Speaker 1: You've picked your top priorities for the week and you've
Speaker 1: scheduled them in. But now for day to day, do
Speaker 1: that the night before because you're still fresh in context,
Speaker 1: you know what's happened.
Speaker 2: For the day.
Speaker 1: Because morning you is going to be really, really busy
Speaker 1: and you're going to feel like everything's urgent.
Speaker 2: So always do a handover document the night before.
Speaker 1: One of my most asked questions is is Steph, how
Speaker 1: do you.
Speaker 2: Do it all?
Speaker 1: How do you plan your week? How do you have
Speaker 1: everything running so smoothly? And I get it because from
Speaker 1: the outside it looks like everything does run smoothly. I've
Speaker 1: got the podcast, I've got my business, You've got the kids,
Speaker 1: got the house, all the things.
Speaker 2: But the thing is, I've had to go through.
Speaker 1: A lot of trial and error to find the systems
Speaker 1: and you know, the ways I should plan out my
Speaker 1: life because the way my brain works is very different
Speaker 1: from you know, your regular type A type of people.
Speaker 1: And the thing is, people assume I have some really
Speaker 1: complex system to keep the wheels turning, but the reality
Speaker 1: is I don't. It literally takes me a little bit
Speaker 1: of time on a Sunday, and this very specific system
Speaker 1: that I want to take you through to stop me
Speaker 1: from pulling my hair out most of the time.
Speaker 2: Most of the time.
Speaker 1: So if you've ever bought a planner and you just
Speaker 1: can't seem to stick to it, like you see, you
Speaker 1: know all those beautiful TikTok videos and Pinterest photos and
Speaker 1: they're just just no, there's no mess in sight. I
Speaker 1: promise you this episode is not like that. I, as
Speaker 1: you guys know, I have terrible handwriting, and the systems
Speaker 1: that I use are for the people that do need
Speaker 1: to break things down that we struggle to figure out
Speaker 1: what is, you know, the most important thing I should
Speaker 1: be doing with my time, because a lot of the time,
Speaker 1: when we're feeling overwhelmed, everything feels important at once and
Speaker 1: we can't really think logically when we're in that state.
Speaker 2: It's the amy a Magdala kind of thing again.
Speaker 1: So today I want to be walking you through my
Speaker 1: exact process, step by step, the brain dump, a sorting,
Speaker 1: the scheduling, the daily system, all of it. And you
Speaker 1: can do this tonight and by the end of it,
Speaker 1: you also know why my Google calendar is when and
Speaker 1: my planner is the how and how you can work
Speaker 1: this system together, and it's going to change everything.
Speaker 2: Welcome back to Stepping Up.
Speaker 1: But before we get into it, there's a quick life
Speaker 1: update because I feel like I feel like when I
Speaker 1: go to write these life updates, like I script my
Speaker 1: episodes because obviously they're solo and you don't really want
Speaker 1: to run out of things to talk about, which, let's
Speaker 1: be honest, would be pretty hard for me. I always
Speaker 1: kind of get to this and I don't like it's
Speaker 1: like I get amnesia and I forget everything that's going
Speaker 1: on in my life. And it's kind of funny because
Speaker 1: especially lately, it's been extra busy, like more than usual.
Speaker 1: But then I go to write my little life update
Speaker 1: and I go blank. But if there's one thing that
Speaker 1: I'm really really into at the moment, it's you know,
Speaker 1: claud and Ai. And now before you guys skip through this,
Speaker 1: I'm not a tech bro. Obviously, I am someone who
Speaker 1: really struggles to start tasks. But I've always been really
Speaker 1: fascinated and I've loved anything automation like smart home, and
Speaker 1: I think it's for me, as I said, because I
Speaker 1: struggled to start tasks and I just feel like there's
Speaker 1: not enough time in the day that this is why
Speaker 1: I'm so into it. And this kind of started for
Speaker 1: me back before I hired the new team I've got
Speaker 1: now with SPP, and I was actually drowning, like which
Speaker 1: is actually going to be the next episode I talk about,
Speaker 1: but I could not keep my head above water. And
Speaker 1: I'm saying like I was getting four hours of sleep
Speaker 1: at night.
Speaker 2: It was terrible. I do not promote that whatsoever.
