WEBVTT - Keep chores in check

0:00:03.400 --> 0:00:06.680
<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.

0:00:09.119 --> 0:00:14.720
<v Speaker 1>Good Morning. This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.

0:00:15.640 --> 0:00:18.880
<v Speaker 1>Today's tip is about one way to keep the chores

0:00:18.920 --> 0:00:23.919
<v Speaker 1>in check. Giving yourself a designated chore window means you'll

0:00:23.920 --> 0:00:27.000
<v Speaker 1>get stuff done, but you won't feel like you're doing

0:00:27.160 --> 0:00:31.880
<v Speaker 1>nothing but chores. Today's tip, like a few over the

0:00:31.920 --> 0:00:35.960
<v Speaker 1>next few weeks, comes from my new book, Tranquility by Tuesday.

0:00:36.520 --> 0:00:39.040
<v Speaker 1>Nine Ways to calm the chaos and make time for

0:00:39.120 --> 0:00:42.839
<v Speaker 1>what matters. In this book, which is out October, i

0:00:42.880 --> 0:00:46.280
<v Speaker 1>share nine time management rules and how they've helped busy

0:00:46.320 --> 0:00:49.760
<v Speaker 1>people feel better about life and make more time for fun.

0:00:50.840 --> 0:00:53.920
<v Speaker 1>One of the Tranquility by Tuesday rules is to batch

0:00:54.040 --> 0:00:57.240
<v Speaker 1>the little things. I mostly talk about this in a

0:00:57.360 --> 0:01:01.400
<v Speaker 1>work context. Set a small window each day or perhaps

0:01:01.400 --> 0:01:04.639
<v Speaker 1>the larger one each week, to tackle the non urgent

0:01:04.800 --> 0:01:08.800
<v Speaker 1>and not terribly important work that still needs to get done,

0:01:09.600 --> 0:01:14.000
<v Speaker 1>you know, filling out that form, paying a bill, responding

0:01:14.040 --> 0:01:18.039
<v Speaker 1>to an invitation. When you set a small window, you

0:01:18.120 --> 0:01:22.280
<v Speaker 1>force yourself to be efficient, but you also let yourself

0:01:22.319 --> 0:01:25.520
<v Speaker 1>relax or do deeper work the rest of the time.

0:01:26.480 --> 0:01:28.920
<v Speaker 1>You don't need to interrupt your deep work to go

0:01:29.040 --> 0:01:32.240
<v Speaker 1>fill out that form from HR. You know there is

0:01:32.240 --> 0:01:35.760
<v Speaker 1>a time for that, and now is not that time.

0:01:37.040 --> 0:01:39.480
<v Speaker 1>It turns out that batching the little things can work

0:01:39.520 --> 0:01:42.319
<v Speaker 1>on the home front. Too. Many of us hit the

0:01:42.319 --> 0:01:46.080
<v Speaker 1>weekend and realize we've got quite the backlog of undone chores.

0:01:46.920 --> 0:01:51.280
<v Speaker 1>There are stuff all over the countertop, The laundry is

0:01:51.320 --> 0:01:55.760
<v Speaker 1>half done, with clean piles drifting dangerously close to dirty piles.

0:01:56.600 --> 0:01:58.960
<v Speaker 1>The mail stacks up, and there are those projects you

0:01:59.040 --> 0:02:02.240
<v Speaker 1>keep meaning to get to but haven't yet. You know,

0:02:02.400 --> 0:02:05.160
<v Speaker 1>like where are the size three T hand me downs

0:02:05.600 --> 0:02:07.720
<v Speaker 1>so I can see what my toddler has for the winter,

0:02:08.760 --> 0:02:13.200
<v Speaker 1>hanging up a picture, fixing a squeaky door. With all

0:02:13.240 --> 0:02:15.400
<v Speaker 1>this stuff hanging over you, it can be hard to

0:02:15.440 --> 0:02:18.919
<v Speaker 1>relax on weekends. The baby goes down for a nap,

0:02:19.040 --> 0:02:21.680
<v Speaker 1>or you and your partner trade off kid time, and

0:02:21.720 --> 0:02:25.079
<v Speaker 1>you immediately look at your long list and see that

0:02:25.160 --> 0:02:29.280
<v Speaker 1>time disappear. I had that feeling on a recent Sunday.

