This is ICT. Over the years, I've compiled thousands of inspiring and thought-provoking quotes and now I'm passing that knowledge on to you and my new daily podcasts.

ICT's Daily Game. In less than five minutes, I'll break down why these words matter and reveal personal stories that show them in action in my life.

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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 schedule yourself first.

Identify what needs to happen for your life to run smoothly and for you to achieve your goals.

Then, schedule those activities first before committing to anything else.

So you have probably heard the classic financial advice to pay yourself first.

To save money for your own future needs, be poor you pay for everything else.

Money goes to your retirement account or emergency fund before it goes to clothes or dinners out or anything discretionary.

If you wait to save what is left over, there might not be anything left over.

But if you pay yourself first, one way or the other, you'll get through to your next paycheck.

And you will build wealth at the same time.

As is so often the case, what is wise for money is wise for time, too.

Just as people who are smart with their money set aside savings for their future needs before they spend on other things, people who are smart with their time, figure out how much time they need to invest in maintaining their well-being and for achieving their goals.

They put that time on their schedule first, before they commit to spending time, in other ways.

The most obvious category this works with is sleep.

If you need seven and a half hours of sleep per day, then you should carve out seven and a half hours of time each day, during which you can sleep.

Since my guess is that you need to wake up at set times most days for work or family responsibilities, that means going to bed at a reasonable time.

Doing that, instead of trying to get to the bottom of your bottomless inbox, amounts to paying yourself first.

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