WEBVTT - Reduce chores, don’t reschedule them

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<v Speaker 1>Hey, listeners, if you subscribe to Before Breakfast, You'll be

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<v Speaker 1>your day from great to awesome. Good morning, This is Laura.

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's tip is to

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<v Speaker 1>reduce your chores, don't reschedule them. I read a lot

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<v Speaker 1>of time management literature, and over the years I've noticed something.

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<v Speaker 1>A lot of tips that purport to save time are

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<v Speaker 1>really just about moving work to some other time. Now. Granted,

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<v Speaker 1>sometimes of the day can be more frenetic than others,

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<v Speaker 1>and maybe it's helpful to spread the work around, but

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<v Speaker 1>sometimes the so called calmer mornings or evenings that these

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<v Speaker 1>tips promise come at a high cost of recreation or rest.

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<v Speaker 1>For instance, meal prepping all afternoon on Sunday days may

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<v Speaker 1>make your weeknights lighter, maybe, but at the cost of

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<v Speaker 1>a big chunk of your weekend. Selecting your own and

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<v Speaker 1>your kids clothes for the week on Sunday still takes time.

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<v Speaker 1>Even if it's not during the weekday morning rush. It

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<v Speaker 1>may actually take more time on the weekend, since you

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<v Speaker 1>might be quicker about it in the mornings when you

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<v Speaker 1>have to look presentable by eight thirty am. Many kids

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<v Speaker 1>are home from school these days, but when they go

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<v Speaker 1>back would you rather pack lunches after your kids go

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<v Speaker 1>to bed or curl up in front of the fire

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<v Speaker 1>with your spouse or a good book. When you reschedule chores,

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<v Speaker 1>you wind up pushing them into what could be leisure time,

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<v Speaker 1>or you decide to still have your leisure time after

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<v Speaker 1>doing the chores and you go to bed too late.

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<v Speaker 1>Grumpy mornings are never calm mornings, even if you laid

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<v Speaker 1>out outfits, made lunches, and otherwise followed all that questionable advice.

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<v Speaker 1>Rescheduling chores also creates another problem. You might move chores

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<v Speaker 1>to times when other family members don't see them. You

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<v Speaker 1>might also wind up doing work that other people could do.

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<v Speaker 1>I'm particularly thinking about children here. If kids can't see

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<v Speaker 1>your hard work, well, it's like the lunch fairies created

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<v Speaker 1>the sandwiches with faces on them and decorated the homemade

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<v Speaker 1>cookies that magically show up in their lunch boxes, and

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<v Speaker 1>while it would be nice if there were lunch fairies,

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<v Speaker 1>there aren't. Nor are there fairies who magically clean the

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<v Speaker 1>kitchen and pick up the toys every night. Let's hope

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<v Speaker 1>kids don't learn this for the first time when they're

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<v Speaker 1>running their own households. Also, to be honest, sometimes other

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<v Speaker 1>adults in the household persist in believing in these fairies too.

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<v Speaker 1>If you do all the meal prep on Sundays, this

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<v Speaker 1>implies that feeding your household is your job, and your

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<v Speaker 1>job alone, unless your family has a specific agreement on chores,

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<v Speaker 1>with other parties fully responsible for equally time consuming work.

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<v Speaker 1>It's unclear why this would be the case. Better to

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<v Speaker 1>reduce chores rather than reschedule them, consider whether all household

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<v Speaker 1>tasks are worth doing. Rather than doing meal prep on weekends,

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<v Speaker 1>you can just make simpler meals during the week. You

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<v Speaker 1>can order in once too, to lower the burden rather

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<v Speaker 1>than making lunches. When kids are back in school, you

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<v Speaker 1>can have them start buying lunch or making their own lunches.

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<v Speaker 1>You can streamline your clothes and let kids wear what

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<v Speaker 1>they want. You can recognize that those toys scattered all

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<v Speaker 1>over the living room are just going to come out

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<v Speaker 1>again the next morning, so there is zero benefit in

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<v Speaker 1>losing leisure time in order to pick them up. Rescheduling

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<v Speaker 1>chores doesn't save time, reducing them does, so whenever that's

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<v Speaker 1>an option, probably better to go with that. Have you

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<v Speaker 1>found ways to reduce your chores rather than rescheduling them,

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<v Speaker 1>You can let me know about it. Before Breakfast podcast

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<v Speaker 1>at iHeart media dot com. In the meantime, this is Laura.

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<v Speaker 1>Thanks for listening, and here's to making the most of

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<v Speaker 1>our time. M Hey, everybody, I'd love to hear from you.

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<v Speaker 1>Thanks so much, I look forward to staying in touch.

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