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Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.

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Speaker 1: Good Morning, This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.

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Speaker 1: Today's tip is about how to think about time and

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Speaker 1: structure it when you find you have more of it

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Speaker 1: than in the past, or more than you necessarily know

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Speaker 1: what to do with now. I recognize that this might

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Speaker 1: seem like a strange problem to have or to talk

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Speaker 1: about in a time management podcast. I get a lot

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Speaker 1: of letters from people juggling a job and a side

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Speaker 1: hustle and a family, including kids and aging relatives. The

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Speaker 1: idea of having too much time might feel like a

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Speaker 1: joke to these people, but it isn't, and it's a

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Speaker 1: challenge that can face lots of people and may be

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Speaker 1: close to everyone at some point in our lives. Maybe

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Speaker 1: you're a full time parent who looks up after years

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Speaker 1: of dizziness to realize that all your kids are in

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Speaker 1: school and are reasonably self sufficient. Maybe you're newly retired

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Speaker 1: and trying to figure out how a structure life without

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Speaker 1: a job that had previously been all consuming. People who

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Speaker 1: lose jobs suddenly tend to focus their time on finding

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Speaker 1: new ones. But maybe you're consciously taking six to twelve

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Speaker 1: months off between jobs after moving for a spouse's job,

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Speaker 1: for instance, or after experiencing burnout. Or maybe you are working,

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Speaker 1: but you've noticed that with a hundred sixty eight hours

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Speaker 1: in a week, working forty hours and sleeping eight hours

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Speaker 1: a night, so fifty six per week, leave seventy two

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Speaker 1: hours for other things. That can be a lot if

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Speaker 1: you don't have big personal commitments. This last challenge was

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Speaker 1: one that an Australian listener wrote in to tell me about.

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Speaker 1: She noted that I work full time, but outside of

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Speaker 1: that and the usual exercise routines in the business of living,

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Speaker 1: I have a lot of time, and I feel guilty

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Speaker 1: for not using it better. My friends with children are

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Speaker 1: constantly busy and are envious of the long stretches of

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Speaker 1: time I have available. But I feel sort of paralyzed

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Speaker 1: and overwhelmed by having too much time. Instead of using

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Speaker 1: it to write to be creative like I want to,

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Speaker 1: I fall into watching too much Netflix or reading about

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Speaker 1: things that don't really matter to me on the Internet.

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Speaker 1: I even dread weekends sometimes because they're long stretches of

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Speaker 1: time with no structure to them. The listener wanted to

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Speaker 1: know what I would recommend she do well, The first

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Speaker 1: thing I'd recommend to anyone feeling paralyzed as they look

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Speaker 1: at long stretches of time is to make a list

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Speaker 1: of a hundred dreams. This is an exercise we discussed

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Speaker 1: back in episode eighteen. It is a completely unedited list

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Speaker 1: of anything you might want to spend more time doing.

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Speaker 1: The reason to go all the way to a hundred

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Speaker 1: is that it forces you to think hard and to

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Speaker 1: keep coming back to the list several times over a

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Speaker 1: week or more. The first items tend to be those

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Speaker 1: big bucket list items like going to Tahiti, but by

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Speaker 1: the last third you're really digging. You start thinking about

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Speaker 1: that park that's an hour away where you'd like to

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Speaker 1: go for a sunset walk someday, Or maybe you'd like

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Speaker 1: to learn and to make your own yogurt, or join

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Speaker 1: an orchestra, or read all the books of Wendell Berry,

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Speaker 1: or in a completely different direction, David Foster Wallace, You're

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Speaker 1: not holding yourself to any items on this list, so

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Speaker 1: feel free to list whatever you want. The point is

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Speaker 1: just to get yourself thinking of all the things you

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Speaker 1: could do with your time that might be meaningful or enjoyable. Then,

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Speaker 1: when you have this really long list, you can start

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Speaker 1: choosing a few items to try. The key to avoiding

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Speaker 1: the sense of paralysis is to pace yourself through it.

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Speaker 1: Your rate of pulling items off your list of a

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Speaker 1: hundred dreams depends on the situation. If you know you

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Speaker 1: have exactly six months off between jobs, you're going to

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Speaker 1: pull stuff off at a faster rate than if you're

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Speaker 1: newly retired and have years in front of you. Someone

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Speaker 1: like our listener, who's working full time will probably approach

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Speaker 1: this project at a slightly slower pace. My recommendation would

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Speaker 1: be to choose one item a month. That doesn't sound

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Speaker 1: like much if the item is just one off experience,

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Speaker 1: such as visiting a museum that's forty five minutes away,

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Speaker 1: But some items, such as taking a pottery class, might

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Speaker 1: involve a weekly commitment of two to three hours for

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Speaker 1: twelve weeks or so. This is why you don't want

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Speaker 1: to take on too many new things at once, even

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Speaker 1: if you are facing wide open swaths of time. Then,

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Speaker 1: while you're trying things, really pay attention to how you feel.

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Speaker 1: See what energizes you, see what you find yourself anticipating.

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Speaker 1: When you find yourself truly drawn to something, you can

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Speaker 1: start incorporating it into your life in a bigger way.

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Speaker 1: One pottery class turns into taking others, and that turns

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Speaker 1: into joining a local artist group that meets weekly, and

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Speaker 1: that turns into volunteering once a month teaching pottery at

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Speaker 1: an after school program. Pretty soon your life has plenty

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Speaker 1: of stuff that's more interesting than Netflix. Of course, being

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Speaker 1: a wise steward of time isn't just about filling it

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Speaker 1: with fascinating, meaningful things. When you do have wide open

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Speaker 1: swaths of time, it can be easy to fill it

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Speaker 1: with stuff that doesn't matter to you. People with large

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Speaker 1: external demands on their time naturally become more efficient, or

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Speaker 1: at least lower their standards with stuff like housework and errands.

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Speaker 1: Our listener mentioned almost dreading weekends because of the wide

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Speaker 1: open space. When that's the case, you can wind up

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Speaker 1: meandering from store to store just to fill time. So

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Speaker 1: which as much as possible, I recommend compressing the have

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Speaker 1: tow dues to a limited window of time. My advice

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Speaker 1: to someone who was taking six months off between jobs

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Speaker 1: to help her family move was to do all the tasks,

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Speaker 1: such as getting new license plates, all on one day

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Speaker 1: of the week. Maybe this all happens on let's call

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Speaker 1: it must do Mondays. Then you can enjoy your other

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Speaker 1: open time guilt free. There's a time for getting the

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Speaker 1: new bookshelves delivered, and now is not that time. If

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Speaker 1: you've dealt with wide open patches of time, how have

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Speaker 1: you approached them? How have you avoided a sense of

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Speaker 1: being overwhelmed or paralyzed? As always, you can email me

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Speaker 1: at Before Breakfast podcast at i heeart media dot com.

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Speaker 1: In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening and

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Speaker 1: 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 p o D.

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

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Speaker 1: podcast at i heeart media dot com. That Before Breakfast

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Speaker 1: is spelled out with all the letters. Thanks so much,

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Speaker 1: I look forward to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is

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Speaker 1: a production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts from

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Speaker 1: my heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,

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