Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Good Morning, This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Speaker 1: Today's tip is that there is no such thing as
Speaker 1: productivity debt. Rather than viewing each day as a race
Speaker 1: to catch up, why not view anything more than getting
Speaker 1: through the day as a big win That can make
Speaker 1: getting things done a lot more pleasant. Today's tip comes
Speaker 1: from a recent conversation between Sarah Hart Hunger and Oliver Berkman. Sarah,
Speaker 1: who co hosts my other podcast, Best of Both Worlds,
Speaker 1: is also the host of a podcast called Best Laid Plans.
Speaker 1: Oliver is the author of the book four Thousand Weeks
Speaker 1: Time Management for Mortals. Oliver's book notes that we will
Speaker 1: all die not having done the vast majority of the
Speaker 1: things we could do. On some level, that sounds depressing,
Speaker 1: but on another level it's pretty liberating. As he told
Speaker 1: Sarah on Best Laid Plans, given our inevitable mortality and
Speaker 1: the limit on what we can do, there is no
Speaker 1: productivity debt. You don't wake up in debt, and if
Speaker 1: you work hard all day maybe you will get to
Speaker 1: zero instead. Given that we will never do all the
Speaker 1: things we could do, why not view each day as
Speaker 1: a zero baseline, and anything you get done beyond sitting
Speaker 1: in bed eating potato chips is a big win. You
Speaker 1: don't need to struggle to save yourself and to justify
Speaker 1: your existence through what you do. You are here as
Speaker 1: you are, and whatever progress you make is great. Now,
Speaker 1: perhaps that sounds like giving up, but the truth is
Speaker 1: we often flounder around precisely because we feel like we
Speaker 1: have so much to do and we are constantly behind.
Speaker 1: We flit from thing to thing and stay connected when
Speaker 1: focus would be better because we are so behind on
Speaker 1: email and messages and whatever else. But if you accept
Speaker 1: that getting any task done is a victory, all of
Speaker 1: this becomes a lot less stressful. You see something you
Speaker 1: feel it would be good to do, and you do it,
Speaker 1: and then you do something else, and doing this you
Speaker 1: wind up getting a lot done. It is still not
Speaker 1: much compared with the void of the universe, but it
Speaker 1: is never going to be much. At least it is something.
Speaker 1: When I am having a day that doesn't feel particularly productive,
Speaker 1: I try to adopt this mindset. Maybe I didn't come
Speaker 1: up with the next perfect book idea, but there are
Speaker 1: a great many books I could write but won't because
Speaker 1: I will shuffle off this mortal coil before I get
Speaker 1: to them. Maybe I wrote a blog post in it
Speaker 1: made someone smile, or someone listened to one of the
Speaker 1: thousand Existing Before Breakfast episodes and had a slightly happier
Speaker 1: day as result. I don't have to justify my existence,
Speaker 1: as no one has to justify their existence. But if
Speaker 1: the base line is zero, any little bit of progress
Speaker 1: can be celebrated as a win. Maybe you can tell
Speaker 1: yourself the same thing. You don't wake up in productivity
Speaker 1: debt and need to work it off. You wake up
Speaker 1: with a day in front of you that can be
Speaker 1: filled with something. What you fill it with is at
Speaker 1: least partially up to you. There should be no pressure
Speaker 1: to bend the ark of the universe, because frankly, no
Speaker 1: one is going to bend the arc of the universe.
Speaker 1: Without that pressure, you can just do what you'd like
Speaker 1: to do or what you feel needs doing, and go
Speaker 1: to bed satisfied that you made those choices. That sounds
Speaker 1: like a much happier way to live. In the meantime,
Speaker 1: This is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's to making
Speaker 1: the most of our time. Hey, everybody, I'd love to
Speaker 1: hear from you. You can send me your tips, your questions,
Speaker 1: or anything else. Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook
Speaker 1: and Instagram at Before Breakfast Pod. That's b E the
Speaker 1: number four, then breakfast p o D. You can also
Speaker 1: shoot me an email at Before Breakfast podcast at iHeartMedia
Speaker 1: dot com that Before Breakfast is spelled out with all
Speaker 1: the letters. Thanks so much, should I look forward to
Speaker 1: staying in touch. Before Breakfast is a production of I
Speaker 1: heart Radio. For more podcasts from I heart Radio, visit
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Speaker 1: listen to your favorite shows. Yea