Speaker 1: And I just was like, you know what, And I
Speaker 1: went so far deep into like automating. I built a
Speaker 1: whole new database for the business and stuff like that,
Speaker 1: but even down to you know, automating things at home,
Speaker 1: like having your subscriptions like with Amazon, so you automatically
Speaker 1: get sent toilet paper things like that. Whatever you can
Speaker 1: do to automate is just my jam. So right now,
Speaker 1: I'm sure you've seen at least on your Instagram page
Speaker 1: that you know, claud code is having its moment and
Speaker 1: it is actually amazing, and I just I'm not going
Speaker 1: to go into it, but I'm just going to tell
Speaker 1: you some cool things I've built with my AI that
Speaker 1: I'm really into at the moment.
Speaker 2: So I've actually created an AI assistant.
Speaker 1: And when I say this, it's not just like I'm
Speaker 1: talking to chat ABT, like I've built this like ecosystem
Speaker 1: where I can actually talk to my AI assistant who
Speaker 1: I've created through Telegram, and I called him Dobby, remember
Speaker 1: from Harry Potter Elf Dobby, And he saves my life.
Speaker 1: So every morning he sends me a morning brief which
Speaker 1: he like reads my calendar, he checks like my emails
Speaker 1: on my Slack messages, and he kind of just like
Speaker 1: gives it to me in this like the least overwhelming
Speaker 1: parcel is possible, and I created, like you know, you
Speaker 1: can create these workflows and skills. And again just a disclaimer,
Speaker 1: I don't believe and you know, I would never replace
Speaker 1: my team with AI. I don't think that's going to happen,
Speaker 1: Like I don't want that to happen, and I don't
Speaker 1: believe that should.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: AI is just a tool in our tool belt, and
Speaker 1: it's just going to help us save time so we
Speaker 1: can do the more important things.
Speaker 2: So like for example, like you know.
Speaker 1: I'm sure you guys might have done this before, like
Speaker 1: when you don't have much food left in the house
Speaker 1: and you decide to give you know, Chat, GBT or
Speaker 1: whatever what you've got, and it can whip up like
Speaker 1: an ingredients list and a recipe for you in two seconds.
Speaker 1: It's all about just you know, like that's what this
Speaker 1: whole podcast is about. This episode is you know, getting
Speaker 1: back the time to do the things that are actually
Speaker 1: more important and like that you actually want to be doing.
Speaker 1: So for me, like I've built skills that you know,
Speaker 1: that can transcribe this entire podcast and from there it
Speaker 1: can tell me like which parts it thinks I should
Speaker 1: be you know, cutting as a real and then it
Speaker 1: can go into the video and cut it for me.
Speaker 1: Like these are the things I've been building, and it
Speaker 1: saved me like hours and hours and hours doing the
Speaker 1: things in my business instead of working on the business.
Speaker 1: I've even started building an app for the girls. Can
Speaker 1: you tell I like to do all the things. So
Speaker 1: I'm building this app for the kids that has been
Speaker 1: really really fun, and I've actually got them to be
Speaker 1: part of it because i know, like the thing is
Speaker 1: AI is you know, whether you like it or not,
Speaker 1: it's going to be a huge part of our kids future.
Speaker 1: So I'm trying to teach the kids the foundations, so
Speaker 1: like you know, reading and writing, that's all important. But yeah,
Speaker 1: as long as the kids have the foundations like, you know,
Speaker 1: before we got the calculator, it was the same thing.
Speaker 1: And then I'm hoping that this can really be a
Speaker 1: tool for the kids as well. You know, even I'm
Speaker 1: going to set up a Missus Weasley like little Ai
Speaker 1: assistant and hack our robot vacuum at home and she
Speaker 1: can help me keep the house clean. Anyways, I could
Speaker 1: talk about this all day, so I'm going to move
Speaker 1: on now. But you know, you can do so many
Speaker 1: things these days, and it's just all about finding the
Speaker 1: system that works for you. Now, before I get into
Speaker 1: the episode, I'm so excited to say the hot Mess
Speaker 1: hotline is officially back.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: This was huge in our first in my first season,
Speaker 1: you guys really enjoyed this. So basically, you know, if
Speaker 1: you've got a problem, a messy life situation, a drama
Speaker 1: or anything that you need me to organize the overwhelm
Speaker 1: for you, just send it in and you can just
Speaker 1: do it by the link in the show notes and
Speaker 1: I'll do an episode on it. So think of it
Speaker 1: like I'm your big sister and I'm just like helping
Speaker 1: you out here. So basically, if there's anything in your
Speaker 1: life currently where you're feeling like, is it just me
Speaker 1: or why is this such a shit show? Send it
Speaker 1: in and I'm going to help you out like I'm
Speaker 1: your woman. So make sure you click the link in
Speaker 1: the show notes and send in your messy situation.
Speaker 2: All right, So this is where we start.
