Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning,
Speaker 1: This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
Speaker 1: tip is that if there is a time in your
Speaker 1: day that is frequently frustrating, figure out how you might
Speaker 1: make it better. When you win at your witching hour,
Speaker 1: you may find that your whole day feels more manageable
Speaker 1: and less stressful. When I ran a time tracking challenge
Speaker 1: in January, during which thousands of people track their time together,
Speaker 1: some folks discovered that there were particular times of day
Speaker 1: when they consistently experienced frustration or wasted a lot of time.
Speaker 1: For parents of little kids, late afternoon or early evening
Speaker 1: is a common witching hour. Everyone is hired and hungry,
Speaker 1: and fussiness inevitably ensues. Your witching hour may be at
Speaker 1: a different time of day. Getting out the door in
Speaker 1: the morning, the commute, dinner, kid bedtime, late evening are
Speaker 1: common pain points, times when things just seem to go
Speaker 1: wrong despite your best efforts. After realizing there was a
Speaker 1: time in their day that was consistently rough, some time
Speaker 1: tracking participants decided to invest time, money, or effort in
Speaker 1: making those tricky times go more smoothly. The hope was
Speaker 1: that by removing one major source of irritation, the whole
Speaker 1: day could feel more blissful. Just from a mathematical perspective,
Speaker 1: if you are mostly at a seven or eight on
Speaker 1: a ten point happiness scale, yet one hour seems to
Speaker 1: feel like a negative six, your happiness average is going
Speaker 1: to rise significantly if you get that drain up too.
Speaker 1: Let's say a three. It's not great, but it is
Speaker 1: not soul suckingly terrible either. You can see how this
Speaker 1: might play out. For instance, maybe your kids can never
Speaker 1: find their shoes and backpacks when it is time for
Speaker 1: the bus. This means that they missed the bus at
Speaker 1: least once a week, throwing your entire morning into chaos.
Speaker 1: If that is the problem, see if you can establish
Speaker 1: a place where shoes and backpacks always go and simply
Speaker 1: do not move from. Any shoe, jacket, or backpack found
Speaker 1: elsewhere must immediately be returned to the launching pad before
Speaker 1: anything else can happen. It might take a while, but
Speaker 1: eventually there might be fewer missed buses. Or maybe your
Speaker 1: witching hour is right before you leave work in the afternoon,
Speaker 1: when you seem to get slammed by requests that need
Speaker 1: to be completed by the end of the day. Maybe
Speaker 1: you could do a walk around at four o'clock or
Speaker 1: so and ask your colleagues if they need anything so
Speaker 1: that you have time to handle any requests before it
Speaker 1: is the end of the day and you are rushing
Speaker 1: to after care pickup. Alleviating the negative from a rough
Speaker 1: point of day is one option. Another option is adding
Speaker 1: something pleasant to a part of the day that, by
Speaker 1: its nature, is just not going to be that much fun.
Speaker 1: If doing the dishes after dinner leaves you feeling like
Speaker 1: all you do is chores, but the dishes do still
Speaker 1: need to get done, could you listen to your favorite
Speaker 1: comedian while you load the dishwasher to add some laughs
Speaker 1: and lighten your mood. If your commute is frustrating and
Speaker 1: you always find yourself stressed that you will be late
Speaker 1: for your morning meeting, could you carpool with a friend
Speaker 1: or listen to your favorite podcasts while you drive to
Speaker 1: distract yourself from the traffic. If there is a specific
Speaker 1: time in your day that just isn't working for you,
Speaker 1: don't assume you have to suffer through it. Consider how
Speaker 1: you can remove pain points, or add efficiency, or add
Speaker 1: some joy. Levity or connection, you just might be able
Speaker 1: to make it better. And if you improve the worst
Speaker 1: hour of your day, there may be cascading benefits to
Speaker 1: other parts of your day, and you may improve how
Speaker 1: you feel about your time overall. I am not saying
Speaker 1: you will be singing blissfully while getting the kids on
Speaker 1: the bus, but if something goes from terrible to okay,
Speaker 1: that is often as big a boost in life as
Speaker 1: taking something from good to great. If you figure out
Speaker 1: how to win at your witching hour, I would love
Speaker 1: to hear how you do it. You can reach me
Speaker 1: at at Laura Vanderkam dot com. In the meantime, this
Speaker 1: is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's to making the
Speaker 1: most of our time. Hey, everybody, I'd love to hear
Speaker 1: from you. You can send me your tips, your questions,
Speaker 1: or anything else. Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook
Speaker 1: and Instagram at Before Breakfast pod that's B the number four,
Speaker 1: then Breakfast p O D. You can also shoot me
Speaker 1: an email at Before Breakfast Podcasts at iHeartMedia dot com.
Speaker 1: That Before Breakfast is spelled out with all the letters.
Speaker 1: Thanks so much. Should I look forward to staying in touch.
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