0:02:29.960 --> 0:02:32.160
<v Speaker 1>My husband took our two year old to the local

0:02:32.200 --> 0:02:34.960
<v Speaker 1>children's museum for a while, so I knew I had

0:02:35.040 --> 0:02:39.360
<v Speaker 1>some time, but not an infinite amount of time. I

0:02:39.400 --> 0:02:43.400
<v Speaker 1>needed to divvy it up. My solution I was going

0:02:43.480 --> 0:02:45.880
<v Speaker 1>to do some things I wanted to do for an

0:02:45.919 --> 0:02:48.800
<v Speaker 1>hour and then do the chores I needed to do

0:02:49.240 --> 0:02:52.280
<v Speaker 1>for an hour. Did I get everything done in that

0:02:52.400 --> 0:02:56.320
<v Speaker 1>chore our Noope, But my closet looks a lot better.

0:02:56.919 --> 0:02:59.560
<v Speaker 1>And I finally got the stuff hand washed that needed

0:02:59.600 --> 0:03:02.560
<v Speaker 1>to be hand washed. My kids clean the kitchen with

0:03:02.600 --> 0:03:06.519
<v Speaker 1>my help, and that was enough for the day. I

0:03:06.600 --> 0:03:09.000
<v Speaker 1>knew I'd done a lot of stuff, so I didn't

0:03:09.080 --> 0:03:11.240
<v Speaker 1>need to be doing chores the rest of the weekend.

0:03:12.480 --> 0:03:16.000
<v Speaker 1>If you too feel like chores are taking over your weekends,

0:03:16.639 --> 0:03:19.800
<v Speaker 1>you might want to consider how batch the little things

0:03:20.160 --> 0:03:23.840
<v Speaker 1>could work in this context. Maybe you decide that you

0:03:23.880 --> 0:03:27.280
<v Speaker 1>will do chores for a two hour window on Saturday morning,

0:03:28.000 --> 0:03:31.640
<v Speaker 1>and then you will stop worrying about anything beyond doing

0:03:31.639 --> 0:03:35.080
<v Speaker 1>the dishes for each meal after that. Some people do

0:03:35.120 --> 0:03:38.920
<v Speaker 1>a small chore window after dinner each weekday. The dishes

0:03:38.920 --> 0:03:41.520
<v Speaker 1>get done and the house gets tidied. But if it

0:03:41.560 --> 0:03:45.240
<v Speaker 1>doesn't fit in that thirty minutes or so, then it

0:03:45.400 --> 0:03:50.960
<v Speaker 1>probably wasn't urgent. Whatever the windows are, it's important to

0:03:51.120 --> 0:03:56.920
<v Speaker 1>create these windows. Chores like email, can expand to fill

0:03:57.120 --> 0:04:01.360
<v Speaker 1>the available space. We can come up with various hacks

0:04:01.440 --> 0:04:05.320
<v Speaker 1>to clean quicker, or to send shorter emails or what

0:04:05.400 --> 0:04:10.120
<v Speaker 1>have you. But ultimately the only way to spend less

0:04:10.160 --> 0:04:13.880
<v Speaker 1>time on these things is to decide to spend less

0:04:13.880 --> 0:04:18.560
<v Speaker 1>time on these things. So batch the chores and you

0:04:18.600 --> 0:04:22.160
<v Speaker 1>will keep chores in check. That helps you calm the

0:04:22.240 --> 0:04:27.920
<v Speaker 1>chaos and make time for what matters in the meantime.

0:04:28.839 --> 0:04:33.039
<v Speaker 1>This is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's to making

0:04:33.080 --> 0:04:42.479
<v Speaker 1>the most of our times. Hey, everybody, I'd love to

0:04:42.520 --> 0:04:45.480
<v Speaker 1>hear from it. You can send me your tips, your questions,

0:04:45.560 --> 0:04:49.320
<v Speaker 1>or anything else. Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook

0:04:49.400 --> 0:04:54.200
<v Speaker 1>and Instagram at Before Breakfast pod that's b E the

0:04:54.320 --> 0:04:58.560
<v Speaker 1>number four than Breakfast p o D. You can also

0:04:58.560 --> 0:05:01.880
<v Speaker 1>shoot me an email at Before for Breakfast podcasts at

0:05:01.880 --> 0:05:05.120
<v Speaker 1>iHeartMedia dot com that Before Breakfast is spelled out with

0:05:05.160 --> 0:05:07.919
<v Speaker 1>all the letters. Thanks so much, I look forward to

0:05:07.920 --> 0:05:16.120
<v Speaker 1>staying in touch. Before Breakfast is a production of I

0:05:16.279 --> 0:05:20.120
<v Speaker 1>Heart Radio. For more podcasts from I heart Radio, visit

0:05:20.160 --> 0:05:23.560
<v Speaker 1>the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you

0:05:23.600 --> 0:05:30.400
<v Speaker 1>listen to your favorite shows. Yea