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 zoom out. When we look at time
Speaker 1: from a broader perspective, we tend to see that frenzied
Speaker 1: moments are balanced by more relaxed moments, and that time
Speaker 1: is big enough to contain a great many things. I
Speaker 1: know that a lot of people feel starved for time
Speaker 1: these days, but I find that this is often because
Speaker 1: we view time from a limited perspective. In my recent book,
Speaker 1: Big Time, I write that this is because we are
Speaker 1: looking only at the hours on say a busy Tuesday.
Speaker 1: One reason that tracking a whole week is often surprising
Speaker 1: for people is that they haven't even considered the time
Speaker 1: on weekends or later in the evening, which can add
Speaker 1: up even for busy people, and even during busy stretches,
Speaker 1: there is often some downtime. When we zoom out looking
Speaker 1: at times Big Time, we see this. I was reminded
Speaker 1: of this on a recent weekend that, among other things,
Speaker 1: featured my kid's jazz band performance, a driver's license test,
Speaker 1: a mery mother's day brunch, two Parker classes, two tennis lessons,
Speaker 1: a birthday party, a church lock in, a confirmation expo,
Speaker 1: prom Scouts, and a Derby themed library fundraiser that I
Speaker 1: went to. This is kind of a lot of stuff,
Speaker 1: and yet there was downtime too. I managed to finish
Speaker 1: the puzzle I was working on. I read at least
Speaker 1: an hour in a new book. I watched The six
Speaker 1: Ers when game seven of their series on TV. If
Speaker 1: I wanted to tell a story of running around like
Speaker 1: a chicken with its head cut off, I suppose that
Speaker 1: I could, but that would be a very limited way
Speaker 1: of looking at the weekend. Sitting on the couch for
Speaker 1: two hours watching TV is not frenzied. Running around finishing
Speaker 1: a one thousand piece puzzle is not frenzied. Lying in
Speaker 1: bed reading isn't either. Because I have been thinking about
Speaker 1: time like this for a while, I know to zoom
Speaker 1: out and to try to few things holistically whenever I
Speaker 1: am looking at a busy stretch. I've also been tracking
Speaker 1: my time for over a decade now, so I know
Speaker 1: that even if a week or a weekend contains a
Speaker 1: lot of things, it will also contain several slower entries
Speaker 1: on my timelog. Zooming out gives me a more accurate
Speaker 1: picture of time, one that is generally not as frenzied
Speaker 1: as the given moments that I might be prone to remember.
Speaker 1: But I know a lot of people haven't tracked their time,
Speaker 1: or aren't in the habit of looking at a whole
Speaker 1: week or a longer stretch. So if you are staring
Speaker 1: down a busy time, and I know may often is
Speaker 1: for people as school aged kids, it might help to
Speaker 1: zoom out. Looking at big time gives us a more
Speaker 1: accurate representation. Perhaps this week has many activities, but there
Speaker 1: may be weeks in July with fewer of them. Perhaps
Speaker 1: this weekend has a lot going on, but there will
Speaker 1: be summer weekends when things have quieted down. For me.
Speaker 1: Weeks when both my choirs are practicing tend to have
Speaker 1: a lot of choir commitments, obviously, but that only happens
Speaker 1: about twenty six weeks a year. Half the year there's
Speaker 1: only one choir, or for about three months there are
Speaker 1: no choirs. That is a very different perspective. Life is
Speaker 1: not just this one day a week, one hundred and
Speaker 1: sixty eight hours is a better perspective than a day,
Speaker 1: and I generally like to plan life in weeks, but
Speaker 1: even one week is not all there is. A month
Speaker 1: or a year might be a better perspective. Whenever time
Speaker 1: is feeling crunched, zooming out can help us see that
Speaker 1: downtime still happens. When we have a more accurate vision
Speaker 1: of time, we can make wiser choices than always see
Speaker 1: or a few crunched moments in the meantime. This is Laura.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening, and here's to making the most of
Speaker 1: our time. Thanks for listening to Before Bread. 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.