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 if you feel behind on something, you
Speaker 1: often don't have to get caught up in one day.
Speaker 1: Doing a little extra each day over a longer period
Speaker 1: might be more sustainable, and that can close the gap too.
Speaker 1: Today's episode occurred to me when I fell behind in
Speaker 1: my project of listening to all the works of Bach.
Speaker 1: Longtime listeners know that this year I am listening to
Speaker 1: all one thousand plus works that JS Boch composed. I
Speaker 1: have created a calendar of BWV numbers. Those are the
Speaker 1: numbers assigned to each of his compositions, and I usually
Speaker 1: listen to three to four of them each day. Anyway,
Speaker 1: I had been doing quite well with this since January,
Speaker 1: and then my family went to Disney World over President's
Speaker 1: Day weekend. I probably could have found time to listen
Speaker 1: to thirty minutes of back each day while we were there,
Speaker 1: but with the cognitive overload of transporting five kids around
Speaker 1: the parks, I just forgot. I mean it entirely slipped
Speaker 1: my mind. We got back home Monday night, I went
Speaker 1: to my desk on Tuesday morning, and all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: I remembered Bach. At that point, I was five days
Speaker 1: behind in my listening schedule, so I had approximately two
Speaker 1: and a half to three hours of listening to make up.
Speaker 1: So that is kind of a lot, at least to
Speaker 1: do in one day. But then I realized I didn't
Speaker 1: have to do it all in one day. If I
Speaker 1: listened to an extra thirty minutes each day, I could
Speaker 1: close the gap in a week. That pace seemed sustainable.
Speaker 1: I'd also be more aware of the music at that
Speaker 1: pace than if I was just marching through quickly and
Speaker 1: listening to too much of it on any given day.
Speaker 1: So a little bit extra each day is what I did,
Speaker 1: and I was on track soon enough. There was no
Speaker 1: need to stop my project, or for that matter, brate
Speaker 1: myself for forgetting a little extra closes the gap. I
Speaker 1: think this is a good mindset for life. Sometimes, for
Speaker 1: various reasons, we do get behind a set schedule. Sometimes
Speaker 1: that means the schedule wasn't realistic, and that is good
Speaker 1: to know. But sometimes the schedule itself was fine. Life
Speaker 1: just intervened. If that is the case, Rather than giving
Speaker 1: up or pushing too hard, and then as a result
Speaker 1: giving up, it might be possible to find a middle ground.
Speaker 1: A long journey has lots of stages, adding a little
Speaker 1: to each stage for a little while might make it
Speaker 1: possible to get where you are going. So, for instance,
Speaker 1: if a kid has been out of school sick for
Speaker 1: a week, she doesn't probably need to make up all
Speaker 1: of her work on the monday she is back. As
Speaker 1: she talks with her teachers, she might figure out a
Speaker 1: way to make up the work over the course of
Speaker 1: a week or so, so each day is more reasonable.
Speaker 1: If you are training for a race and you are
Speaker 1: trying to hit a certain pace with a long run,
Speaker 1: and you have to stop somewhere during one of your
Speaker 1: miles for a minute, you are probably not going to
Speaker 1: be able to run an entire minute per mile faster
Speaker 1: right afterwards, or at least you won't be able to
Speaker 1: do that and finish. So if you want to make
Speaker 1: up the time, just aimed to run a little faster,
Speaker 1: maybe fifteen seconds per mile faster for four miles, and
Speaker 1: the pace will be more sustainable. Of course, the longer
Speaker 1: you are away from something, the harder it will be
Speaker 1: to get back on track. That's why there is this
Speaker 1: saying to never miss twice. And that's good when you
Speaker 1: can do it. But when your habits truly are sustainable,
Speaker 1: so you are never aiming to do too much on
Speaker 1: any given day, then it will be possible to get
Speaker 1: back on track over a slightly longer period of time.
Speaker 1: I am so glad I am still listening to Bach
Speaker 1: and my five day hiccup didn't encourage me to stop that.
Speaker 1: I just listened to a little extra Bock for five
Speaker 1: days or so, and now I just keep moving forward.
Speaker 1: In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening and
Speaker 1: here to making the most of our time. Thanks for
Speaker 1: listening to Before Breakfast. If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback,
Speaker 1: you can reach me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com.
Speaker 1: Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts
Speaker 1: from iHeartMedia, please visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
Speaker 1: wherever you listen to your favorite shows.