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 how to avoid the biggest time
Speaker 1: waster of all, which is probably not what you think
Speaker 1: it is. People often ask me what's responsible for the
Speaker 1: bulk of wasted time, and certainly there are many culprits. TV,
Speaker 1: internet surfing, social media, pointless meetings all consume more hours
Speaker 1: than people often like. But after studying thousands of time logs,
Speaker 1: I think the biggest time waster is something entirely different.
Speaker 1: It's letting time pass mindlessly. When we don't think about
Speaker 1: how we'd like to spend our time, we tend not
Speaker 1: to spend it on our top priorities. We spend our
Speaker 1: time on whatever is right in front of us, other
Speaker 1: people's priorities, for instance, and things that are urgent but
Speaker 1: not important. When we do spend time intentionally, though, we
Speaker 1: can make space for all kinds of wonderful things, even
Speaker 1: in the midst of a very full life. Here are
Speaker 1: some examples of how mindlessness wastes time. You don't think
Speaker 1: about what you need to do during the work day
Speaker 1: or how long things will take, so when you show up,
Speaker 1: You wait into your inbox, then before you know it,
Speaker 1: it's time for your first meeting, which is at ten
Speaker 1: thirty am. When you get back, you realized you've got
Speaker 1: a complicated assignment due tomorrow, but of course there's no
Speaker 1: large time block anywhere. In between meetings, you chip away,
Speaker 1: but you're still dealing with the inbox, And finally, at
Speaker 1: five pm, the meetings are over, but you've still got
Speaker 1: this assignment. You spend the evening at work instead of
Speaker 1: doing something fun. It winds up taking you two hours
Speaker 1: of focus time. But here's the thing. You normally get
Speaker 1: to work around eight thirty am. You could have done
Speaker 1: your assignment between eight thirty and ten thirty am and
Speaker 1: still had plenty of email time the rest of the day.
Speaker 1: You could have left at five pm instead of seven pm,
Speaker 1: or laid here since you didn't think about it, though
Speaker 1: you didn't wasted time. This happens in our personal lives too.
Speaker 1: You get home tired on Friday evening and just turn
Speaker 1: on the TV. Your spouse flits in and out of
Speaker 1: the room, sometimes watching, sometimes perusing something on his or
Speaker 1: her phone. Eventually you both realize you're hungry, so you
Speaker 1: eat what's there and fall asleep in front of the TV.
Speaker 1: You wake up and putter around. Finally, around midday, you
Speaker 1: start thinking about what you might want to do that evening,
Speaker 1: but you don't have any ideas. Big chunks of the
Speaker 1: weekend feel uninspiring. Indeed, you've done nothing of note in
Speaker 1: the first twenty four hours you're off work, But you
Speaker 1: don't feel like you're relaxed either, because you keep passing
Speaker 1: the unsorted mail pile and undone household projects that make
Speaker 1: you feel guilty. Spending time more mindfully might mean having
Speaker 1: a conversation with your spouse about the weekend beforehand. You guys,
Speaker 1: get tickets to a show on Saturday night and ask
Speaker 1: some neighbors to join you. Now you have a fun
Speaker 1: plan to look forward to. You also make a reservation
Speaker 1: at that hip restaurant for Friday night. You still don't
Speaker 1: have to cook, but now you're eating much better. You
Speaker 1: check the weather and see it will be rainy Saturday afternoon,
Speaker 1: but Saturday morning will be perfect, so you get up
Speaker 1: early enough to go for a long bike ride. Now
Speaker 1: the weekend feels like you've done lots of interesting things,
Speaker 1: and it's just by spending time mindfully. Now don't worry.
Speaker 1: I know some people are planners and some aren't. I'm
Speaker 1: not saying you should plan every minute. Some people like
Speaker 1: to get together with friends on Friday night and then
Speaker 1: just wander a cool neighborhood seeing what restaurants look appealing.
Speaker 1: That's totally fine. You might decide to visit a farmer's
Speaker 1: market you've read about that's an hour away, and then
Speaker 1: see whatever adventures await you in that town. Being mindful
Speaker 1: leaves plenty of space for serendipity, but being mindless kind
Speaker 1: of bats serendipity away. There won't be much serendipity if
Speaker 1: you're sitting in your house channel surfing in the means time.
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 the number four,
Speaker 1: then Breakfast p o D. You can also shoot me
Speaker 1: an email at Before Breakfast Podcast at i heeart media
Speaker 1: dot com that Before Breakfast is spelled out with all
Speaker 1: the letters. Thanks so much. I look forward to staying
Speaker 1: in Touch Before Breakfast is a production of I heart Radio.
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