WEBVTT - Try random acts of kindness with Kathleen Paley 0:00:03.480 --> 0:00:10.120 Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning, 0:00:10.880 --> 0:00:15.960 This is Laura, Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's 0:00:16.000 --> 0:00:19.480 episode is going to be a longer one. It's part 0:00:19.520 --> 0:00:22.400 of my series of interviews with people talking about how 0:00:22.400 --> 0:00:26.239 they take their days from great to awesome. I am 0:00:26.280 --> 0:00:29.560 so excited to introduce you today to Kathleen Paley, who 0:00:29.600 --> 0:00:34.160 is a lawyer, a dedicated volunteer, a mother, and a podcaster, 0:00:34.400 --> 0:00:37.720 among other things. And what I love about talking with 0:00:37.800 --> 0:00:40.400 Kathleen is that she is always looking for ways to 0:00:40.440 --> 0:00:42.960 make the world around her better as she is also 0:00:43.080 --> 0:00:47.120 looking for ways to make her own life run well. So, Kathleen, 0:00:47.159 --> 0:00:48.000 welcome to the show. 0:00:48.920 --> 0:00:52.000 Good morning, Thank you for having me. I'm just honored 0:00:52.000 --> 0:00:52.480 to be here. 0:00:52.800 --> 0:00:55.880 Awesome. Well, please tell our little listeners a little bit 0:00:56.000 --> 0:00:56.920 about yourself. 0:00:57.760 --> 0:01:00.440 Well, I'll try not to repeat what you do share, 0:01:00.520 --> 0:01:03.400 but you're right. I'm a lawyer and a mom. I 0:01:03.440 --> 0:01:08.960 have two teen preteen kiddos, and I'm a litigator of 0:01:09.000 --> 0:01:11.600 the big law firm in DC. And you put those 0:01:11.720 --> 0:01:15.600 together and that's a lot to handle. But I don't 0:01:15.720 --> 0:01:18.280 want that to be all of life. So I have 0:01:18.319 --> 0:01:22.440 a few volunteer gigs and have so many kind of 0:01:22.840 --> 0:01:28.640 thoughts about using our time and our resources in effective 0:01:28.680 --> 0:01:31.240 efficient ways that I was like, you know what, I 0:01:31.280 --> 0:01:33.840 got to start a podcast too to talk about all this. 0:01:34.400 --> 0:01:36.160 So there are a lot of balls in the air, 0:01:37.000 --> 0:01:39.479 and that makes for a very busy but also very 0:01:39.520 --> 0:01:40.520 fun life. 0:01:40.920 --> 0:01:44.000 Awesome. Well, I wonder if you could talk through a 0:01:44.040 --> 0:01:47.640 little bit about your morning routine, and from what I understand, 0:01:48.240 --> 0:01:50.360 you have more of a hybrid schedule where some days 0:01:50.360 --> 0:01:52.160 you are working from home and some days you are 0:01:52.160 --> 0:01:53.920 in your office, and obviously some days you're on the 0:01:53.960 --> 0:01:56.400 road as well. But maybe you could talk through what 0:01:56.440 --> 0:01:59.320 your morning routine looks like on those different days and 0:01:59.320 --> 0:02:00.920 how you figured out what works for you. 0:02:01.600 --> 0:02:04.600 All right, yes, you are very correct, I will say, 0:02:04.680 --> 0:02:06.720 the days they're on the road, I have no morning 0:02:06.840 --> 0:02:10.160 routine except get up and just like start grinding for work. 0:02:10.280 --> 0:02:14.040 But when home there are two kind of templates Mondays 0:02:14.080 --> 0:02:18.560 and Fridays. I work from home and that gives a 0:02:18.600 --> 0:02:22.240 lot of flexibility in terms of how the morning goes. Now, 0:02:22.400 --> 0:02:25.240 one of the things I think is incredibly valuable to 0:02:26.160 --> 0:02:28.840 my own values and like the life I want to 0:02:28.840 --> 0:02:30.560 live is I want to take my kids to the 0:02:30.560 --> 0:02:32.920 bus stop, and so even though I have a teen 0:02:33.400 --> 0:02:35.720 who is over six feet tall and does not want 0:02:35.760 --> 0:02:38.080 to be taken to the bus stop, we still walk 0:02:38.160 --> 0:02:40.960 together in the morning and it's a nice few minutes 0:02:41.040 --> 0:02:46.000 to just chat and very relaxed. So on work from 0:02:46.040 --> 0:02:48.760 home mornings, I get up at six fifteen and we 0:02:48.800 --> 0:02:51.000 are out the door by six thirty going to the 0:02:51.000 --> 0:02:54.480 bus stop. But that gives a lot of flexibility between 0:02:54.520 --> 0:02:58.760 about six thirty and nine o'clock. Now, I used to 0:02:58.840 --> 0:03:01.080 feel like as soon as I was done with like 0:03:01.240 --> 0:03:06.040 official parental duties, I should start working, So by six 0:03:06.240 --> 0:03:09.400 forty five or seven am, I should be doing you know, 0:03:09.520 --> 0:03:14.640 billable lawyery work. And with time I realized that that 0:03:14.800 --> 0:03:17.240 does not build the kind of life I want. I'm 0:03:17.240 --> 0:03:19.280 going to do all the work that needs to be done, 0:03:19.560 --> 0:03:21.880 but it doesn't need to be done at that time. 0:03:22.400 --> 0:03:25.160 So now on those mornings when I'm working from home, 0:03:25.440 --> 0:03:29.520 between about six forty five and nine o'clock, I use 0:03:29.600 --> 0:03:33.200 that time for things that I find valuable. That includes 0:03:33.240 --> 0:03:40.920 things like at this point, drafting podcast scripts and reading 0:03:41.640 --> 0:03:45.600 and spending time with my other kid, or going Sometimes 0:03:45.600 --> 0:03:48.440 I just go for a walk and it's just lovely, 0:03:48.640 --> 0:03:51.280 especially now that the fall weather is starting to arrive, 0:03:51.680 --> 0:03:54.080 to just go for a walk, stretch your legs, clear 0:03:54.160 --> 0:03:57.840 your thoughts, get sort of energized for the day. And 0:03:57.920 --> 0:04:01.600 so that means two Mores, Mondays and Fridays, I have 0:04:01.720 --> 0:04:05.440 about two and a half hours of flexible time to 0:04:05.600 --> 0:04:10.120 do stuff that I find life affirming. I also throw 0:04:10.160 --> 0:04:12.960 in a load of laundry, you know, unload the dishwasher, 0:04:13.000 --> 0:04:15.080 do those sorts of things to keep you know, the 0:04:15.200 --> 0:04:18.760 daily rhythms of family life going. But those don't actually 0:04:18.920 --> 0:04:21.720 take all that much time. They take kind of a 0:04:21.760 --> 0:04:24.800 mental load, but they don't take a lot of time. So, 0:04:25.320 --> 0:04:28.640 you know, this morning, we're filming on a Friday, and 0:04:29.440 --> 0:04:31.520 I took the kid to the bus stop, and then 0:04:31.680 --> 0:04:35.159 I wrote out some interview questions for my own podcast. 0:04:35.279 --> 0:04:37.719 I read for a while, I journaled for a while, 0:04:37.960 --> 0:04:40.080 and I went for a walk. And so you do 0:04:40.160 --> 0:04:42.240 that twice a week. That's five hours a week of 0:04:42.400 --> 0:04:45.400 really like good kind of you could almost call it. 0:04:45.600 --> 0:04:47.360 I kind of hate the term self care, but in 0:04:47.400 --> 0:04:50.600 a way, it's like self care time. Now three days 0:04:50.640 --> 0:04:52.880 a week I go into the office. That starts with 0:04:54.000 --> 0:04:55.839 take the kid to the bus stop, and then go 0:04:55.920 --> 0:04:57.960 straight to the office. But that means I'm getting there 0:04:58.440 --> 0:05:01.440 really early, like in the seven of hour, which gives 0:05:01.480 --> 0:05:05.440 a great jumpstart to the day to get through the 0:05:05.480 --> 0:05:08.919 backlog of things that need to be done and before 0:05:09.000 --> 0:05:11.960 the office fills up. And so I like that sort 0:05:11.960 --> 0:05:15.640 of quiet, slightly contemplative time at the office three mornings 0:05:15.680 --> 0:05:18.799 a week when it's just me and my caffeine source 0:05:19.200 --> 0:05:21.960 and my inbox, and I try to very much like 0:05:22.480 --> 0:05:26.280 match the work to the energy levels and you know, 0:05:26.360 --> 0:05:29.080 the rhythms that are going on, so I can blast 0:05:29.160 --> 0:05:31.800 through a whole ton of stuff before people arrive. 