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Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeart Radio. Good morning. This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's tip is to leave space for opportunity. When we feel overwhelmingly busy, we decide we don't have the capacity to take on anything new, which tends to push exciting new opportunities away.
Better to have enough mental space to evaluate everything on its own merits. For many parents, the end of the school year feels incredibly busy. Each week there might be some schedule change due to testing or end-of-year field trips. There are concerts and recitals and banquets. Keeping track of all of it can be challenging. There is a marked increase in mental load, as we call it.
In my new book, Big Time, I wrote about some interesting research from political scientists finding that when people have a sense of carrying a heavy mental load, they are less likely to participate in public life in general. I would imagine this applies to other things as well. You might not pitch that big new idea at work when you are struggling to keep track of everything that is going on.
You might not reach out to get together with a potential new friend you find fascinating because, well, who has time for that? A few busy weeks each year are okay. That is not permanent. But in general in life, we don't want to walk around with a story that we are so busy that there is no time for anything new. In many cases, new adventures and opportunities would be great ways to spend our time.
So we want to make sure our lives aren't so cluttered with things we are less excited about that we don't want to take on new things. So how do we do that? Long-time listeners know that I am a big fan of having a designated weekly planning time. It is good to make sure you are on top of things, which is the purpose of planning, but it is not just that.
When I know I have a regular time for planning, I also know I don't have to spend the rest of my time planning. As we are writing this, I have just learned that an upcoming day, about six weeks in the future, is going to be logistically complicated. Now, I could spend the next six weeks stewing about that,
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Chapter 2: What does it mean to leave space for opportunity?
Or I could just make a note to figure that out during my next weekly planning session. It is also helpful to evaluate everything in your life with an eye toward whether it's something you are excited about or something you are not excited about. Now, I am not saying you get out of the stuff you aren't excited about, but you might be able to get out of some of it.
Certainly, over 6 to 12 months, you could probably offload a lot. You also want to be protective of your mental and temporal space. Don't cut your work hours too short, even if you work flexibly.
Chapter 3: How does a busy schedule affect our ability to embrace new opportunities?
Perhaps maybe you could pick up your kids at school every day. But maybe you don't want to do this every day. You might carpool or enlist some other help or use aftercare because some days you want to make sure your work days feel a little bit longer so you can have that sense of spaciousness that allows you to ponder new possibilities.
It is in that space that you will send an email to someone you haven't talked with in a while and wind up with a fruitful collaboration. It is in that space that you will read to the end of an article and have an idea that will lead to a breakthrough. We can all be more efficient, but space is what allows us to think and create. So don't sell this space short in your schedule.
A busy season is one thing, but when life feels overwhelmingly busy for the long haul, that is a problem. But I am also guessing it is something that, over the long haul, you can do something about. 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 got questions, ideas, or feedback, you can reach me at laura at lauravandercam.com. Before Breakfast is a production of iHeart Media. For more podcasts from iHeart Media, please visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Number one hits, millions of records sold, awards, sold out tours. You think the Jonas Brothers are satisfied? Nope. It's podcast time. We get to ask other people questions because we're sick and tired of being asked questions. Hey Jonas is available now and their first guest is a big one, Paul Rudd.
You know, Steve Carell is a great singer. Can you tell you not to audition at the office or something? I told him. Whoa. We were filming Anchorman. Clearly, I was the idiot. Thank God he didn't listen to me, right?
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