Welcome to the Listening Time podcast. Hey everybody, this is Conner and you’re listening to Episode 45 of the Listening Time podcast.

I hope you’re all having a good start to the new year. At the time of recording this episode, it’s still 2021 for me. I’m recording this on December 31, so it’s not yet the new year for me, but by the time that you’ll be listening to this episode, it’ll be 2022. So, I hope that you’re all having a good start to the new year. I hope you guys have some good resolutions. In English, we use the word “resolutions” to talk about goals that you make for the next year.

So, I hope you guys have some good resolutions and you’re motivated to work hard and achieve your goals. So, I hope that you’re all inspired to do well in this new year. So first of all, I wanted to just mention a couple things. So, one of the things is that I think I mentioned a few episodes ago I have a new email address, so if you want to contact me and ask questions about the membership or anything like that, feel free to send me an email. That email is listeningtimepodcast(at)gmail.com

I’ll put that in the Episode Notes. And so, if you need to contact me, you can send me an email there. I usually don’t respond right away because I’m usually in a class or something like that, but I’ll try to respond as quickly as possible. So, that’s my new email address. Just go down to the Episode Notes and click on that if you want to ask me a question. If you have any doubts or concerns about your membership or which one you want to sign up for, or what you’re going to get, just send me a message there.

And one other thing is that I’m starting to post a lot more on my Instagram account. So, you can follow me on Instagram, and my username is @listeningtime.english. I’ll put that in the Episode Notes as well: @listeningtime.english. So, in this new year, one of my main goals in terms of my business is to start using Instagram a lot more. I know that this is the app that most of you use on a daily basis, so I want to connect with you there and teach you through Instagram and of course, it gives me a way of promoting the podcast and my membership. So, I think that will be a good resource for me and for you this next year.

And of course, remember that we have our new tier, our new level of membership, which is the Listening Time Family Member. So, if you become a Family Member, you’ll get all the other benefits: the seminars, the extra episodes, but also the Sound Training videos, where I teach you how to identify a certain sound in English and I give you a lot of examples of that. So, remember to become a Listening Time Family Member, or you can upgrade your account… if you’re already a Member or Super Member, you can upgrade that to become a Family Member as well. The word “upgrade” in English just means to promote something or bring it to a higher level.

Okay, so for today’s episode, we’re going to talk about good habits. I think this is a good topic to talk about for the new year because we all want to start the new year with some good habits. Alright, and of course, before we start, also remember that you have the transcript for this episode in the Episode Notes. So, you can find that down below. Just click on that link, and you can see everything that I’m saying, okay? Alright, let’s get started.

Okay, so let’s talk about some good habits that you can incorporate in your daily life. In English, the verb “incorporate” means to include something in something else, in some system, or to put something into practice, for example. So, if you incorporate something in your daily life, this means that you include it in your life. So, let’s talk about some good habits that you can incorporate in your daily life. So first of all, let’s talk about waking up early.

So, I know for a lot of you, this is not easy, and you might hate waking up early, or you might have a lot of trouble opening your eyes in the morning and you don’t feel like you have a lot of energy. I understand, trust me, but I also think that the benefits of waking up early greatly outweigh the disadvantages. If you remember from last episode, I think we talked about the word “outweigh”. So, when something outweighs something else, this means that it is more important or significant than the other thing. So, the benefits of waking up early outweigh the disadvantages. So, at the beginning, you may feel very tired, and it won’t be easy to start waking up early. But once you get used to it, it’ll start getting easier, okay?

So, what are the benefits of waking up early? Well, first of all, a lot of research has shown that most people are more productive in the morning than in the evening. I know that a minority of the population is more productive in the evening. But as far as I know, I think this is just a small percentage of people. Most people are actually more productive in the earlier hours of the day, myself included. I definitely get more work done in the morning, and it’s easier for me, and I don’t struggle as much to be productive in the morning. In English, we use the verb “struggle” in a few different ways. In this context, I’m saying that I struggle to do something. This means that I have difficulty doing something. So, if I say “I’m struggling in my math class”, this means that I’m having difficulty in my math class. It’s hard for me.

