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 to make screen free time more tempting.
Speaker 1: It is not enough to rely on willpower to put
Speaker 1: down the screens. You want to make sure that the
Speaker 1: playing field is fair. I know from talking with many
Speaker 1: people about how they spend their time that lots of
Speaker 1: people are appalled at how many hours they spend staring
Speaker 1: at screens. There is the stuff we have to do,
Speaker 1: of course, like answering your boss's email, but then there
Speaker 1: are copious minutes spent on social media and headline scrolling.
Speaker 1: We might spend evening streaming various entertainment options. Now I
Speaker 1: will say that there is nothing wrong with any of this,
Speaker 1: per se. The question is more the balance. If you'd
Speaker 1: love to read, or do hobbies or get together with friends,
Speaker 1: and you feel like you never have the time, but
Speaker 1: the screen time function on your phone claims you are
Speaker 1: on optional stuff for hours daily, well that is a
Speaker 1: different matter. What's going on is that screen based entertainment
Speaker 1: is designed to be almost irresistibly alluring. Thousands of brilliant
Speaker 1: people have devoted their professional lives to keeping you hooked,
Speaker 1: checking back for the ninetieth time to see if all
Speaker 1: your friends like that post, or starting the next episode.
Speaker 1: Sheer Will Power alone is not going to combat all
Speaker 1: those brilliant people. Instead, you need to make more strategic
Speaker 1: choices to level the playing field, and that means making
Speaker 1: non screen entertainment more tempting. So think about what you'd
Speaker 1: like to do. Do you like to read, Then you
Speaker 1: need to make sure that you always have a book
Speaker 1: you can't wait to read with you. You want it
Speaker 1: to be ready to be picked up whenever you have
Speaker 1: a spare moment. Buy that new bestseller, go to the
Speaker 1: library and get a stack of two dozen books so
Speaker 1: you have one for any mood. Maybe even some brainless
Speaker 1: stuff like pretty coffee table books. If you are looking
Speaker 1: to replicate that scrolling sensation. Make sure you're fun is
Speaker 1: as accessible as possible. If you like to do puzzles,
Speaker 1: common deer, a central table No, maybe not where you
Speaker 1: eat multiple meals a day, but not somewhere far away
Speaker 1: where you are never going to go. You want to
Speaker 1: see your fun frequently. Same with that lego set or
Speaker 1: crafting supplies. If you have to go hunt down your
Speaker 1: art supplies, you aren't going to use them, so get
Speaker 1: over any worries about a little bit of clutter. Better
Speaker 1: to keep them out and use them, then have them
Speaker 1: nicely put away and have them stay nicely put away.
Speaker 1: You should also think about actively filling your leisure time
Speaker 1: with non screen stuff. There are a lot of hours
Speaker 1: during the week, and so I promise that even people
Speaker 1: with jobs and families can make commitments with their leisure time.
Speaker 1: Join that book club or spiritual small group, start taking
Speaker 1: piano or voice lessons, sign up for the softball league.
Speaker 1: You can swap kid coverage with your partner or a
Speaker 1: neighbor or a friend. Or you can find things you
Speaker 1: can do alongside your kids, or at least at the
Speaker 1: same time. Instead of scrolling while your kid is at
Speaker 1: a piano lesson, you take a martial arts class at
Speaker 1: the studio next door. I have been thinking about this
Speaker 1: with my kids as well. One reason we have decided
Speaker 1: to get a really cool outdoor place set is that
Speaker 1: it will be more competitive with screens than a more
Speaker 1: ho hum version. We parked the bikes and pogo sticks
Speaker 1: right outside on the porch so they are there for playing.
Speaker 1: I mean, frankly, we almost trip over them. On the
Speaker 1: way in the door. But that is kind of the
Speaker 1: point you come home from school and think, hey, nice day,
Speaker 1: I could go ride my bike. I have told the
Speaker 1: kids that if they want a particular book, I will
Speaker 1: make sure that they get it. I try to buy
Speaker 1: used books or get books from the library, but I
Speaker 1: am also willing to buy them new. To me, it
Speaker 1: is worth the money because a good book makes non
Speaker 1: screen time a lot more attractive. Screen time fills a
Speaker 1: time vacuu him when we don't think about how we
Speaker 1: want to spend our time, we will spend it on
Speaker 1: whatever is easiest. Since we have our phones with us,
Speaker 1: that tends to be social media and headline scrolling and
Speaker 1: the like. When we make non screen entertainment more tempting,
Speaker 1: though the playing field feels more level. We spend less
Speaker 1: time online, not because we have suddenly gained huge amounts
Speaker 1: of willpower, but just because there's less a morphous time
Speaker 1: that has to be filled with something. It really does
Speaker 1: change the game. If you have taken active steps to
Speaker 1: make screen free time more alluring, I'd love to hear
Speaker 1: what you have done. You can reach me at Laura
Speaker 1: at Laura Vanderkam dot com in the meantime, this is Laura.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening and years to making the most of
Speaker 1: our time. Hey everybody, I'd love to hear from you.
Speaker 1: You can send me your tips, your questions, or anything else.
Speaker 1: Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at
Speaker 1: Before Breakfast pod that's b the number four, then Breakfast
Speaker 1: p o D. You can also shoot me an email
Speaker 1: at Before Breakfast podcast at i heeart media dot com
Speaker 1: that Before Breakfast is spelled out with all the letters.
Speaker 1: Thanks so much, I look forward to staying in touch.
Speaker 1: Before Breakfast is a production of I Heart Radio. For
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