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

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Speaker 1: This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's

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Speaker 1: tip is that a good week starts on Friday. By

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Speaker 1: taking a little time on Friday to think through the

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Speaker 1: upcoming week, you can feel more tranquil and get a

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Speaker 1: lot more done. About a year ago, I published a

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Speaker 1: book called Tranquility by Tuesday, which was about nine time

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Speaker 1: management rules that can help anyone calm the chaos and

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Speaker 1: make time for what matters. Rule number two has long

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Speaker 1: been one of my favorites. Plan on Fridays. Indeed, if

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Speaker 1: anyone ever asks me, how do you do it? Quite

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Speaker 1: the question, I tell them about my Friday planning sessions.

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Speaker 1: Here's how that works. At some point on Friday, I

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Speaker 1: pull out my calendar as a reference tool, and I

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Speaker 1: create a page in my planner for the upcoming week.

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Speaker 1: I list my professional priorities for the week on the

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Speaker 1: left hand side of the page, and my personal priorities

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Speaker 1: for the week on the right side. Those are things

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Speaker 1: that I'd like to see happen with my family, friends,

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Speaker 1: or for myself. Sometimes these priorities are already on the calendar.

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Speaker 1: For instance, the week I recorded this one personal priority

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Speaker 1: was my dentist appointment. Not exciting, to be sure, but

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Speaker 1: I had finally made myself make the appointment, so I

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Speaker 1: wanted to notice it and celebrate that it was making

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Speaker 1: this healthy choice. I would also be running with a friend,

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Speaker 1: and so I thought about how long we should go

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Speaker 1: and what our goals might be for that run. I

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Speaker 1: would be going to a back to school night for

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Speaker 1: one of my kids. I wanted to be sure to

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Speaker 1: ask that particular child what I should pay attention to

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Speaker 1: at her school. This was all pretty straightforward. I'd see

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Speaker 1: the calendar entry and note the priority. But sometimes these

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Speaker 1: priorities are not on the calendar. For instance, on the

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Speaker 1: work front, i am working on the proposal for another book.

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Speaker 1: There's no particular deadline for this, so I'm simply noting

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Speaker 1: that I want to devote time to it. By listing

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Speaker 1: it as a priority, I know that I will make

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Speaker 1: time for it. I also figure out what I need

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Speaker 1: to do and any logistical challenges that need to be solved.

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Speaker 1: For instance, it became clear that between having the kids

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Speaker 1: out of school for a day and a babysit are

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Speaker 1: on vacation for a few days, and then my husband

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Speaker 1: being gone for a while too, my work hours were

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Speaker 1: going to be compressed, so I knew I needed to

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Speaker 1: carve out some time on Sunday when my youngest was

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Speaker 1: watching a movie to get started on things that would

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Speaker 1: not fit in the rest of the week. This helped

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Speaker 1: me feel a little less frantic and guaranteed that if

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Speaker 1: I was going to work on Sunday that work had

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Speaker 1: a p I wouldn't just be randomly checking email and

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Speaker 1: doing anything that seemed to be flashing brightest. That unhappy

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Speaker 1: state of affairs leads to not relaxing, but not getting

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Speaker 1: anything important done either. I teach these tranquility by Tuesday

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Speaker 1: rules and particularly this one to plan on Fridays, to

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Speaker 1: others as well, because it truly does make life feel

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Speaker 1: more in control. With planning, the image I like to

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Speaker 1: use is that of a three ring circus. Yes, we

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Speaker 1: all have a lot going on in our lives, but

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Speaker 1: the ring master knows where everyone is supposed to be.

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Speaker 1: And when the ring master knows how to deal with

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Speaker 1: things going slightly wrong, like the tigers taking longer to

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Speaker 1: get into place than anticipated, no problem. Send out the

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Speaker 1: clown to do his second funny act that you don't

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Speaker 1: do if you don't need it, but you do if

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Speaker 1: you do. To have this sense of control, you need

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Speaker 1: to step outside your life for just a little bit

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Speaker 1: to look at what is import important and then what

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Speaker 1: is happening. The more you do this, the more likely

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Speaker 1: that things that are important are already starting to appear

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Speaker 1: on your calendar as priorities. During your past week's Friday planning,

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Speaker 1: you've thought about what you'd like to do in the future.

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Speaker 1: You've planned it in That makes the weekly planning even easier.

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Speaker 1: These days, this planning doesn't take me much time. My

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Speaker 1: personal planning takes twenty minutes or so. Planning out the

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Speaker 1: family schedule takes another twenty minutes. That's not nothing, but

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Speaker 1: in less than forty five minutes, I know I will

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Speaker 1: not be living in chaos. Even with five active kids

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Speaker 1: in four different schools, to working parents and a host

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Speaker 1: of things I enjoyed doing in my personal life, it

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Speaker 1: all fits. And that is because a good week starts

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Speaker 1: on Friday. So today, see if you might take some

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Speaker 1: time to try this tranquility by Tuesday rule. Carve out

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Speaker 1: twenty to thirty minutes, ask what is most important for

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Speaker 1: you to accomplish this week professionally and personally. Ask what

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Speaker 1: you need to do, do you know, and everything will happen.

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Speaker 1: Have you solved any logistical challenges? Make sure you have

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Speaker 1: something to look forward to the first week or two.

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Speaker 1: It might be challenging to look at the whole week

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Speaker 1: at a time, but doing so allows you to plan

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Speaker 1: life more holistically and not get caught up in daily crises.

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Speaker 1: And it will get easier over the next few weeks

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Speaker 1: as life becomes more like a well run three ring circus.

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Speaker 1: A good week starts on Friday, so why not give

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Speaker 1: this Friday planning a shot In the meantime, This is Laura.

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Speaker 1: Thanks for listening, and here's to making the most of

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Speaker 1: our time. Thanks for listening to Before Breakfast. If you've

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Speaker 1: got questions, ideas, or feedback, you can reach me at

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Speaker 1: Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast is a

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Speaker 1: production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts from iHeartMedia, please visit

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Speaker 1: the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to

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Speaker 1: your favorite shows.