0:05:32.560 --> 0:05:34.920 Awesome. Yeah, mornings really are a great time to get 0:05:34.920 --> 0:05:37.680 things done. And I love that since Monday and Friday 0:05:37.680 --> 0:05:39.799 are work from home days, you even start the week 0:05:39.839 --> 0:05:42.760 with a big dose of this morning self care. Right, 0:05:42.800 --> 0:05:45.839 it feels a little bit different than just diving straight 0:05:45.880 --> 0:05:48.720 into to the office. It's probably a very different sort 0:05:48.760 --> 0:05:49.040 of thing. 0:05:49.600 --> 0:05:53.160 Yeah, I mean that really dramatically reduces those Sunday scaries 0:05:53.200 --> 0:05:56.040 when you know, oh, tomorrow morning, I've got a little 0:05:56.040 --> 0:05:58.760 bit of flexibility. There's a little bit of a a 0:05:58.880 --> 0:06:02.560 like a mental bridge to get into you know, the 0:06:02.560 --> 0:06:03.920 weak full speed. 0:06:04.480 --> 0:06:10.839 Absolutely, So your podcast is called minimal dish, So like minimalism, 0:06:10.880 --> 0:06:13.480 but ends with minimal dish. So what do you mean 0:06:13.560 --> 0:06:16.719 by minimalish and what is appealing to you about sort 0:06:16.720 --> 0:06:18.880 of a lighter version of minimalism. 0:06:19.560 --> 0:06:25.160 Yeah, that's a great question. I think the driving force 0:06:25.240 --> 0:06:29.160 for me is that I want to remove distractions so 0:06:29.200 --> 0:06:32.760 that I can focus on the very many, many cool 0:06:32.880 --> 0:06:37.680 things that life presents, all of these opportunities. The issue is, 0:06:37.720 --> 0:06:43.240 I think sometimes the term minimalism is it's hijacked a 0:06:43.279 --> 0:06:46.760 little bit into people who talk about like I want 0:06:47.200 --> 0:06:50.800 to do nothing, I want total emptiness of the schedule, 0:06:52.240 --> 0:06:55.920 and it's its own little cult in a way that 0:06:56.000 --> 0:06:58.520 does not appeal to me. I do not want emptiness. 0:06:58.560 --> 0:07:02.040 I do want not want nothing. Thing that is totally unappealing. 0:07:02.480 --> 0:07:05.760 And so that sort of brand of minimalism you see online, 0:07:05.839 --> 0:07:08.160 I think that it's boring and it can come off 0:07:08.200 --> 0:07:11.360 as sort of preachy or self righteous. And what I'm 0:07:11.400 --> 0:07:13.960 looking for is figuring out how to focus on what 0:07:14.040 --> 0:07:17.000 I figure in my own life to be the right stuff. 0:07:18.080 --> 0:07:20.440 But when there's so much going on, that does mean 0:07:20.480 --> 0:07:23.280 needing to kind of cut out the clutter. And so 0:07:23.800 --> 0:07:26.720 there are four kinds of clutter you could say that 0:07:26.760 --> 0:07:29.880 I've tried to cut out in life. One is visual clutter, 0:07:30.600 --> 0:07:34.000 stuff management, just you know, you know, when you've got 0:07:34.120 --> 0:07:36.080 kids and you've got a lot of balls in the air. 0:07:36.840 --> 0:07:40.280 I think we both have dogs. There's a lot to 0:07:40.360 --> 0:07:45.920 keep going, and having just less stuff around, particularly for 0:07:46.000 --> 0:07:48.880 those of us who are sort of distracted by visual clutter, 0:07:49.680 --> 0:07:53.760 is helpful, just having fewer things to manage. I also 0:07:53.800 --> 0:07:57.120 try to cut out schedule clutter and keep the commitment 0:07:57.200 --> 0:07:59.800 levels to the right level. And one example is my 0:08:00.040 --> 0:08:03.760 kids are both pretty competitive athletes, and we want them 0:08:03.800 --> 0:08:06.240 to be able to play at a competitive level. But 0:08:06.320 --> 0:08:10.400 we don't want entire weekends every weekend to be taken 0:08:10.520 --> 0:08:14.680 up with tournaments where you're driving six hours away, you're 0:08:14.680 --> 0:08:17.400 spending all day, you're staying the night, you're doing a 0:08:17.440 --> 0:08:20.360 tournament the next day too. That's not the right level 0:08:20.400 --> 0:08:23.080 of commitment for us, So schedule clutter. We let them 0:08:23.080 --> 0:08:27.200 play in a travel league that has two games a week, 0:08:27.760 --> 0:08:32.040 not like an AAP basketball league where you're doing the 0:08:32.080 --> 0:08:35.840 tournament every weekend. We don't want to be essentially taxi 0:08:35.920 --> 0:08:39.439 drivers for our entire lives, so schedule clutter. We try 0:08:39.480 --> 0:08:42.240 to keep things at a level that like lets them 0:08:42.559 --> 0:08:47.400 compete but doesn't ruin the family dynamic. I also try 0:08:47.400 --> 0:08:51.559 to cut out financial clutter. That includes being very reflective 0:08:51.679 --> 0:08:57.240 on what spending actually gives value to our lives and 0:08:57.280 --> 0:09:02.560 what doesn't, and really questioning some questioning the defaults that 0:09:02.600 --> 0:09:06.480 we tend to fall into, particularly when life is busy 0:09:06.679 --> 0:09:10.000 and you could start throwing money at everything. I want 0:09:10.040 --> 0:09:13.560 to figure out where I really get value from throwing 0:09:13.600 --> 0:09:16.320 money at the problem, And like, right now I have 0:09:16.400 --> 0:09:19.880 some cleaning folks in my home because I get value 0:09:19.920 --> 0:09:21.840 from having someone help with that. But there are other 0:09:21.880 --> 0:09:24.080 things that we don't, you know, we don't throw money 0:09:24.120 --> 0:09:30.319 at that. Also that removing financial clutter also involves eliminating debt. 0:09:30.480 --> 0:09:33.560 We just paid off everything as quickly as possible, and 0:09:33.640 --> 0:09:39.559 that is such a reduced mental load of just worry. 0:09:39.920 --> 0:09:42.200 It reduces your worry when you don't have debt. And 0:09:42.240 --> 0:09:44.800 then finally, I know I've gone on a long time here. 0:09:45.000 --> 0:09:48.080 I try to remove mental clutter, and that the way 0:09:48.120 --> 0:09:52.080 I put it is, uh I have Maybe this is 0:09:52.160 --> 0:09:54.520 just part of being in your forties, but I've really 0:09:54.559 --> 0:09:59.080 stopped caring about the judgments of others and what they're 0:09:59.080 --> 0:10:01.480 going to say about my choices. I'm willing to be 0:10:01.520 --> 0:10:04.080 a little bit unconventional. I'm willing to be a little 0:10:04.120 --> 0:10:09.760 bit weird, and if someone thinks that it's strange, I 0:10:09.800 --> 0:10:11.880 really don't care. We're going to live lives on our 0:10:11.880 --> 0:10:16.199 own terms. So that's my take on Minimalish, cutting out 0:10:16.360 --> 0:10:18.840 various forms of clutter so that we can live the 0:10:18.880 --> 0:10:25.520 lives that make us sort of very individually, particularly most satisfied. 0:10:26.000 --> 0:10:28.200 Sounds good. Well, we're going to take a quick ad 0:10:28.240 --> 0:10:30.040 break and then we're going to come back and learn 0:10:30.080 --> 0:10:40.920 about a very cool project that Kathleen did before turning forty. Well, 0:10:40.920 --> 0:10:43.200 we are back for those just joining us. This is 0:10:43.240 --> 0:10:46.319 the longer version of Before Breakfast. Once a week or so, 0:10:46.360 --> 0:10:48.400 I am doing an interview with someone who is doing 0:10:48.400 --> 0:10:51.040 cool things in their lives, taking their days from great 0:10:51.080 --> 0:10:54.280 to awesome. We are talking with Kathleen Paley, who is 0:10:54.440 --> 0:10:57.839 a lawyer, a mother, a volunteer, and the host of 0:10:57.880 --> 0:11:02.240 the Minimalish podcast. Well, Kathleen, you did a really cool 0:11:02.320 --> 0:11:06.760 project of forty acts of kindness before turning forty. I 0:11:06.800 --> 0:11:08.480 believe I wonder if you could talk a little bit 0:11:08.559 --> 0:11:11.600 about that project and maybe just highlight one or two 0:11:11.640 --> 0:11:13.040 of the things you did as part of it. 0:11:13.880 --> 0:11:19.800 Yeah, I wanted to memorialize turning forty in some kind 0:11:19.800 --> 0:11:23.960 of way, but was not seeking a big birthday party 0:11:24.040 --> 0:11:26.680 or anything that's actually turns out to be a good thing, 0:11:26.800 --> 0:11:29.240 because I turned forty in the summer of twenty twenty, 0:11:29.400 --> 0:11:31.319 so if there had been a desire for a big 0:11:31.360 --> 0:11:33.760 birthday party, that was not going to happen with the 0:11:33.760 --> 0:11:39.360 pandemic going on. But it's late twenty nineteen, and I 0:11:39.440 --> 0:11:42.360 just wanted to memorialize this time and do something special. 