Time the little things

Small inefficiencies may not be a big deal

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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 time the little things. In our
efforts to streamline our lives, we can become obsessed with
minimizing or avoiding certain tasks. But instead of wondering how

(00:27):
long something takes, you can set a timer and find out.
Then you can make an informed decision about whether or
not a given activity is worth getting worked up about.
I think about the duration of little tasks every time
I empty the dishwasher. Trust me, I have never liked
emptying the dishwasher. I don't know that anyone does. And

(00:49):
before I began studying time, if someone asked me how
long I spent emptying the dishwasher each week, I might
have given some ridiculous figure like three hours. So tasks
seemed to take forever because they're an engaging You are
not using your skills, you are not being challenged. These
tasks just have to get done. And so the tendency

(01:12):
is to look for ways to be efficient or to
chuck these tasks from our lists. And I would see
that I could grab more plates at a time, or
grab a bowl with my left hand and a glass
with my right hand, because that corresponds with the locations
in my cupboards. I played around with loading the dishwasher
so that more of the spoons were on one side
of the silver ware compartment and more forks on the other.

(01:34):
Then I elected to time the process. Emptying the dishwasher
takes five minutes. Since this chore is shared across multiple
people in my house, I'm probably devoting fifteen minutes a
week to it. This is less time than I spend
staring off into space forgetting what I came into a
room for. I think I can safely stop fretting that

(01:55):
emptying the dishwasher is keeping me from living the life
I want. I'm sure we can all think of these
movements of seeming inefficiency. Waiting for an older garage door
to go up, you are doing nothing and nothing is
being asked of you. You are very aware of your
time because you are waiting, and so sometimes you get
impatient and just park outside. But even a very rickety

(02:18):
old door takes maybe fifteen seconds twenty seconds. You don't
need to use that time to survey your to do list.
You can just sit there, take a few deep breaths,
recite something motivational or not, you'll be okay. Sometimes putting
in a few inefficient minutes can even improve a situation.

(02:38):
I have very straight hair that looks better if I
use a curling iron to put a few waves in it.
And I used to overestimate how much time it took
me to get ready for things when I needed to
look presentable, until I realized that I can brush my
teeth in the minute it takes for the iron to
heat up, and then I can put in my waves
in about four minutes. Building this into my getting ready
routine doesn't actually require waking up twenty minutes early, So

(03:00):
why not take the extra four minutes and feel more confident?
Even that cliche of boring unengaged time waiting for a
pot to boil doesn't take that long. An electric kettle
can boil enough water for two cups of tea and
about three and a half minutes. Boiling enough water for
a single serving of spaghetti or oatmeal in a pot

(03:21):
on the stove is similar. If you just stood there
watching it, you would hardly notice the difference in your life.
You certainly aren't winning some major efficiency award by using
the time to delete emails instead, And I'd argue that
sometimes wasting little bits of time has an upside. Just
as a wealthy person doesn't fret about the price of

(03:44):
apples and whether they were ten cents cheaper last week,
a person within an abundant perspective on time doesn't fret
about the occasional inefficiency. You have more than enough time
for what you want to do in life. Waiting a
few seconds for the garage door to go up is
like saying keep the change. A schedule doesn't feel less crazy,

(04:05):
and a life doesn't feel richer because of a few
seconds shaved off here and there. Indeed, the opposite is
probably true. A little inefficiency can make you feel time rich,
and these moments of abundance feel good. So if you're
getting impatient about tiny bits of time, get some facts

(04:25):
time yourself and see how long these demands on your
time actually take. Then you can make an informed decision
about whether they're really burdens. In the meantime, This is Laura,
Thanks for listening, and here's to making the most of
our time. Hey, everybody, I'd love to hear from you.

(04:51):
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 the number four, then Breakfast
p o D. You can also shoot me an email
at Before Breakfast podcast at iHeartMedia dot com that Before

(05:12):
Breakfast is spelled out with all the letters. Thanks so much,
I look forward to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is
a production of I heart Radio. For more podcasts from
my heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.