Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio.

Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio.

Good Morning, This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's tip is about one way to think of productivity strategies. They are designed to aid your life like a high end butler might do. The goal is freeing you up to focus on work you choose and on enjoying your life. Today's tip, like some others this week, comes from Chris Bailey's new book, How to Calm Your Mind, Finding Presence and Productivity in Anxious Times. While much of Chris's book is focused on reducing anxiety so you can get more done, he had some great thoughts on productivity strategies which I thought i'd share. Chris suggests doing this thought experiment. Imagine. He writes that you have won some one in a million contest through a high end house cleaning service that provides you with a full time butler for life. Chris suggests that this butler's name is Kingsley. The man provides you with more free time every day by cleaning up after you and your family, cooking meals, managing your calendar, which he calls your diary, chauffeuring you around town, and more. While Kingsley himself might be a pipe dream. The best productivity tactics and strategies can confer similar benefits like Kingsley. They provide us with more of the most valuable resource we have at our disposal time. Chris leaves this thought experiment here, but I've been thinking thinking a little bit more about what a Kingsley might do in my life and the ways in which I have tried to approximate a Kingsley, even though I don't have a full time butler. One way a Kingsley would provide free time is by cooking meals, and part of that is figuring out what the meals would be and procuring supplies. One way to approximate that is to have a set meal rotation and then automate your groceries as much as possible. So in our family, we tend to use meal kits for two nights per week. We also always have make your own pizza on Fridays and breakfast for dinner on Wednesdays. While we tend to go to the grocery store, you could envision putting the groceries for the set meals on a recurring delivery. It's almost like having a butler do the meal planning and shopping. Kingsley's duties would also include managing your calendar. A key part of this is making sure your time is spent on your highest value activities. By taking a few minutes on Friday to think through this for the upcoming week and to schedule time each day for what's most important, you are recreating a Kingsley in your life. You act as Kingsley for twenty minutes or so, and then the rest of the time you reap the benefits of having someone like him managing your calendar. As for chauffeuring us around town, well, you can always summon an uber if you don't want to drive, but it might be wise to think about how you can spend less time in the car in general. One thing I've been doing is encouraging my kids to take the activity bus home from school some days, it might be wise to set up carpooling were at all possible too. Maybe you could even carpool on days when you need to go into the office. Being able to work or sleep or relax half the time you would have been driving could buy you back many hours. As Ken working from home. Working from home two days a week is even better than relying on Kingsley's chauffeuring. It is a massive productivity gain. As for cleaning things up, one of the best ways to approximate Kingsley's existence is just to have or use fewer things and make sure everything has a clear home sheet. Pan meals are great because you can eat well, clean up one pan, and then pretend you have a Kingsley the rest of the time that you would have been cleaning. When you always leave your shoes and coat in the mudroom, it's as if Kingsley was hunting for them and bringing them to you on the way out the door. So as you are thinking about how to build more time into your life, think about what you can do to you approximate the existence of Kingsley the magnificent Butler. If you actually have a Kingsley, weel that is amazing. But for many of us, asking this question of what would free up space to do meaningful work and have meaningful leisure leads us to wise choices Kingsley or not. In the meantime, this is Laura, Thanks for listening, and here's to making the most of our time.

Good Morning, This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's tip is about one way to think of productivity strategies. They are designed to aid your life like a high end butler might do. The goal is freeing you up to focus on work you choose and on enjoying your life. Today's tip, like some others this week, comes from Chris Bailey's new book, How to Calm Your Mind, Finding Presence and Productivity in Anxious Times. While much of Chris's book is focused on reducing anxiety so you can get more done, he had some great thoughts on productivity strategies which I thought i'd share. Chris suggests doing this thought experiment. Imagine. He writes that you have won some one in a million contest through a high end house cleaning service that provides you with a full time butler for life. Chris suggests that this butler's name is Kingsley. The man provides you with more free time every day by cleaning up after you and your family, cooking meals, managing your calendar, which he calls your diary, chauffeuring you around town, and more. While Kingsley himself might be a pipe dream. The best productivity tactics and strategies can confer similar benefits like Kingsley. They provide us with more of the most valuable resource we have at our disposal time. Chris leaves this thought experiment here, but I've been thinking thinking a little bit more about what a Kingsley might do in my life and the ways in which I have tried to approximate a Kingsley, even though I don't have a full time butler. One way a Kingsley would provide free time is by cooking meals, and part of that is figuring out what the meals would be and procuring supplies. One way to approximate that is to have a set meal rotation and then automate your groceries as much as possible. So in our family, we tend to use meal kits for two nights per week. We also always have make your own pizza on Fridays and breakfast for dinner on Wednesdays. While we tend to go to the grocery store, you could envision putting the groceries for the set meals on a recurring delivery. It's almost like having a butler do the meal planning and shopping. Kingsley's duties would also include managing your calendar. A key part of this is making sure your time is spent on your highest value activities. By taking a few minutes on Friday to think through this for the upcoming week and to schedule time each day for what's most important, you are recreating a Kingsley in your life. You act as Kingsley for twenty minutes or so, and then the rest of the time you reap the benefits of having someone like him managing your calendar. As for chauffeuring us around town, well, you can always summon an uber if you don't want to drive, but it might be wise to think about how you can spend less time in the car in general. One thing I've been doing is encouraging my kids to take the activity bus home from school some days, it might be wise to set up carpooling were at all possible too. Maybe you could even carpool on days when you need to go into the office. Being able to work or sleep or relax half the time you would have been driving could buy you back many hours. As Ken working from home. Working from home two days a week is even better than relying on Kingsley's chauffeuring. It is a massive productivity gain. As for cleaning things up, one of the best ways to approximate Kingsley's existence is just to have or use fewer things and make sure everything has a clear home sheet. Pan meals are great because you can eat well, clean up one pan, and then pretend you have a Kingsley the rest of the time that you would have been cleaning. When you always leave your shoes and coat in the mudroom, it's as if Kingsley was hunting for them and bringing them to you on the way out the door. So as you are thinking about how to build more time into your life, think about what you can do to you approximate the existence of Kingsley the magnificent Butler. If you actually have a Kingsley, weel that is amazing. But for many of us, asking this question of what would free up space to do meaningful work and have meaningful leisure leads us to wise choices Kingsley or not. In the meantime, this is Laura, Thanks for listening, and here's to making the most of our time.

Hey, everybody, I'd love to hear from you. You can send me your tips, your questions, or anything else. Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at Before Breakfast Pod. That's b the number four then Breakfast pod. You can also shoot me an email at Before Breakfast Podcasts. At iHeartMedia that Before Breakfast is spelled out with all the letters. Thanks so much, should I look forward to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

Hey, everybody, I'd love to hear from you. You can send me your tips, your questions, or anything else. Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at Before Breakfast Pod. That's b the number four then Breakfast pod. You can also shoot me an email at Before Breakfast Podcasts. At iHeartMedia that Before Breakfast is spelled out with all the letters. Thanks so much, should I look forward to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.