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 use the upcoming time change as a prompt to do any task that you need to do roughly two times per year.

The split isn't perfect, but since you have to address the time change as you change clocks,

you may as well use that as a nudge to get to other things too.

Today's tip comes from a listener named Ray who noted that for me changing the clocks

is a prompt to do those periodic tasks where every six months is about the right schedule.

It started with the local Fire Service ad campaign, recommending that we check our smoke detectors

are working whenever we spring forward or fall back.

Such a great idea.

I've since gone on to extend the principle.

Now when I change the clocks, I check the smoke detectors turn the mattress

wash the mattress protector and either get the garden furniture out or put it away.

Really Ray says the hack can be applied to anything that you want to do on a twice a year basis.

And it eliminates that nagging sense of, I should do that, when should I do that?

When did I do that? For household jobs that aren't part of our usual

weekly or monthly routine. I think this is a great idea. As the time change has moved a bit in the past few years, the dates when we spring

forward and fall back are not perfectly six months apart. They're closer to four months apart

in the U.S. though it's a little different elsewhere.

But the point is that many of us forget to do these twice a year things until they become

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