Speaker 1: Before I even you know, pull out a highlighter or
Speaker 1: look at Google calendar, I will do this one single
Speaker 1: task that's going to kick off everything. And this is
Speaker 1: so important, and I know some people are probably going
Speaker 1: to roll their eyes when they hear it, but it's
Speaker 1: the framework and actually how I do it that's really important.
Speaker 1: And this is where we're going to do the brain dump.
Speaker 1: So every Sunday night, I'll sit down with my planner
Speaker 1: and I dump everything out of my head. In my planners,
Speaker 1: I've got the monthly brain dump page and it's cut
Speaker 1: into four sections because there's all these different areas of
Speaker 1: our life. And that's because for me especially, I feel like,
Speaker 1: because there's all these different areas of my life, I
Speaker 1: struggle to remember all the things. But if my brain
Speaker 1: looks at a list and I just you know, I've
Speaker 1: written home at the top, or I've written work, it
Speaker 1: helps my brain kind of zone in on that area and.
Speaker 2: Just let it all out.
Speaker 1: So it's really about kind of allowing your brain to
Speaker 1: block out the rest of the noise and just focus
Speaker 1: on one.
Speaker 2: Section of your life. But here is where I want
Speaker 2: you to kind of go a bit more. Ham.
Speaker 1: I'm going to be doing categories in this, and I
Speaker 1: don't want you to judge what you write.
Speaker 2: I literally you can do it in your planet, you
Speaker 2: can do it on a piece of paper.
Speaker 1: I want you to write everything that is literally in
Speaker 1: your brain that you're being holding onto before you come.
Speaker 2: Into the week.
Speaker 1: You could be like, oh, the kids have an excursion
Speaker 1: on Wednesday, or I have to buy them a new
Speaker 1: school toop, or I haven't replied to that email. Or
Speaker 1: in December, I need to go have lunch with Margaret.
Speaker 1: I don't know why I always use Margaret. I'm sorry Margaret.
Speaker 1: But everything that's in your brain, let it out, like,
Speaker 1: dump it all out. That's why it's called a brain dump.
Speaker 1: Now for me, I will set a timer for this
Speaker 1: for about five to ten minutes because I will continue
Speaker 1: to keep going. And that's just going to give you
Speaker 1: some guardrails so we don't go too crazy. So anything
Speaker 1: like appointments, tasks, worries like meal, ideas, anything the kids needs,
Speaker 1: like anything like that. You're going to write it out
Speaker 1: and that is called cognitive offloading. So that's going to
Speaker 1: clear the space in our brain. So now we can
Speaker 1: also plan for the week ahead. And it also reduces
Speaker 1: your anxiety, so yeah, that helps to Okay, so now
Speaker 1: we've got this really long brain dump that you know,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of trauma dumps in there as well,
Speaker 1: but that's fine. We can just kind of ignore those.
Speaker 1: So now you've got everything on paper. Your page might
Speaker 1: look a bit insane. That's fine, that's normal. But the
Speaker 1: next step is we're going to start sorting through the chaos.
Speaker 1: And this is where most people do get it wrong.
Speaker 1: So the first step here is I want you to
Speaker 1: grab some highlighters, preferably spp ones because they're really cute. Now,
Speaker 1: I want you to go through every single thing on
Speaker 1: this list and with a highlighter or you can circle it,
Speaker 1: whatever you want to do. I want you to go
Speaker 1: through and highlight or circle everything in that list that
Speaker 1: is actually time sensitive and urgent. So this week needs
Speaker 1: to be done. If it's not, we're screwed kind of thing,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. So it must happen this
Speaker 1: week or something will break. The next thing I want
Speaker 1: you to do is you can grab a different colored
Speaker 1: highlighter and I want you to just note down what's
Speaker 1: important but not urgent, so it matters, but it can wait,
Speaker 1: like it could be next week if we have to.
Speaker 1: And then and in another color, I want you to
Speaker 1: highlight anything that is actually for the future. So anything that,
Speaker 1: like you know, in the next couple weeks, you don't
Speaker 1: even even think about this, but it's out of your
Speaker 1: head and she's ready to be parked somewhere. And then
Speaker 1: from your urgent list, I want you just to circle
Speaker 1: three to five things from that list, and these are
Speaker 1: the things that you are going to then schedule into
Speaker 1: your week later. This is like your focus for the week.
Speaker 1: So now you've got the noise out of your head.
