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 to notice your free time. It is easy
Speaker 1: to tell ourselves a story of having no time for ourselves,
Speaker 1: but not as much as I want. Is a different
Speaker 1: story from none. Best to notice the free time that
Speaker 1: does exist and make the most of it. The other night,
Speaker 1: I spent a delightful forty five minutes reading on my hammock.
Speaker 1: My four year old was playing a video game with
Speaker 1: my husband, and the older kids were all occupied. I
Speaker 1: had done my work for the day and there were
Speaker 1: no pressing chores, so I grabbed a book and went
Speaker 1: out and enjoyed the early songir. Because I track my time,
Speaker 1: I put that lovely forty five minutes on my time log.
Speaker 1: Doing so meant that, no matter what else happened that week,
Speaker 1: I knew I was still the kind of person who
Speaker 1: had time to read on the hammock. I could try
Speaker 1: to tell myself that I'm harried and frenzied, starve for time,
Speaker 1: But Laura, did you see that hammock entry. The reason
Speaker 1: this matters is that I have seen a lot of
Speaker 1: people decide that they truly have no free time whatsoever.
Speaker 1: And I get it. We are all working hard, we
Speaker 1: are all working long, we all have other responsibilities too.
Speaker 1: I am not saying anyone is living at the spa.
Speaker 1: But the problem is that when the story is none,
Speaker 1: we discount the leisure time that does exist. I once
Speaker 1: had some one show me a time log with a
Speaker 1: complaint about her lack of free time. The time log
Speaker 1: showed several hours spent at the spa. This person put
Speaker 1: a note next to this entry saying, this never happens. Oh,
Speaker 1: come on, I'm sure it doesn't happen daily or even
Speaker 1: all that frequently, But clearly it doesn't never happen either,
Speaker 1: So why not celebrate that you did make time during
Speaker 1: your busy life for some relaxation. When we tell ourselves
Speaker 1: a story that we have no free time, we don't
Speaker 1: enjoy the free time we have as much. We discount
Speaker 1: it as too short, or too infrequent, or stolen from
Speaker 1: something else. When we notice our free time, on the
Speaker 1: other hand, we can look forward to it and savor it.
Speaker 1: We can figure out how to carve out more such
Speaker 1: intentional moments in our lives. So as you go about
Speaker 1: your day, notice when you do have some discretionary time,
Speaker 1: what do you do with it? Often we pick up
Speaker 1: our poonds and scroll, but there are other options. Maybe
Speaker 1: try tracking your time for a week and seeing when
Speaker 1: leisure time does appear. It's probably not much, but thirty
Speaker 1: minutes to read at night isn't nothing. An hour to
Speaker 1: relax while everyone is occupied isn't nothing. Best to notice
Speaker 1: and enjoy what we can in the meantime. This is Laura.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening, and here's to making the most of
Speaker 1: our times. Thanks for listening to Before Breakfast. If you've
Speaker 1: got questions, ideas, or feedback, you can reach me at
Speaker 1: Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast is a
Speaker 1: production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts from iHeartMedia, please visit
Speaker 1: the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to
Speaker 1: your favorite shows.