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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 that by tracking time, you can make time.

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Speaker 1: Mindlessness is the biggest time waster of all, and when

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Speaker 1: you know where the time goes, you can make wise

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Speaker 1: choices that help you feel like time is far more expansive.

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Speaker 1: Long time Before Breakfast listeners know that I have been

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Speaker 1: tracking my time in half hour increments since now. I

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Speaker 1: don't look at my time log every half hour to

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Speaker 1: write things down, but I do check in on my

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Speaker 1: time sheets three times a day or so and write

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Speaker 1: down what I've done since the last check in, so

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Speaker 1: I have a pretty comprehensive record of the last six years.

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Speaker 1: For the first year or two, I made detailed studies

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Speaker 1: of my tallies. How many hours did I work, how

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Speaker 1: many hours did I sleep. I do less of that

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Speaker 1: now because the biggest long term gain from time tracking

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Speaker 1: is not knowing that I sleep seven point four hours

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Speaker 1: per day on average, though I do. It's in changing

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Speaker 1: how I spend time. When I know I will be

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Speaker 1: accountable for my time. That accountability forces me to think

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Speaker 1: about the landscape of my time. I know from years

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Speaker 1: of recording all one sixty eight hours of a week

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Speaker 1: that a weekend is a huge chunk of time. I

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Speaker 1: know that there is time every evening after my youngest

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Speaker 1: kids go to bed. I know that work days can

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Speaker 1: fit a lot if I try. Knowing what the time

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Speaker 1: landscape looks like keeps me from spending time mindlessly. I

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Speaker 1: don't begin to weekend or evening with no idea of

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Speaker 1: what I want to do at that time, well, at

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Speaker 1: least not usually. I will freely admit that I waste time.

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Speaker 1: But when I waste time, as I do, since pretty

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Speaker 1: much everybody wastes time, I can acknowledge that and not

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Speaker 1: try to tell myself a story that I am just

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Speaker 1: doing so much for everyone that I don't have a

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Speaker 1: minute to spare. I do have time, and sometimes I

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Speaker 1: choose to spend it in unproductive ways. I can also

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Speaker 1: choose to spend time differently if I want. I know

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Speaker 1: that few people are going to track their time for

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Speaker 1: six years or seven years or more, but it is

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Speaker 1: definitely worth trying for a week seven days. Here's a

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Speaker 1: way to get started. Think back over the previous twenty

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Speaker 1: four hours. Most people are able to reconstruct the previous

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Speaker 1: twenty four hours in pretty good detail. Start at five

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Speaker 1: am yesterday morning? What did you do first? What did

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Speaker 1: you do next? Keep going to the present, Then check

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Speaker 1: back in five to six hours from now and write

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Speaker 1: down what you've done since the last check in. Pretty

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Speaker 1: soon you've got two to three days recorded, and from

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Speaker 1: there it's not so hard to get all the way

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Speaker 1: to a week. We all experience time, and yet it's

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Speaker 1: amazing to me how few people have looked at where

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Speaker 1: their time really goes. This is all the more amazing

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Speaker 1: because people think they know where their time goes. You'll

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Speaker 1: hear all sorts of stories I work around the clock.

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Speaker 1: Is it true? Well, let's track time and find out

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Speaker 1: maybe it is. And then when you track time, you

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Speaker 1: will have solid evidence to show to the people in

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Speaker 1: your life to get them to help you out. Or

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Speaker 1: maybe you'll do to cover something different, and then you

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Speaker 1: can work with that in mind. I know from tracking

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Speaker 1: my time that I can fit a lot in if

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Speaker 1: I try. However, there is still space. I can look

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Speaker 1: at my weeks and see that if I wish to

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Speaker 1: add something, something that takes a few hours or so,

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Speaker 1: I almost always can. Tracking time helps make time. Maybe

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Speaker 1: you will find the same thing. So if you haven't

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Speaker 1: tried tracking your time before, why not try it now?

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Speaker 1: Starting today this week, you can get a time tracking

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Speaker 1: spreadsheet from my website It's just my name, Laura Vanderkam

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Speaker 1: dot com. But you can also make your own spreadsheet

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Speaker 1: if you'd like, or use an app like toggle, or

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Speaker 1: just write it down in a notebook. The tool itself

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Speaker 1: doesn't matter. What matters is that you do it and

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Speaker 1: stick with it for at least a few days. Make

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Speaker 1: sure you include some weekend days on your time log too,

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Speaker 1: because weekends are real time and they really count when

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Speaker 1: you track time. You make time because you see where

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Speaker 1: the time is and that can nudge you to make

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Speaker 1: better use of it. All time passes, but when we

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Speaker 1: are aware of it, we can make better choices, and

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Speaker 1: that leads to feeling like we have all the time

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Speaker 1: in the world. In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks

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Speaker 1: for listening, and here's to making the most of our time. Hey, everybody,

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Speaker 1: I'd love to hear from you. You can send me

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Speaker 1: your tips, your questions, or anything else. Just connect with

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Speaker 1: me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at before Breakfast Pod.

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Speaker 1: That's b the number four. Then Breakfast p o D.

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Speaker 1: You can also shoot me an email at Before Breakfast

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Speaker 1: podcast at i heeart media dot com that Before Breakfast

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Speaker 1: is spelled out with all the letters. Thanks so much,

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Speaker 1: I look forward to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is

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

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Speaker 1: I heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,

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Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.