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Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. 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 that if you are feeling disengaged or stuck

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Speaker 1: at work, clean out the office fridge. This may seem random,

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Speaker 1: but there are some reasons that doing something at least

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Speaker 1: semi productive might help. Today's tip comes from a recent

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Speaker 1: Harvard Business Review idea cast, podcast and article about what

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Speaker 1: to do when you are feeling unmotivated at work. Harvard

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Speaker 1: Business School professor Boris Grousberg and research associate Robin Abrahamson

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Speaker 1: laid out a four step plan for when you are

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Speaker 1: feeling particularly unmotivated. One of their ideas was to clean

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Speaker 1: out your office fridge. There were a few reasons they

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Speaker 1: suggested this random idea. For one thing, if you clean

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Speaker 1: out the fridge, you stop ruminating about how stuck you

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Speaker 1: are feeling. You are taking a break from the work

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Speaker 1: that had you feeling disengaged or stressed, and you are

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Speaker 1: doing something completely different that in and of itself can

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Speaker 1: boost your mood. By cleaning out the office fridge, you

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Speaker 1: are also doing something to help your coworkers you feel useful.

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Speaker 1: Grousberg and Abrahamson note that doing something that makes you

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Speaker 1: feel useful can help you get unstuck, so you see

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Speaker 1: your own capabilities. Some colleagues may even notice. One might

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Speaker 1: hope and say thanks, which will feel good and foster

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Speaker 1: connection too. If the fridge was previously rather gross, the

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Speaker 1: benefit is that you may be eliminating something you experienced

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Speaker 1: as a daily frustration. Instead of an overstuffed and dirty

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Speaker 1: fridge annoying you every time you go to get cream

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Speaker 1: for your coffee, the clean fridge will contribute to a

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Speaker 1: sense of calm. I like this recommendation to clean out

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Speaker 1: the office fridge because it is so concrete, kind of

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Speaker 1: like the advice to count to ten if you're feeling angry.

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Speaker 1: It gives you something specific to do when you are

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Speaker 1: not at your best. Of course, I should note that

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Speaker 1: Greuzburg and Abrahamson are not recommending a day of proclastic cleaning.

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Speaker 1: Anytime you feel a little bored or stumped at work.

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Speaker 1: You can't spend all your time at work cleaning out

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Speaker 1: the fridge. Also, it's sometimes worth sitting with a hard

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Speaker 1: problem and denying yourself the easy win of doing something else.

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Speaker 1: Sometimes an easy win is just procrastination, but if it's

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Speaker 1: not going to be possible to just sit with the

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Speaker 1: hard problem, then maybe a break to clean the fridge

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Speaker 1: will allow you to accomplish something quickly and then get

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Speaker 1: back to work with renewed energy and positivity. In the meantime,

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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. Thanks for listening to Before Breakfast.

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Speaker 1: If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback, you can reach

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Speaker 1: me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast

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Speaker 1: is a production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts from iHeartMedia,

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Speaker 1: please visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you

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Speaker 1: listen to your favorite shows.