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Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production

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of I Heart Radio. Good

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Morning. This is Laura. Welcome

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to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's

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tip is to time the little

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things. In our efforts to

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streamline our lives, we can become

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obsessed with minimizing or

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avoiding certain tasks. But

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instead of wondering how long something takes,

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you can set a timer and find out.

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Then you can make an informed decision

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about whether or not a given activity is

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worth getting worked up about. I

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think about the duration of little tasks

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every time I empty the dishwasher.

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Trust me, I have never liked emptying

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the dishwasher. I don't know that anyone

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does. And before I began studying

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time, if someone asked me how long

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I spent emptying the dishwasher each week,

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I might have given some ridiculous figure like

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three hours. So tasks

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seemed to take forever because they're

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an engaging You are not using

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your skills, you are not being

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challenged. These tasks just

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have to get done. And so

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the tendency is to look for ways to be

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efficient or to chuck these tasks

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from our lists. And I would see that

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I could grab more plates at a time, or

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grab a bowl with my left hand and a glass

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with my right hand, because that corresponds

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with the locations in my cupboards. I

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played around with loading the dishwasher so that

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more of the spoons were on one side of the silver ware

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compartment and more forks on the other.

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Then I elected to time the process.

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Emptying the dishwasher takes five

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minutes. Since this chore is

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shared across multiple people in my house, I'm

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probably devoting fifteen minutes a week

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to it. This is less time than

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I spend staring off into space

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forgetting what I came into a room for. I

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think I can safely stop fretting that

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emptying the dishwasher is keeping me

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from living the life I want. I'm

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sure we can all think of these movements of seeming

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inefficiency. Waiting for an

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older garage door to go up, you are

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doing nothing and nothing is being asked

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of you. You are very aware of your time

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because you are waiting, and so sometimes

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you get impatient and just park outside.

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But even a very rickety old door

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takes maybe fifteen seconds

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twenty seconds. You don't need to use

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that time to survey your to do list. You

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can just sit there, take a few

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deep breaths, recite something motivational

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or not, you'll be okay.

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Sometimes putting in a few inefficient minutes

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can even improve a situation. I

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have very straight hair that looks better if I use

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a curling iron to put a few waves in it. And

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I used to overestimate how much time it took

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me to get ready for things when I needed to look

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presentable, until I realized that I can

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brush my teeth in the minute it takes for the iron

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to heat up, and then I can put in my waves

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in about four minutes. Building

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this into my getting ready routine doesn't actually

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require waking up twenty minutes early, So

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why not take the extra four minutes

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and feel more confident? Even

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that cliche of boring unengaged

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time waiting for a pot to

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boil doesn't take that long.

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An electric kettle can boil enough water for

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two cups of tea and about three and a half minutes.

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Boiling enough water for a single serving

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of spaghetti or oatmeal in a pot on the

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stove is similar. If you just stood

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there watching it, you would hardly

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notice the difference in your life. You

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certainly aren't winning some major efficiency

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award by using the time to delete

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emails instead, And I'd

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argue that sometimes wasting

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little bits of time has an upside.

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Just as a wealthy person doesn't fret

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about the price of apples and whether they were ten

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cents cheaper last week, a person

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within an abundant perspective on time

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doesn't fret about the occasional inefficiency.

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You have more than enough time for what

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you want to do in life. Waiting a few

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seconds for the garage door to go up is

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like saying keep the change. A

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schedule doesn't feel less crazy, and

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a life doesn't feel richer because

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of a few seconds shaved off here and there.

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Indeed, the opposite is probably

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true. A little inefficiency

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can make you feel time rich, and

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these moments of abundance feel good.

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So if you're getting impatient about tiny

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bits of time, get some facts

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time yourself and see how long

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these demands on your time actually

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take. Then you

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can make an informed decision about

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whether they're really burdens. In

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the meantime, This is Laura, Thanks

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for listening, and here's to making the most

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of our time. Hey,

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everybody, I'd love to hear from you.

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You can send me your tips, your questions, or

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anything else. Just connect with

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me on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram

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at Before Breakfast pod. That's

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B the number four, then

5:03

Breakfast p o D. You

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can also shoot me an email at Before Breakfast

5:09

podcast at iHeartMedia dot com

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that Before Breakfast is spelled out with all the

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letters. Thanks so much, I look

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forward to staying in touch. Before

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Breakfast is a production of I heart Radio.

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For more podcasts from my heart Radio,

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