So, I struggle less when I try to be productive in the morning. When I try to do a lot of work in the evening, I struggle more. It’s harder for me to concentrate. It’s harder for me to work for more hours at a time. In English, when we use the phrase “at a time”, we’re saying in one time period. So, if I say “I only work for two hours at a time”, I’m saying that I only work for two hours, and then I stop. Right? I don’t work for more than that. I work for two hours, and then I stop, and then maybe I start again later. So, I can work for more hours at a time when I do this in the morning. So, I think that the research has shown that it’s definitely beneficial to try to work and be productive in the morning. So, that’s one reason why you should wake up early.

Another reason is that it teaches you discipline. When you hear your alarm go off in the morning, it takes a lot of discipline to be able to say, “Okay, I know I’m tired. I know it’s early, but I’m going to get up.” By the way, we use the phrasal verb “go off” when we talk about alarms. So, if your alarm goes off, this means that your alarm sounds. It rings. Okay? So, when your alarm goes off in the morning, it’s usually not a pleasant feeling. The word “pleasant” just means that it feels good. So, it doesn’t feel good when your alarm goes off in the morning. It’s not a pleasant feeling if it’s very early, and so, it takes a lot of discipline to actually turn the alarm off, get up, and start your day. A lot of people just snooze their alarm and try to sleep more. We use the word “snooze” in English when we pause our alarm and it rings again in 10 minutes or 20 minutes or something… we say “snooze your alarm”. So, a lot of people want to snooze their alarm. They don’t want to wake up the first time that it goes off.

And so, if you start doing this, if you start this habit, it really helps you become a more disciplined person. It helps you realize that you have a goal and you have to do some hard work in order to achieve that goal. And you have to be consistent and you have to do it even when you don’t feel like it. So, the fact that you’re doing that in the morning really teaches you discipline, and I think it helps you in a lot of other areas of your life. It helps you do difficult things that you don’t want to do, and it helps you stay on track to accomplish your goals. So, the phrase “stay on track”, this means that you are not falling behind or failing to do your work. You’re actually doing what you’re supposed to do, and you’re doing it on time. And the verb “accomplish” just means achieve. So, we say “accomplish your goals”. This means: achieve your goals, or to do what you planned to do. So, this will help you accomplish your goals if you do that.

Okay, let’s talk about another habit. So, the next habit that I wanted to mention is having a plan for the day. So, this is a pretty simple one. I think a lot of you already do this or maybe you sometimes do this. For me, I notice that when I have a plan for the next day, it really inspires me to actually work hard, and I feel good because I know exactly what I’m supposed to be doing. For me, when I don’t know what I’m supposed to be doing that day, it feels like I’m lost. It feels like I’m not productive. I feel disorganized. I feel like I’m falling behind, like I’m not staying on track.

So, this is one that I want to improve on a lot in 2022. I want to make more, more detailed plans for my days. I want to feel like I know exactly what I need to accomplish each day. But at the same time, I think it’s good to make plans that are flexible. I don’t think we should plan every second of our day. Because then, our day can become a little bit boring, because there’s nothing there’s nothing spontaneous and the day can seem a little bit less interesting if your plan is too strict. So, I think that we should plan our days, but we should leave some space to be flexible with our day. We don’t have to be too specific about everything that we need to do. We can be a little bit more general than that, but still be specific enough so that we have a clear target in our mind.

So, like I said, this is one that I haven’t done…this is one habit that I haven’t had in my recent months, and it’s something that has caused me to feel a little bit lost, and it makes me feel a little bit overwhelmed because I feel like I have so many things to do, but I don’t know where to start. In English, the word “overwhelmed” means that you feel like you have too much to do. You feel like there are too many things, too many responsibilities, or something is too much for you to handle. Okay? So, I feel overwhelmed when I don’t have a plan for my day because there are so many things that I need to do, and I have no idea where to start.

And this brings me to the next habit that I wanted to mention. Another good habit that we can all try to incorporate in our daily lives is doing the hardest thing first in your day. So, whatever the hardest task is or the task that you really don’t want to do… maybe it’s not the hardest thing, but it’s very boring and it’s going to take you a long time, or you’re not looking forward to doing that task. This is the one that you should do first thing in the morning. Because if you don’t do this first thing in the morning, what’s going to happen is you’re going to procrastinate, right? In English, when we use the word “procrastinate”, we’re saying that you don’t do something that you’re supposed to be doing, and you save it for later. You leave it for a later time. Right?

