Prep for weekend downtime

Go into your weekends with ideas for low-key fun

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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 prep for your weekend downtime. Even if
you have a full weekend planned, you will likely have

(00:26):
some downtime. Having low key but fun activities ready means
you will be more likely to enjoy this time rather
than frittering it away on things you don't really care about.
So I track my time, and I have for years,
including my weekend time. I have learned over the years

(00:50):
that even if there is a lot going on during
any given weekend, I will no doubt have some downtime.
Maybe it's an hour in between kid activities, or it's
time at night before bed. If I don't have anything
I am particularly interested to do with this time, I
will probably spend it looking at Instagram. But if I

(01:15):
have a good book, I will read that book. If
I have a puzzle going, I will take a few
minutes in between activities to put some pieces together in
that puzzle. I enjoy books and puzzles a lot more
than scrolling around on social media. So if I want
to enjoy my weekend downtime, best to have a book

(01:37):
and a puzzle going. Now that does take a bit
of thought and preparation, but not a ton. I can
stop by the library during the week, it's pretty easy
to do on my way to pick up my five
year old from his church choir practice on Wednesdays. Or
I can download a book to my Kindle app and

(01:58):
get it instantly. As for puzzles, those I can order
on Amazon or from White Mountain Puzzles. It tends to
be my favorite retailer for these things. If I see
that I am highly likely to finish my current puzzle
in the next few days, then I should get another
one going in my puzzle queue. Yes, I have a

(02:20):
puzzleque but that is part of taking downtime seriously. I
think that many people assume they have no time, so
they don't think about what they'd like to do with
their downtime. The trouble with that is that basically everybody
has some downtime, even if it isn't a huge amount.

(02:44):
When we don't think about what we'd like to do
with our downtime, we do whatever is easiest, which these
days tends to mean pursuing our electronic hobbies of scrolling
through headlines and social media comments. Then we tend not
to particularly enjoy this time or even notice that it
is happening, which contributes to the story of having no time.

(03:08):
If you've got a good book going though, well, you
might find ninety minutes or maybe even more on a
weekend to read it. And how cool would that be.
So before any given weekend, think about what you would
like to do with any available downtime. Do you have
a good magazine you would like to read? Could you

(03:29):
get a new supply of books before the weekend. If
you have a hobby, do you have those supplies ready
to go? Prep for weekend downtime, and you will spend
your weekend downtime in ways you find enjoyable. You'll have
a lot more fun in your life. It really is

(03:51):
as simple as that. In the meantime, this is Laura.
Thanks for listening and here to making the most of
our time. Thanks for listening to Before Breakfast. If you've

(04:11):
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 Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to

(04:33):
your favorite shows.