Second Cup: Make a good day (almost) perfect

How would you like to be celebrated?

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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 that you can make what you know will
be a good day even better by tweaking your schedule
to add more good things and removing things that you

(00:26):
won't want to do. These almost perfect days can then
become deep memories thanks to your careful cultivation. So hopefully
anyone who listens to this podcast knows how important it
is to plan in things that you are looking forward to.

(00:47):
Maybe it's tickets to a concert in a few months
or to an exciting sporting event next week. Positive anticipation
makes life more exciting and hopeful on a On bad days,
it can be what makes us get out of bed.
But if you know something good is coming up, by

(01:08):
being strategic, you can make the whole day even more exciting.
We all have some discretion over our schedules and how
much effort we put into planning good things. I'd argue
that it can be fun to put even more good
stuff on an already good day so that you go

(01:29):
from happiness to happiness all day long. So, for instance,
let's say you get massages every two months or so,
and you also have tickets to a favorite band on
a particular night, you could try scheduling your massage for
the day you have the concert, so as you are

(01:50):
relaxing on the massage table, you are also excited about
the concert happening in a few hours. Or maybe it's
that you've got tickets to a football game on Saturday afternoon.
Could you have breakfast that morning with a good friend.
Or perhaps you've scored a coveted reservation at a great
restaurant for Friday night, could you plan to take a

(02:13):
longer lunch break and go walk on that gorgeous trail
that's not too far from your office. By doubling or
even tripling the number of good things that happen on
an anticipated day, you can make it even more memorable.
You can also consciously move some not so fun stuff

(02:35):
out of the day. Let's say that you normally file
expense reports on Fridays and you really dislike doing so.
Maybe the week you've got that hot dinner reservation, you
could file those reports on Thursday, so Friday has more
space for bliss. Now. Of course, the one caveat here

(02:58):
is that when you stack up a lot of good
things on one particular day, you do run the risk
of something going wrong. If you wind up with the
flu on the day you have a massage, lunch with
a good friend, and concert tickets, that is really going
to be painful. But on the other hand, if you

(03:20):
have lots of good stuff scheduled and something goes wrong
with one of the events, say the concert is canceled
due to rain, you can at least console yourself with
your lunch and your massage. You won't feel quite so
disappointed about one thing not happening. In any case, I

(03:41):
think it's a fun game to try to tweak a
schedule for optimal enjoyment. And as we consciously try to
plan more good stuff into an already good day, we
can see a certain truth. We have the power to
make good things happen when we try. Maybe that can

(04:03):
nudge us to try to make good things happen more often.
In the meantime. This is Laura. Thanks for listening, and
here's to making the most of our time. Hey everybody,

(04:25):
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 E the number four then Breakfast Pod. You
can also shoot me an email at Before Breakfast Podcasts
at iHeartMedia dot com that before Breakfast is spelled out

(04:48):
with all the letters. Thanks so much, should I look
forward to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is a production
of iHeart Radio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the
iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your
favorite shows.