Speaker 1: of challenge. After all, fun, It's supposed to be fun.

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Speaker 1: In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and

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Speaker 1: 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 E 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: I heart Radio, visit the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,

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

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Speaker 1: hm