0:11:42.360 --> 0:11:45.440 And I thought, well, there are like bucket lists of 0:11:45.760 --> 0:11:49.320 forty before forty things to do, adventures to have, and 0:11:49.360 --> 0:11:52.520 that all sounded fun. But I thought, what about forty 0:11:52.760 --> 0:11:56.520 small acts of kindness things that we could do within 0:11:56.559 --> 0:12:02.280 our community, within our families, would just help brighten someone's day. 0:12:02.880 --> 0:12:06.760 And so I put together list, took a few months 0:12:06.800 --> 0:12:10.560 sort of iterating on it, and put together list with 0:12:10.600 --> 0:12:15.520 a few categories of acts of kindness to do, and 0:12:16.080 --> 0:12:19.120 over the course of the next you know, six months 0:12:19.240 --> 0:12:22.800 or so, I knocked out almost all the list and 0:12:22.920 --> 0:12:26.040 it was a lot of fun. The categories included things 0:12:26.080 --> 0:12:29.160 like goods and money, you know, giving goods in money, 0:12:29.640 --> 0:12:35.080 respect and encouragement, time and talent, earth and environment, and 0:12:35.120 --> 0:12:39.280 then within the family, intra family acts of kindness, so 0:12:40.120 --> 0:12:42.800 a few of my favorite ones. I was shocked to 0:12:42.880 --> 0:12:46.960 learn that in the community that we live in in 0:12:47.000 --> 0:12:52.120 northern Virginia, which seems quite economically comfortable, there's still a 0:12:52.960 --> 0:12:58.520 remarkably high percentage of kids in schools who face food insecurity. 0:12:58.880 --> 0:13:01.400 They may get free lunch school, but when they go home, 0:13:01.480 --> 0:13:04.560 those cabinets are empty. And it turns out that within 0:13:04.600 --> 0:13:08.080 our community, there is a program where you can drop 0:13:08.120 --> 0:13:13.360 off shelf stable foods at elementary schools and they will 0:13:14.160 --> 0:13:17.680 very sort of covertly, quietly so as not to embarrass 0:13:17.679 --> 0:13:20.960 the kids, put food into kids' backpacks that they can 0:13:21.000 --> 0:13:23.240 take home so that there is you know, there's an 0:13:23.240 --> 0:13:26.480 actual dinner on the table. And so one of the 0:13:26.520 --> 0:13:29.280 forty acts of kindness was I went and bought several 0:13:29.360 --> 0:13:32.600 hundred pounds of rice and several hundred pounds of dried beans, 0:13:32.960 --> 0:13:34.960 and like raid down the car it was kind of 0:13:35.000 --> 0:13:37.680 sagging in the back, but took them to one of 0:13:37.679 --> 0:13:40.400 the local elementary schools and dropped them off so that 0:13:40.440 --> 0:13:43.200 they would have their pantry full, so that all of 0:13:43.240 --> 0:13:46.800 these kids could go home and have meals, particularly over 0:13:46.840 --> 0:13:50.840 the weekends. That was so much fun. And I think 0:13:50.840 --> 0:13:55.319 that there's some value in really doing like physical acts yourself. 0:13:55.480 --> 0:14:00.520 I think you feel more involved in the process of helping. 0:14:01.400 --> 0:14:03.960 I also like to cut checks for things as well, 0:14:04.000 --> 0:14:07.040 but there was something about the very physical nature of 0:14:07.080 --> 0:14:10.520 that that I found inspiring. 0:14:11.120 --> 0:14:12.559 And then maybe you can talk about one that's a 0:14:12.600 --> 0:14:16.400 bit more person to person that you did something encouraging somebody. 