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Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio.
Good morning.
This is Laura.
Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Today's tip is for anyone struggling to maintain a good routine.
Try to figure out when your routines tend to fall apart.
When you know when your routines stop working, you can make adjustments so they are more likely to last.
Good time management is all about strong routines.
But routines need to be resilient, and they need to work in people's lives.
I hear from people all the time who get discouraged when life just doesn't work as they envisioned it would.
They try to build good routines, but then the routines just seem to fall apart.
If that is the case, I think it is helpful to examine when exactly any particular routine did fall apart.
What happened?
Of course, falling apart implies that the routine worked for at least a little bit.
And if that is the case, when was that?
If you are struggling to build a morning routine, do you have a memory of a morning that went well?
Or maybe many mornings that went well?
Or maybe you are looking at evenings.
If they feel like a mess now, was there a time, or at least an evening in recent memory that didn't feel so messy?
Envisioning what was going well can help you figure out what changed, so you can address that.
For instance, maybe you look back and see that your evening routine works pretty well when your kids are in school, but seems to fall apart on school vacations.
If so, maybe you need two different routines, one for the school year and one for times that are less structured.
You set yourself up for success by knowing you aren't going to plan on the same routine when life looks very different.
Or maybe every school year.
You start strong with your evening routines, but then, once the activities ramp up, things seem to fall apart.
Recognizing this, you can plan for a much simpler routine.
Perhaps planning to do family dinners on weekends and having more of a grab-and-go dinner style for the work week?
There is no point aiming for a routine that simply isn't going to work for big chunks of time.
Or here's one I see frequently.
People start the new year with good intentions for a lengthy morning routine that involves getting up early and exercising.
They manage this for maybe three weeks, but then they get sick and simply cannot get out of bed at 515 to go work out for an hour.
A week of the flu is followed by a crazy week at work doing everything that didn't get done during the flu week.
So the early morning exercise routine doesn't happen for two weeks, and then it feels impossible to start up again.
People blame a lack of willpower, but I'm not sure it's that.
Maybe the exercise routine didn't feel compelling or sustainable long-term, so it was hard to rekindle the desire to do it after a few weeks away.
You didn't miss it.
But perhaps a different routine would feel more alluring.
If you plan to meet a friend to exercise two mornings a week, maybe that person would be understanding for a week or so, but would really push you to get back to it if you stopped for longer than that.
Maybe that would be a more compelling routine.
Or maybe you really just don't like getting up at 5.15 in the morning.
Maybe a shorter routine that starts later would feel more doable, and so you would actually do it, even when life got complicated.
Figure out why a routine falls apart and when, and then you can troubleshoot to make success more likely.
It really is as simple as that.
In the meantime, this is Laura.
Thanks for listening.
And here's to making the most.
Thanks for listening to Before Breakfast.
If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback, you can reach me at laura at lauravanderkam.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.
This show contains information subject to, but not limited to, personal takes rumors, not-so-accurate stats and plenty more.
What's up, man?
This your boy, Nal Green, from the Broken Play Podcast.
Look, it's the end of the season.
The playoffs are here.
But guess what?
It ain't the end of your season.
You can always tune in with Broken Play Podcast with Nal Green on the Black Effect Podcast Network.
Not a team who ain't going to the playoffs.
The Chiefs.
It's time to rebuild.
Listen to Broken Play with Nav Green from the Black Effect Podcast Network on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
Hey everyone, it's Ed Helms.
And I'm Cal Penn, and we are the hosts of Earsay, the Audible and iHeart audiobook club.
This week on the podcast.
I am talking to film and TV critic, radio and podcast host and Harry Potter superfan, Rihanna Dillon, to discuss Audible's full cast adaptation of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.
What moments in this audio book capture the feeling of the magical world best for you or or just stood out the most?
I always loved reading about the Quidditch matches.
And and I think the audio really gets it because it just plunges you right into the stands.
You have.
The crowd sounds like all around you is surround sound, especially if you're listening in headphones.
Listen to Earsay, the Audible and iHeart audiobook club, on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.
This is an iHeart podcast.
Guaranteed human.
