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Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.

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Speaker 1: Good Morning, This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.

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Speaker 1: Today's tip is about how to avoid the biggest time

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Speaker 1: waster of all, which is probably not what you think

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Speaker 1: it is. People often ask me what's responsible for the

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Speaker 1: bulk of wasted time, and certainly there are many culprits. TV,

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Speaker 1: internet surfing, social media, pointless meetings all consume more hours

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Speaker 1: than people often like. But after studying thousands of time logs,

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Speaker 1: I think the biggest time waster is something entirely different.

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Speaker 1: It's letting time pass mindlessly. When we don't think about

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Speaker 1: how we'd like to spend our time, we tend not

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Speaker 1: to spend it on our top priorities. We spend our

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Speaker 1: time on whatever is right in front of us, other

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Speaker 1: people's priorities, for instance, and things that are urgent but

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Speaker 1: not important. When we do spend time intentionally, though, we

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Speaker 1: can make space for all kinds of wonderful things, even

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Speaker 1: in the midst of a very full life. Here are

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Speaker 1: some examples of how mindlessness wastes time. You don't think

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Speaker 1: about what you need to do during the work day

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Speaker 1: or how long things will take, so when you show up,

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Speaker 1: You wait into your inbox, then before you know it,

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Speaker 1: it's time for your first meeting, which is at ten

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Speaker 1: thirty am. When you get back, you realized you've got

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Speaker 1: a complicated assignment due tomorrow, but of course there's no

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Speaker 1: large time block anywhere. In between meetings, you chip away,

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Speaker 1: but you're still dealing with the inbox, And finally, at

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Speaker 1: five pm, the meetings are over, but you've still got

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Speaker 1: this assignment. You spend the evening at work instead of

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Speaker 1: doing something fun. It winds up taking you two hours

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Speaker 1: of focus time. But here's the thing. You normally get

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Speaker 1: to work around eight thirty am. You could have done

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Speaker 1: your assignment between eight thirty and ten thirty am and

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Speaker 1: still had plenty of email time the rest of the day.

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Speaker 1: You could have left at five pm instead of seven pm,

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Speaker 1: or laid here since you didn't think about it, though

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Speaker 1: you didn't wasted time. This happens in our personal lives too.

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Speaker 1: You get home tired on Friday evening and just turn

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Speaker 1: on the TV. Your spouse flits in and out of

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Speaker 1: the room, sometimes watching, sometimes perusing something on his or

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Speaker 1: her phone. Eventually you both realize you're hungry, so you

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Speaker 1: eat what's there and fall asleep in front of the TV.

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Speaker 1: You wake up and putter around. Finally, around midday, you

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Speaker 1: start thinking about what you might want to do that evening,

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Speaker 1: but you don't have any ideas. Big chunks of the

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Speaker 1: weekend feel uninspiring. Indeed, you've done nothing of note in

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Speaker 1: the first twenty four hours you're off work, But you

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Speaker 1: don't feel like you're relaxed either, because you keep passing

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Speaker 1: the unsorted mail pile and undone household projects that make

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Speaker 1: you feel guilty. Spending time more mindfully might mean having

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Speaker 1: a conversation with your spouse about the weekend beforehand. You guys,

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Speaker 1: get tickets to a show on Saturday night and ask

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Speaker 1: some neighbors to join you. Now you have a fun

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Speaker 1: plan to look forward to. You also make a reservation

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Speaker 1: at that hip restaurant for Friday night. You still don't

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Speaker 1: have to cook, but now you're eating much better. You

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Speaker 1: check the weather and see it will be rainy Saturday afternoon,

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Speaker 1: but Saturday morning will be perfect, so you get up

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Speaker 1: early enough to go for a long bike ride. Now

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Speaker 1: the weekend feels like you've done lots of interesting things,

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Speaker 1: and it's just by spending time mindfully. Now don't worry.

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Speaker 1: I know some people are planners and some aren't. I'm

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Speaker 1: not saying you should plan every minute. Some people like

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Speaker 1: to get together with friends on Friday night and then

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Speaker 1: just wander a cool neighborhood seeing what restaurants look appealing.

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Speaker 1: That's totally fine. You might decide to visit a farmer's

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Speaker 1: market you've read about that's an hour away, and then

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Speaker 1: see whatever adventures await you in that town. Being mindful

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Speaker 1: leaves plenty of space for serendipity, but being mindless kind

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Speaker 1: of bats serendipity away. There won't be much serendipity if

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Speaker 1: you're sitting in your house channel surfing in the means time.

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Speaker 1: This is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's to making

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Speaker 1: the most of our time. Hey, everybody, I'd love to

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Speaker 1: hear from you. You can send me your tips, your questions,

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Speaker 1: or anything else. Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook,

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Speaker 1: and Instagram at Before Breakfast Pod that's B the number four,

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Speaker 1: then Breakfast p o D. You can also shoot me

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Speaker 1: an email at Before Breakfast Podcast at i heeart media

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Speaker 1: dot com that Before Breakfast is spelled out with all

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Speaker 1: the letters. Thanks so much. I look forward to staying

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Speaker 1: in Touch Before Breakfast is a production of I heart Radio.

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