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Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio. Good Morning, This is Laura, Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's tip is to use a timer to help you feel more relaxed while moving things along. Most of us don't set too many timers in life, except for one specific instance, the snooze button. In the morning, you hit snooze on your phone and nine minutes later it will start beeping again. Long time Before Breakfast listeners know that I think snoozing is a terrible idea. Either get up the first time, or set your alarm for the time you actually intend to get up. But one listener, Carlo, rode in to remind me that a snooze button can actually be used for good as long as you're not using it to go back to sleep. Carlo, for instance, uses his snooze button to segment his morning activities in a more efficient way. He and his kids need to leave the house at a certain time, so he segments the hour before they leave into six nine minutes segments with a little time change left over. He uses one segment to get himself dressed, he uses another to help the kids get dressed. He uses a segment to eat a quick breakfast. He uses a segment to do some morning house chores and a segment to make lunches for everyone. Then the last segment is devoted to gathering everyone and everything together to get ready to go. This way, he doesn't have to keep watching the clock, but he also knows quickly if they're running behind, and he can course correct before the morning goes off the rails. Carlo reports that he's used his snooze button at worked two when he's in a time crunch. I set up an alarm at a specific time, say four o'clock, and use the snooze to plan two or three activity bursts, he says, such as answering a complicated email by the first snows, sending all his meeting invitations for the next day by the second snooze, and planning the next morning's to asks by the thirds news. As he reports, this way, I have finished several menial tasks and I can feel organized for what comes ahead. I think this is a great idea. Of course, if nine minutes doesn't work for you, feel free to set your phones time or for any other amount of time. Lots of people swear by the Pomodoro technique, where you set a timer for twenty five minutes, focus on something intensely for that time, and then take a break. You can set alarms for other things too. Say you're in a meeting and you know you need to leave on time, but you really want to focus on the other person instead of trying to sneak peaks at the clock here and there, set an alarm for a few minutes before you need to go. The other person will hear the alarm too, and so it provides an opening to move things along and end things. But you can completely relax up until that point. It's a way of being off the clock while still being on the clock too. Do you set timers? Let me know for what You can reach me at Before Breakfast Podcast at i heeart media dot com. In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's to making the most of our time. Hey everybody, I'd love to hear from you. You can send me your tips, your questions, or anything else. Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at Before Breakfast Pod that's B the number four, then Breakfast p o D. You can also shoot me an email at Before Breakfast Podcast at i heeart media dot Com that before Breakfast is spelled out with all the letters. Thanks so much, I look forward to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is a production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit the art Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. H