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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 about how to transition more easily from

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Speaker 1: one thing to another. Shifting gears can be hard, but

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Speaker 1: certain techniques can lead to a little less whiplash and

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Speaker 1: a little more satisfaction. I've realized over the years that

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Speaker 1: some people feel differently about transition than others do. A

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Speaker 1: tiny boat might be able to turn quickly, a big

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Speaker 1: tanker needs a long time to shift direction. It's not

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Speaker 1: that one kind of boat is better than the other,

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Speaker 1: they're just built in entirely different ways. I am more

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Speaker 1: of the tiny sailboat type myself. Over years of working

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Speaker 1: from home women raising five children, I have learned to

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Speaker 1: make use of small bits of time and to consider

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Speaker 1: any hour open for work or home life tasks. So

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Speaker 1: when I talk about time with people who are concerned

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Speaker 1: about their work life balance, one of my favorite suggestions

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Speaker 1: is to consider what I call a split shift. You

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Speaker 1: leave the office on time, spend the evening with young

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Speaker 1: kids who go to bed relatively early, then do some

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Speaker 1: more work at night after the kids go to bed.

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Speaker 1: That way, you're trading off work time for TV time

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Speaker 1: instead of work time for family time. Brilliant, right. Some

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Speaker 1: people agree with me that this is brilliant. They try

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Speaker 1: it eagerly and tell me how happy they are to

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Speaker 1: spend more time with their kids while still putting in

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Speaker 1: the hours they need to at work. They finally have

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Speaker 1: it all other people, I think this sounds like the

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Speaker 1: worst idea ever. Once they are done with work for

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Speaker 1: the night they are done, they are not going to

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Speaker 1: easily turn the oil tanker around. Starting back up at

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Speaker 1: eight p m makes them feel, as one woman wrote,

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Speaker 1: ill with self pity or more likely just ineffective. By

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Speaker 1: the time they get back into work mode, it would

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Speaker 1: be time to go to bed and they'll have to

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Speaker 1: get out of work mode again. As an integrator type,

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Speaker 1: I can think this sounds ridiculous, but we all have

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Speaker 1: to know ourselves. The trouble for the oil tanker types

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Speaker 1: of the world is that life demands a lot of transitions,

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Speaker 1: and I heartily suggest you build your life to spend

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Speaker 1: whole work days focused on one thing if you can,

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Speaker 1: but many people find that impossible. We have to transition

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Speaker 1: between projects, between meetings and focused work, and now from

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Speaker 1: home to work and work to home in many cases

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Speaker 1: without the separation of a commute. If you do find

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Speaker 1: transitions from one mood to an other hard, then you

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Speaker 1: need to come up with ways to train your brain

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Speaker 1: to get into the groove more quickly. One of the

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Speaker 1: best ways to do that is to have some sort

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Speaker 1: of ritual that quickly gets you into work mode and

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Speaker 1: quickly out of work mode. If you work from home,

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Speaker 1: you could try a fake commute. You walk to a

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Speaker 1: local coffee shop, get a big cup to go, and

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Speaker 1: walk home and straight into your office. Now you are

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Speaker 1: in work mode, not home mode. The feel of that

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Speaker 1: big cup of coffee and having physically moved yourself around

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Speaker 1: can send your brain the signal that now it is time.

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Speaker 1: Another method is to have some sort of go to song.

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Speaker 1: You might not even have to play the whole thing.

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Speaker 1: Music can powerfully shift the brain into certain modes. That's

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Speaker 1: why you feel nostalgic whenever you hear that song that

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Speaker 1: was popular around the time of your high school graduation

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Speaker 1: or your first love or what have you. Choose a

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Speaker 1: song that means now is work time, and you can

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Speaker 1: get your brain moving quickly. You can also choose a

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Speaker 1: song that means now is not work time and figure

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Speaker 1: out how you can relax as quickly as possible to.

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Speaker 1: Sometimes sense can do this as well. And I know

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Speaker 1: this sounds a little strange, but hear me out. Sense

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Speaker 1: very quickly take the brain places pretty much as quickly

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Speaker 1: as music. Smell the perfume your grandmother used, and you

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Speaker 1: are quickly a little kid hanging out in her kitchen.

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Speaker 1: Smell dogwoods on the spring breeze, and you are transported

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Speaker 1: to your ten year old bedroom where there was a

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Speaker 1: dogwood right outside. So choose an invigorating scent, like a

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Speaker 1: cedar scented candle, and then light it when it is

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Speaker 1: go time. Do this for several days in a row,

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Speaker 1: and your brain will come to associate focus with that scent.

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Speaker 1: You can also do certain things to let your brain

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Speaker 1: relax a bit more about up coming transitions. For instance,

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Speaker 1: if you really want to focus on something without watching

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Speaker 1: the clock, then set an alarm for five to ten

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Speaker 1: minutes before you need to stop. That way, you can

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Speaker 1: get into it knowing that you will have time to

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Speaker 1: transition when you need to. You might also get in

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Speaker 1: the habit of getting to a natural stopping point with

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Speaker 1: your work. Yes, other people interrupt us. Both colleagues and

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Speaker 1: family members these days, but we interrupt ourselves sometimes too,

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Speaker 1: instead of giving into the urge to check email, which

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Speaker 1: is a transition, by the way, which even people who

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Speaker 1: hate transitions seem to make effortlessly push through. Until you

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Speaker 1: are done with a section of your report, or have

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Speaker 1: finished that whole memo, or set the whole agenda for

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Speaker 1: your meeting, note the exact next steps. Then you can

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Speaker 1: take a break and know that you are teed up

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Speaker 1: to start again pretty easily. In any case, I am

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Speaker 1: always looking for more suggestions on how to make smoother transitions.

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Speaker 1: If you have something that works for you, I'd love

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Speaker 1: to hear about it. You can let me know at

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Speaker 1: Laura at Laura Vanderkamp dot com. In the meantime, this

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Speaker 1: is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's to making the

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Speaker 1: most of our time. Hey, everybody, I'd love to hear

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Speaker 1: from you. You can send me your tips, your questions,

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Speaker 1: or anything else. Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook

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Speaker 1: and Instagram at Before Breakfast Pod that's B the number

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Speaker 1: four then breakfast p o D. You can also shoot

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Speaker 1: me an email at Before Breakfast Podcast at iHeart media

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Speaker 1: dot com. That before Breakfast is spelled out with all

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Speaker 1: the letters. Thanks so much, I look forward to staying

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Speaker 1: in touch. Before Breakfast is a production of I heart Radio.

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