Speaker 1: We've sorted the noise into little piles, which is like
Speaker 1: organized mess, which is fine, but now we know which
Speaker 1: pieces of these need to be like at the forefront
Speaker 1: of our mind. And the science behind this is it's
Speaker 1: called priority blindness. Now research shows that you know, a
Speaker 1: lot of brains, especially adkh ones, can't easily ranked task
Speaker 1: by importance, so everything gets flagged as equal priority, which
Speaker 1: isn't really the case. So when we can sort things externally,
Speaker 1: think like the sorting hat Harry Potter vibes. It really
Speaker 1: does help, you know, like to see things more clearly,
Speaker 1: because when we're trying to sort things in our head,
Speaker 1: it's like the blind leading the blind. It's not going
Speaker 1: to happen, and you're having the paper out and the highlighters.
Speaker 1: That is the external sorting, you know, just use pink
Speaker 1: for urgent, yellow for important, and then leave the rest
Speaker 1: unhighlighted or even I want you to even go through
Speaker 1: this list and like cross out anything that you can
Speaker 1: delete or delegate, because anything that you don't have to
Speaker 1: do like that can physically be done by another human being,
Speaker 1: get rid of it, like give it to Bob. All right,
Speaker 1: So we've got your urgent list. Before we can touch
Speaker 1: a single task, we're putting the lock stuff in first.
Speaker 1: And this is where Google Calendar and the planners stop
Speaker 1: fighting each other and start working as a team, which
Speaker 1: is great. Now, before we schedule in any tasks like
Speaker 1: your urgent ones that we've already picked, I put in
Speaker 1: what is already locked in. And I'm talking about school
Speaker 1: drop offs. I'm talking about pickups, meetings, appointments, the non negotiables.
Speaker 2: This is your step. So these are your non movable blocks.
Speaker 1: These go in first, and then everything else has to
Speaker 1: work around this. And then I think this is where
Speaker 1: a lot of people can get really hard on themselves
Speaker 1: and they go wrong.
Speaker 2: And I used to do the same thing.
Speaker 1: Is I felt like I had to do everything, anything
Speaker 1: that felt important had to be done in one day,
Speaker 1: and I never accounted.
Speaker 2: For school drop off, school pickup, that.
Speaker 1: Meeting I have at twelve. I also need to make lunch.
Speaker 1: I also have to get ready in the morning. Like
Speaker 1: all of these things take up blocks of time of
Speaker 1: our day, and then we wonder why we feel like
Speaker 1: we never have any time. And that's because you know,
Speaker 1: if you're overscheduling yourself, or if you're picking a Monday
Speaker 1: and you know your Monday's at your busiest day, we
Speaker 1: should probably be like, okay, our urgent tasks. I'm going
Speaker 1: to try and do two of these on a Wednesday. Like,
Speaker 1: don't overbook yourself. Now, this is where your Google calendar
Speaker 1: and your planner are going to work as a team. Now,
Speaker 1: this is a big reframe that is super important. Your
Speaker 1: Google calendar is your when, and your physical planner is
Speaker 1: your how your Google calendar look For someone like me,
Speaker 1: I need it. I love analogue, I love paper. I'm
Speaker 1: a stationary hall.
Speaker 2: We know this.
Speaker 1: But I also have a team, and you know, the
Speaker 1: family calendar. I have things that are big going to
Speaker 1: be coming in and out. We have meetings that get moved,
Speaker 1: you know, I get an email saying, oh, we've got
Speaker 1: to move this meeting till this day, and.
Speaker 2: It does come in really handy for that.
Speaker 1: So you see your Google calendar as your source of
Speaker 1: truth with time. This is like your when, this is
Speaker 1: what's happening when. So then you know, we also have
Speaker 1: a family calendar that's Google as well. And I also
Speaker 1: actually set that up with the kids' school's RSS feed
Speaker 1: like it's actually.
Speaker 2: It didn't take me very long. I should maybe do
Speaker 2: another episode on.
Speaker 1: This, but basically it's kind of like I hacked the
Speaker 1: school's system, but I didn't in case they're listening, and
Speaker 1: it automatically will create events in my calendar. So I
Speaker 1: don't even have to worry about when cross country is
Speaker 1: as long as I look at it on the Sunday,
Speaker 1: it's going to be in there for me. And that
Speaker 1: is honestly, it's been so so helpful. So my Google
Speaker 1: calendar is going to be telling me when things are happening,
Speaker 1: you know, the location, the time alerts, it's the schedule,
Speaker 1: but the planner tells me how how am I going
Speaker 1: to get through this week with my priorities, my brain dump,
Speaker 1: my habits. It's literally your method to get the task
Speaker 1: ticked off. And they're not competitors, they're a team everything.
