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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 that you shouldn't pad your to do list.

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Speaker 1: The purpose of a to do list is to choose

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Speaker 1: what needs to get done and to help you do

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Speaker 1: those things. So don't put tasks on the to do

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Speaker 1: list that would happen anyway. This muddies the water and

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Speaker 1: can distract you when it counts. Today's tip, like another

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Speaker 1: this week, is about having a focused to do list.

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Speaker 1: As I discussed earlier this week, you don't want to

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Speaker 1: have a long, unwieldy to do list that includes things

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Speaker 1: you may or may not ever get to. It may

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Speaker 1: not even truly intend to do. A to do list

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Speaker 1: that's more of a wish list doesn't help you get

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Speaker 1: anything done. You want to create daily to do lists

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Speaker 1: that only include items you truly intend to do today.

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Speaker 1: There's a corollary to this, which is that you shouldn't

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Speaker 1: put things on the list if they are definitely going

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Speaker 1: to happen today anyway. Trust me, I know this is tempting.

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Speaker 1: We all like to cross stuff off, and so when

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Speaker 1: we put things on the list that we know are

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Speaker 1: going to happen. It can feel like we are starting

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Speaker 1: a race fifty ahead, but we aren't. Really. Recently, I

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Speaker 1: heard someone mentioned the Frog and Toad book a list.

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Speaker 1: The book recounts how one morning, Toad writes down everything

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Speaker 1: he's going to do that day, starting with wake up

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Speaker 1: and get dressed, including activities like play games with Frog

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Speaker 1: and eat supper, and finishing with go to sleep. Toad

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Speaker 1: works his way through the day of the list, and

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Speaker 1: he crosses off each activity as he completes it. They're

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Speaker 1: some humor when Toad's list blows away and he hesitates

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Speaker 1: to taste it because doing so isn't on the list.

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Speaker 1: The day and the story are complete when nightfalls and

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Speaker 1: Toad crosses go to sleep from his list and then

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Speaker 1: does just that. It's a delightful little story, but not

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Speaker 1: exactly a model for increasing your productivity. You are most

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Speaker 1: likely going to get dressed and eat meals and go

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Speaker 1: to bed, whether those things are on it to do

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Speaker 1: list or not. And well, yes, I know you probably

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Speaker 1: aren't going to list those things. I imagine there are

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Speaker 1: other things you might be tempted to list, but are

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Speaker 1: in fact deeply ingrained habits. If it is your responsibility

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Speaker 1: to pick up your kids at school. I am guessing

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Speaker 1: you do it at the right time, whether it's on

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Speaker 1: the list or not. If you always check your email,

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Speaker 1: and really who doesn't, that doesn't have to be a

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Speaker 1: specific item on your to do list either. This is

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Speaker 1: important because when I've told people to create very short

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Speaker 1: daily to do lists, we're talking five items maybe less.

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Speaker 1: People often point out that they have way more than

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Speaker 1: five responsibilities per day. Well, great, so do I. We

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Speaker 1: all probably answer five emails every ten minutes. But if

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Speaker 1: every Tuesday involves a staff meeting at ten am, and

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Speaker 1: today is Tuesday, and you always go and you generally

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Speaker 1: do the same thing, then you probably don't need to

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Speaker 1: list this as one of your handful of two duies. Now,

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Speaker 1: if there's something new involved and you plan to do

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Speaker 1: extra preparation as a daily priority, by all means put

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Speaker 1: that on the list. But attending something you always attend,

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Speaker 1: or cooking a meal you always cook, or giving your

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Speaker 1: kids a bath at night, those are just part of

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Speaker 1: the day's landscape. It does feel fun to cross things off,

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Speaker 1: but the problem of putting all this extraneous stuff there

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Speaker 1: is that then the to do list can feel long.

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Speaker 1: When in reality, there are only a few truly important

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Speaker 1: extra items on it. It's possible you might miss the

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Speaker 1: things you intend to do because they are buried among

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Speaker 1: the things you are already going to do. And we

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Speaker 1: can also fall prey to the temptation to thinking we've

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Speaker 1: done a lot when we've crossed a lot of things off,

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Speaker 1: when none of those things were the important but not

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Speaker 1: urgent things we assigned ourselves to move forward. Crossing nine

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Speaker 1: of twelve things off a list sounds great, But if

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Speaker 1: the three you didn't do were the ones that would

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Speaker 1: have made a difference for your big goals, well that

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Speaker 1: is not a great outcome. So don't distract yourself. Instead,

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Speaker 1: make your to do list simple and focused. Include what

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Speaker 1: it's important for you to do that day and that

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Speaker 1: you might not do if you didn't write it down,

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Speaker 1: and commit to it. When there are fewer items on

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Speaker 1: your to do list, each one carries more weight. You

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Speaker 1: are less likely to overlook an item or justify not

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Speaker 1: doing it when there aren't two dozen other tasks obscuring

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Speaker 1: its importance. You've promised yourself you'll do a few specific tasks,

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Speaker 1: so you do what it takes to get them done.

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Speaker 1: In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening and

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Speaker 1: 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 number four, 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 iHeart media dot com that Before Breakfast is

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Speaker 1: spelled out with all the letters. Thanks so much, forward

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Speaker 1: to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is a production of

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Speaker 1: I heart Radio. For more podcasts from I heart Radio,

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Speaker 1: visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever

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Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows.