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Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 2: Good Morning.

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Speaker 1: This is Laura, Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's

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Speaker 1: tip is to notice your free time. It is easy

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Speaker 1: to tell ourselves a story of having no time for ourselves,

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Speaker 1: but not as much as I want. Is a different

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Speaker 1: story from none. Best to notice the free time that

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Speaker 1: does exist and make the most of it. The other night,

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Speaker 1: I spent a delightful forty five minutes reading on my hammock.

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Speaker 1: My four year old was playing a video game with

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Speaker 1: my husband, and the older kids were all occupied. I

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Speaker 1: had done my work for the day and there were

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Speaker 1: no pressing chores, so I grabbed a book and went

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Speaker 1: out and enjoyed the early air. Because I track my time,

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Speaker 1: I put that lovely forty five minutes on my time log.

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Speaker 1: Doing so meant that, no matter what else happened that week,

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Speaker 1: I knew I was still the kind of person who

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Speaker 1: had time to read on the hammock. I could try

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Speaker 1: to tell myself that I'm harried and frenzied, starve for time,

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Speaker 1: But Laura, did you see that hammock entry. The reason

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Speaker 1: this matters is that I have seen a lot of

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Speaker 1: people decide that they truly have no free time whatsoever.

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Speaker 2: And I get it. We are all working hard, we

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Speaker 2: are all working long, we all have other responsibilities too.

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Speaker 2: I am not saying anyone is living at the spa.

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Speaker 2: But the problem is that when the story is none,

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Speaker 2: we discount the leisure time that does exist. I once

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Speaker 2: had some one show me a time log with a

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Speaker 2: complaint about her lack of free time. The time log

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Speaker 2: showed several hours spent at the spa. This person put

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Speaker 2: a note next to this entry saying, this never happens. Oh,

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Speaker 2: come on, I'm sure it doesn't happen daily or even

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Speaker 2: all that frequently, But clearly it doesn't never happen either,

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Speaker 2: So why not celebrate that you did make time during

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Speaker 2: your busy life for some relaxation. When we tell ourselves

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Speaker 2: a story that we have no free time, we don't

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Speaker 2: enjoy the free time we have as much. We discount

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Speaker 2: it as too short, or too infrequent, or stolen from

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Speaker 2: something else. When we notice our free time, on the

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Speaker 2: other hand, we can look forward to it and savor it.

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Speaker 2: We can figure out how to carve out more such

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Speaker 2: intentional moments in our lives. So as you go about

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Speaker 2: your day, notice when you do have some discretionary time,

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Speaker 2: what do you do with it? Often we pick up

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Speaker 2: our foonds and scroll, but there are other options. Maybe

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Speaker 2: try tracking your time for a week and seeing when

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Speaker 2: leisure time does appear. It's probably not much, but thirty

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Speaker 2: minutes to read at night isn't nothing. An hour to

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Speaker 2: relax while everyone is occupied isn't nothing. Best to notice

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Speaker 2: and enjoy what we can in the meantime. This is Laura.

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Speaker 2: Thanks for listening, and here's to making the most of

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Speaker 2: our times. Thanks for listening to Before Breakfast. If you've

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Speaker 2: got questions, ideas, or feedback, you can reach.

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Speaker 1: Me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com.

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Speaker 2: Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts

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Speaker 2: from iHeartMedia, please visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or

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Speaker 2: wherever you listen to your favorite shows.