Speaker 1: It's like I kind of like to look at it
Speaker 1: as the Google's like your like logical brain and your plans,
Speaker 1: your more you know, emotional brain, because it also shows
Speaker 1: everything else that's going on. Because when you think about it,
Speaker 1: if you put every single thing or every single habit
Speaker 1: that you want to do in your Google calendar, that
Speaker 1: would be extremely overwhelming, and when you try to share
Speaker 1: that with your team or your family, that's just way
Speaker 1: too much noisse. So it's good to have these two
Speaker 1: working together. It's like a planning hybrid of digital and analog.
Speaker 1: And because analogue, you know, there's a lot of science
Speaker 1: behind why writing your you know, to do list down
Speaker 1: or you know habits down, you're actually like forty percent
Speaker 1: more likely to actually do that action it's just how
Speaker 1: our brains are wired. That's why it's also super important
Speaker 1: for when you're actually planning your life and planning your
Speaker 1: day to day, that is, in a physical planner. Your
Speaker 1: brain processes things differently when you write versus when you're typing,
Speaker 1: and that's what each tool is good at, because paper
Speaker 1: planners are better for thinking and prioritizing, whereas the digital
Speaker 1: is just you know, it's like the facts, like yep,
Speaker 1: this is then at twelve, So you really need to
Speaker 1: have both working together. Okay, so now we have this
Speaker 1: week mapped, We've got your non negotiables popped in there.
Speaker 1: We have it in your Google calendar, you have it
Speaker 1: in your paper planner. Now we're going to be scheduling
Speaker 1: in our priorities and our top three and quick three. Now, now,
Speaker 1: this method I'm about to go into actually change the
Speaker 1: way I plan and it changed my life but also
Speaker 1: my self esteem. As I said, I'm someone who I
Speaker 1: will overbook myself and I always will think things take
Speaker 1: a lot less time than.
Speaker 2: What they actually take.
Speaker 1: For me, if I have to go anywhere to be anywhere,
Speaker 1: the car trip's five minutes, it doesn't matter if if
Speaker 1: it's actually thirty minutes or down the road, it's five
Speaker 1: minutes in my brain. So when you have time blindness
Speaker 1: on top, that's what makes things really really difficult. So
Speaker 1: when it comes to tasks and you tend to be
Speaker 1: a bit of a high achiever or look, let's just
Speaker 1: be honest, you're a mum or a woman in this
Speaker 1: bloody society right now with all the things happening. If
Speaker 1: you don't get all the things done, we do tend
Speaker 1: to feel like we failed, that we didn't do enough,
Speaker 1: and we do tend to forget that we are, as
Speaker 1: I always say, we're human beings, not human doings. So
Speaker 1: this is what was like my own guard rails for
Speaker 1: my day in terms of tasks. So every single day
Speaker 1: I will write down my top three things, which is
Speaker 1: my non negotiable tasks for the day. These are like
Speaker 1: the important urgent things for the day, and then my
Speaker 1: quick three tasks. So these are small wins that I
Speaker 1: can knock out in like ten minutes or less. And
Speaker 1: these can also be urgent and important, but they are quicker.
Speaker 1: And the reason why I've done it in this framework
Speaker 1: is having only three larger tasks for the day. And
Speaker 1: when I say larger. These are more than I like
Speaker 1: to classify. Things that takes me more than twenty minutes
Speaker 1: is going to go in the top three, because if
Speaker 1: you do more than three of these, your day is
Speaker 1: going to be gone. I also want to say, if
Speaker 1: one of these tasks for you is like going to
Speaker 1: take you six hours, just do the one I think
Speaker 1: you just like, it's really good to have a bit
Speaker 1: of a reference point.
Speaker 2: And I've talked.
Speaker 1: About this before, but with some tasks that I have
Speaker 1: to do every week, and I kept kind of not
Speaker 1: estimating the right time frame it takes. I keep this list,
Speaker 1: and on this list, I will have the things I
Speaker 1: do and the actual amount of time it takes me.
Speaker 1: So if I'm ever feeling a bit scattered or I'm like,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm not sure how LONGY say I have
Speaker 1: to write my content for the week, that actually takes
Speaker 1: me a few hours, and I used to try and
Speaker 1: think that I could do that in twenty minutes. On
Speaker 1: my list, I literally will say content writing for the week,
Speaker 1: and it says two to three hours there. So when
Speaker 1: I'm planning my week, that's my reference point. I can
Speaker 1: go back to this list and be like, oh yes,
Speaker 1: when I clean the bathroom, it takes me my lifetime,
Speaker 1: and it's so so helpful for that to have like
Speaker 1: a bit of it like a reality check. Now, if
Speaker 1: I get my top three done for the day, I'm
Speaker 1: winning it life like I'm good to go. And if
Speaker 1: I also get all of the quick three done, then
Speaker 1: I'm just basically superhuman with this framework too. I want
Speaker 1: to just let you know that you don't like, you're
Speaker 1: not always going to tick all of these off either.
