1
00:00:02,320 --> 00:00:07,360
Speaker 1: Good morning, This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.

2
00:00:08,280 --> 00:00:11,319
Speaker 1: Every weekday morning, I'll be sharing a strategy to help

3
00:00:11,320 --> 00:00:15,560
Speaker 1: you take your day from great too awesome. In future

4
00:00:15,560 --> 00:00:18,480
Speaker 1: episodes we'll dive right into the tips, but in these

5
00:00:18,520 --> 00:00:22,920
Speaker 1: first few episodes, I'm introducing myself and talking about why

6
00:00:23,160 --> 00:00:29,120
Speaker 1: time matters and what time management really means. Today, I

7
00:00:29,200 --> 00:00:32,840
Speaker 1: want to talk about wasting time. What does it mean

8
00:00:32,920 --> 00:00:37,000
Speaker 1: to waste time, how does it happen? What should we

9
00:00:37,040 --> 00:00:42,880
Speaker 1: do about it? Different people have different definitions. Generally, wasting

10
00:00:42,920 --> 00:00:46,400
Speaker 1: time sounds like a bad thing. You're squandering something precious,

11
00:00:46,960 --> 00:00:51,000
Speaker 1: but precisely because it has a negative connotation, some people

12
00:00:51,040 --> 00:00:53,880
Speaker 1: like to show how clever and contrary they are by

13
00:00:54,160 --> 00:00:58,280
Speaker 1: assigning a certain romanticism to wasting time. Spend enough time

14
00:00:58,280 --> 00:01:00,400
Speaker 1: online and you'll notice that a lot of the people

15
00:01:00,840 --> 00:01:04,880
Speaker 1: write very similar essays. They proudly note that they don't

16
00:01:04,880 --> 00:01:08,280
Speaker 1: buy into puritan notions that all time must be productive.

17
00:01:08,840 --> 00:01:12,520
Speaker 1: They describe a scene of them doing some allegedly frivolous thing,

18
00:01:12,760 --> 00:01:16,400
Speaker 1: staring at the clouds. Oh, the world groans in protest,

19
00:01:16,720 --> 00:01:20,560
Speaker 1: but our essayist is proud of such wasted time. Some

20
00:01:20,680 --> 00:01:23,760
Speaker 1: of this writing is much better than others. It's also

21
00:01:23,840 --> 00:01:28,080
Speaker 1: got a lot of historical precedent. When I first started

22
00:01:28,120 --> 00:01:31,559
Speaker 1: writing about time management, a friend sent me John Keats's

23
00:01:31,600 --> 00:01:35,640
Speaker 1: poem Owed on Indolence, which was written in eighteen nineteen.

24
00:01:36,400 --> 00:01:39,360
Speaker 1: He talks of being visited by the shadow of ambition,

25
00:01:39,880 --> 00:01:44,320
Speaker 1: but sending her off, noting that you cannot raise my head.

26
00:01:44,440 --> 00:01:48,240
Speaker 1: Cool bedded in the flowery grass, Keats just wants to

27
00:01:48,280 --> 00:01:52,280
Speaker 1: lie there staring up at the sky, to which I

28
00:01:52,360 --> 00:01:56,400
Speaker 1: say great. I think taking breaks to clear our heads

29
00:01:56,440 --> 00:01:59,840
Speaker 1: as smart. If we took breaks by going outside and

30
00:02:00,320 --> 00:02:04,120
Speaker 1: staring at the clouds, we would be rejuvenated and energized.

31
00:02:04,760 --> 00:02:09,240
Speaker 1: That's not wasted time at all. Unfortunately, when most of

32
00:02:09,320 --> 00:02:12,799
Speaker 1: us take breaks, what we do is read arguments between

33
00:02:12,800 --> 00:02:15,720
Speaker 1: people calling each other names on Twitter, or we look

34
00:02:15,760 --> 00:02:18,440
Speaker 1: at photos on Facebook of people we didn't like in

35
00:02:18,520 --> 00:02:23,480
Speaker 1: high school. Anyway, we don't emerge inspired. So I want

36
00:02:23,480 --> 00:02:28,079
Speaker 1: to offer a different definition. Being productive means spending your

37
00:02:28,120 --> 00:02:32,520
Speaker 1: time in ways that are meaningful or enjoyable for you

38
00:02:32,880 --> 00:02:37,120
Speaker 1: are the people you care about. Wasting time means spending

39
00:02:37,160 --> 00:02:39,560
Speaker 1: time in ways that aren't advancing you towards the life

40
00:02:39,600 --> 00:02:44,760
Speaker 1: you want. This definition sounds reasonable at first blush, though

41
00:02:44,960 --> 00:02:48,400
Speaker 1: if you think about it, it's kind of radical. All

42
00:02:48,560 --> 00:02:53,160
Speaker 1: sorts of things that sound productive don't meet this definition.

