Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Good Morning, This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Speaker 1: Today's tip is to consider doing a regular get together
Speaker 1: at an unorthodox time. If you and your friends have
Speaker 1: busy schedules, that just might be your best bet for
Speaker 1: actually making social time work. Today's tip comes from a
Speaker 1: time log that a listener named Nicole sent to me.
Speaker 1: She participated in my recent time tracking challenge, where thousands
Speaker 1: of people tracked their time for a week. Nicole works
Speaker 1: as a lawyer. She also has a three year old
Speaker 1: and is doing a home renovation. All of these take
Speaker 1: a lot of time, but like many of us, she
Speaker 1: also wanted to exercise and see friends in her busy schedule.
Speaker 1: So she and three neighborhood friends found a solution. They
Speaker 1: meet at five am, three mornings a week to walk
Speaker 1: together for forty five minutes. They chat and go about
Speaker 1: two point seven miles, and then they are back in
Speaker 1: time to get their households started on their days. Now.
Speaker 1: To be sure, setting an alarm for four forty am
Speaker 1: three days a week isn't easy. It's dark enough that
Speaker 1: this five am club needs to use headlamps. However, if
Speaker 1: you had to bed between nine thirty and ten pm,
Speaker 1: it's not so bad, and Nicole sleeps an hour or
Speaker 1: so later. On the other days. She averaged seven point
Speaker 1: two hours per day according to her time log when
Speaker 1: we looked at the whole week, and she enjoys the
Speaker 1: walk in the social time so much that she keeps
Speaker 1: doing it. Knowing you are going to be meeting friends
Speaker 1: is a great incentive to get up and get moving.
Speaker 1: I love this idea. I personally am not a member
Speaker 1: of any sort of five am club. Believe it or not,
Speaker 1: I am not actually a morning person. But I do
Speaker 1: know that lots of people would like to spend more
Speaker 1: time with friends, Lots of people would like to spend
Speaker 1: more time exercising. The problem is that everyone is busy.
Speaker 1: There are few hours of the day when most people
Speaker 1: aren't committed to something. Five am is one of those hours,
Speaker 1: or maybe six am if your family doesn't need to
Speaker 1: be up so early, But early morning tends to be
Speaker 1: a time many people have available before everyone else needs
Speaker 1: a piece of them. Another option might be eight pm,
Speaker 1: after kids are in bed. Most people aren't busy around
Speaker 1: eight or nine pm on weekdays, and a walk could
Speaker 1: be a way to spend time with friends and get
Speaker 1: some activity too. Now I know this wouldn't work for everyone.
Speaker 1: For years, my husband was traveling at least two to
Speaker 1: three days a week, which meant that I couldn't have
Speaker 1: left sleeping kids home alone at five am. Not everyone
Speaker 1: lives near enough to friends to make this work, or
Speaker 1: lives in places that are safe enough to walk in
Speaker 1: the dark. Probably having a group of enough people is
Speaker 1: key to making this work, because if you only have
Speaker 1: two people, Party A is going to be pretty mad
Speaker 1: about waking up at four forty am. If Party B
Speaker 1: doesn't show in Nicole's group, four people means at least
Speaker 1: someone is going to be there, and attendance is good.
Speaker 1: But the rule is you don't have to text about
Speaker 1: your absence. You just have to know that at five
Speaker 1: oh five everyone is leaving without you. Anyway, if there
Speaker 1: is something you would like to make more space for
Speaker 1: in your life, try looking at the whole of your
Speaker 1: one D sixty eight hours. I have always found it
Speaker 1: interesting that many calendars and planners only show the hours
Speaker 1: from say eight to six, and only Monday to Friday,
Speaker 1: with the weekend just not having hours. Really, that is
Speaker 1: nowhere near the full amount of your time. If you
Speaker 1: want to see how vast time really is, just check
Speaker 1: out one of my one hundred sixty eight hour spreadsheets.
Speaker 1: You can sign up for one at my website, or
Speaker 1: just make your own. Start at whatever time makes sense,
Speaker 1: like five am and go to four thirty a m.
Speaker 1: Each day. Put the days of the week across the
Speaker 1: top Monday to Sunday. You quickly see that there are
Speaker 1: a lot of unorthodox hours to be used if you like.
Speaker 1: Sometimes having the life you want requires being a little creative,
Speaker 1: but that's fine. Nicole gets to exercise and see friends regularly,
Speaker 1: even as a busy lawyer and mom. Sometimes that's worth
Speaker 1: setting the alarm a little early for In the meantime,
Speaker 1: This is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's to making
Speaker 1: the most of our time. Hey, everybody, I'd love to
Speaker 1: hear from you. You can send me your tips, your questions,
Speaker 1: or anything else. Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook,
Speaker 1: and Instagram at Before Breakfast Pod that's B the number four,
Speaker 1: then breakfast p o D. You can also shoot me
Speaker 1: an email at Before Breakfast Podcast at i heeart media
Speaker 1: dot com That Before Breakfast is spelled out with all
Speaker 1: the letters. Thanks so much. I look forward to staying
Speaker 1: in touch. Before Breakfast is a production of I heart Radio.
Speaker 1: For more podcasts from I heart Radio, visit the i
Speaker 1: heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to
Speaker 1: your favorite shows. Yea,