0:14:16.559 --> 0:14:20.320 Yes, I actually I've received some books over the years 0:14:20.320 --> 0:14:23.360 from folks where they said I loved this and you 0:14:23.400 --> 0:14:25.120 may really value it, and I thought, I want to 0:14:25.120 --> 0:14:29.280 do that for someone too, So I decided to choose 0:14:29.640 --> 0:14:32.040 five books that I have found to be sort of 0:14:32.200 --> 0:14:35.760 life changing or transformative and to give them to friends 0:14:36.240 --> 0:14:39.440 with a little note saying why I thought that they 0:14:39.480 --> 0:14:41.840 may find it valuable. And in fact, one of those 0:14:41.880 --> 0:14:44.760 books was one hundred and sixty eight Hours that You 0:14:44.880 --> 0:14:47.600 Have More Time Than You Think, by a certain Laura Vandercamp. 0:14:48.080 --> 0:14:51.480 I have found it really inspirational. Back in my sort 0:14:51.520 --> 0:14:55.720 of earlier parenting lawyering journey, when I was just starting 0:14:55.760 --> 0:14:58.240 off with thinking about like how to make this better 0:14:58.320 --> 0:15:01.840 richer life, I actually gave it to I think two 0:15:01.880 --> 0:15:02.520 or three friends. 0:15:02.880 --> 0:15:05.680 Awesome. Well, I'm glad to hear that I did not 0:15:05.760 --> 0:15:08.240 ask Kathleen to say that. I'm very excited to do. 0:15:08.320 --> 0:15:12.840 That's wonderful. So if somebody else was going to undertake 0:15:12.840 --> 0:15:15.560 a project like this doing you know a large number 0:15:15.560 --> 0:15:17.240 of random acts of kindness, I wonder if there was 0:15:17.240 --> 0:15:19.560 something you learned along the way or some advice you'd 0:15:19.560 --> 0:15:22.280 give to them to make it a more effective project. 0:15:23.080 --> 0:15:26.160 I think setting out in advance the sort of general 0:15:26.280 --> 0:15:30.600 categories that you want these acts to be in, or 0:15:30.760 --> 0:15:34.760 general groups that you want to help can help structure 0:15:34.840 --> 0:15:37.760 the thinking and can help sort of spur on creativity. 0:15:38.200 --> 0:15:42.560 And then also just ask thoughtful people in your life. 0:15:42.680 --> 0:15:44.800 You know, hey, how do you think I could help 0:15:44.840 --> 0:15:49.160 with local animals or whatever it is your priority is. 0:15:49.440 --> 0:15:53.800 And sometimes you can actually get pretty insightful, thoughtful ideas 0:15:54.120 --> 0:15:56.440 from others, but you need to give them a prompt, 0:15:56.600 --> 0:15:58.880 not just what can I do that's nice? You have 0:15:59.000 --> 0:16:04.600 to say, I want to help the local poor, how 0:16:04.600 --> 0:16:08.040 can I do that? What do you think? So? Yeah, 0:16:08.200 --> 0:16:11.640 structure a little bit, and then just seek inspiration from 0:16:11.800 --> 0:16:12.800 others who your respect. 0:16:13.440 --> 0:16:15.800 Awesome We're going to take one more quick ad break 0:16:15.840 --> 0:16:18.320 and then we'll be back to learn about Kathleen's current 0:16:18.360 --> 0:16:28.840 time management challenges. Well, we are back. This is one 0:16:28.880 --> 0:16:32.800 of the longer Before Breakfast episodes. I am interviewing Kathleen Paley, 0:16:32.880 --> 0:16:37.960 who is a lawyer, mother, volunteer, podcaster, many different hats, 0:16:38.600 --> 0:16:40.800 and she talked about a project she did of doing 0:16:40.920 --> 0:16:43.880 forty acts of kindness before turning forty. So, Kathleen, I 0:16:43.920 --> 0:16:46.320 wonder if you could talk about sort of your biggest 0:16:46.360 --> 0:16:48.040 time management challenge right now. 0:16:49.200 --> 0:16:52.320 Yeah, my biggest time management challenge is that I am 0:16:52.360 --> 0:16:56.560 a sucker for adding projects to my life and I 0:16:56.640 --> 0:16:59.560 did recently start doing a podcast. So it's how to 0:16:59.800 --> 0:17:07.120 work work in more while not feeling harried. And one 0:17:07.119 --> 0:17:09.360 of the ways I've I've been able to do this 0:17:09.480 --> 0:17:12.800 is to just look for what are the low value 0:17:13.000 --> 0:17:16.639 pockets of time that I'm not It's not wasting, but 0:17:16.760 --> 0:17:21.720 maybe not using optimally. And you know, we started this 0:17:21.800 --> 0:17:25.360 episode talking about those Mondays and Fridays from home where 0:17:25.400 --> 0:17:28.280 there's a big chunk of time several hours in the morning. 