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

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Speaker 2: Good Morning, This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.

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Speaker 2: Today's tip is that you can feel massively more productive

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Speaker 2: and potentially exit a real slump by accomplishing something small. Indeed,

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Speaker 2: in many cases, it is better to aim small and

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Speaker 2: succeed than to aim big and risk losing momentum. So

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Speaker 2: when I am feeling tired but I'm trying not to

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Speaker 2: just scroll around on the internet, I often read decluttering

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Speaker 2: or personal finance books. Don't ask me why. These are

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Speaker 2: just two topics that I find mildly interesting but aren't

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Speaker 2: usually that challenging to read. Anyway, I know that peopleeople

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Speaker 2: who pick up decluttering or personal finance books are often

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Speaker 2: looking to tackle big problems. Their homes look like something

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Speaker 2: on hoarders, or they are in debt and living paycheck

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Speaker 2: to paycheck. Ideally, folks would like to end their decluttering

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Speaker 2: or personal finance projects with pristine and organized homes and

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Speaker 2: with millions in the bank, and that would be great.

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Speaker 2: But when you set that as your goal and you

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Speaker 2: are starting from chaos, you are going to have to

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Speaker 2: change a great many things, and that can be overwhelming.

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Speaker 2: You take everything out of a closet to organize it,

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Speaker 2: and then life intervenes and you have to do something else,

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Speaker 2: and now you just have a messier space because everything

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Speaker 2: that was in the closet is in the middle of

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Speaker 2: the floor. In the personal finance realm, things can get

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Speaker 2: even diceiers People do stupid things like investing their limited

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Speaker 2: friends in crypto in the hope that they will get

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Speaker 2: rich quick and be able to solve huge financial problems.

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Speaker 2: So that is why the most useful books recommend starting small.

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Speaker 2: Don't try to clean the whole house. Just do your dishes,

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Speaker 2: just organize one drawer, or in the case of your finances,

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Speaker 2: you might just cancel one recurring payment. You might pack

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Speaker 2: your lunch one day, or pick up your weekends entertainment

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Speaker 2: from the library on Friday and enjoy that instead of

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Speaker 2: going out. You might agree to pick up a few

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Speaker 2: extra hours of work just for the next three weeks.

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Speaker 2: You choose a project you can complete in a small

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Speaker 2: amount of time, and then you celebrate your victory, and

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Speaker 2: sure it is small, but tomorrow will be another day,

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Speaker 2: and on that day you can tackle something else that

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Speaker 2: is small. Eventually, all these small things will add up

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Speaker 2: to something that is not so small. Maybe you have

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Speaker 2: sixty drawers in your house. If you are patient and

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Speaker 2: you tackle just one a day, in two months, you

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Speaker 2: will have gone through all those drawers. Maybe in another

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Speaker 2: month you could have tackled every shelf in every closet.

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Speaker 2: In another two months, you could have tackled various spots

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Speaker 2: like your bedside table, one hook in the mudroom, one

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Speaker 2: box in the hallway. In six months, you would have

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Speaker 2: an organized and clean home. But if you aim for big, hairy,

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Speaker 2: audacious goals all at once, you will just wind up

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Speaker 2: with that pile of stuff in the middle of the floor.

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Speaker 2: And maybe you'll tackle it here and there, but it

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Speaker 2: is hard to see progress and you will likely get discouraged.

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Speaker 2: Six months will pass one way or another, but if

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Speaker 2: you get discouraged, you won't make progress. If you take

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Speaker 2: tiny steps every day, you will I try to keep

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Speaker 2: this in mind whenever I am assigning myself projects. If

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Speaker 2: I try to clean the whole house at a weekend,

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Speaker 2: I will feel like I am spending all my time

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Speaker 2: cleaning and I probably won't accomplish much. But if I

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Speaker 2: aim to tackle just my bedroom or just my closet,

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Speaker 2: it will likely happen. Indeed, accomplishing something small can pull

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Speaker 2: us out of a slump. If you are feeling unproductive

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Speaker 2: or like you are not getting much done, do something

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Speaker 2: you know you can get done. Organize your junk drawer,

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Speaker 2: clean out your fridge, or cancel those subscriptions you're not using. No,

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Speaker 2: it is not huge, but it is doable. And when

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Speaker 2: we teach ourselves that we can do things, we start

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Speaker 2: to have confidence to do more. Tackling something small eventually

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Speaker 2: allows us to do things that are big. In the meantime.

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Speaker 2: This is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's to making

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Speaker 2: the most of our time.

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Speaker 1: Hey everybody, I'd love to hear from you. You can

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Speaker 1: send me your tips, your questions, or anything else. Just

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Speaker 1: connect with me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at Before

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Speaker 1: Breakfast Pod that's b E the number four then Breakfast pod.

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Speaker 1: You can also shoot me an email at Before Breakfast

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Speaker 1: podcast at iHeartMedia dot com. That Before Breakfast is spelled

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Speaker 1: out with all the letters. Thanks so much, I look

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Speaker 1: forward to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is a production

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Speaker 1: of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app,

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Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows,