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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 aim for past times, not passing time.

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Speaker 1: In other words, use your leisure time for hobbies you love,

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Speaker 1: rather than passive activities like watching t V, scrolling social

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Speaker 1: media or the internet, which just fill the time. Time

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Speaker 1: passes while you're watching TV or looking at your friends

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Speaker 1: postings on social media, and you may not feel bored

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Speaker 1: or restless while doing these things, but a few hours later,

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Speaker 1: it's like they never happened. You haven't had new ideas

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Speaker 1: or maybe emotions. Nothing is that different in your life

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Speaker 1: because of that time. So instead of just passing the time,

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Speaker 1: develop pastimes, active hobbies that you enjoy pursuing in your

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Speaker 1: leisure time. It might be knitting or playing cards, cooking,

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Speaker 1: playing pickleball, reading, writing, poetry, woodworking. Of course, at its

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Speaker 1: linguistic roots, a pastime is an activity that you guessed

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Speaker 1: it passes the time. But a pastime is really more

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Speaker 1: than just that. You build your knowledge and skills, and

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Speaker 1: maybe you even have something tangible to show for your time,

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Speaker 1: like mittens knitted or a warming stew that you made.

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Speaker 1: These hobbies tend to be more satisfying than passive leisure,

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Speaker 1: at least if you look at surveys of moment by

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Speaker 1: moment happiness. They often allow for flow, that happy state

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Speaker 1: of absorption where time seems to stand still. They are also,

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Speaker 1: interestingly the things people often claim to have no time for.

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Speaker 1: This is rarely actually true. Anyone who looks at a

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Speaker 1: Facebook account has time to read, even on the same

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Speaker 1: device if you use the Kindle app to read e

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Speaker 1: books or something like that. Time spent channel surfing could

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Speaker 1: be spent doing a crossroad puzzle or a jigsaw puzzle.

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Speaker 1: I would even say that time spent picking up stuff

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Speaker 1: that will just come out again the next morning is

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Speaker 1: quite possibly wasted and less satisfying than scrap booking or

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Speaker 1: painting landscapes. Long time listeners will have heard me encourage

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Speaker 1: doing effortful fun before effortless fun. As we all know

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Speaker 1: from experience, you are unlikely to pick up a book

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Speaker 1: after you've sat down in front of the t V.

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Speaker 1: You are probably not going to grab your own needle

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Speaker 1: point work after you've picked up your phone and started

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Speaker 1: looking at other people's needle point projects on Instagram. So

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Speaker 1: instead it's wise to do some effortful fun before the effortless,

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Speaker 1: more passive fun. Pastimes are a form of effortful fun.

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Speaker 1: Of course, there are their forms of effortful fund, like

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Speaker 1: hosting a dinner party, you're packing up your family to

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Speaker 1: go ice skating. These are great, too, but you can't

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Speaker 1: always go ice skating. The rink isn't open twenty four

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Speaker 1: hours a day. Some of your leisure time also comes

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Speaker 1: while the kids are asleep. This year, we've realized that

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Speaker 1: external conditions can change a lot. Maybe that crowded ice

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Speaker 1: rink doesn't seem like such a great idea these days.

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Speaker 1: An advantage of having past times is that there are

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Speaker 1: kind of effortful fund that you can do pretty much anytime.

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Speaker 1: They don't require a lot of advance planning in most cases,

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Speaker 1: and they are less dependent upon external conditions. I am

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Speaker 1: highly unlikely to organize a group zoom in a few

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Speaker 1: minutes I have between children's bedtimes, but I can do

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Speaker 1: a few pieces in a one piece puzzle in that

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Speaker 1: space just as easily as I can scroll Instagram. So

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Speaker 1: this year aimed to find a new pastime or to

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Speaker 1: pick back up a pastime you enjoyed in the past.

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Speaker 1: Stop telling yourself that you have no time for it. Instead,

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Speaker 1: get the materials and then challenge yourself to do just

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Speaker 1: fifteen minutes of it. When you have a block of

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Speaker 1: open time, you can always pick up the phone and

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Speaker 1: go on a Twitter binge after that. But my guess

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Speaker 1: is that you get so absorbed in your puzzle or

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Speaker 1: knitting or building your ship in the bottle that you

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Speaker 1: won't want to and then you can post your awesome

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Speaker 1: ship in a bottle on Instagram when you're done. In

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Speaker 1: the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's

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

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Speaker 1: love to hear from you. You can send me your tips,

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

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Speaker 1: Facebook and Instagram at Before Breakfast Pod that's b E

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Speaker 1: the number four, then Breakfast p o D. You can

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Speaker 1: also shoot me an email at Before Breakfast podcast at

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Speaker 1: i heeart media dot com that Before Breakfast is spelled

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

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

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Speaker 1: of I heart Radio. For more podcasts from I heart Radio,

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Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows,