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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 to find a hobby, or, if you

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Speaker 1: already have one, to schedule some more time for it.

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Speaker 1: This is especially true if you feel like you have

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Speaker 1: no time at all, because time is all about perception,

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Speaker 1: and consciously choosing to spend time on leisurely activities can

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Speaker 1: make you feel like you do have time for leisure.

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Speaker 1: I recently read Celeste Hedley's new book, Do Nothing Now.

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Speaker 1: To be clear, Hedley doesn't want people to actually do nothing,

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Speaker 1: nor has this public radio host and speaker ever spent

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Speaker 1: a day doing nothing in her life. However, she does

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Speaker 1: argue that many of us could use some higher quality leisure.

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Speaker 1: In general, people work less than they think they do.

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Speaker 1: We have free time, even busy people like Hedley. But

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Speaker 1: when we tell ourselves a story that we have no

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Speaker 1: free time, when we get a spare moment, we don't

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Speaker 1: have anything particularly purposeful ready to do with it, and

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Speaker 1: so we spend this leisure time in the most effortless

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Speaker 1: ways possible, such as scrolling through social media, or we

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Speaker 1: do fake productive activities like deleting email so one thing

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Speaker 1: Hedley suggests is pursuing an actual hobby. There are all

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Speaker 1: kinds of interesting things you can do that use entirely

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Speaker 1: different parts of your brain or that require less intense

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Speaker 1: thinking than your job. Headley has a moss garden. You

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Speaker 1: can do crossword puzzles or jigsaw puzzles. You can cross

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Speaker 1: stitch or knit, or do other sorts of needlework. Legos

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Speaker 1: are great, or building model trains or dollhouses. My ten

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Speaker 1: year old son and I are building a ship in

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Speaker 1: a bottle. You can plan an elaborate garden. Anything artistic

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Speaker 1: is great. I just read an article about someone who

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Speaker 1: makes lodges out of illustrations from old books, which sounds

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Speaker 1: both fascinating and time consuming. Now I know my listeners

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Speaker 1: are doing great things in the world, and so you

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Speaker 1: may be listening to this and thinking that you do

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Speaker 1: not have time for making collages out of old books.

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Speaker 1: I get it, but I'm guessing that this is not

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Speaker 1: entirely true. If someone offered to start paying you a

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Speaker 1: hundred thousand dollars apiece for those collages, you'd probably find

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Speaker 1: the time somewhere. It's more that this is not a

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Speaker 1: priority for you, and that's okay too, But scheduling just

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Speaker 1: twenty minutes for a hobby a few times a week

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Speaker 1: can do a lot for you at the cost of

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Speaker 1: one of your one sixty eight weekly hours. First, most

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Speaker 1: hobbies are kind of fun. That's why people do them. Second,

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Speaker 1: a good hobby gets you off your phone. Sure, you

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Speaker 1: can use your phone for reference, but you may be

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Speaker 1: marginally less inclined to scroll on Twitter while you're using

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Speaker 1: your hands to knit. And most importantly, a good hobby

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Speaker 1: changes the story you tell yourself. You can tell yourself

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Speaker 1: that you have no free time whatsoever if you scroll

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Speaker 1: through Twitter for three hours a day because it's adjacent

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Speaker 1: to your inbox. But it's hard to tell that story.

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Speaker 1: If you spend an equivalent quantity of time building a

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Speaker 1: ship in a bottle, you are forced to acknowledge that, yes,

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Speaker 1: I have some free time. Maybe not as much free

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Speaker 1: time as I want, but some, and that is a

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Speaker 1: very different story. It puts us back in control of

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Speaker 1: our time, so we can start living the lives we want.

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Speaker 1: If you make time for a hobby, I would love

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Speaker 1: to hear about it. You can send me pictures of

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Speaker 1: your moss gardens or ships in a bottle at Before

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Speaker 1: Breakfast podcast at i heeart media dot com. In the meantime,

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Speaker 1: this is Laura. Thanks for listening and here's to making

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Speaker 1: the most of our time. Hey, everybody, I'd love to

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Speaker 1: hear from you. You can send me your tips, your questions,

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Speaker 1: or anything else. Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook

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Speaker 1: and Instagram at Before Breakfast pod. That's B the number four,

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

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Speaker 1: an email at Before Breakfast podcast at i heeart media

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Speaker 1: dot com. That Before Breakfast is spelled out with all

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Speaker 1: the letters. Thanks so much, I look forward to staying

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Speaker 1: in touch. Before Breakfast is a production of I Heart Radio.

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

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