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Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I-Hart Radio.

Good morning.

This is Laura.

Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.

Today's tip is to plan and reflect at about the same time.

Just as it's important to figure out how you'd like to spend your time, reflecting on where the time really went can make better planning choices possible in the future.

Longtime listeners know that I think everyone should have a designated weekly planning time.

I like the idea of planning on Fridays for the upcoming week.

But the key is that you have some regular time where you look forward, figure out your priorities,

figure out the logistics, and get clear on what you need and want to do.

It is fine to just do this looking forward, but if you want to get the most out of your planning sessions,

it might help to take just two

minutes or so to look back on the previous week. Look at your priority list. Did everything happen?

If so, awesome. If not, why not? Was the list too ambitious? Was life too unpredictable? Did you decide you didn't want to do something or it wasn't the best use of your time? Did something take a lot longer than you expected? Or perhaps less time than you expected? There are a few upsides to looking back. One is that if something didn't happen, you can make a choice about whether to assign it to the next week. Or maybe you can make it happen, or maybe you can make it happen in the next 30 minutes or so if you like. It's a reminder of what you thought was important.

And so reflection becomes a moment to choose whether to continue with that thought

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