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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 think checklist, not routine. If you

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Speaker 1: are attracted to the concept of a morning routine but

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Speaker 1: you have a busy and unpredictable life, thinking of your

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Speaker 1: desires as a checklist rather than something that has to

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Speaker 1: happen on a strict schedule, can open up more possibilities.

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Speaker 1: When I describe my mornings, it is hard to get

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Speaker 1: around the unpredictability. The toddler wakes up at varying times,

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Speaker 1: and he wants to nurse when he does so, my

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Speaker 1: morning can start at five thirty or seven on weekdays.

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Speaker 1: The first hours are consumed with getting the big kids

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Speaker 1: ready and off to school. I also have a few

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Speaker 1: things I like to do in the morning. Every day,

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Speaker 1: since January one of this year, I have been doing

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Speaker 1: what I call my rituals. I read a chapter in

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Speaker 1: War and Peace, I write in my freewriting file, and

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Speaker 1: I do some strength training. None of this takes much time,

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Speaker 1: but I do these things every single day. I quickly

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Speaker 1: realized that if I insisted on them happening precisely at

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Speaker 1: seven am or something like that. This would be frustrating

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Speaker 1: for all involved, so I don't. Instead, I simply say

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Speaker 1: that they need to happen sometime, usually before mid morning.

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Speaker 1: I have a checklist for the morning, but I don't

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Speaker 1: have a strict time, and so I've been able to

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Speaker 1: stick with it. Perhaps you too, also have babies or toddlers,

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Speaker 1: or maybe you work shifts at your job and so

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Speaker 1: some days you're working overnight or some days you start

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Speaker 1: in the afternoon. Maybe you have a joint custody arrangement

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Speaker 1: so that some days are completely kid focused in some

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Speaker 1: days are completely not. Maybe you suffer from some sleep

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Speaker 1: issues that mean you need to give yourself grace on

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Speaker 1: the mornings when the nights have been tough. There are

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Speaker 1: all sorts of reasons that inflexible morning routines can't really happen,

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Speaker 1: but that doesn't mean that we can't make choices with

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Speaker 1: our mornings. If there are activities that you'd like to

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Speaker 1: incorporate regularly into your life, see if you can turn

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Speaker 1: them into more of a checklist unless of a routine.

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Speaker 1: If you say that at some point before ten am,

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Speaker 1: I will have moved my body around for at least

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Speaker 1: ten minutes. Well, I am guessing that you can make

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Speaker 1: that happen if you say that at some point before

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Speaker 1: ten am, I will have written in my journal for

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Speaker 1: five minutes, or meditated for five minutes, or prayed or

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Speaker 1: read a sacred text or anything along those lines. I

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Speaker 1: am betting that you can figure that out too. Is

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Speaker 1: it doing a triathlon at four am daily? Well? No,

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Speaker 1: but it doesn't need to be. And s what many

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Speaker 1: of those people claiming strict and elaborate morning routines don't

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Speaker 1: actually do them every single day either. Weekends and holidays

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Speaker 1: tend to look different, so they've got flexibility. You can

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Speaker 1: have flexibility to progress happens, whether it is strictly at

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Speaker 1: seven am or just any time before ten. The checklist

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Speaker 1: approach makes something like a morning routine possible in the meantime.

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

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

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Speaker 1: hear 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 four,

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Speaker 1: then Breakfast p o D. You can also shoot me

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Speaker 1: an email at Before Breakfast podcast at iHeartMedia dot com

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Speaker 1: that before Breakfast is spelled out with all the letters.

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Speaker 1: Thanks so much, I look forward to staying in touch.

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

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Speaker 1: more podcasts from i heart Radio, visit the i heart

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Speaker 1: Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your

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Speaker 1: favorite shows.