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

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Speaker 2: Good Morning, This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.

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Speaker 2: Today's tip is about one way to think of productivity strategies.

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Speaker 2: They are designed to aid your life like a high

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Speaker 2: end butler might do. The goal is freeing you up

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Speaker 2: to focus on work you choose and on enjoying your life.

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Speaker 2: Today's tip, like some others this week, comes from Chris

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Speaker 2: Bailey's new book, How to Calm Your Mind, Finding Presence

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Speaker 2: and Productivity in Anxious Times. While much of Chris's book

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Speaker 2: is focused on reducing anxiety so you can get more done,

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Speaker 2: he had some great thoughts on productivity strategies which I

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Speaker 2: thought i'd share. Chris suggests doing this thought experiment. Imagine.

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Speaker 2: He writes that you have won some one in a

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Speaker 2: million contest through a high end house cleaning service that

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Speaker 2: provides you with a full time butler for life. Chris

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Speaker 2: suggests that this butler's name is Kingsley. The man provides

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Speaker 2: you with more free time every day by cleaning up

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Speaker 2: after you and your family, cooking meals, managing your calendar,

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Speaker 2: which he calls your diary, chauffeuring you around town, and more.

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Speaker 2: While Kingsley himself might be a pipe dream. The best

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Speaker 2: productivity tactics and strategies can confer similar benefits like Kingsley.

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Speaker 2: They provide us with more of the most valuable resource

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Speaker 2: we have at our disposal time. Chris leaves this thought

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Speaker 2: experiment here, but I've been thinking thinking a little bit

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Speaker 2: more about what a Kingsley might do in my life

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Speaker 2: and the ways in which I have tried to approximate

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Speaker 2: a Kingsley, even though I don't have a full time butler.

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Speaker 2: One way a Kingsley would provide free time is by

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Speaker 2: cooking meals, and part of that is figuring out what

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Speaker 2: the meals would be and procuring supplies. One way to

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Speaker 2: approximate that is to have a set meal rotation and

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Speaker 2: then automate your groceries as much as possible. So in

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Speaker 2: our family, we tend to use meal kits for two

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Speaker 2: nights per week. We also always have make your own

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Speaker 2: pizza on Fridays and breakfast for dinner on Wednesdays. While

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Speaker 2: we tend to go to the grocery store, you could

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Speaker 2: envision putting the groceries for the set meals on a

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Speaker 2: recurring delivery. It's almost like having a butler do the

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Speaker 2: meal planning and shopping. Kingsley's duties would also include managing

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Speaker 2: your calendar. A key part of this is making sure

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Speaker 2: your time is spent on your highest value activities. By

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Speaker 2: taking a few minutes on Friday to think through this

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Speaker 2: for the upcoming week and to schedule time each day

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Speaker 2: for what's most important, you are recreating a Kingsley in

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Speaker 2: your life. You act as Kingsley for twenty minutes or so,

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Speaker 2: and then the rest of the time you reap the

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Speaker 2: benefits of having someone like him managing your calendar. As

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Speaker 2: for chauffeuring us around town, well, you can always summon

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Speaker 2: an uber if you don't want to drive, but it

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Speaker 2: might be wise to think about how you can spend

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Speaker 2: less time in the car in general. One thing I've

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Speaker 2: been doing is encouraging my kids to take the activity

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Speaker 2: bus home from school some days, it might be wise

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Speaker 2: to set up carpooling were at all possible too. Maybe

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Speaker 2: you could even carpool on days when you need to

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Speaker 2: go into the office. Being able to work or sleep

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Speaker 2: or relax half the time you would have been driving

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Speaker 2: could buy you back many hours. As Ken working from home.

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Speaker 2: Working from home two days a week is even better

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Speaker 2: than relying on Kingsley's chauffeuring. It is a massive productivity gain.

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Speaker 2: As for cleaning things up, one of the best ways

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Speaker 2: to approximate Kingsley's existence is just to have or use

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Speaker 2: fewer things and make sure everything has a clear home sheet.

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Speaker 2: Pan meals are great because you can eat well, clean

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Speaker 2: up one pan, and then pretend you have a Kingsley

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Speaker 2: the rest of the time that you would have been cleaning.

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Speaker 2: When you always leave your shoes and coat in the mudroom,

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Speaker 2: it's as if Kingsley was hunting for them and bringing

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Speaker 2: them to you on the way out the door. So

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Speaker 2: as you are thinking about how to build more time

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Speaker 2: into your life, think about what you can do to

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Speaker 2: you approximate the existence of Kingsley the magnificent Butler. If

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Speaker 2: you actually have a Kingsley, weel that is amazing. But

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Speaker 2: for many of us, asking this question of what would

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Speaker 2: free up space to do meaningful work and have meaningful

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Speaker 2: leisure leads us to wise choices Kingsley or not. In

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Speaker 2: the meantime, this is Laura, Thanks for listening, and here's

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Speaker 2: to making the most of our time.

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Speaker 1: Hey, everybody, I'd love to hear from you. You can

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Speaker 1: send me your tips, your questions, or anything else. Just

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Speaker 1: connect with me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at Before

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Speaker 1: Breakfast Pod. That's b the number four then Breakfast pod.

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

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Speaker 1: At iHeartMedia that Before Breakfast is spelled out with all

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

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

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