0:17:29.080 --> 0:17:32.960 I've started to leverage that time to do more work. 0:17:33.080 --> 0:17:35.560 It's not necessarily the podcast work, but sort of shift 0:17:35.640 --> 0:17:40.320 more more things into those timeframes that I might otherwise do. 0:17:40.880 --> 0:17:44.119 At another point, I'm sort of using the tiles or 0:17:44.119 --> 0:17:46.440 the pieces of time, moving them around the way you've 0:17:46.520 --> 0:17:49.280 talked about so much in your work. So you know, 0:17:49.600 --> 0:17:53.480 by adding more, I've I've made myself be creative about 0:17:53.520 --> 0:17:57.000 looking at where the low value time is being spent 0:17:57.520 --> 0:18:02.640 and seeing where I can you know, eliminate eliminate that waste. 0:18:03.400 --> 0:18:07.040 And so you know, I'm using my Mondays and Fridays 0:18:07.160 --> 0:18:12.680 better and using little pockets of time on the weekends 0:18:12.680 --> 0:18:15.840 when I might have otherwise been kind of scrolling or 0:18:16.280 --> 0:18:19.680 just puttering around the house, carving out half an hour 0:18:19.800 --> 0:18:23.760 here an hour there to move the tiles around and 0:18:23.880 --> 0:18:27.520 be able to do the volunteer work and the podcast 0:18:27.560 --> 0:18:30.400 stuff and the mom's stuff and you know all those 0:18:30.400 --> 0:18:31.800 billable hours. Yeah. 0:18:31.800 --> 0:18:33.760 So what's one of your volunteer gigs right now? That 0:18:33.920 --> 0:18:37.040 is a project you've taken on but is adding meaning 0:18:37.040 --> 0:18:37.720 to your life. 0:18:38.040 --> 0:18:41.240 Yeah. So for the last oh, I think we're on 0:18:41.359 --> 0:18:45.000 year five now, I've found a commissioner on our city's 0:18:45.000 --> 0:18:48.520 Economic Development Authority, did a two year stint as the 0:18:48.640 --> 0:18:52.640 chair and then timed out under our bylaws, so I'm 0:18:52.680 --> 0:18:57.040 back to not charing meetings anymore. But we work on 0:18:57.200 --> 0:19:02.280 helping small businesses, both retail and you know, sort of 0:19:02.280 --> 0:19:06.600 more traditional accounting firms and such, but helping small businesses 0:19:06.720 --> 0:19:10.359 in the city thrive through a variety of programs and 0:19:10.600 --> 0:19:15.159 you know, support systems, and so doing that work is 0:19:15.200 --> 0:19:18.560 really exciting because over time you do start to see 0:19:18.600 --> 0:19:21.840 a change in your community. The five year mark, I'm 0:19:21.880 --> 0:19:25.960 now seeing projects that we started years ago really bear fruit. 0:19:26.480 --> 0:19:29.280 And it's incredibly exciting when you walk around your community 0:19:29.320 --> 0:19:31.480 and you say we had a role in that we 0:19:31.560 --> 0:19:34.679 helped with that this place is better because of something 0:19:34.720 --> 0:19:37.080 that we did. And so it's all you know, we 0:19:37.160 --> 0:19:39.600 have staff and we have a bunch of volunteers and 0:19:39.640 --> 0:19:42.840 they work together beautifully to make the place that we 0:19:43.080 --> 0:19:46.200 live more vibrant awesome. 0:19:46.880 --> 0:19:50.199 So, Kathleen, what is something you have done this week 0:19:50.520 --> 0:19:53.000 to take a day from great to awesome? 0:19:54.200 --> 0:20:00.479 Yes? So I have recently, so this week ish, I 0:20:00.520 --> 0:20:05.560 have rediscovered my love of the library. I had thought, oh, 0:20:05.640 --> 0:20:10.159 I like audiobooks, but somehow that childhood or young adulthood 0:20:10.200 --> 0:20:13.240 love of like reading the written word on a page 0:20:13.640 --> 0:20:17.280 had somehow faded. And I realized it wasn't that it faded, 0:20:17.359 --> 0:20:20.119 I just didn't have anything I wanted to read. And 0:20:20.160 --> 0:20:23.360 so recently I've been going to the library, so rediscovering 0:20:23.359 --> 0:20:26.760 the library, but then taking it up a notch in 0:20:26.800 --> 0:20:31.040 the last couple of