Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Good Morning. This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Speaker 1: Today's tip is about one way to think of productivity strategies.
Speaker 1: They are designed to aid your life like a high
Speaker 1: end butler might do. The goal is freeing you up
Speaker 1: to focus on work you choose and on enjoying your life.
Speaker 1: Today's tip, like some others this week, comes from Chris
Speaker 1: Bailey's new book, How to Calm Your Mind, Finding Presents
Speaker 1: and Productivity in Anxious Times. While much of Chris's book
Speaker 1: is focused on reducing anxiety so you can get more done,
Speaker 1: he had some great thought sun productivity strategies which I
Speaker 1: thought i'd share. Chris suggests doing this thought experiment. Imagine.
Speaker 1: He writes that you have won some one in a
Speaker 1: million contest through a high end house cleaning service that
Speaker 1: provides you with a full time butler for life. Chris
Speaker 1: suggests that this butler's name is Kingsley. The man provides
Speaker 1: you with more free time every day by cleaning up
Speaker 1: after you and your family, cooking meals, managing your calendar,
Speaker 1: which he calls your diary, chauffeuring you around town, and
Speaker 1: more while Kingsley himself might be a pipe dream. The
Speaker 1: best productivity tactics and strategies can confer similar benefits like Kingsley.
Speaker 1: They provide us with more of the most valuable resource
Speaker 1: we have at our disposal time. Chris leaves this thought
Speaker 1: experiment here, but I've been thinking a little bit more
Speaker 1: about what a Kingsley might do in my life and
Speaker 1: the ways in which I have tried to approximate a Kingsley,
Speaker 1: even though I don't have a full time butler. One
Speaker 1: way a Kingsley would provide free time is by cooking meals,
Speaker 1: and part of that is figuring out what the meals
Speaker 1: would be and procuring supplies. One way to approximate that
Speaker 1: is to have a set meal rotation and then automate
Speaker 1: your groceries as much as possible. So in our family
Speaker 1: we tend to use meal kits for two nights per week.
Speaker 1: We also always have make your own pizza on Fridays
Speaker 1: and breakfast for dinner on Wednesdays. Well, we tend to
Speaker 1: go to the grocery store. You could envision putting the
Speaker 1: groceries for the set meals on a recurring delivery. It's
Speaker 1: almost like having a butler. Do the meal planning and shopping.
Speaker 1: Kingsley's duties would also include managing your calendar. A key
Speaker 1: part of this is making sure your time is spent
Speaker 1: on your highest value activities. By taking a few minutes
Speaker 1: on Friday to think through this for the upcoming week
Speaker 1: and to schedule time each day for what's most important,
Speaker 1: you are recreating a Kingsley in your life. You act
Speaker 1: as Kingsley for twenty minutes or so, and then the
Speaker 1: rest of the time you reap the benefits of having
Speaker 1: someone like him managing your calendar. As for chauffeuring us
Speaker 1: around town, well, you can always summon an uber if
Speaker 1: you don't want to drive, but it might be wise
Speaker 1: to think about how you can spend less time in
Speaker 1: the car in general. One thing I've been doing is
Speaker 1: encouraging my kids to take the activity bus home from school.
Speaker 1: Some days, it might be wise to set up car
Speaker 1: pooling where it all possible to Maybe you could even
Speaker 1: car pool on days when you need to go into
Speaker 1: the office. Being able to work or sleep or relax
Speaker 1: half the time you would have been driving could buy
Speaker 1: you back many hours. As ken working from home, working
Speaker 1: from home two days a week is even better than
Speaker 1: relying on Kingsley's chauffeuring. It is a massive productivity gain.
Speaker 1: As for cleaning things up, one of the best ways
Speaker 1: to approximate Kingsley's existence. It's just to have or use
Speaker 1: fewer things and make sure everything has a clear home sheet.
Speaker 1: Pan meals are great because you can eat well, clean
Speaker 1: up one pan, and then pretend you have a Kingsley
Speaker 1: the rest of the time that you would have been cleaning.
Speaker 1: When you always leave your shoes and coat in the mudroom,
Speaker 1: it's as if Kingsley was hunting for them and bringing
Speaker 1: them to you on the way out the door. So
Speaker 1: as you are thinking about how to build more time
Speaker 1: into your life, think about what you can do to
Speaker 1: approximate the existence of Kingsley the Magnificent Butler. If you
Speaker 1: actually have a King's label, that is amazing. But for
Speaker 1: many of us, asking this question of what would free
Speaker 1: up space to do meaningful work and have meaningful leisure
Speaker 1: leads us to wise choices Kingsley or not. In the meantime,
Speaker 1: this is Laura, Thanks for listening, and here's to making
Speaker 1: the most of our time. Hey, everybody, I'd love to
Speaker 1: hear 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 E the
Speaker 1: number four, then Breakfast p o D. You can also
Speaker 1: shoot me an email at Before Breakfast podcast. At i
Speaker 1: heeart media dot com that Before Breakfast is spelled out
Speaker 1: with all the letters. Thanks so much, should I look
Speaker 1: forward to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is a production
Speaker 1: of I heart Radio. For more podcasts from my heart Radio,
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