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 pick your long weekend a leisure. Before
Speaker 1: you go into a long weekend, more so, even than
Speaker 1: just a regular weekend, make sure that you have a
Speaker 1: first choice for how to spend your downtime. This increases
Speaker 1: the chances that you'll spend time on that and less
Speaker 1: time on other things. Today's tip is first airing right
Speaker 1: around the fourth of July in the United States. This
Speaker 1: is a national holiday, and this year it happens to
Speaker 1: fall on a Friday, which is pretty exciting. We have
Speaker 1: a ready made long weekend. I know a lot of
Speaker 1: folks are taking advantage of that to get to the beach,
Speaker 1: or go see family, or go to an amusement park
Speaker 1: or watch some great fireworks. Even in a weekend with
Speaker 1: a lot of stuff going on, there is always some downtime,
Speaker 1: hopefully more than a little. The problem is we don't
Speaker 1: always think about exactly when this leisure is going to happen,
Speaker 1: or perhaps we just don't know. You're hanging out at
Speaker 1: Grandma's and no one is up, or you didn't go
Speaker 1: on that group boat ride at the lake, and they're
Speaker 1: late coming back, and you're sitting around in the quiet.
Speaker 1: Now what the easiest thing, as usual is to pick
Speaker 1: up the phone. But then precious leisure time is spent
Speaker 1: looking at influencers you don't even know. It doesn't feel
Speaker 1: all that rejuvenating. So instead, going into any long weekend,
Speaker 1: figure out what your first choice leisure activity is going
Speaker 1: to be. For a lot of people, that might mean
Speaker 1: reading a really good book. So you need to make
Speaker 1: sure you have that really good book. Go get it
Speaker 1: from the library, or go visit the library if you
Speaker 1: don't know what you want to read, and see what
Speaker 1: looks alluring. If you don't always win at the library
Speaker 1: and I get it it happens, go to a bookstore.
Speaker 1: Sometimes the newer stuff is more readily available there. Books
Speaker 1: are cheap as entertainment goes. Whatever it is, though, make
Speaker 1: sure you are really looking forward to reading this book,
Speaker 1: because then you will pick it up as soon as
Speaker 1: you realize that no one else is up at Grandma's
Speaker 1: or the boat is coming back later than you thought
Speaker 1: or whatever. Of course, books aren't the only option, or
Speaker 1: you might need a break from reading. I love doing
Speaker 1: one thousand piece puzzles, so before any long weekend, I
Speaker 1: make sure I have a new one ready to go.
Speaker 1: Puzzles are pretty cheap entertainment, just like books. Twenty dollars
Speaker 1: for something that often takes me at least ten to
Speaker 1: fifteen hours. But you could swap some puzzles with friends
Speaker 1: if you're looking to save cash there too. You might
Speaker 1: buy a new crossword puzzle book or get a new
Speaker 1: cross stitch pattern. You could buy a new art kit
Speaker 1: or set yourself a goal like sketching three different kinds
Speaker 1: of wildflowers the course of the weekend. Even if your
Speaker 1: chosen leisure is screen time, I still think it is
Speaker 1: helpful to figure out exactly what this is so you
Speaker 1: know what to seek out and you know what you
Speaker 1: are excited about. Maybe you download a new game and
Speaker 1: decide to play that, or set up an online tournament
Speaker 1: with friends. You wait to stream the next season of
Speaker 1: a favorite show and tell it's the long weekend so
Speaker 1: you can really savor it. During that time, you and
Speaker 1: your spouse decide to go to a movie marathon based
Speaker 1: on a particular actor's work. Or maybe your favorite baseball
Speaker 1: team has three games over the holiday weekend. Maybe you
Speaker 1: can go to one and make watching the other two
Speaker 1: on TV into an event. The point is you are
Speaker 1: going to have some leisure time, even if it's not
Speaker 1: as much as you want. You will be more likely
Speaker 1: to notice that this time is happening and really savor
Speaker 1: it if this downtime is intentional. When you finish a
Speaker 1: fun summer read by the end of a long weekend,
Speaker 1: and it's hard to tell yourself the story that you
Speaker 1: have zero time. When you are halfway through a one
Speaker 1: thousand piece puzzle by the end of a long weekend,
Speaker 1: it is hard to tell yourself the story that you
Speaker 1: have zero time, because in general we do have time.
Speaker 1: Time is big enough for all sorts of things, so
Speaker 1: it is good to make sure that the long weekend
Speaker 1: helps paint an accurate picture of life in the meantime.
Speaker 1: This is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's to making
Speaker 1: the most of our time. Thanks for listening to Before Breakfast.
Speaker 1: If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback, you can reach
Speaker 1: me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast
Speaker 1: is a production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts from iHeartMedia,
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