Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning.
Speaker 1: This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
Speaker 1: tip is that when you find yourself with a little
Speaker 1: free time, consider taking a break to just relax. You
Speaker 1: don't always have to do something. Sometimes it's nice to
Speaker 1: just be. You may have noticed that some cities now
Speaker 1: have tiny public spaces tucked in between buildings. These green
Speaker 1: spots have just enough space for some trees, a little grass,
Speaker 1: and a few park benches. Occasionally there's a swing set
Speaker 1: or a fountain. It's not much, but what might have
Speaker 1: been an empty lot or a parking area is activated
Speaker 1: as a space for relaxing and soaking in the outdoors.
Speaker 1: These pocket parks, as they are sometimes called, are refreshing
Speaker 1: oases for city dwellers. They are places to sit outside
Speaker 1: and read a book, sip your coffee, chat with a friend,
Speaker 1: or relax. While any given pocket park is small, taken together,
Speaker 1: they make an urban area feel more lush and inviting.
Speaker 1: I think it's a useful metaphor for our schedules. We
Speaker 1: have lots of buildings stuck in there, meetings, deadlines, bringing
Speaker 1: the kids to soccer, going to that neighborhood hearing. But
Speaker 1: perhaps we can envision tiny oases in between all of that.
Speaker 1: The next time you find yourself with fifteen minutes between things,
Speaker 1: think about pocket parks and consider taking a pocket pause,
Speaker 1: a little spot for relaxation. I like this idea because
Speaker 1: no matter how busy you are, and no matter how
Speaker 1: thoughtfully you plan, you will wind up with stretches of
Speaker 1: time that are on spoken for. If a meeting cancels
Speaker 1: and you have a whole hour that is suddenly free,
Speaker 1: you may want to use it to make progress on
Speaker 1: a big project. But when you have ten minutes between meetings,
Speaker 1: or when you are ready twenty minutes before your friend
Speaker 1: picks you up for the movies, those bits of time
Speaker 1: can be harder to use. Some folks keep lists of
Speaker 1: small tasks to cram into these moments, and I get it.
Speaker 1: It's good to get things done and feel productive, but
Speaker 1: I strongly recommend batching little tasks so they don't take
Speaker 1: over your schedule. When you get a little pocket pause
Speaker 1: in your day, you can just kick your feet up
Speaker 1: and look out the window. You don't even need to
Speaker 1: check email. You can just be I know this is
Speaker 1: hard to imagine, but I think spending a few minutes
Speaker 1: just relaxing has a few upsides. When we are busy,
Speaker 1: this feels kind of extravagant, and that's not a bad thing.
Speaker 1: Taking a pocket pause is the time equivalent of buying
Speaker 1: yourself flowers. You are worth it. But just as a
Speaker 1: handful of pocket parks can make an entire city seem green,
Speaker 1: a handful of pocket pauses in the day can remind
Speaker 1: you that you do have time. How busy can you
Speaker 1: be if you take five minutes, four times a day
Speaker 1: to watch the clouds? If you truly are just relaxing,
Speaker 1: those five minutes stretches are going to seem quite long.
Speaker 1: You will start to feel like your schedule is spacious. Indeed,
Speaker 1: if you take a pocket pause, I'd love to hear
Speaker 1: how it goes. You could reach me at Laura at
Speaker 1: Laura vandercam dot com. In the meantime, this is Laura.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening, and here's to making the most of
Speaker 1: our time. Thanks for listening to Before Breakfast. If you've
Speaker 1: got questions, ideas, or feedback, you can reach me at
Speaker 1: Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast is a
Speaker 1: production of iHeartMedia for more podcasts from iHeartMedia, Please visit
Speaker 1: the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to
Speaker 1: your favorite shows.