Leave space for opportunity

Reduce your mental load, so you can pursue big breakthroughs

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Episode Transcript

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

(00:26):
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

(00:47):
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

(01:09):
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

(01:29):
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

(01:52):
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

(02:13):
do that? Longtime 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,

(02:36):
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,
or I could just make a note to figure that
out during my next weekly planning session. It is also

(02:57):
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 six to twelve months you could
probably offloat a lot. You also want to be protective

(03:20):
of your mental and temporal space. Don't cut your work
hours too short, even if you work flexibly. 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

(03:41):
aftercare because some days you want to make sure your
workdays 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
wind up with a fruitful collaboration. It is in that

(04:04):
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,

(04:25):
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

(04:55):
for listening to Before Breakfast. If you've 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,

(05:17):
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.