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 to time the little things. In our
Speaker 1: efforts to streamline our lives, we can become obsessed with
Speaker 1: minimizing or avoiding certain tasks. But instead of wondering how
Speaker 1: long something takes, you can set a timer and find out.
Speaker 1: Then you can make an informed decision about whether or
Speaker 1: not a given activity is worth getting worked up about.
Speaker 1: I think about the duration of little tasks every time
Speaker 1: I empty the dishwasher. Trust me, I have never liked
Speaker 1: emptying the dishwasher. I don't know that anyone does. And
Speaker 1: before I began studying time, if someone asked me how
Speaker 1: long I spent emptying the dishwasher each week, I might
Speaker 1: have given some ridiculous figure like three hours. So tasks
Speaker 1: seemed to take forever because they're an engaging You are
Speaker 1: not using your skills, you are not being challenged. These
Speaker 1: tasks just have to get done. And so the tendency
Speaker 1: is to look for ways to be efficient or to
Speaker 1: chuck these tasks from our lists. And I would see
Speaker 1: that I could grab more plates at a time, or
Speaker 1: grab a bowl with my left hand and a glass
Speaker 1: with my right hand, because that corresponds with the locations
Speaker 1: in my cupboards. I played around with loading the dishwasher
Speaker 1: so that more of the spoons were on one side
Speaker 1: of the silver ware compartment and more forks on the other.
Speaker 1: Then I elected to time the process. Emptying the dishwasher
Speaker 1: takes five minutes. Since this chore is shared across multiple
Speaker 1: people in my house, I'm probably devoting fifteen minutes a
Speaker 1: week to it. This is less time than I spend
Speaker 1: staring off into space forgetting what I came into a
Speaker 1: room for. I think I can safely stop fretting that
Speaker 1: emptying the dishwasher is keeping me from living the life
Speaker 1: I want. I'm sure we can all think of these
Speaker 1: movements of seeming inefficiency. Waiting for an older garage door
Speaker 1: to go up, you are doing nothing and nothing is
Speaker 1: being asked of you. You are very aware of your
Speaker 1: time because you are waiting, and so sometimes you get
Speaker 1: impatient and just park outside. But even a very rickety
Speaker 1: old door takes maybe fifteen seconds twenty seconds. You don't
Speaker 1: need to use that time to survey your to do list.
Speaker 1: You can just sit there, take a few deep breaths,
Speaker 1: recite something motivational or not, you'll be okay. Sometimes putting
Speaker 1: in a few inefficient minutes can even improve a situation.
Speaker 1: I have very straight hair that looks better if I
Speaker 1: use a curling iron to put a few waves in it.
Speaker 1: And I used to overestimate how much time it took
Speaker 1: me to get ready for things when I needed to
Speaker 1: look presentable, until I realized that I can brush my
Speaker 1: teeth in the minute it takes for the iron to
Speaker 1: heat up, and then I can put in my waves
Speaker 1: in about four minutes. Building this into my getting ready
Speaker 1: routine doesn't actually require waking up twenty minutes early, So
Speaker 1: why not take the extra four minutes and feel more confident?
Speaker 1: Even that cliche of boring unengaged time waiting for a
Speaker 1: pot to boil doesn't take that long. An electric kettle
Speaker 1: can boil enough water for two cups of tea and
Speaker 1: about three and a half minutes. Boiling enough water for
Speaker 1: a single serving of spaghetti or oatmeal in a pot
Speaker 1: on the stove is similar. If you just stood there
Speaker 1: watching it, you would hardly notice the difference in your life.
Speaker 1: You certainly aren't winning some major efficiency award by using
Speaker 1: the time to delete emails instead, And I'd argue that
Speaker 1: sometimes wasting little bits of time has an upside. Just
Speaker 1: as a wealthy person doesn't fret about the price of
Speaker 1: apples and whether they were ten cents cheaper last week,
Speaker 1: a person within an abundant perspective on time doesn't fret
Speaker 1: about the occasional inefficiency. You have more than enough time
Speaker 1: for what you want to do in life. Waiting a
Speaker 1: few seconds for the garage door to go up is
Speaker 1: like saying keep the change. A schedule doesn't feel less crazy,
Speaker 1: and a life doesn't feel richer because of a few
Speaker 1: seconds shaved off here and there. Indeed, the opposite is
Speaker 1: probably true. A little inefficiency can make you feel time rich,
Speaker 1: and these moments of abundance feel good. So if you're
Speaker 1: getting impatient about tiny bits of time, get some facts
Speaker 1: time yourself and see how long these demands on your
Speaker 1: time actually take. Then you can make an informed decision
Speaker 1: about whether they're really burdens. In the meantime, This is Laura,
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening, and here's to making the most of
Speaker 1: our time. Hey, everybody, I'd love to hear from you.
Speaker 1: You can send me your tips, your questions, or anything else.
Speaker 1: Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at
Speaker 1: Before Breakfast pod. That's B the number four, then Breakfast
Speaker 1: p o D. You can also shoot me an email
Speaker 1: at Before Breakfast podcast at iHeartMedia dot com that Before
Speaker 1: Breakfast is spelled out with all the letters. Thanks so much,
Speaker 1: I look forward to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is
Speaker 1: a production of I heart Radio. For more podcasts from
Speaker 1: my heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
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