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Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of IHeart Radio.

Good morning. This is Laura.

Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.

Today's tip is to leave space for opportunity.

When we feel overwhelmingly busy, we decide we don't have the capacity to take on anything new,

which tends to push exciting new opportunities away.

Better to have enough mental space to evaluate everything on its own merits.

For many parents, the end of the school year feels incredibly busy.

Each week, there might be some schedule change due to testing or end-of-year field trips.

There are concerts and recitals and banquets. Keeping track of all of it can be challenging.

There is a marked increase in mental load, as we call it.

In my new book, Big Time, I wrote about some interesting research from political scientists, finding that when people have a sense of carrying a heavy

mental load, they are less likely to participate in public life in general. I would imagine this applies to other things as well.

You might not pitch that big new idea at work when you are struggling to keep track of everything

that is going on. You might not reach out to get together with a potential new friend you find

fascinating because, well, who has time for that?

A few busy weeks each year are okay.

That is not permanent.

But in general in life,

we don't want to walk around with a story that we are so busy

that there is no time for anything new. In many cases,

...