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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 for anyone who is trying to get organized,

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Speaker 1: start with today and not with your backlog. Today's slightly

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Speaker 1: counterintuitive tip comes from the professional organizing world, where professionals

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Speaker 1: deal with stuff, but also with the people who produce

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Speaker 1: that stuff. Sometimes the latter needs to be understood better

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Speaker 1: than the former. When you are trying to organize things,

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Speaker 1: it might seem logical to start from the beginning. If

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Speaker 1: you are organizing photos of your kid, you might think

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Speaker 1: you should go back and make the baby book first,

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Speaker 1: and then work your way toward the more recent photos.

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Speaker 1: You might think you should finally unpack there's boxes in

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Speaker 1: the attic from when you moved five years ago, and

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Speaker 1: then deal with the current mess in your closet that

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Speaker 1: is resulting from your not having unpacked since your President's

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Speaker 1: Day weekend trip. I mean, if you clear out space

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Speaker 1: in your attic, you can move stuff from the closet.

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Speaker 1: Right And doesn't the song suggest that we start with

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Speaker 1: the very beginning, which is a very good place to start.

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Speaker 1: But here's the thing. If you start with your backlog,

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Speaker 1: you will inevitably wind up still feeling behind. You organize

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Speaker 1: the photos of your baby's first week, but if that

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Speaker 1: baby just started second grade, you've still got stuff coming

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Speaker 1: in now that's piling up. If you start unpacking the

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Speaker 1: boxes in your attic, you might make progress there, but

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Speaker 1: your closet will keep getting messier because you can't put

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Speaker 1: anything away. When we start with the backlog, if we

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Speaker 1: are lucky, we replace one day's to be dealt with

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Speaker 1: items from the distant past with to be dealt with

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Speaker 1: him from today, which is not that progress. This gets

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Speaker 1: frustrating and often results in people giving up. You are

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Speaker 1: better off starting with today and gradually organizing your way

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Speaker 1: into the past. That is because the past can often

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Speaker 1: be dealt with far more expeditiously than the present, so

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Speaker 1: you actually can come out ahead. So with photos, come

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Speaker 1: up with a system for current ones. Many people like

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Speaker 1: systems such as chat books that turn your social media

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Speaker 1: posts into photo books, or if you want to do

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Speaker 1: it yourself, start this year's photo book with shots from

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Speaker 1: the past few months and have a plan to update

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Speaker 1: it in the next few months. You are keeping current,

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Speaker 1: then when you can you can decide to bring order

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Speaker 1: to the past, being judicious about what makes sense. Maybe

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Speaker 1: you decide to combine years when nothing really big happened.

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Speaker 1: And not that I'm saying this is the right of

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Speaker 1: roach necessarily, but maybe your kids are now old enough

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Speaker 1: that you can assign them to create photo books about

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Speaker 1: their own preschool years. They get a fun project, and

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Speaker 1: you get the cute book without having this task on

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Speaker 1: your plate. In a similar vein, get your closet organized

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Speaker 1: now and commit to keeping it organized. Then deal with

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Speaker 1: the boxes in the attic, or better yet, don't. If

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Speaker 1: you have boxes of stuff you literally haven't touched in years,

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Speaker 1: the odds are good you don't need it. You could

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Speaker 1: just take what's salvageable to goodwill or throw it away.

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Speaker 1: After two months of unpacking from my family's move, I

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Speaker 1: am half seriously pondering just throwing out any box that

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Speaker 1: isn't open in six months. Do we really need that stuff?

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Speaker 1: I know the answer is now, I'm just trying to

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Speaker 1: toughen myself up for that realization. Starting with today is

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Speaker 1: also wise for that common cause of backlogs email. When

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Speaker 1: you come back from vacation or an absence due to illness,

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Speaker 1: you can scan back to see what's in there, but

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Speaker 1: for active processing, start with the email messages you received

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Speaker 1: most recently. The reason is that the older messages are

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Speaker 1: highly likely to be moot. You are not going to

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Speaker 1: attend at last week's meeting at this point, and since

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Speaker 1: you are the sort of responsible person who listens to

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Speaker 1: this podcast, I know you had a system for your

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Speaker 1: colleagues to cover for any important obligations in your absence.

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Speaker 1: If something has waited ten days for a reply, it

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Speaker 1: can wait another day or two at this point, whereas

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Speaker 1: something sent in the last day or two might actually

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Speaker 1: be actionable. I am all about efficiency, and in most cases,

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Speaker 1: stuff from the past can be dispatched with less care

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Speaker 1: than what is currently in process. So if you can

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Speaker 1: create a system where the current inflow doesn't back up,

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Speaker 1: then you can devote any extra time to clearing away

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Speaker 1: the deep past backlog expeditiously. Of course, you will make progress,

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Speaker 1: whereas focusing your efforts on the past keeps the current

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Speaker 1: backlog growing. So start with today most of the time

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Speaker 1: you will get more done 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. Hey, everybody, I'd love to hear from you.

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

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

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Speaker 1: Before Breakfast Pod. That's b E the number four, then

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Speaker 1: Breakfast p o D. You can also shoot me an

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Speaker 1: email at Before Breakfast podcast at iHeart media dot com

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Speaker 1: that Before Breakfast is spelled out with all the letters.

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Speaker 1: Thanks so much, I look forward to staying in touch.

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Speaker 1: Before Breakfast is a production of I heart Radio. For

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Speaker 1: more podcasts from I heart Radio, visit the i heart

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Speaker 1: Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your

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Speaker 1: favorite shows. Yea