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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 to tackle one spot when you are

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Speaker 1: faced with an overwhelming project, Limiting the scope can make

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Speaker 1: you feel productive rather than defeated, and that is a

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Speaker 1: much better way to go through life. Like many people,

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Speaker 1: I've been spending a lot of time in my house

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Speaker 1: over the past few months. Not so coincidentally, other family

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Speaker 1: members have also been spending a lot of time in

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Speaker 1: the house. All of our stuff stacks up. I looked

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Speaker 1: around recently and realized that, among other things, the Toy

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Speaker 1: Advent calendars from last Christmas were still sitting on a

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Speaker 1: shelf by the dining room. The mail spot contained a

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Speaker 1: stack of Christmas cards from twenty nineteen. I had a

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Speaker 1: baby on December twenty nine of last year, so that

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Speaker 1: somewhat explains how everything got frozen in time right after

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Speaker 1: the holidays, and it has past time to tackle the mess.

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Speaker 1: But of course, the baby and his siblings and my

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Speaker 1: job sort of limit the time available. So I came

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Speaker 1: to this realization, I don't have to think of this

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Speaker 1: job as decluttering and cleaning the whole house, which sounds impossible. Instead,

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Speaker 1: I can think of the job as a series of

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Speaker 1: much smaller projects. There's the mail pile, There's the shelf

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Speaker 1: where I stash the advent calendars. There has each child's

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Speaker 1: been in the mudroom each weekend. I can tackle one

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Speaker 1: or maybe two of these spots. No, the house never

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Speaker 1: winds up in a pristine state in this method, but

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Speaker 1: at least one spot will look better. I can look

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Speaker 1: at that one spot and feel like I've gotten something done.

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Speaker 1: Maybe you too are trying to declute, or after months

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Speaker 1: of staying at home, maybe you too are finding it overwhelming.

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Speaker 1: We watch shows like The Home Edit and picture a

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Speaker 1: team swooping in to do the whole place in a night.

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Speaker 1: It's a fun fantasy, but it's just a fantasy for

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Speaker 1: those of us with normal lives and normal schedules. But

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Speaker 1: you don't have to do everything to do something. For

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Speaker 1: any project, find a very small aspect of it that

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Speaker 1: you can do. Not the whole garage, one shelf in

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Speaker 1: the garage, one box in the garage, not the whole basement,

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Speaker 1: just the pile of stuffed animals. You can find twenty

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Speaker 1: minutes for this at some point during the week or weekend,

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Speaker 1: and if that's your whole goal, you'll have done what

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Speaker 1: you set out to do. Progress is always motivational. In

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Speaker 1: any case, I made it through the mail pile. I

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Speaker 1: actually found twenty dollars in there, so that was highly motivational,

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Speaker 1: beyond my sense of making progress. On another day, I

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Speaker 1: dumped all the Advent calendars, just in time for Advent

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Speaker 1: to start again in a few weeks. Of course, I

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Speaker 1: tackled two extra tables in the dining room at a

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Speaker 1: different point. The house doesn't look like a magazine, but

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Speaker 1: those spots look better, and that is something. So today,

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Speaker 1: if you are feeling overwhelmed by a big project, just

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Speaker 1: tackle one spot. That's true for clutter, but it could

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Speaker 1: be true for anything. You don't have to overhaul your

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Speaker 1: entire wardrobe, find one good pair of black pants. Don't

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Speaker 1: worry about your entire financial picture just yet. Focus on

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Speaker 1: redirecting the cash from one recurring and pointless charge towards

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Speaker 1: your savings account. It's not that big goals are bad.

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Speaker 1: It's just that when time is tight, they can seem undoable,

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Speaker 1: so we don't do anything. It's generally better to do something,

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Speaker 1: and hey, maybe you'll find twenty dollars in your old

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Speaker 1: mail pile too. In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks

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Speaker 1: for listening, and here's to making the most of our time. Hey, everybody,

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Speaker 1: I'd love to hear from you. You can send me

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Speaker 1: your tips, your questions, or anything else. Just connect with

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Speaker 1: me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at Before Breakfast pod

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Speaker 1: that's B the number four, then Breakfast p o D.

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Speaker 1: You can also shoot me an email at Before Breakfast

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Speaker 1: podcast at i heeart media dot com that Before Breakfast

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Speaker 1: is spelled out with all the letters. Thanks so much,

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Speaker 1: I look forward to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is

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Speaker 1: a production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts from

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Speaker 1: my heart Radio, visit the heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,

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Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. H