So, if you have to write a report, and it’s due on Friday, and you do it on Thursday night, this is an example of procrastination. So, in English, when we say that something is “due” on a certain day, this means that you have to deliver it. You have to finish it on that day. It’s due on that day: d-u-e. So, a lot of people procrastinate when they don’t want to do something. So, a good way to avoid procrastinating is to do that hard thing or that stressful thing first, before you do anything else. And then, once you finish that thing, the rest of the day feels like a breeze. In English, when we say that something is “a breeze” or “feels like a breeze”, it means that it feels very easy. It feels like you don’t have to struggle to do something. So, the rest of the day will feel like a breeze if you do the hardest thing first, and you’ll just feel a lot less stressed because you know that you’ve done that really hard thing that you weren’t looking forward to. And once you’re finished with that, you feel very relieved. You don’t feel the stress that you would have felt if you hadn’t done that.

Okay, so the next habit I wanted to mention is that we should always be learning something. I think it’s important for people to always have something that they’re trying to learn. And it just helps us improve as people. It helps us… it helps our brains. It helps us feel better. It helps us feel more motivated. And it helps us, just, overall in our lives. And I think it’s fun, and I think you feel accomplished when you learn something when you study something. There are many benefits to this. So, for example, I think all of you are learning English.

So, you’re all doing this in your daily lives, and you probably feel good when you see your level of English increase, right, when you see yourself improving. It motivates you to do more, and it motivates you to do other things because you realize that you can accomplish a lot in your life. Right? So, I do a lot of language learning in my life, but I also try to learn other things as well. I try to read books. I try to gain more knowledge in my life, because I think that that’s an important part of being a human: is learning and growing. Okay, so that’s one that I definitely recommend. I assume that you’re already learning English, but maybe you can choose one other thing that you want to learn in 2022.

Okay, I have a couple more habits that I wanted to mention before we end. One of them is making your bed in the morning. I know this seems like a simple one, but many of us don’t make our bed in the morning, and then it’s already 2pm or 3pm, and we see that we still haven’t made our bed, and then we say, “You know what, I’m just going to sleep in a few hours, so I just won’t make my bed today.” Right? This is a habit that we can get into if we’re not careful. And you might say “What’s the problem with not making your bed?” I think there’s something very psychological about making your bed in the morning. If you do this in the morning, you feel more organized and ready to be productive the rest of the day. I think that it’s something basic, but it’s something that really affects our mindset each day. If we make our bed in the morning, it means that we’re going to be productive and do the things that we need to do that day. So, that’s a simple habit that can help you out in your life.

And one other thing is to put things away after you use them. So, when we say “put things away”, this means that you put that thing in its place where it’s supposed to go. Right? So, if you are reading a book and then you stop reading, you shouldn’t just leave the book on the couch and go somewhere else and start your next task. You should actually put that book on the bookshelf where you had it. And the thing that is beneficial about putting things away is that when you don’t do this and the days go by, all of a sudden, you’ll realize after a few days or a week that your house is completely messy and disorganized. In English, the word “messy” means dirty or not clean, disorganized… that’s messy.

So, you’ll realize that your house is very messy and there are things everywhere, and then it gets harder and harder to actually clean your house because you see how much mess there is. And you want to procrastinate. You don’t want to do this right away because it seems like a big task to do. So, if you just do a little bit each day, right, if you put things away that you use, you won’t have this experience where, suddenly, your house seems completely disorganized, right? So, I think that’s another good habit that we can all incorporate in our daily lives.

Okay, so we’ll stop there for today. Thank you for listening to this episode. I hope that it was useful for your listening practice. Remember that you have the transcript available in the Episode Notes. So, you can click on that and listen again and try to learn all those new words that I taught you. And of course, remember to sign up to become a Listening Time Member at www.patreon.com/listeningtime

You can find that link in the Episode Notes as well. You can become a Member, a Super Member or a Family Member and receive extra episodes of this podcast and my Listening Practice Seminars, my Pronunciation Seminars, and my Sound Training videos. So, make sure that you sign up for that. And of course, share this podcast with anyone else who might find it useful. So, I hope you all have a great 2022, that you all start the year well. If you have any other questions, just send me an email at listeningtimepodcast(at)gmail.com and remember to follow me on Instagram: @listeningtime.english You can find all of those links in the Episode Notes. Okay, thank you for listening to this episode, and I hope you’ll come back for Episode 46 of the Listening Time podcast.