Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: Good Morning, This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Speaker 1: Today's tip is that often is pretty much as good
Speaker 1: as always, and often is a lot more achievable in
Speaker 1: a busy life. Today's tip was inspired by someone who
Speaker 1: was wrestling with the question of whether to pick her
Speaker 1: kid up.
Speaker 2: At school each day. She had a new job that
Speaker 2: allowed her to work from home, and she had a
Speaker 2: reasonable amount of control over her time, so it was
Speaker 2: theoretically possible to pick her kid up at school at
Speaker 2: three point thirty basically every day, but driving ten minutes
Speaker 2: to school, waiting ten minutes in the car line, and
Speaker 2: then driving ten minutes home was a thirty minute chunk
Speaker 2: out of the afternoon at in time spent grabbing keys
Speaker 2: and shoes and then gearing back up, and the chunk
Speaker 2: of time got larger. Her kid could take the bus,
Speaker 2: but she felt guilty then that she wasn't spending time
Speaker 2: with him despite the flexible job. But I pointed out
Speaker 2: that none of this was an either or situation. You
Speaker 2: can do things often, but not always. Given that she
Speaker 2: did have flexibility and autonomy with her time, she could
Speaker 2: structure different days to look different. Maybe she could sign
Speaker 2: her kid up for an after school activity that met
Speaker 2: at the school one day a week, so she got
Speaker 2: a longer uninterrupted work day on that day. Two days
Speaker 2: a week, he could take the bus home, and then
Speaker 2: she would say hello to him and then get back
Speaker 2: to work, making the chunk of time taken out of
Speaker 2: work closer to ten minutes rather than thirty. And then
Speaker 2: two days a week she would pick him up at
Speaker 2: school and just be done with work. Then she and
Speaker 2: her kid could hang out and do something fun. She
Speaker 2: was driving every day right at three thirty, but she
Speaker 2: was spending plenty of time with her kid and taking
Speaker 2: advantage of her flexible schedule. I suspect that many times
Speaker 2: when people say they always do something, they really mean
Speaker 2: often anyways, people who say they always do family dinner
Speaker 2: often miss a night here or there. They do not
Speaker 2: truly mean that the primary breadwinner turns down absolutely all
Speaker 2: work dinners or evening events. They do not mean that
Speaker 2: when a family member goes to visit Grandma and the
Speaker 2: next date over, everyone else zips over there for dinner too.
Speaker 2: What they mean is that they generally eat dinner together
Speaker 2: unless there is a good reason not to, but so
Speaker 2: it goes for most things. Once you decide that often
Speaker 2: is generally as good as always, you open up all
Speaker 2: sorts of possibilities. I often go to bed at eleven PM.
Speaker 2: I consider that my bedtime, but if I have a
Speaker 2: really good book i'm reading, I might stay up later.
Speaker 2: I often practice the piano, but I do not do
Speaker 2: it every single day. I often put my kids to bed,
Speaker 2: but sometimes I am traveling or doing other things at night,
Speaker 2: and that is okay too. What might you choose to
Speaker 2: do often rather than aiming for always? What might that
Speaker 2: make possible in your life? Thinking more broadly is often
Speaker 2: a good thing, because life is seldom either or In
Speaker 2: the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's.
Speaker 1: To making the most of our time. Thanks for listening
Speaker 1: to Before Breakfast. If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback,
Speaker 1: you can reach me at Laura at Laura Vancam dot com.
Speaker 1: Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts
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