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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 rescue unproductive evenings. I

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Speaker 1: recently got a note from a Before Breakfast listener named

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Speaker 1: Cassie who had this question, how do you make the

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Speaker 1: most of your evenings or after work time and fight

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Speaker 1: the urge to just flop on the couch. Cassie explained

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Speaker 1: that when I leave work, I'm often excited to go

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Speaker 1: home and work on some things on my to do list,

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Speaker 1: but at some point, between leaving my desk and opening

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Speaker 1: the door to my apartment, I lose the willpower to

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Speaker 1: do more. Partly this was just physical exhaustion. Cassie noted

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Speaker 1: that she usually rode her bike to and from work,

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Speaker 1: which is great, but added to her feeling that she

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Speaker 1: didn't want to do any more work after cleaning up

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Speaker 1: the dinner dishes. She explained that the things on her

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Speaker 1: list were truly important to her, such as self discovery

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Speaker 1: assignments as she thought about her long term career plans.

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Speaker 1: But I'd rather just take it easy and give into

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Speaker 1: the comfort of my couch most nights. Am I a

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Speaker 1: hopeless procrastinator, she asked, or do you have any tips

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Speaker 1: that can help me overcome this end of day slump? Well, first,

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Speaker 1: I want to assure Cassie that she is not hopeless.

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Speaker 1: This is an incredibly common issue. Most of us are

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Speaker 1: just tired by the end of the day. Well, we

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Speaker 1: might have imagined after that seven am cup of coffee

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Speaker 1: that we could conquer the world. By seven p m.

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Speaker 1: We lack the energy to do anything but scroll through

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Speaker 1: our Netflix selections. Fortunately, there are a few ways to rally,

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Speaker 1: or at least to make the most of this situation. First,

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Speaker 1: if you find your couch tempting, don't head to your

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Speaker 1: couch immediately. One or two days a week, Cassie could

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Speaker 1: bike to some place that was conducive to thinking, maybe

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Speaker 1: a library, a bookstore, a coffee shop. She could do

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Speaker 1: some of her strategic planning and then reward herself with

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Speaker 1: her favorite takeout or delivery afterwards, so she wouldn't have

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Speaker 1: to muster the energy to cook. She could also aim small. Well,

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Speaker 1: it's admirable to want to figure out a career direction.

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Speaker 1: That's a big order for your average Tuesday. It might

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Speaker 1: be better to assign herself one small task. She could

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Speaker 1: do that first thing upon arriving home. With an absolute

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Speaker 1: time limit of fifteen minutes. Worst case scenario, she could

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Speaker 1: just sit there for fifteen minutes, then get up and

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Speaker 1: get dinner. But by building in that time and enforcing

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Speaker 1: it and then seeing how manageable it was, she'd probably

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Speaker 1: feel like making a little progress. It's also possible that

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Speaker 1: Cassie falls into the category that author Gretchen Reuben calls

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Speaker 1: an obliger. Keeping promises to herself is hard, but keeping

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Speaker 1: promises to other people is relatively easy, so she might

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Speaker 1: respond best to external accountability. If that's the case, Cassie

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Speaker 1: could organize a group of career changers that would check

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Speaker 1: in with each other virtually or in person every Tuesday night.

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Speaker 1: With these friends counting on her, she'd focus on these

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Speaker 1: questions and start making progress. Finally, it's also possible that

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Speaker 1: evenings just won't work for the kind of deep thinking

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Speaker 1: Cassie is hoping to do, but that doesn't mean she

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Speaker 1: can't do it. Maybe two mornings a week she could

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Speaker 1: get up an hour earlier and use that time for

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Speaker 1: her strategic thinking and self analysis. Then, by the time

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Speaker 1: she biked home from work and found herself feeling too

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Speaker 1: tired to do anything but eat dinner. She could relax.

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Speaker 1: It would all be good because she'd already made progress

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Speaker 1: on her goals. How do you rescue unproductive evenings? You

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Speaker 1: can let me know at Before Breakfast podcast at I

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Speaker 1: heart media dot com. 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 the number four, then Breakfast

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

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Speaker 1: at Before Breakfast podcast at i heeart 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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