Speaker 1: This is just like your maximum that you can hold.
Speaker 1: And the awesome thing about this is, you know, when
Speaker 1: it comes to self confidence, that really comes down to
Speaker 1: doing the things you said you were going to do.
Speaker 1: So if you're telling yourself, Okay, I'm want to go
Speaker 1: to the gym in the morning, and you keep bailing
Speaker 1: on yourself, You're not going to have the confidence within
Speaker 1: yourself to go out and achieve the goals or do
Speaker 1: the things you want to do because you know your
Speaker 1: evidence from the past shows that you never do it.
Speaker 1: It's like again the flaky gym front I talk about
Speaker 1: if you have a friend that always says I'm going
Speaker 1: to meet you at the gym and they never come,
Speaker 1: you're not going to really rely on that person, and
Speaker 1: when that person is yourself, that is really really hard
Speaker 1: and really off putting. You need to build up your
Speaker 1: self confidence by doing the things that you said you would.
Speaker 1: Now with your top three quick three, I do recommend
Speaker 1: before each day comes to write these the night before.
Speaker 1: And I've talked about this as a handover document. This
Speaker 1: is your handover document to your future self. So we've
Speaker 1: done it for the week. You've picked your top priorities
Speaker 1: for the week, and you've scheduled them in. It could
Speaker 1: be like Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, those those main tasks that
Speaker 1: were urgent that we talked about, make sure they're scheduled in.
Speaker 1: But now for day to day for your top three
Speaker 1: quick three, do that the night before because you're still
Speaker 1: fresh in context. You know what's happened for the day.
Speaker 1: Because morning you is going to be really really busy,
Speaker 1: she's going to forget the context window, which if you
Speaker 1: do AI, you'll know what I'm talking about and you're
Speaker 1: gonna feel like everything's urgent. So always do a handover
Speaker 1: document the night before for the next day. Now moving
Speaker 1: on to the pretty step. This is using highlighters as
Speaker 1: the categories of your life, which is what I touched
Speaker 1: on before. So when you're looking at you know a
Speaker 1: lot of written tasks or anything, that's just any information
Speaker 1: I need to digest. If it's not you know, in
Speaker 1: segments or highlighted or have some type of sequence, my
Speaker 1: brain feels like it's super overwhelming, so I won't even
Speaker 1: want to go in and read it all. I'm sure,
Speaker 1: like if someone's maybe sent you an email and there's
Speaker 1: no paragraphs or there's no subheadings, it can feel like
Speaker 1: a lot to get through.
Speaker 2: So this is why we use highlighters.
Speaker 1: And also stickers. And I just like stickers because my
Speaker 1: handwriting sucks. But we're going to be using highlighters to
Speaker 1: highlight the different areas or task types.
Speaker 2: For your day and week.
Speaker 1: So that's why I made these highlighters, the SPP highlighters
Speaker 1: I in the packet of and again this is okay,
Speaker 1: it is a plug.
Speaker 2: I guess it's a plug whatever.
Speaker 1: In the packet of highlighters I made, there's actually a
Speaker 1: sticker sheet and it has things like work, don't forget kids, events, cleaning,
Speaker 1: and you actually put the label on your highlighters because
Speaker 1: I will forget what color means, what one hundred percent.
Speaker 1: So for me, in my planner, my top like my
Speaker 1: don't forget label has gone on my like what is
Speaker 1: I think my pink one, So I've already forgotten and
Speaker 1: so that stands out on the page to me. So
Speaker 1: I will highlight my top three. I will highlight you know,
Speaker 1: really urgent meetings, and then I've got you know, cleaning,
Speaker 1: which is green, and I'll like literally highlight you know,
Speaker 1: do the washing, clean the bathroom, anything like that. So
Speaker 1: it breaks up all this information in our brain. So
Speaker 1: then you can scan your planner for your top task.
Speaker 1: You can you can scan your planner for your kids
Speaker 1: drop off, you can scan your planner for work. And
Speaker 1: it's not all coming at you at once. It's digestible.
