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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 read first. When you've got some

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Speaker 1: downtime and you're a tempted to pick up your phone

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Speaker 1: and start scrolling. Read for just a minute or two first.

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Speaker 1: You'll get a lot more reading done and probably do

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Speaker 1: a bit less scrolling than you otherwise would have. When

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Speaker 1: people think about what they'd like to spend more time doing,

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Speaker 1: reading comes up a lot. Indeed, many people claim to

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Speaker 1: have no time to read, though this most likely isn't true.

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Speaker 1: Take a look at the screen time function on your

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Speaker 1: phone and see what the number is. It is probably

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Speaker 1: not zero. More importantly, it is not all work stuff

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Speaker 1: like email or phone calls. Either reading tweets or clickbait

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Speaker 1: articles or posts on Facebook is in fact reading. It's

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Speaker 1: just not particularly great reading. So the problem is not

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Speaker 1: finding time to read. It is upgrading our reading material.

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Speaker 1: It's choosing slightly more effortful reading rather than the effortless stuff.

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Speaker 1: When you put it this way, this suggests a slightly

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Speaker 1: different solution than reworking a whole schedule to magically find

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Speaker 1: more time to read. Instead, try this little upgrade. Every

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Speaker 1: time you pick up your phone to start scrolling, commit

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Speaker 1: to reading something more substantial. First. You don't have to

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Speaker 1: read much. Just a minute is a good start. The

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Speaker 1: easiest way to make this work is to put the

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Speaker 1: Kindle app or another e reader app on your phone

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Speaker 1: and load e books on there. Many of the classics

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Speaker 1: are free or are available for a nominal price like cents. Indeed,

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Speaker 1: for ninety nine cents apiece you could get versions of

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Speaker 1: War and Peace, Middle March, Ulysses, Moby Dick, and Kristin

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Speaker 1: Lavern's Daughter. You could go download those books right now

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Speaker 1: for less than the price of a latte total and

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Speaker 1: have something like a hundred hours of reading material on

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Speaker 1: your phone now. Of course, I completely understand if you

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Speaker 1: would prefer something much lighter, honestly me too, But in

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Speaker 1: any case, there are no shortages of possibilities. You might

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Speaker 1: try some poetry if that's a way to ease into reading,

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Speaker 1: and nonfiction is great as well. Then when you pick

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Speaker 1: up your phone, open the Kindle app and read for

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Speaker 1: one minute. Most likely you're going to keep going because

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Speaker 1: most books are pretty good. But even if you don't

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Speaker 1: keep going, given how many times people pick up their phones.

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Speaker 1: You will probably read for at least ten to fifteen

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Speaker 1: minutes a day right there, and that is not terrible. Indeed,

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Speaker 1: it's a pretty good start. Of course, you don't have

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Speaker 1: to read on your phone. Reading real physical books can

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Speaker 1: feel like a treat in this world where we always

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Speaker 1: feel plugged in. Well, I normally read on my kindle

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Speaker 1: app this past month, I've read two books as paperbacks,

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Speaker 1: and I've really enjoyed the feeling of separation from my inbox. Unfortunately,

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Speaker 1: the problem is that we really do almost always have

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Speaker 1: our phones with us, whereas we don't have other material.

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Speaker 1: It's a solvable problem, but one to be aware of.

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Speaker 1: We don't want to make the perfect the enemy of

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Speaker 1: the good. In any case, By committing to reading for

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Speaker 1: just a minute or so first, you are not trying

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Speaker 1: to set strict limits on your scrolling or trying to

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Speaker 1: rely on willpower to stay off Twitter or anything like that.

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Speaker 1: You are simply changing your habits slightly to do something

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Speaker 1: else first. Then you can scroll through Instagram for an

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Speaker 1: hour if you'd like, no problem. But by reading for

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Speaker 1: a minute or so first, you get to have both

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Speaker 1: kinds of fun, and that is really the best of

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Speaker 1: both worlds. 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 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 app Before Breakfast is

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

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Speaker 1: look forward to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is a

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Speaker 1: production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts from I

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

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