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 pair little tasks with things you
Speaker 1: already do. By pairing habits, you'll be less likely to
Speaker 1: forget them. We all have little things we know we
Speaker 1: should do regularly. Maybe it's flaw sing or writing in
Speaker 1: a journal. It can be very powerful to make these
Speaker 1: good decisions automatic, but building habits is hard. That's why
Speaker 1: I'm always on the lookout for ways to make habit
Speaker 1: building easier. So I love this suggestion that I received
Speaker 1: from Before Breakfast listener Peggy. She wrote in that I
Speaker 1: realize I have a habit that helps me with getting
Speaker 1: little things done that can be overlooked. I try to
Speaker 1: combine two or more tasks so that I don't forget
Speaker 1: one of them. She gave me a few examples of
Speaker 1: pairings that worked well in her life. When I make
Speaker 1: my bed in the morning, she says, I pray. If
Speaker 1: I see my bed isn't made, I know I forgot
Speaker 1: to pray. Also, Peggy notes that she injured a muscle
Speaker 1: in her leg at one point and knows she needs
Speaker 1: to stretch it. I was forgetting to stretch it after running,
Speaker 1: as I'm usually short on time in the morning, she says.
Speaker 1: I found when I am in the shower and conditioning
Speaker 1: my hair after a run, I just stretched that particular
Speaker 1: muscle for a few minutes while I let my conditioner sit.
Speaker 1: I had problems for years with this muscle, but once
Speaker 1: I started this routine, it hasn't been a problem. Praying
Speaker 1: and stretching are frequent tasks, but other little things don't
Speaker 1: need to be done nearly as often. There are a
Speaker 1: few tasks I have to do once a month, Peggy writes,
Speaker 1: I finally realized I needed to combine them all on
Speaker 1: the same day. The first of each month, I put
Speaker 1: in a new pair of contacts, budget and write out
Speaker 1: checks to my kids music and dance teachers, wash my
Speaker 1: vacuum filters, and do the cleaning cycle on my washing machine.
Speaker 1: I have written down my monthly items on my phone,
Speaker 1: and I do them all at once. I think these
Speaker 1: are eight ideas. All sorts of little habits can be
Speaker 1: paired with others. For instance, I've suggested in previous episodes
Speaker 1: that people keep time logs. It's empowering to know where
Speaker 1: the time goes, but It's also easy to forget to
Speaker 1: write down where the time went until so much time
Speaker 1: has passed that you no longer remember. So I suggest that,
Speaker 1: at least during the work day, people pair time tracking
Speaker 1: with bathroom breaks. When you come back from a bathroom break,
Speaker 1: write down what you did since the last one. Or
Speaker 1: here's another opportunity for pairing. I don't know about you,
Speaker 1: but my car has a tendency to accumulate a lot
Speaker 1: of trash. Now, when I'm putting gas in my car,
Speaker 1: I set the handle to keep pumping, and then I
Speaker 1: clean out the car. This feels like a real win
Speaker 1: because I wasn't using that time for anything important anyway,
Speaker 1: and now I have a much cleaner vehicle. I don't
Speaker 1: watch TV much, and I almost never watch it live,
Speaker 1: but if you're watching something with commercials, this can be
Speaker 1: a great time to do something like stretching or strength training.
Speaker 1: Or you can use the time while food heats up
Speaker 1: in the microwave. In our house, we stack mail on
Speaker 1: the counter under our microwave, and it has a tendency
Speaker 1: to pile up. If I sort the mail anytime I'm
Speaker 1: using the microwave, I can avoid losing important notes in
Speaker 1: the mess now. To be clear, I don't think we
Speaker 1: need to pack every minute of every day. People can
Speaker 1: go a little overboard with pairing. I have personally been
Speaker 1: mocked in more than one article for the idea of
Speaker 1: using microwave time for anything. But I also do know
Speaker 1: that small things done repeatedly add up habits are powerful.
Speaker 1: But relying on our conscious minds to remember to do
Speaker 1: all the things we know we should do, it's just
Speaker 1: asking for failure. Pairing new habits with things we already
Speaker 1: do greatly increases the chances that we stick with them.
Speaker 1: Just ask Peggy, whose leg injury is no longer bothering
Speaker 1: her and who's keeping a spiritual commitment She decided to
Speaker 1: make two. What happens do you pair together? I'd love
Speaker 1: to hear about them. Please email me your pairs Before
Speaker 1: Breakfast podcast at iHeart media dot com. 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 E the
Speaker 1: number four. Then Breakfast p o D. You can also
Speaker 1: shoot me an email at before Breakfast podcast at iHeart
Speaker 1: media dot com that Before Breakfast is spelled out with
Speaker 1: all the letters. Thanks so much, I look forward to
Speaker 1: staying in touch. Before Breakfast is a production of I
Speaker 1: heart Radio. For more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit
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Speaker 1: listen to your favorite shows.