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Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.

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Speaker 1: Good Morning, This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.

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Speaker 1: Today's tip is that there is no such thing as

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Speaker 1: productivity debt. Rather than viewing each day as a race

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Speaker 1: to catch up, why not view anything more than getting

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Speaker 1: through the day as a big win That can make

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Speaker 1: getting things done a lot more pleasant. Today's tip comes

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Speaker 1: from a recent conversation between Sarah Hart Hunger and Oliver Berkman. Sarah,

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Speaker 1: who co hosts my other podcast, Best of Both Worlds,

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Speaker 1: is also the host of a podcast called Best Laid Plans.

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Speaker 1: Oliver is the author of the book four Thousand Weeks

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Speaker 1: Time Management for Mortals. Oliver's book notes that we will

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Speaker 1: all die not having done the vast majority of the

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Speaker 1: things we could do. On some level, that sounds depressing,

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Speaker 1: but on another level it's pretty liberating. As he told

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Speaker 1: Sarah on Best Laid Plans, given our inevitable mortality and

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Speaker 1: the limit on what we can do, there is no

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Speaker 1: productivity debt. You don't wake up in debt, and if

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Speaker 1: you work hard all day maybe you will get to

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Speaker 1: zero instead. Given that we will never do all the

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Speaker 1: things we could do, why not view each day as

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Speaker 1: a zero baseline, and anything you get done beyond sitting

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Speaker 1: in bed eating potato chips is a big win. You

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Speaker 1: don't need to struggle to save yourself and to justify

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Speaker 1: your existence through what you do. You are here as

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Speaker 1: you are, and whatever progress you make is great. Now,

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Speaker 1: perhaps that sounds like giving up, but the truth is

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Speaker 1: we often flounder around precisely because we feel like we

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Speaker 1: have so much to do and we are constantly behind.

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Speaker 1: We flit from thing to thing and stay connected when

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Speaker 1: focus would be better because we are so behind on

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Speaker 1: email and messages and whatever else. But if you accept

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Speaker 1: that getting any task done is a victory, all of

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Speaker 1: this becomes a lot less stressful. You see something you

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Speaker 1: feel it would be good to do, and you do it,

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Speaker 1: and then you do something else, and doing this you

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Speaker 1: wind up getting a lot done. It is still not

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Speaker 1: much compared with the void of the universe, but it

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Speaker 1: is never going to be much. At least it is something.

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Speaker 1: When I am having a day that doesn't feel particularly productive,

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Speaker 1: I try to adopt this mindset. Maybe I didn't come

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Speaker 1: up with the next perfect book idea, but there are

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Speaker 1: a great many books I could write but won't because

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Speaker 1: I will shuffle off this mortal coil before I get

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Speaker 1: to them. Maybe I wrote a blog post in it

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Speaker 1: made someone smile, or someone listened to one of the

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Speaker 1: thousand Existing Before Breakfast episodes and had a slightly happier

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Speaker 1: day as result. I don't have to justify my existence,

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Speaker 1: as no one has to justify their existence. But if

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Speaker 1: the base line is zero, any little bit of progress

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Speaker 1: can be celebrated as a win. Maybe you can tell

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Speaker 1: yourself the same thing. You don't wake up in productivity

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Speaker 1: debt and need to work it off. You wake up

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Speaker 1: with a day in front of you that can be

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Speaker 1: filled with something. What you fill it with is at

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Speaker 1: least partially up to you. There should be no pressure

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Speaker 1: to bend the ark of the universe, because frankly, no

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Speaker 1: one is going to bend the arc of the universe.

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Speaker 1: Without that pressure, you can just do what you'd like

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Speaker 1: to do or what you feel needs doing, and go

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Speaker 1: to bed satisfied that you made those choices. That sounds

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Speaker 1: like a much happier way to live. 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. Hey, everybody, I'd love to

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Speaker 1: hear from you. You can send me your tips, your questions,

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Speaker 1: or anything else. Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook

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Speaker 1: and Instagram at Before Breakfast Pod. That's b E the

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Speaker 1: number four, then breakfast p o D. You can also

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Speaker 1: shoot me an email at Before Breakfast podcast at iHeartMedia

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Speaker 1: dot com that Before Breakfast is spelled out with all

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Speaker 1: the letters. Thanks so much, should I look forward to

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Speaker 1: staying in touch. Before Breakfast is a production of I

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Speaker 1: heart Radio. For more podcasts from I heart Radio, visit

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Speaker 1: the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you

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Speaker 1: listen to your favorite shows. Yea