43
00:02:54,400 --> 00:02:56,880
Speaker 1: Spending an hour before bed picking up toys that will

44
00:02:56,919 --> 00:02:59,840
Speaker 1: just come out again the next morning is wasted time

45
00:03:00,440 --> 00:03:03,799
Speaker 1: unless you really love doing it. If you don't love it,

46
00:03:04,400 --> 00:03:07,160
Speaker 1: you would have been better off doing something you would enjoy,

47
00:03:07,400 --> 00:03:11,880
Speaker 1: like reading a book. Under this definition, work is responsible

48
00:03:11,919 --> 00:03:15,720
Speaker 1: for all sorts of wasted time. For instance, I firmly

49
00:03:15,760 --> 00:03:18,440
Speaker 1: believe that the point of a meeting is to change

50
00:03:18,520 --> 00:03:21,639
Speaker 1: something in the world. So if that Tuesday morning staff

51
00:03:21,680 --> 00:03:25,280
Speaker 1: meeting changes nothing beyond rendering everyone in the room ninety

52
00:03:25,320 --> 00:03:30,680
Speaker 1: minutes older, that is wasted time. Email can be like

53
00:03:30,800 --> 00:03:35,600
Speaker 1: this too. In Juliett's School of Possibilities, my time management fable,

54
00:03:36,200 --> 00:03:38,760
Speaker 1: the main character falls into the trap of responding to

55
00:03:38,840 --> 00:03:43,600
Speaker 1: all emails as quickly as possible. This seems productive, but

56
00:03:43,680 --> 00:03:46,840
Speaker 1: of course it isn't, because the reason so many people

57
00:03:46,920 --> 00:03:49,920
Speaker 1: email her is that they think she has good ideas.

58
00:03:50,880 --> 00:03:54,720
Speaker 1: Her obsession with her inbox crowds out all time to

59
00:03:54,760 --> 00:03:57,080
Speaker 1: think up the good ideas that will serve her clients,

60
00:03:58,000 --> 00:04:02,880
Speaker 1: So this is wasted time. This is a tough definition,

61
00:04:02,960 --> 00:04:07,520
Speaker 1: but don't feel bad by this definition. Most of us

62
00:04:07,560 --> 00:04:12,000
Speaker 1: waste tons of time. I know I do. I spend

63
00:04:12,080 --> 00:04:15,440
Speaker 1: all kinds of time on things that don't feel particularly

64
00:04:15,480 --> 00:04:18,799
Speaker 1: meaningful or enjoyable to myself or the people I care about,

65
00:04:19,600 --> 00:04:23,080
Speaker 1: or like Twitter. They feel enjoyable for the first three minutes,

66
00:04:23,520 --> 00:04:27,080
Speaker 1: but not the next forty five. Thanks to the screen

67
00:04:27,120 --> 00:04:30,120
Speaker 1: time feature on the iPhone, I am now confronted with

68
00:04:30,160 --> 00:04:33,240
Speaker 1: my statistics un wasted time in a little moment of

69
00:04:33,240 --> 00:04:38,520
Speaker 1: reckoning every Sunday morning. Since I study my time, I

70
00:04:38,640 --> 00:04:41,720
Speaker 1: know what leads to these Internet rabbit holes, or to

71
00:04:41,920 --> 00:04:45,159
Speaker 1: time spent puttering around the house moving paper from one

72
00:04:45,200 --> 00:04:49,080
Speaker 1: pile to another. It's actually a bit of a paradox.

73
00:04:50,040 --> 00:04:53,760
Speaker 1: I think most of us waste time because we assume

74
00:04:54,200 --> 00:04:58,320
Speaker 1: we have no time. Because we assume we have no time,

75
00:04:59,000 --> 00:05:00,840
Speaker 1: we don't think about what we'd like to do with it.

76
00:05:01,960 --> 00:05:05,960
Speaker 1: When a spot of time does appear, we do the easiest,

77
00:05:06,480 --> 00:05:10,599
Speaker 1: most effortless thing, which is often picking up the phone

78
00:05:11,279 --> 00:05:15,640
Speaker 1: or some other pointless means of busting boredom. When I

79
00:05:15,640 --> 00:05:19,440
Speaker 1: think about it, then I do better. If I'm facing

80
00:05:19,440 --> 00:05:23,320
Speaker 1: an empty weekend afternoon of sibling squabbles, I load everyone

81
00:05:23,320 --> 00:05:24,680
Speaker 1: in the car and go to the y m c

82
00:05:24,839 --> 00:05:27,719
Speaker 1: as indoor pool, or after the kids go to bed,

83
00:05:28,120 --> 00:05:30,640
Speaker 1: I make sure I have a really good book, so

84
00:05:30,800 --> 00:05:34,000
Speaker 1: this low energy time can be spent on something slightly

85
00:05:34,040 --> 00:05:41,680
Speaker 1: more edifying than Twitter insults. Thinking about time is the

86
00:05:41,760 --> 00:05:46,200
Speaker 1: antidote to wasting time. You can think I'd like to

87
00:05:46,240 --> 00:05:49,160
Speaker 1: go lie cool bedded in the flowery grass, just like

88
00:05:49,240 --> 00:05:53,360
Speaker 1: John Keats, and then go do it and enjoy yourself immensely.

89
00:05:54,360 --> 00:05:58,799
Speaker 1: That's not wasting time at all. This is Laura. Thanks

90
00:05:58,839 --> 00:06:10,080
Speaker 1: for listening, and here's to making the most of our time. Hey,

91
00:06:10,120 --> 00:06:13,520
Speaker 1: everybody got a tip or a question. You can share

92
00:06:13,560 --> 00:06:16,720
Speaker 1: them with me on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram at Before

93
00:06:16,760 --> 00:06:21,520
Speaker 1: Breakfast Pod that's be the number four then Breakfast p

94
00:06:21,760 --> 00:06:25,560
Speaker 1: o D. You can also email me at Before Breakfast

95
00:06:25,640 --> 00:06:29,359
Speaker 1: Podcast at iHeart Media dot com. For the email, just

96
00:06:29,400 --> 00:06:32,000
Speaker 1: spell those words out. I look forward to connecting and

97
00:06:32,080 --> 00:06:33,640
Speaker 1: learning how you make the most of your time.