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 aim for past times, not passing time.
Speaker 1: In other words, use your leisure time for hobbies you love,
Speaker 1: rather than passive activities like watching t V, scrolling social
Speaker 1: media or the internet, which just fill the time. Time
Speaker 1: passes while you're watching TV or looking at your friends
Speaker 1: postings on social media, and you may not feel bored
Speaker 1: or restless while doing these things, but a few hours later,
Speaker 1: it's like they never happened. You haven't had new ideas
Speaker 1: or maybe emotions. Nothing is that different in your life
Speaker 1: because of that time. So instead of just passing the time,
Speaker 1: develop pastimes, active hobbies that you enjoy pursuing in your
Speaker 1: leisure time. It might be knitting or playing cards, cooking,
Speaker 1: playing pickleball, reading, writing, poetry, woodworking. Of course, at its
Speaker 1: linguistic roots, a pastime is an activity that you guessed
Speaker 1: it passes the time. But a pastime is really more
Speaker 1: than just that. You build your knowledge and skills, and
Speaker 1: maybe you even have something tangible to show for your time,
Speaker 1: like mittens knitted or a warming stew that you made.
Speaker 1: These hobbies tend to be more satisfying than passive leisure,
Speaker 1: at least if you look at surveys of moment by
Speaker 1: moment happiness. They often allow for flow, that happy state
Speaker 1: of absorption where time seems to stand still. They are also,
Speaker 1: interestingly the things people often claim to have no time for.
Speaker 1: This is rarely actually true. Anyone who looks at a
Speaker 1: Facebook account has time to read, even on the same
Speaker 1: device if you use the Kindle app to read e
Speaker 1: books or something like that. Time spent channel surfing could
Speaker 1: be spent doing a crossroad puzzle or a jigsaw puzzle.
Speaker 1: I would even say that time spent picking up stuff
Speaker 1: that will just come out again the next morning is
Speaker 1: quite possibly wasted and less satisfying than scrap booking or
Speaker 1: painting landscapes. Long time listeners will have heard me encourage
Speaker 1: doing effortful fun before effortless fun. As we all know
Speaker 1: from experience, you are unlikely to pick up a book
Speaker 1: after you've sat down in front of the t V.
Speaker 1: You are probably not going to grab your own needle
Speaker 1: point work after you've picked up your phone and started
Speaker 1: looking at other people's needle point projects on Instagram. So
Speaker 1: instead it's wise to do some effortful fun before the effortless,
Speaker 1: more passive fun. Pastimes are a form of effortful fun.
Speaker 1: Of course, there are their forms of effortful fund, like
Speaker 1: hosting a dinner party, you're packing up your family to
Speaker 1: go ice skating. These are great, too, but you can't
Speaker 1: always go ice skating. The rink isn't open twenty four
Speaker 1: hours a day. Some of your leisure time also comes
Speaker 1: while the kids are asleep. This year, we've realized that
Speaker 1: external conditions can change a lot. Maybe that crowded ice
Speaker 1: rink doesn't seem like such a great idea these days.
Speaker 1: An advantage of having past times is that there are
Speaker 1: kind of effortful fund that you can do pretty much anytime.
Speaker 1: They don't require a lot of advance planning in most cases,
Speaker 1: and they are less dependent upon external conditions. I am
Speaker 1: highly unlikely to organize a group zoom in a few
Speaker 1: minutes I have between children's bedtimes, but I can do
Speaker 1: a few pieces in a one piece puzzle in that
Speaker 1: space just as easily as I can scroll Instagram. So
Speaker 1: this year aimed to find a new pastime or to
Speaker 1: pick back up a pastime you enjoyed in the past.
Speaker 1: Stop telling yourself that you have no time for it. Instead,
Speaker 1: get the materials and then challenge yourself to do just
Speaker 1: fifteen minutes of it. When you have a block of
Speaker 1: open time, you can always pick up the phone and
Speaker 1: go on a Twitter binge after that. But my guess
Speaker 1: is that you get so absorbed in your puzzle or
Speaker 1: knitting or building your ship in the bottle that you
Speaker 1: won't want to and then you can post your awesome
Speaker 1: ship in a bottle on Instagram when you're done. In
Speaker 1: the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's
Speaker 1: to making the most of our time. Hey everybody, I'd
Speaker 1: love to hear from you. You can send me your tips,
Speaker 1: your questions, or anything else. Just connect with me on Twitter,
Speaker 1: Facebook and Instagram at Before Breakfast Pod that's b E
Speaker 1: the number four, then Breakfast p o D. You can
Speaker 1: also shoot me an email at Before Breakfast podcast at
Speaker 1: i heeart media dot com that Before Breakfast is spelled
Speaker 1: out with all the letters. Thanks so much, I look
Speaker 1: forward to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is a production
Speaker 1: of I heart Radio. For more podcasts from I heart Radio,
Speaker 1: visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows,