How to get to three

0:03Speaker 1:Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning, This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's tip is that three times a week is a habit, but sometimes remembering to do things three times a week can be hard if you have a good weekly planning system, though it doesn't have to be. It can be as easy as checking things awful list. Longtime listeners have probably heard me say three times a week is a habit. I maintain that anything that happens three times a week is frequent enough in our lives to be part of our identities. Things don't have to happen at the same time every day in order to count in our lives.

0:55Speaker 1:It is also a lot more doable to get to three times a week than aiming for days. While some things like brushing your teeth probably should happen at least once a day, that's not true for a lot of other things. If you eat family meals together three times a week, you are a family that eats together regularly. If you exercise three times a week, you are someone who exercises regularly. If you practice Spanish three times a week, you will probably make progress. Now, of course, the trouble with aiming for three times a week is that sometimes this is hard to remember. When we do things daily, they become part of our routines, though even here there is a lot of gray area. People have context specific routines.

1:47Speaker 1:People often think of themselves as doing something daily if they do it every day at work or in the course of getting to or from work, But most people don't work seven days a week. This' daily habit is really five times per week, and yet people remember it. You don't forget how to commute on Monday even though you haven't done it Saturday or Sunday. I know there's the saying don't miss twice, but many people's lives don't look the same seven days a week. They miss twice on weekends. With all sorts of routines, there is a lot of variability here. Three times a week is frequent, but also accounts for that reality. Be that as it may.

2:36Speaker 1:How can you remember to do something three times a week? I have been thinking of this recently with trying to do strength training three times a week and getting my kids to practice their musical instruments three times a week. With strength, I have one session built in with my trainer, but the others I need to do on my own with instruments. I'd love to have a setup where the kids just remember and do it without reminding, but so far this hasn't happened. So what I do when I make my weekly plan on Fridays, creating my priority list for the next week is I simply put the thing I wish to do and then write one two three on my planner page as in Strength one two three and then kid instruments one two three. Then, since I aim to have everything crossed off my planner page by the end of the week, and my planner stays open on my desk, I am reminded to do these things every time I see the page over the course of the week. When I have got some time, I can cross one of the things off going into the evening.

3:52Speaker 1:If I see I only have one kid instrument number crossed off, it reminds me to remind the kids to do it. Then when they do, us the two off. Since I'm aiming for three times a week, it's impossible to get more than three times behind, and it works to do whatever it is Friday, Saturday and Sunday if that is necessary, that is still three times a week. Now. I wouldn't recommend listing too many habits on the planner page, as it will get unwieldy. But if something is truly a habit, you probably don't have to list it. I don't put brushing my teeth on my planner, but I do think it is helpful for keeping me accountable. And since I have started putting things like strength one two three on my planner and kid instruments one two three, I've been better about making these things happen. If you have a weekly planning system, then this might work for you.

4:51Speaker 1:Two Now, obviously, for some people it works better to calendar the three times, but this system that I use has some flexibility and might work for the little things that don't take too much time and could fit around other things. You just have to remember to make them happen. This system of putting one, two three on the planner page solves that problem in the meantime. This is Laura. 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 production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts from iHeartMedia, please visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.