Speaker 1: But when I when you do this, like you know,
Speaker 1: you can have all the colors in the world, but
Speaker 1: for me, this for me, that like the max is
Speaker 1: five for me. And look I did put more than
Speaker 1: five in the in the pack, but for me, five
Speaker 1: is my sweet spot. So don't go crazy and do
Speaker 1: like twenty different colors. Now I've covered all of the
Speaker 1: more logistics, so you know you're not negotiables the things
Speaker 1: you have to do, your urgent tasks and you're probably
Speaker 1: listening to this and being like, well, Steph, where's the
Speaker 1: things for me, like my goals and my habits and
Speaker 1: my hopes and dreams. Well, we're up to that now.
Speaker 1: This is a step for that. So when it comes
Speaker 1: to like any goals or lifestyle changes we want to make,
Speaker 1: which is important to be, you know, it is good
Speaker 1: to be, you know, striving for something. I wouldn't say
Speaker 1: a lot of different things at once, but for example,
Speaker 1: you're wanting to get your steps in, you need to
Speaker 1: be reminded of this goal quite often, and you also
Speaker 1: need to know the steps for you to do the steps.
Speaker 1: So for example, for me, I like to aim for
Speaker 1: eight thousand steps a day, and for me to do that,
Speaker 1: I know I need to usually go for a walk
Speaker 1: at lunchtime, like my brain break walk, or I'll go
Speaker 1: for a walk after school pick up. Some type of
Speaker 1: walk in the day needs to happen. Also, I have
Speaker 1: my walking pad at home, so that's in there as well.
Speaker 1: And there's just certain things that I know, you know,
Speaker 1: on my meetings days, I know I'm going to be
Speaker 1: sitting down pretty much the whole day, so that's the
Speaker 1: day I'll do a quick.
Speaker 2: Walk in the morning and a quick walk afterwards.
Speaker 1: And if you're not tracking these steps you need to make,
Speaker 1: you're going to forget about your goals. And this is
Speaker 1: why I have a habit tracker in all of my planners,
Speaker 1: so there's like five or four spaces and you can
Speaker 1: write whatever you want. And these don't have to be
Speaker 1: crazy habits. These can be like taking your supplements every day.
Speaker 1: It could be like get off your phone at eight
Speaker 1: pm and you just ticket Monday through to Sunday. So
Speaker 1: this is where we fill in our habit tracker. And
Speaker 1: studies also show people that actually track their habits are
Speaker 1: forty two percent more likely to actually achieve them. And
Speaker 1: there's just something that hits you with dopamine when you
Speaker 1: do tick something off, so it kind of gamifies it
Speaker 1: as well. And also like, don't put in habits just
Speaker 1: for the sake of filling up a space. There will
Speaker 1: be seasons and like weeks in my life where I'm like, Okay,
Speaker 1: I'm starting to feel a bit you know, burnt out,
Speaker 1: so I will change my habits in that week's habit
Speaker 1: tracker to you know, saying as I say, get off
Speaker 1: the phone one at eight pm or read every day
Speaker 1: things like that. You don't always have to be saying
Speaker 1: ten k steps, go for a marathon, you know, you
Speaker 1: just change it up with.
Speaker 2: The season that you're in. Now.
Speaker 1: The last step that I do for you know, planning
Speaker 1: out my week is and it literally takes me five
Speaker 1: minutes or even less, because I am I'm a creature
Speaker 1: of habit. I like to do the same thing every
Speaker 1: single week as much as I can. And this is
Speaker 1: the last step, and this is planning your meals for
Speaker 1: the week. And pretty much most of my planners has
Speaker 1: a little space for your dinner. You can write in
Speaker 1: all your meals. And again, the reason why we do this,
Speaker 1: it's not to be perfect. It's because dinners an't like
Speaker 1: the bane of my existence.
Speaker 2: I've always really struggled. I used to feel like I
Speaker 2: always had.
Speaker 1: To reinvent the wheel, that I had to make new
Speaker 1: and exciting dinners every week. But the thing is like,
Speaker 1: just don't fix what's not broken. Like if you enjoy
Speaker 1: having spag boll every Tuesday, keep doing that. If the
Speaker 1: kids eat it, keep it, don't don't mess up the system.
