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 have a little spot of
Speaker 1: time open up, you don't need to spend all of
Speaker 1: it checking email. Take a minute to look out the
Speaker 1: window first, and you just might start feeling a little
Speaker 1: differently about life. I am writing this episode on a
Speaker 1: lovely fall day, when the colors out my office window
Speaker 1: are brilliant and rich. There's a bright red maple staring
Speaker 1: back at me, and the little yellow oak leaves scattered
Speaker 1: on the bushes look like celebratory confetti. With scenery like this,
Speaker 1: I do find myself looking up more than usual. I
Speaker 1: know in a few weeks it will all be gray
Speaker 1: and brown for winter, but even so, on any day,
Speaker 1: looking at the sky and the trees can provide a
Speaker 1: little mental lift, a soothing sense that whatever problems I'm
Speaker 1: dealing with are transient against the slowly changing seasons. I
Speaker 1: also realize that I don't avail myself of this opportunity
Speaker 1: to look out on a calming scene nearly as much
Speaker 1: as I could. When a spot of time appears in
Speaker 1: my schedule, I do what I suspect. Many people do
Speaker 1: check my inbox. Sometimes there's something I need to deal
Speaker 1: with there, but often it's something that could have waited
Speaker 1: for one minute while I looked out at the loveliness
Speaker 1: for sixty seconds. If you'd like more tranquility in your life,
Speaker 1: it might be worth trying to look out the window first.
Speaker 1: In my new book, Tranquility by Tuesday, one of the
Speaker 1: time management rules I explore is to do effortful fun
Speaker 1: before effortless fun. When you've got the potential for leisure time,
Speaker 1: do a few minutes of reading or hobbies or connecting
Speaker 1: with friends before switching over to screen time. When people
Speaker 1: made this one little habit switch, they were far more
Speaker 1: likely to agree with the statement yesterday I didn't waste
Speaker 1: time on things that weren't important to me. We don't
Speaker 1: necessarily think of leisure during the workday, though I am
Speaker 1: pretty sure that traffic on many websites is higher during
Speaker 1: the workday than afterwards. But in many cases, quick email
Speaker 1: checks are the same sort of thing as checking social media,
Speaker 1: if maybe even more insidious, because they look like work.
Speaker 1: We want to see what's in there, even if all
Speaker 1: we wind up doing with those moments of time is
Speaker 1: deleting email newslets we can't remember subscribing to. It's often
Speaker 1: just the sort of effortless activity that doesn't do much
Speaker 1: beyond provide a quick hit of feeling like something has
Speaker 1: been done. So here's an idea. Before you get to
Speaker 1: all that deleting, take just one minute to look out
Speaker 1: the window first. Yes, staring at the clouds can be
Speaker 1: a form of effortful fun in our distracted world. If
Speaker 1: you've got a window in your office, wonderful get to
Speaker 1: know the world outside it. If you work at a
Speaker 1: home office, you can curate this view, making it a
Speaker 1: little more pleasant and intriguing over time. But even if
Speaker 1: you are in an office park, there is probably something
Speaker 1: of interest, a patch of sky, a tree, that sort
Speaker 1: of thing. If you are working in a windowless cubicle,
Speaker 1: just get up and walk to a window. Most buildings
Speaker 1: are required to have them somewhere not too far away
Speaker 1: from you. It will be good to stretch your legs
Speaker 1: in addition to taking in the outside world. Again, this
Speaker 1: doesn't have to take long, sixty seconds would be fine.
Speaker 1: Then go delete email as much as you want. The
Speaker 1: point is simply to change up the automatic flow of
Speaker 1: activities and to build little spots for renewal into your day.
Speaker 1: I just looked up to watch a handful of bright
Speaker 1: yellow leaves float to the ground. The email deletion can
Speaker 1: wait a few seconds. The falling leaves are a lot
Speaker 1: more tranquil in the meantime. This is Laura. Thanks for listening,
Speaker 1: and here's to making the most of our time. Hey, everybody,
Speaker 1: I'd love to hear from you. You can send me
Speaker 1: your tips, your questions, or anything else. Just connect with
Speaker 1: me on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at Before Breakfast Pod.
Speaker 1: That's b the number four, then breakfast pod. You can
Speaker 1: also shoot me an email at Before Breakfast Podcasts at
Speaker 1: iHeartMedia dot com. That before Breakfast is spelled out with
Speaker 1: all the letters. Thanks so much, should I look forward
Speaker 1: to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartRadio.
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