Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: Good Morning, This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Speaker 2: Today's tip is that you don't need to fill time.
Speaker 3: If you've got a light hour, a light day, a
Speaker 3: light week, or even longer, you don't necessarily need to
Speaker 3: go looking for something to do. If you tend to
Speaker 3: be a frenetic sort of person, just try sitting with
Speaker 3: it and see what comes to you. I collect a
Speaker 3: lot of literary quotes, and one that stood out for
Speaker 3: me is from Edith Wharton's book Twilight's Sleep. She describes
Speaker 3: a character's thoughts this way an hour, why there was
Speaker 3: no way of measuring the length of an empty hour.
Speaker 3: It stretched away into infinity, like the endless road in
Speaker 3: a nightmare. It gaped before her like the slippery sides
Speaker 3: of an abyss. Nervously, she began to wonder what she
Speaker 3: could do to fill it. It is a little absurd
Speaker 3: to be this terrified of open time, but lots of
Speaker 3: us react that way, much as we complain about having
Speaker 3: no free time whatsoever. People don't necessarily like open space.
Speaker 3: They worry they won't be needed at work if they
Speaker 3: don't look busy all the time they put her around
Speaker 3: the house, or fill time with electronic entertainment. But I
Speaker 3: have found that when you don't fill time with whatever
Speaker 3: is right there in front of you, something exciting tends
Speaker 3: to happen. Maybe you respond to a message you wouldn't
Speaker 3: have read when you were swamped with something else. The
Speaker 3: next thing you know, you've got a big new project
Speaker 3: headed your way, or you read an article all the
Speaker 3: way to the end and come up with some big
Speaker 3: new idea. A colleague stops by and you actually chat
Speaker 3: and come to some new conclusions that save you all
Speaker 3: sorts of time and money. Now does that always happen? Nope,
Speaker 3: not at all. Sometimes open time just feels like you
Speaker 3: are sitting there. But I do think that open space
Speaker 3: invites opportunity in a way a cluttered calendar can't, and
Speaker 3: more opportunity tends to be a good thing. We may
Speaker 3: as well take it when we can. I am often
Speaker 3: giving advice on how to clear the clutter out of
Speaker 3: a calendar. But sometimes a calendar naturally has less clutter
Speaker 3: than other times. Maybe it's a slow season. Lots of
Speaker 3: people experience that in summer. Maybe you're coming out of
Speaker 3: a big project and the next one isn't starting for
Speaker 3: a bit. No doubt you could fill this time, but
Speaker 3: you don't have to. You could see what happens. You
Speaker 3: could see what you come up with and what you
Speaker 3: think about and how you'd like to spend your time.
Speaker 3: You could see who you seek out to talk to.
Speaker 3: You could see where those conversations go. Either way, just
Speaker 3: because you are not busy doesn't mean you need to
Speaker 3: change your criteria of whether something is good to take on.
Speaker 3: If you wouldn't be excited about a meeting or a project,
Speaker 3: if you were absolutely slammed with other things, then you
Speaker 3: don't need to take it on just because you aren't slammed.
Speaker 3: Don't fill time. I know this is hard, but if
Speaker 3: you believe as I do, that open space invites opportunity
Speaker 3: in a way that a cluttered calendar can't, then closing
Speaker 3: off the possibility of something that is an eight or
Speaker 3: nine or ten on a ten point scale just to
Speaker 3: fill that time with a four or a five seems silly.
Speaker 3: Life offers up all sorts of possibilities. Sometimes you just
Speaker 3: need to be patient. In the meantime, this is Laura,
Speaker 3: Thanks for listening, and here's to making the most of
Speaker 3: our time.
Speaker 1: I'd love to hear from you. You can send me
Speaker 1: your tips, your questions, or anything else. Just connect with
Speaker 1: me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at Before Breakfast Pod.
Speaker 1: That's b E the number four then Breakfast pod. You
Speaker 1: can also shoot me an email at Before Breakfast Podcasts.
Speaker 1: At iHeartMedia dot com that Before Breakfast is spelled out
Speaker 1: with all the letters. Thanks so much, should I look
Speaker 1: forward to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is a production
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Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.