Stretch the cadence

Save time by doing recurring tasks less frequently

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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 that if you are looking to reduce the
time spent on life maintenance, experiment with whether you can

(00:24):
stretch the cadence on some recurring tasks. My hunt is
that life will go on if certain things happen a
bit less often. Longtime listeners know that my planning is
focused on weeks, that is, one hundred and sixty eight hours.

(00:45):
Much of our life happens in weekly rhythms. Work, school, exercise, classes,
religious services, many volunteer commitments, and even some social engagements
have a weekly rhythm. So it might seem to make
sense to tuck chores into the hardescape of our weekly

(01:05):
calendars around the other recurring fixed points. I know that
many people absorb the idea that certain chores need to
be done weekly when they're growing up. If your parents
did laundry every Monday, grocery shopping every Tuesday, cleaning every Wednesday,
and so forth, you may assume that this rhythm is right,

(01:27):
and sometimes a weekly cadence for life maintenance tasks works well.
But if you are trying to spend less of your
time on chores. One way to do that is to
stretch the cadence of some tasks. Are there some tasks
that can be done less frequently than weekly. A lot

(01:47):
of tasks take about the same amount of time, even
if more time has elapsed since you last did them.
Not all, I mean, I wouldn't let the dishes stack up.
But in many cases, by stretching the cadence of the task,
you spend less time on the task overall. Maybe you
have a rhythm of picking up and dropping off dry

(02:09):
cleaning on Saturday morning on the way to take your
daughter to ballet. Could you handle dry cleaning every other
Saturday instead? Or instead of grocery shopping every Sunday afternoon,
could you do a big shop every other week and
then fill in with a quick trip for produce and
milk in between. Cleaning tasks can often be stretched if

(02:32):
you run a cordless vacuum in the kitchen is needed.
You may not need to vacuum your whole house or
apartment every week. Maybe every ten days could work, possibly
even less if you don't have pets or little people
making messes. Vacuuming takes the same amount of time if
you do it weekly or every ten days so over
the course of a year. Stretching the cadence lets you

(02:55):
reclaim time for something more fun than vacuuming. It takes
only a little more time to do a full load
of laundry than it does to do a partial load,
so instead of doing laundry weekly or on another rhythm
determined by the calendar, try waiting till you have a
full load to do it. The lawn may likewise be

(03:17):
okay if you let it grow a little longer before cutting.
Your hair might be fine if it gets a little
longer too. While you probably should go to the dentist
every six months, if it happens every eight months, that
is better than it not happening at all. Stretching the
cadence can give you a little breathing room in life,

(03:38):
and for many things, the downsides won't be disastrous, so
it's worth a shot. Are there tasks you have discovered
don't have to be done quite as often as you
used to think? You can let me know at Laura
at Laura vandercam dot com. In the meantime, this is Laura.

(03:59):
Thanks for listening, and here's to making the most of
our time. Thanks 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

(04:26):
production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts from iHeartMedia, please visit
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your favorite shows.