Rescue unproductive evenings

A listener asks how to achieve her goals when she wants to flop on the couch

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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 about how to rescue unproductive evenings. I
recently got a note from a Before Breakfast listener named
Cassie who had this question, how do you make the

(00:26):
most of your evenings or after work time and fight
the urge to just flop on the couch. Cassie explained
that when I leave work, I'm often excited to go
home and work on some things on my to do list,
but at some point, between leaving my desk and opening
the door to my apartment, I lose the willpower to
do more. Partly this was just physical exhaustion. Cassie noted

(00:50):
that she usually rode her bike to and from work,
which is great, but added to her feeling that she
didn't want to do any more work after cleaning up
the dinner dishes. She explained that the things on her
list were truly important to her, such as self discovery
assignments as she thought about her long term career plans.
But I'd rather just take it easy and give into

(01:11):
the comfort of my couch most nights. Am I a
hopeless procrastinator, she asked, or do you have any tips
that can help me overcome this end of day slump? Well, first,
I want to assure Cassie that she is not hopeless.
This is an incredibly common issue. Most of us are
just tired by the end of the day. Well, we

(01:32):
might have imagined after that seven am cup of coffee
that we could conquer the world. By seven p m.
We lack the energy to do anything but scroll through
our Netflix selections. Fortunately, there are a few ways to rally,
or at least to make the most of this situation. First,
if you find your couch tempting, don't head to your

(01:53):
couch immediately. One or two days a week, Cassie could
bike to some place that was conducive to thinking, maybe
a library, a bookstore, a coffee shop. She could do
some of her strategic planning and then reward herself with
her favorite takeout or delivery afterwards, so she wouldn't have
to muster the energy to cook. She could also aim small. Well,

(02:17):
it's admirable to want to figure out a career direction.
That's a big order for your average Tuesday. It might
be better to assign herself one small task. She could
do that first thing upon arriving home. With an absolute
time limit of fifteen minutes. Worst case scenario, she could
just sit there for fifteen minutes, then get up and

(02:38):
get dinner. But by building in that time and enforcing
it and then seeing how manageable it was, she'd probably
feel like making a little progress. It's also possible that
Cassie falls into the category that author Gretchen Reuben calls
an obliger. Keeping promises to herself is hard, but keeping

(02:58):
promises to other people is relatively easy, so she might
respond best to external accountability. If that's the case, Cassie
could organize a group of career changers that would check
in with each other virtually or in person every Tuesday night.
With these friends counting on her, she'd focus on these

(03:19):
questions and start making progress. Finally, it's also possible that
evenings just won't work for the kind of deep thinking
Cassie is hoping to do, but that doesn't mean she
can't do it. Maybe two mornings a week she could
get up an hour earlier and use that time for
her strategic thinking and self analysis. Then, by the time

(03:41):
she biked home from work and found herself feeling too
tired to do anything but eat dinner. She could relax.
It would all be good because she'd already made progress
on her goals. How do you rescue unproductive evenings? You
can let me know at Before Breakfast podcast at I
heart media dot com. In the meantime, this is Laura.

(04:04):
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
Before Breakfast pod. That's B the number four, then Breakfast

(04:30):
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.
Before Breakfast is a production of I Heart Radio. For

(04:51):
more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the I Heart
Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your
favorite shows. I don't get