Don't contaminate your leisure time

Consolidate little to-dos so they don't ruin everything else

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
This is Laura, Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
tip is to try to keep your leisure time free
of little to dos. Yes, the to dos need to
get done, but by separating the two you can feel
productive and more relaxed. So I am sure that you,

(00:33):
like me, have a lengthy list of small tasks that
you need to tackle. For instance, I found myself on
a Saturday recently with a list that included buying a
train ticket, getting a new microphone, updating the week's childcare
schedule with some new information, buying a birthday present, and
so forth. These things do need to get done, and

(00:54):
for many people weekends and evenings are when they tend
to happen. But weekends and even also the time one
generally hopes to relax, and so this can create a conflict.
You might feel guilty if you are not purchasing that
train ticket, so then you are not totally relaxed. Or
you do it and then fifteen minutes later you remember

(01:16):
something else you were supposed to do, and this continues
for hours and you feel like you are always doing something.
So a better approach is to identify some spot of
your evening or weekend that would be hard to use
for anything fun. If you've got kids, this might be
time you are sitting on the sideline of a practice

(01:37):
waiting for them, or maybe you have gone to a
drop off birthday party but it's not worth it to
go home after dropping the kid off, just to turn
right back around, find a coffee shop, or get the
Wi Fi code for the gymnastics gym.

Speaker 1 (01:51):
Bring your laptop and use this time to get to work.
If this doesn't describe your weekends, then maybe designate a
time that you probably.

Speaker 2 (01:59):
Won't be using for anything exciting, say when your other
half is off exercising, or the two of you wouldn't
be doing anything together, or maybe earlier in the day
before you're likely to meet up with friends. Then use
this time to plow through your list. The upside is
that now you've used time that you wouldn't have been

(02:19):
using for particularly great leisure, and you have cleared the decks,
so it will be easier to just focus on having
fun the rest of the time. You don't have some
little part of your brain thinking train ticket which can
contaminate your leisure time. Now to be clear, I am

(02:41):
perfectly fine with you enjoying yourself, even if you haven't
purchased that train ticket yet. Sometimes, if my younger kids
are otherwise occupied, I actually tell myself, Okay, I am
not going to do any half to dos for the
next hour. Then I set a timer and relax and

(03:02):
then get to the to dos later. But I know
this is challenging for some people, just as some people
find it challenging to relax in a messy house. So
if that is the case for you, figure out how
to confine your to dos to a small period of
time so they don't contaminate everything else. Pure leisure is

(03:26):
really great if you can get it, and I absolutely
want that for you. In the meantime, this is Laura.
Thanks for listening, and here's to making the most of
our time. Thanks for listening to Before Breakfast. If you've

(03:52):
got questions, ideas, or feedback, you can reach me at
Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast is a
production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts from iHeartMedia, please visit
the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to

(04:13):
your favorite shows.