weeks by using my Tuesday, Wednesday 0:20:31.080 --> 0:20:34.359 Thursday commute time on the Metro to read a paper book. 0:20:34.600 --> 0:20:38.600 So now I'm getting an hour each day, three days 0:20:38.600 --> 0:20:42.520 a week reading a book in peace. You know, there's jump, 0:20:42.600 --> 0:20:45.400 you know, clutter going on around you, there's movement going 0:20:45.440 --> 0:20:51.320 on around you. But by just shifting that metro time 0:20:51.440 --> 0:20:54.919 and not doing like an audiobook, but actually reading on paper, 0:20:55.240 --> 0:20:59.000 I'm getting that great satisfaction of you know, reading something 0:20:59.080 --> 0:21:02.320 on paper and the turn of the page again, that 0:21:02.720 --> 0:21:06.160 physical act, the holding the book, There's something special about it. 0:21:06.600 --> 0:21:09.960 And so the great to awesome is getting back into 0:21:10.080 --> 0:21:13.840 reading and finding time to do it. That isn't taking 0:21:13.920 --> 0:21:14.840 away from anything else. 0:21:15.359 --> 0:21:17.760 Yeah, and since you're leaving early enough on those days, 0:21:17.760 --> 0:21:20.479 you're probably getting a seat. I would imagine it's slightly 0:21:20.520 --> 0:21:23.719 harder to read if you're holding onto a pool, like 0:21:23.800 --> 0:21:25.640 flipping back and forth between the pages. 0:21:25.680 --> 0:21:29.760 Correct. Yes, yes, in the afternoon it is pretty crowded, 0:21:29.840 --> 0:21:32.600 and I'm flipping the pages while like wrapping an arm 0:21:32.640 --> 0:21:35.840 around the pole. But in the morning, it's it's a seat. 0:21:35.920 --> 0:21:36.960 It's beautiful to see. 0:21:37.000 --> 0:21:40.360 It's beautiful. That's so funny. I have memories many, many 0:21:40.440 --> 0:21:42.960 years ago. I had a year long internship that I 0:21:43.000 --> 0:21:46.120 lived in the Greater Washington, DC area, and I had 0:21:46.119 --> 0:21:50.880 a fairly long commute and I wound up reading I'm 0:21:50.880 --> 0:21:53.679 going to say it around with Anna Karinina Tolstoi's novel 0:21:53.880 --> 0:21:58.840 on the Metro twenty minutes a day. You know, you 0:21:58.920 --> 0:22:01.679 get through it over the course of a month or two. 0:22:01.840 --> 0:22:04.760 It was a good read, you know, past the time. 0:22:05.560 --> 0:22:08.679 So I hope you're enjoying your reading in the morning 0:22:08.800 --> 0:22:11.840 as well. Do you have a particular life hack or 0:22:11.880 --> 0:22:13.760 strategy you want to share with our listeners. I always 0:22:13.800 --> 0:22:15.879 love to ask people if there's something really cool that 0:22:15.960 --> 0:22:19.399 you've been trying that's made life more efficient that you 0:22:19.400 --> 0:22:20.400 could share with us. 0:22:20.920 --> 0:22:24.160 Well, one thing we've been doing recently is whenever there's 0:22:24.640 --> 0:22:27.479 a situation where someone's going to give us a gift, 0:22:27.760 --> 0:22:32.040 like holidays, you know those are coming up, you know, anniversaries, 0:22:32.119 --> 0:22:35.480 things like that, we've been saying, can you just give 0:22:35.560 --> 0:22:38.680 us a gift card to a restaurant. It's because one, 0:22:39.160 --> 0:22:42.320 I'm trying to just spend less money eating out and 0:22:42.359 --> 0:22:45.800 be more efficient in that way. And two we want 0:22:45.800 --> 0:22:49.040 to do that. We're also big foodies, so I don't 0:22:49.080 --> 0:22:52.320 want clutter at home. I don't want physical stuff more 0:22:52.320 --> 0:22:54.920 physical stuff at home, but I do want to go 0:22:55.040 --> 0:22:59.560 explore new restaurants and try new foods. So just letting 0:22:59.600 --> 0:23:04.359 the folks in your life no like restaurant gift cards, please, 0:23:04.720 --> 0:23:08.760 that is a very welcome gift. Has been super in 0:23:08.880 --> 0:23:11.280 terms of now we get more experiences that we like 0:23:11.720 --> 0:23:16.000 and we don't have another vase sitting around that's just 0:23:16.040 --> 0:23:17.600