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Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of my 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 to embrace work life integration, especially if

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Speaker 1: you are still working from home at least some of

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Speaker 1: the time. There is real happiness to be gained by

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Speaker 1: being a little more flexible about when things happen. I

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Speaker 1: am writing podcast scripts at ten am on Sunday morning.

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Speaker 1: My todd learns off somewhere else right now, so it

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Speaker 1: was possible to get a little focused work time. I

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Speaker 1: am making the most of it. I also worked what

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Speaker 1: I call a split shift a few nights this week,

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Speaker 1: doing work after the toddler went to bed. But the

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Speaker 1: reason was that I did a lot of non work

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Speaker 1: stuff between the hours of nine to five. Over the

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Speaker 1: last few work days, I went in the pool in

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Speaker 1: the afternoon when a family friend came over. I spent

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Speaker 1: some time playing with the toddler while our sitter took

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Speaker 1: the older kids to something else. I went for a run.

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Speaker 1: During the day, I had a long phone conversation with

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Speaker 1: an old friend. I know from years of studying people's

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Speaker 1: schedules that some people prefer strict separation between work and home.

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Speaker 1: If they ever have to do anything professional during random

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Speaker 1: non work hours, it makes them feel like something is

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Speaker 1: greatly wrong. And correspondingly, when something non work related happens

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Speaker 1: during the work day, it feels terrible and awful, like

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Speaker 1: a huge distraction from everything. Or people do their absolute

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Speaker 1: best to make sure this scenario never comes up. But

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Speaker 1: is that the only approach. There are a lot of

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Speaker 1: fun things that can happen during the work day and

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Speaker 1: that are hard to pull off at other times. Personally,

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Speaker 1: I would rather go in the pool at three pm

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Speaker 1: and then work at nine pm, then not go in

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Speaker 1: the pool out of some sense that it is wrong

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Speaker 1: to be in the pool at three pm and wrong

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Speaker 1: to be working at nine pm. I mean, why is

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Speaker 1: it wrong time? It's time. We can use it for anything,

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Speaker 1: as long as the work gets done. Now, to be clear,

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Speaker 1: I know I work for myself. I have control over

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Speaker 1: my schedule. But with millions more people working from home

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Speaker 1: than did a few years ago, a great many more

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Speaker 1: people have similar levels of control over their time. Once

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Speaker 1: you remove the commute, you remove a great many of

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Speaker 1: the time norms that keep people at their desks from

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Speaker 1: nine to five. Work and effectiveness in general have to

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Speaker 1: be measured in terms of ta asks rather than time,

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Speaker 1: and once that's the case, you see that time can

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Speaker 1: be a lot more malleable. Now, I don't recommend flitting

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Speaker 1: back and forth constantly. Much work does require concentration, and

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Speaker 1: that means ours when you are not trying to do

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Speaker 1: something else. It is also nice to spend long stretches

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Speaker 1: of time on a weekend not thinking about anything work related.

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Speaker 1: But even with the broad standard structure in place, we

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Speaker 1: can be a bit more flexible on the margins. So

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Speaker 1: if there is something that you would like to do

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Speaker 1: during the work day that you haven't considered doing in

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Speaker 1: the past, why not try it just one day, just

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Speaker 1: this once. Go for a run in the middle of

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Speaker 1: the work day, take a long lunch with a kid

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Speaker 1: who is home from school, Go out to lunch with

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Speaker 1: your spouse, Go for a quick trip to an art museum.

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Speaker 1: That is this at four pm. Just make sure that

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Speaker 1: you get done what needs to get done. That means

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Speaker 1: being clear on what needs to be done, figure out

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Speaker 1: your priorities, figure out deadlines, be on track, get ahead.

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Speaker 1: But when you are feel free to embrace work life integration.

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Speaker 1: It is the best way to put in the time

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Speaker 1: you need to at work while having a full life

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Speaker 1: as well. In the meantime, This is Laura. Thanks for

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Speaker 1: listening and 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 Numb Before 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: I heart Radio, visit the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,

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