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Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio.

Good morning.

This is Laura.

Welcome to the Before Breakfast Podcast.

Today's tip is to feed your mind.

Just like our bodies, our minds need very nourishment, if we are going to produce our best work.

I have been thinking about how I feed my mind since I interviewed Mary Laura Philpot for my other podcast, Best of Both Worlds.

Mary Laura is the author of the memoirs I miss you when I blink, and more recently, bomb shelter.

As I learned from our interview, Mary Laura is not only a prolific writer, but also an avid reader.

Mary Laura spends her mornings writing, but by early afternoon, even though it's still the workday, she says, my brain can't write.

Instead of spending the afternoon writing and rewriting the same sentence, or aimlessly deleting emails,

Mary Laura's practice is to read with a pencil in hand.

She reads broadly, not just essays about family life like she's known for writing, but also biographies, poetry, thrillers, anything.

As she reads, she makes notes about what other writers are doing well, and how their craft sparks ideas about what she could do in her own writing.

Mary Laura explained, when my brain can't be actively producing, it can at least be sort of passively absorbing things that make me better at my job.

What a smart practice.

Even the most productive of writers can't write all the time, and to be able to produce rich, creative, interesting work.

Writers need to study the work of others.

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