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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 that little deadlines keep big ones on track.

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Speaker 1: Whenever you are staring down a big project professionally or personally,

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Speaker 1: it helps to map out intermediate goals set wisely. These

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Speaker 1: can make the project feel far more doable. I recently

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Speaker 1: finished the research for my next book, which will be

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Speaker 1: called at least for now Tranquility. By Tuesday. I had

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Speaker 1: people learn about new time management strategies for nine weeks,

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Speaker 1: and I measured how their time satisfaction changed over the

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Speaker 1: course of the project. I'm excited by my findings, but

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Speaker 1: of course now I have to actually, you know, write

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Speaker 1: the book. Book writing is always daunting, but fortunately over

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Speaker 1: the years, I've learned that it doesn't need to be

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Speaker 1: too daunting. I have my chapter outline, nine chapters, plus

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Speaker 1: an intro and conclusion. I'm giving myself one week per

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Speaker 1: chapter over the summer. I made sure to not schedule

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Speaker 1: chapters for any weeks when I'm on vacation or I

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Speaker 1: don't have much childcare. I have noted every Friday intermediate

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Speaker 1: deadline in my calendar. If I stick with this schedule,

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Speaker 1: I should finish my draft a month before the first

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Speaker 1: draft is too, which will give me time to edit it.

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Speaker 1: This schedule has helped me feel far more tranquil, if

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Speaker 1: you will, about the project. If I simply said, okay,

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Speaker 1: this summer I write a book, I might try to

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Speaker 1: cram a lot at the beginning, and then I'd get

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Speaker 1: burned out and have to take a break, and then

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Speaker 1: it might be hard to start back up again. Or

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Speaker 1: I'd put it all off until things got framed it later.

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Speaker 1: Better to march twenty miles every day, then forty some

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Speaker 1: and zero on others. Perhaps you too are staring down

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Speaker 1: a big project. I'm thrilled to see that some races

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Speaker 1: are starting up again for the fall. If you want

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Speaker 1: to run a marathon in October, well, best to get

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Speaker 1: those sixteen weeks blocked out on the calendar. Now you

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Speaker 1: see what mileage you need to hit each week. You

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Speaker 1: know that if you stick with these smaller intermediate goals,

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Speaker 1: you will be trained in the fall. Or maybe you

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Speaker 1: are trying to save a certain amount of additional money

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Speaker 1: by the end of the year. If you just say, hey,

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Speaker 1: by Christmas, I want three thousand dollars extra in my

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Speaker 1: emergency fund. Well, every purchase could wind up as a

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Speaker 1: source of stress. Does this work with my goal? Does

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Speaker 1: this not work with my goal? Or you might put

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Speaker 1: it out of your mind until November and then feel

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Speaker 1: the goal is impossible. But if you break this bigger

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Speaker 1: goal down into intermediate goals, saying I need to put

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Speaker 1: away one dollars a week for thirty weeks, well this

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Speaker 1: could seem more doable. Not necessarily easy, depending on your finances,

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Speaker 1: but doable. If you participate in big projects at work,

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Speaker 1: hopefully people have created project timelines. I'd like to think

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Speaker 1: that we figured that out, but often we are less

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Speaker 1: able to do this for our own professional projects that

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Speaker 1: we don't have to do what we would like to do.

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Speaker 1: Maybe you'd like to score a big raise come your

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Speaker 1: annual review in December. What would you like to document

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Speaker 1: by December to make that seem logical? What steps would

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Speaker 1: you need to take? And then when would you like

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Speaker 1: to take these by? Mark down these dates, make sure

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Speaker 1: you put them somewhere that you'll remember them, and when

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Speaker 1: you plan your weeks. On Fridays, which I imagine as

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Speaker 1: a book for breakfast listener, you might be doing you

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Speaker 1: can set these intermediate goals as priorities for the upcoming week.

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Speaker 1: This exercise also helps you see what goals are reasonable

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Speaker 1: and what goals are not. If you're trying to save

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Speaker 1: three thousand dollars over thirty weeks, this is one thing.

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Speaker 1: Saying you want to save up thirty thousand dollars for

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Speaker 1: a down payment on a house over thirty weeks is

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Speaker 1: something else. Entirely, you would need to add a zero

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Speaker 1: to your weekly target. And if you don't see a

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Speaker 1: way to put away an extra one thousand dollars a week, well,

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Speaker 1: then you need to reevaluate. Likewise, while I know I

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Speaker 1: can write a five thousand to seven thousand word chapter

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Speaker 1: every week, if I were on the hook for, say

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Speaker 1: a four hundred thousand word epic over ten weeks, that

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Speaker 1: would be forty thousand words a week, which is not

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Speaker 1: reasonable at all. Intermediate goals keep us honest. So if

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Speaker 1: you are looking at a big project you'd like to complete,

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Speaker 1: take some time today to set up a schedule of

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Speaker 1: intermediate goals. You'll make the project seem far more doable,

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Speaker 1: or you'll realize that you know what, it's not doable.

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Speaker 1: But either way, you want to be clear so you

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Speaker 1: can decide how to move forward. In the meantime, This

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Speaker 1: is Laura. Thanks for listening and here's to making the

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

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Speaker 1: 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 four,

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Speaker 1: then breakfast p o D. You can also shoot me

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Speaker 1: an email at Before Breakfast podcast at i heeart meat

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Speaker 1: dot com that Before Breakfast is spelled out with all

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Speaker 1: the letters. Thanks so much, I look forward to staying

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Speaker 1: in touch. Before Breakfast is a production of I heart Radio.

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Speaker 1: For more podcasts from I heart Radio, visit the I

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Speaker 1: heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to

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Speaker 1: your favorite shows.