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 start what you can finish. We're
Speaker 1: often told that we should finish what we start, and
Speaker 1: that is great advice to do that, though it also
Speaker 1: helps to be thoughtful about only starting the things we
Speaker 1: can finish given our available time, motivation, and resources. It
Speaker 1: is so easy to start a project like cleaning out
Speaker 1: a closet or reorganizing a bookshelf for painting a room,
Speaker 1: only to need to stop part way through because it's
Speaker 1: too late to keep going, or the weekend is over.
Speaker 1: Or we start a project and just run out of steam,
Speaker 1: or we have plenty of time and motivation but run
Speaker 1: out of supplies. Nothing takes the wind out of the
Speaker 1: sales like emptying the fridge to clean it and then
Speaker 1: realizing you're out of your favorite all purpose cleaner and
Speaker 1: paper towels. Rather than have to restart or live with
Speaker 1: a half finished project for a long time, it's better
Speaker 1: to start things only when we can finish with the
Speaker 1: amount of time, motivation, and resources we have. So when
Speaker 1: you're considering a big project, think through the constituent parts
Speaker 1: and how long each step will take. Then figure out
Speaker 1: how much time you truly have and want to devote
Speaker 1: to the project. Choose parts of the project that you
Speaker 1: can do in the time available. Maybe if you're envisioning
Speaker 1: a painting project, you decide that Friday night you'll move
Speaker 1: the furniture, patch the walls and take Saturday you'll prime
Speaker 1: and do the first coat, and Sunday you'll do the
Speaker 1: second coat and clean up. Maybe you won't reorganize the
Speaker 1: whole book case after work, You'll just remove any books
Speaker 1: you want to give away today, and then tomorrow night
Speaker 1: you can organize the books that remain. It's much more
Speaker 1: satisfying to finish a smaller project or a part of
Speaker 1: a project, than to realize you've bitten off more than
Speaker 1: you want to chew. As is generally true with time management,
Speaker 1: the more often you plan specific tasks for specific chunks
Speaker 1: of time, the better you'll get at estimating how long
Speaker 1: things truly take. And of course, after you've identified a
Speaker 1: project you can tackle, make sure you have any supplies
Speaker 1: you need. If in doubt, get more. I find it's
Speaker 1: less of a pain to return the extra than to
Speaker 1: run short with the time and supplies that you need
Speaker 1: for your project, you'll probably be more motivated to power
Speaker 1: through to a planned stopping point. You aren't aiming to
Speaker 1: clean out the whole basement. You're just organizing two toy
Speaker 1: binds that you can do in the next hour, the
Speaker 1: hour you have before you need to pick up your
Speaker 1: kids from their friend's house. You get a sense of
Speaker 1: accomplishment and you avoid ending up with a mess while
Speaker 1: the project is half done. Should you finish what you start, sure,
Speaker 1: but you'll be a lot happier doing that if you're
Speaker 1: also intentional about starting only what you can finish in
Speaker 1: the first place. In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks
Speaker 1: for listening, and here's to making the most of our time.
Speaker 1: Hey everybody, I'd love to hear from you. You can
Speaker 1: send me your tips, your questions, or anything else. Just
Speaker 1: connect with me on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at Before
Speaker 1: Breakfast Pod that's b E the number four then breakfast
Speaker 1: p O D. You can also shoot me an email
Speaker 1: at Before Breakfast podcast at iHeart media dot com. That
Speaker 1: Before Breakfast is spelled out with all the letters. Thanks
Speaker 1: so much, I look forward to staying in touch. Before
Speaker 1: Breakfast is a production of I heart Radio. For more
Speaker 1: podcasts from I heart Radio, visit the I heart Radio app,
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.