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 about what to do when you have
Speaker 1: lots of things you'd like to do in the early
Speaker 1: morning hours and you're having trouble deciding between them. Long
Speaker 1: time listeners know that I think mornings are a great
Speaker 1: time for getting stuff done. That's one reason this podcast
Speaker 1: is called Before Breakfast. For people with busy lives, doing
Speaker 1: great things often means doing great things before most people
Speaker 1: are waking up. But of course, for some people, early
Speaker 1: morning hours feel a little bit like being a kid
Speaker 1: in a candy store. I recently got a letter from
Speaker 1: a Before Breakfast listener named Eugene, who asked, what to
Speaker 1: do if you find that the early morning hours are
Speaker 1: the most productive for reading, writing, and exercising, how do
Speaker 1: you get it all in that early? After all? Eugene noted,
Speaker 1: all these activities take time. Can the entire day be morning? Well?
Speaker 1: Probably not, but I do believe that with a good
Speaker 1: morning routine you can make space for a lot of things.
Speaker 1: The first thing to ask yourself how much time do
Speaker 1: you have available in the morning. Let's be honest here,
Speaker 1: consider what time you're willing to wake up consistently and
Speaker 1: when you need to be available for your responsibilities, whether
Speaker 1: that's work or family or both. You might only be
Speaker 1: able to commit to thirty minutes a day, or you
Speaker 1: might be able to commit to three hours. Obviously, they
Speaker 1: suggest different answers to what can constitute a reasonable morning routine.
Speaker 1: This brings us to the second question, are you the
Speaker 1: type of person who likes to do all the things
Speaker 1: every day? Or are you okay with switching off? This
Speaker 1: question may also boil down to how much time you
Speaker 1: like to spend on things. If you'd be satisfied with
Speaker 1: a five minute journal session and ten minutes of push
Speaker 1: ups and sit ups, you can do that every day.
Speaker 1: Writing three thousand words in a novel or doing a
Speaker 1: ten mile run is a different matter. If you have
Speaker 1: multiple things you'd like to do, you might split the
Speaker 1: difference by choosing a different one to emphasize each day
Speaker 1: while still doing some of both. Our listener, Eugene mentioned writing, reading,
Speaker 1: and exercising. Of those, I'd recommend focusing on writing and exercising,
Speaker 1: as reading can be a slightly more passive activity and
Speaker 1: can fit more easily into bits of time through the day.
Speaker 1: You can also make reading your weekend early morning activity
Speaker 1: and thus keep the concept of a morning routine while
Speaker 1: still making weekends special. So if you had an hour
Speaker 1: available to you in the morning, you might decide to
Speaker 1: journal for five minutes on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and
Speaker 1: then go for a run the rest of the time.
Speaker 1: On Tuesdays and Thursdays, you do ten minutes of push
Speaker 1: ups and sit ups and then use the rest of
Speaker 1: the hour to write. On Saturdays and Sundays, you use
Speaker 1: the early morning to read and then exercise at some
Speaker 1: point later in the day. That tends to be more
Speaker 1: possible on weekends, or you flip it around and run
Speaker 1: two mornings a week and do the longer writing sessions
Speaker 1: three mornings a week. If you've got a longer amount
Speaker 1: of time in the morning, like two hours, then feel
Speaker 1: free to split it doing an hour on each activity
Speaker 1: or forty minutes on three. If you've got a much
Speaker 1: shorter time like thirty minutes, you might just pick the
Speaker 1: one activity you're most focused on do that five mornings
Speaker 1: a week, but with ten minutes devoted to a second
Speaker 1: choice two mornings a week. No matter how much time
Speaker 1: you have consistency matters more than anything else. Whatever you
Speaker 1: do repeatedly during your most productive time will add up.
Speaker 1: You don't want to split yourself into too many pieces,
Speaker 1: but two to three things can totally fit. In the morning,
Speaker 1: just picture your perfect morning, map out what the time
Speaker 1: will look like, and you'll feel pretty excited to set
Speaker 1: an alarm. If you have a multipart morning routine, I'd
Speaker 1: love to hear about it. You can reach me at
Speaker 1: Before Breakfast podcast at i heeart media dot com. 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 the
Speaker 1: number four, then Breakfast p o D. You can also
Speaker 1: shoot me an email at Before Breakfast podcast at i
Speaker 1: heeart media dot com. That Before Breakfast is spelled out
Speaker 1: with all the letters. Thanks so much, I look forward
Speaker 1: to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is a production of
Speaker 1: 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,