Second Cup: Make yourself a haven

Create a spot where you can truly relax

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.
Good Morning. This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Today's tip is to make yourself a haven, some spot
of your home where you feel calm and you're not
constantly feeling like you should be doing something else. Back

(00:26):
before two thousand twenty ended Conferences for the Foreseeable Future,
I gave a lot of time management speeches, and one
of my biggest laugh lines came when I talked about
saving time by lowering your housekeeping standards. I riff that
people would tell me that they couldn't relax if their
home was a mess. Okay, I said, clean one room,

(00:46):
shut the door, and sit in there. I said it
as a joke, but I think there is real merit
to this idea. Lots of people find it hard to
relax when they see undone work. Whether that's your laptop
up sitting there, or a pile of dishes or something
that is clearly in the wrong place. The instinct is
to go deal with the problem so that then you

(01:09):
can fully relax. But you can see how this plays out.
It takes a long time to clean a whole house
or put everything away, and then it might come out again,
raising the very real possibility that you will never relax,
and that doesn't sound good. So if you know this
is a problem for you, you you might choose one room

(01:29):
that is relatively easy to put in order, and then
consciously treat this as your closed door haven. Keep it
pretty minimalists there's less stuff that way to put away.
If you have kids, maybe a master bedroom could be
good for this. Don't make it a magnet for kid toys.
Shove them out as soon as they wind up in there.

(01:50):
Fold laundry elsewhere. Usually it's possible to keep the clutter
under control. When you need a respite, shut the door
and sit in there. If that doesn't work, If you
happen to have a house that's big enough to have
a formal living room, sometimes these get less use and
hence attract fewer active projects that then look undone, so

(02:11):
that room can become your haven. An enclosed porch could
serve this function, as long as you store the outdoor
gear and projects somewhere else. In a pinch, even a
small apartment could offer some spot. Or you can't see
the clutter or the work, turn a chair to a
window and make the space in front of it minimal

(02:31):
and relatively clear. Maybe put some fresh flowers there, as
long as that's not going to make you feel like
you need to change the water or trim the stems.
So maybe a house plant that doesn't need much care,
or a fake plant. We can waste all kinds of
time puttering around the house picking up things here and
there without any purpose except a vague pursuit of order.

(02:55):
I suggest people stop doing that, but I know that's
harder for some folks than others. And if that sounds
like you, creating a little haven can be a real
strategy for putting some actual rest into your life, and
that is well worth doing. In the meantime, this is Laura.

(03:19):
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

(03:39):
Before Breakfast Pod that's b E the number four, then
breakfast p O D. You can also shoot me an
email at Before Breakfast Podcast at i heeart media dot
com that Before Breakfast is spelled out with all the letters.
Thanks so much. I look forward to staying in Touch

(04:02):
Before Breakfast is a production of I heart Radio. For
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