Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Good Morning. This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Speaker 1: Today's tip is to do your errands during the week
Speaker 1: rather than on weekends. I know that weekends seem like
Speaker 1: a convenient time to do all those chores and errands
Speaker 1: that seem more difficult to squeeze into the work week.
Speaker 1: But just because something is convenient doesn't mean it's always
Speaker 1: the best use of time. I was reminded of this
Speaker 1: when I got a question from a listener named Matt.
Speaker 1: On its surface, this question wasn't about groceries at all.
Speaker 1: Matt writes that my wife recently began a new job
Speaker 1: that has our work schedules completely flipped around, leaving us
Speaker 1: with very little time to spend together. Any tips on
Speaker 1: how to make the most of my time when we
Speaker 1: are away from each other so we can make the
Speaker 1: most of our time together. I love this question because
Speaker 1: while we all think of time and dis Greek categories,
Speaker 1: Matt recognized that all our hours influence each other. Matt
Speaker 1: wisely wanted to optimize his time with his wife. Doing
Speaker 1: that required looking at the hours he didn't spend with
Speaker 1: his wife too often. When I hear from couples about
Speaker 1: oppositional work schedules. What's happened is that one party works
Speaker 1: a standard eight to five job and the other works
Speaker 1: something along the lines of four pm to midnight. The
Speaker 1: party that has to be at work at eight doesn't
Speaker 1: want to stay up till one am, and the party
Speaker 1: that works until midnight doesn't want to wake up at
Speaker 1: six thirty. You wind up not seeing each other during
Speaker 1: the week. That sounds tough, but the good news is
Speaker 1: that weekends are real days too. They don't have to
Speaker 1: be an afterthought. You can have a real relationship just
Speaker 1: seeing each other on the weekends. But then you also
Speaker 1: want to make sure that you're not spending your entire
Speaker 1: weekend doing chores and errands. That is a recipe for
Speaker 1: feeling like you have no time for fun at all.
Speaker 1: So as a couple, I suggested that Matt and his
Speaker 1: wife figure out what needs to be done grocery shopping,
Speaker 1: buying home items, cleaning, laundry, yard work. They could then
Speaker 1: split this in an equitable fashion. Then each person would
Speaker 1: do his or her chores and errands during non work
Speaker 1: weekday hours. When they got to the weekend, these things
Speaker 1: would be done they could spend their time hanging out
Speaker 1: with each other and connecting as a couple, rather than
Speaker 1: trudging through it to do list. Even if you do
Speaker 1: see your spouse or kids or friends during the work week,
Speaker 1: I still think there are upsides to getting the chores done.
Speaker 1: You're already in work mode during the week, the chores
Speaker 1: are just work of a different sort. This opens up
Speaker 1: the weekend for longer day trips or other fun activities.
Speaker 1: Of course, there's a reason people tend to do errands
Speaker 1: on weekends, even though stores are more crowded, and every
Speaker 1: time I go to Costco on Saturday, I wind up
Speaker 1: parking what seems like a mile from the store entrance.
Speaker 1: Time feels in short supply during the week, but I've
Speaker 1: gotten lots of tips from before breakfas as listeners on
Speaker 1: how they make it work. For instance, one woman with
Speaker 1: six children writes that I typically put in an online
Speaker 1: grocery pickup order for Friday so we are all stocked
Speaker 1: when the weekend officially starts. I have no desire to
Speaker 1: spend my Saturday grocery shopping. We have a few basic
Speaker 1: meals that help make weekends when we are all home easier.
Speaker 1: Another listener writes that she does quick shopping trips during
Speaker 1: work breaks twice a week. During my lunch, I run
Speaker 1: to the store, buy food for half the week, and
Speaker 1: bring the perishable items into my office fridge for the
Speaker 1: rest of the day, she writes, I leave the non
Speaker 1: perishable items in the car. This is super quick to
Speaker 1: unload because I asked the grocery clerks to separate the
Speaker 1: cold and non cold items while they are bagging. Some days,
Speaker 1: I've even brought a cooler with ice packs and left
Speaker 1: the cold items in the car. This listener notes that
Speaker 1: this beats shopping after work when she's starving, and also
Speaker 1: means she gets more time with her family. You could
Speaker 1: pick two days during the week to toss a load
Speaker 1: of laundry in before work and toss it in the
Speaker 1: dryer after work. That way, you don't go into the
Speaker 1: weekend facing a pile. Or if you need to run errands,
Speaker 1: maybe do this after dinner one night. The stores will
Speaker 1: probably be pleasingly close to empty. Of course, you may
Speaker 1: decide that this is impractical and you need to use
Speaker 1: your weekends. Still, I'd suggest setting a time limit. Saturday
Speaker 1: morning could be chores and errand's time. This forces prioritization.
Speaker 1: If it doesn't happen, then it probably wasn't that important.
Speaker 1: Or if you find yourself looking at a dirty floor
Speaker 1: some other time, you can tell yourself that there's a
Speaker 1: time for this, a time for cleaning the floor Saturday
Speaker 1: morning and now is not that time? Do you do
Speaker 1: errands and chores during the work week rather than on
Speaker 1: the weekend? How do you make it work? You can
Speaker 1: let me know that Before Breakfast podcast at i heeart
Speaker 1: media dot com. In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks
Speaker 1: for list things and here's to making the most of
Speaker 1: our time. Hey, everybody, I'd love to hear from you.
Speaker 1: You can send me your tips, your questions, or anything else.
Speaker 1: Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at
Speaker 1: Before Breakfast pod. That's B the number four, then breakfast
Speaker 1: p o D. You can also shoot me an email
Speaker 1: at Before Breakfast podcast at i heeart media dot com.
Speaker 1: That Before Breakfast is spelled out with all the letters.
Speaker 1: Thanks so much, I look forward to staying in touch.
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