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Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning,

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Speaker 1: This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's

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Speaker 1: tip is that when you have a little spot of

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Speaker 1: time open up, you don't need to spend all of

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Speaker 1: it checking email. Take a minute to look out the

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Speaker 1: window first, and you just might start feeling a little

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Speaker 1: differently about life. I am writing this episode on a

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Speaker 1: lovely fall day, when the colors out my office window

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Speaker 1: are brilliant and rich. There's a bright red maple staring

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Speaker 1: back at me, and the little yellow oak leaves scattered

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Speaker 1: on the bushes look like celebratory confetti. With scenery like this,

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Speaker 1: I do find myself looking up more than usual. I

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Speaker 1: know in a few weeks it will all be gray

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Speaker 1: and brown for winter, but even so, on any day,

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Speaker 1: looking at the sky and the trees can provide a

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Speaker 1: little mental lift, a soothing sense that whatever problems I'm

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Speaker 1: dealing with are transient against the slowly changing seasons. I

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Speaker 1: also realize that I don't avail myself of this opportunity

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Speaker 1: to look out on a calming scene nearly as much

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Speaker 1: as I could. When a spot of time appears in

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Speaker 1: my schedule, I do what I suspect. Many people do

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Speaker 1: check my inbox. Sometimes there's something I need to deal

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Speaker 1: with there, but often it's something that could have waited

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Speaker 1: for one minute while I looked out at the loveliness

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Speaker 1: for sixty seconds. If you'd like more tranquility in your life,

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Speaker 1: it might be worth trying to look out the window first.

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Speaker 1: In my new book, Tranquility by Tuesday, one of the

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Speaker 1: time management rules I explore is to do effortful fun

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Speaker 1: before effortless fun. When you've got the potential for leisure time,

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Speaker 1: do a few minutes of reading or hobbies or connecting

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Speaker 1: with friends before switching over to screen time. When people

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Speaker 1: made this one little habit switch, they were far more

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Speaker 1: likely to agree with the statement yesterday I didn't waste

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Speaker 1: time on things that weren't important to me. We don't

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Speaker 1: necessarily think of leisure during the workday, though I am

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Speaker 1: pretty sure that traffic on many websites is higher during

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Speaker 1: the workday than afterwards. But in many cases, quick email

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Speaker 1: checks are the same sort of thing as checking social media,

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Speaker 1: if maybe even more insidious, because they look like work.

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Speaker 1: We want to see what's in there, even if all

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Speaker 1: we wind up doing with those moments of time is

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Speaker 1: deleting email newslets we can't remember subscribing to. It's often

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Speaker 1: just the sort of effortless activity that doesn't do much

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Speaker 1: beyond provide a quick hit of feeling like something has

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Speaker 1: been done. So here's an idea. Before you get to

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Speaker 1: all that deleting, take just one minute to look out

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Speaker 1: the window first. Yes, staring at the clouds can be

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Speaker 1: a form of effortful fun in our distracted world. If

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Speaker 1: you've got a window in your office, wonderful get to

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Speaker 1: know the world outside it. If you work at a

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Speaker 1: home office, you can curate this view, making it a

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Speaker 1: little more pleasant and intriguing over time. But even if

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Speaker 1: you are in an office park, there is probably something

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Speaker 1: of interest, a patch of sky, a tree, that sort

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Speaker 1: of thing. If you are working in a windowless cubicle,

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Speaker 1: just get up and walk to a window. Most buildings

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Speaker 1: are required to have them somewhere not too far away

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Speaker 1: from you. It will be good to stretch your legs

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Speaker 1: in addition to taking in the outside world. Again, this

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Speaker 1: doesn't have to take long, sixty seconds would be fine.

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Speaker 1: Then go delete email as much as you want. The

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Speaker 1: point is simply to change up the automatic flow of

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Speaker 1: activities and to build little spots for renewal into your day.

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Speaker 1: I just looked up to watch a handful of bright

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Speaker 1: yellow leaves float to the ground. The email deletion can

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Speaker 1: wait a few seconds. The falling leaves are a lot

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Speaker 1: more tranquil in the meantime. This is Laura. Thanks for listening,

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Speaker 1: 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 pod. You can

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Speaker 1: also shoot me an email at Before Breakfast Podcasts at

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Speaker 1: iHeartMedia dot com. That before Breakfast is spelled out with

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Speaker 1: all the letters. Thanks so much, should I look forward

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Speaker 1: to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 1: For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,

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