Speaker 1: So majority of the time I will literally just write
Speaker 1: down and repeat the dinners from the week before, but
Speaker 1: I still need to do that because I will one
Speaker 1: hundred percent forget. And also I like to highlight and
Speaker 1: write down on like our fridge magnets or even obviously
Speaker 1: my planner if I have to take meat out of
Speaker 1: the freezer the night before, so when you have it
Speaker 1: in your planner, you can see, oh, tomorrow night is
Speaker 1: Taco's and you know that night you can take out
Speaker 1: the beef out of the freezer. It's little things like
Speaker 1: that that's just making your life a lot easier and
Speaker 1: even seeing like, Okay, for example, on Mondays, I like
Speaker 1: to do a slow cooker meal or I've already prepped
Speaker 1: that dinner because Mondays are nuts for me. So it
Speaker 1: just kind of looking at your week more logically and
Speaker 1: being like, where is there the most resistance that I
Speaker 1: can make it easier on myself? And the thing is
Speaker 1: too our decision fatigue is going to be at its
Speaker 1: worse at five PM. And for me, like our family,
Speaker 1: with especially with the girls, they need a lot of
Speaker 1: time to unwind after dinner before I can even get
Speaker 1: them into bed. So we have dinner at five PM,
Speaker 1: like it's early. So if I'm not organized, there's no
Speaker 1: way I want to be able to like pull a
Speaker 1: dinner out of thin air at five pm if I
Speaker 1: don't know what I'm cooking, and if you do want
Speaker 1: to mix it up a little bit each week, just
Speaker 1: having like a rotation of ten dinners that you can
Speaker 1: just change up a little bit each week, that is
Speaker 1: just gonna like just stop you from thinking at all.
Speaker 1: And having again theme days, so you could have like
Speaker 1: taco Tuesdays or take out Thursdays, just anything that you
Speaker 1: can try and use to just to lighten the.
Speaker 2: Load a little bit. Just do it.
Speaker 1: I'll also link below I did a whole episode on
Speaker 1: like meal prep and all those types of tips before,
Speaker 1: so make sure you click on that and it will
Speaker 1: just make that step even easier again. So that is
Speaker 1: my system, guys, Like I hope you know the little
Speaker 1: reframing of like the digital planning versus the analog planning
Speaker 1: and how they work together, like.
Speaker 2: They're a team or a team. We don't. It's not
Speaker 2: a love hate relationship. It's a love love relationship.
Speaker 1: I'm going to quickly run you through this process quickly
Speaker 1: so you guys don't forget. So we've got the brain dump,
Speaker 1: so everything out of your head and then we organize
Speaker 1: the brain dump by highlighting everything that's urgent, which is
Speaker 1: three to five things only, and we're getting rid of
Speaker 1: the rest of the noise. Number three is scheduling in
Speaker 1: your non negotiables to your week, so your events, your appointments,
Speaker 1: and your top urgent tasks. And then we've got your
Speaker 1: Google calendar and your planner and how they work together.
Speaker 1: So your Google calendar is your when and your planner
Speaker 1: is your how. And then we've got your top three
Speaker 1: and quick three every day. And then we've got utilizing
Speaker 1: highlighters and stickers for your categories and also not forgetting ourselves.
Speaker 1: So we're going to track our habits every week, and
Speaker 1: then we're going to plan our meals, and then we're
Speaker 1: going to sit down and binge watch Love Island, which,
Speaker 1: to be honest, I don't remember the last time I've
Speaker 1: watched reality TV. Not because I'm above it, not because
Speaker 1: I'm above it at all, because you bet I'm sitting
Speaker 1: on the couch scrolling TikTok. But anyways, that's it. That's
Speaker 1: my whole system mostly. I hope that's helped, and it's
Speaker 1: really just breaking down the steps for you guys, because
Speaker 1: again the biggest question I'll get even you know in
Speaker 1: our SPP Instagram is people buy planners and you know,
Speaker 1: I did a whole QR thing you scan and it
Speaker 1: gives you a guide, But I also so don't really
Speaker 1: pay attention to things. So I just hope that this
Speaker 1: whole system has really helped you for your brain to
Speaker 1: understand why we're doing the things at this certain step.
Speaker 1: So if you can even just do one thing from
Speaker 1: this episode, just do the brain dump. Just just get
Speaker 1: get like lighten the mental load for yourself, organize it,
Speaker 1: make it makes sense for you, and then you can
Speaker 1: keep that and use that when you want. And if
Speaker 1: you can do two things from this episode, do the
Speaker 1: brain dump and the top three daily tasks. My book
Speaker 1: Mastering My Messy Life goes deep into like how I
Speaker 1: built these systems, but it goes into like how they
Speaker 1: came about and just all the other areas of your
Speaker 1: life and how I stopped fighting against my brain and
Speaker 1: started working with it. If you know anyone that's also
Speaker 1: feeling really scattered, make sure you share this episode with them.
Speaker 1: And I would love if you guys could write a
Speaker 1: review and make sure you subscribe to the show so
Speaker 1: you don't miss one. And it also really helps me
Speaker 1: get the show out there more for more people with
Speaker 1: messy minds. And I'll talk to you guys on Monday, babe,