Speaker 1: Thirty five thousand micro decisions by nine o'clock. Yeah, no, thanks.
Speaker 1: You don't realize how many decisions you make, just like, oh,
Speaker 1: has the kids done this?
Speaker 2: Have I done that?
Speaker 1: Like there's so many decisions you have to make every
Speaker 1: day and it's like, no, wonder why we're so exhausted. Hello, guys,
Speaker 1: and welcome back to Stepping Up. I am pumped for
Speaker 1: today's episode. I feel like I say that every week.
Speaker 1: But anyway, I'm very passionate about the things I talk
Speaker 1: about here obviously, but this is honestly, I feel like
Speaker 1: such a sore spot for everyone in life, Like think
Speaker 1: about you know, Freaky Friday, and you remember Lindsay Lohan
Speaker 1: and she has to be like literally dragged out of
Speaker 1: bed and she's always running late. And then even like
Speaker 1: New York Minute, which you know that movie sparked my
Speaker 1: love of Planners Jane Ryan and Mary Kate Olsen was
Speaker 1: like one of the twins in that movie who also
Speaker 1: was just rushing around and just always like, I feel
Speaker 1: like mornings are just chaotic for everyone, even you know,
Speaker 1: before kids, my mornings, Like I've never been a morning person,
Speaker 1: to be honest with you, except until I got old
Speaker 1: and then I realized I would rather have less sleep
Speaker 1: and have some alone time before my kids wake up,
Speaker 1: love them dearly, but yes, So today's episode is for
Speaker 1: those of you who feel like your morning's always a scramble.
Speaker 1: And these are the things I do the night before
Speaker 1: because mourning me cannot be trusted. Mourning me has a
Speaker 1: bad attitude usually, and she doesn't know what day of
Speaker 1: the week it is, or she knows is.
Speaker 2: She's got a lot of.
Speaker 1: Things to do that day, and she can wake up
Speaker 1: pretty overwhelmed. You know, morning Steph is feral. She loses
Speaker 1: her keys, she's trying to put one shoe on, and
Speaker 1: she's yelling out, where's my laptop? Things like that, Like,
Speaker 1: we don't. We're not going to listen to her. She's
Speaker 1: not the person we want to be calling the shots
Speaker 1: for the day. So I realized at one point I
Speaker 1: think I was running late for probably life in general,
Speaker 1: let's be honest. I just remember the girls were little,
Speaker 1: and for me, I had a really important Zoom meeting
Speaker 1: that day and it was for I'm pretty sure it
Speaker 1: was for Stephe's planners. Anyway, I had to drop the
Speaker 1: girls off at daycare and I ended up being over
Speaker 1: an hour late to this meeting because I thought it
Speaker 1: start later than it did. And that was a massive
Speaker 1: wake up call for me, because you know, I might
Speaker 1: be a hot mess, but I one thing I try
Speaker 1: to be really protective of is you know, you know,
Speaker 1: you want to be professional in business. You want to
Speaker 1: be professional, like it's your livelihood, you're providing fee family,
Speaker 1: And this morning it really did wake me up pun intended,
Speaker 1: and for me, that was the moment I was like,
Speaker 1: you know, I can't keep being reactive because when you
Speaker 1: think about it, when you are not prepped and planned,
Speaker 1: which you know I love this stuff. Planning is you know,
Speaker 1: it's great, but if you're not prepped, you're always going
Speaker 1: to be on the back foot. You're never going to
Speaker 1: be on time, You're not going to feel calm. That
Speaker 1: is why we are so stressed. It's because we're being reactive.
Speaker 1: We haven't planned and prepped for the next day. And
Speaker 1: so once this happened on this particular morning, I realized
Speaker 1: I cannot rely on morning Steph anymore. So I need
Speaker 1: to think of my future self. And you know, you
Speaker 1: guys would have heard me say this a lot talking
Speaker 1: about my future self, and the more.
Speaker 2: You look after her the smooth your.
Speaker 1: Life is going to run like genuinely, But before I
Speaker 1: get in today's episode and give you all these amazing
Speaker 1: tips and hacks that I do the night before, because
Speaker 1: morning meat is a mess, a little bit of a
Speaker 1: life update. I have been trying to really, you know,
Speaker 1: like we create routines in our lives, but sometimes they
Speaker 1: don't you know, we outgrow them and they don't serve
Speaker 1: us anymore. It's like, you know, when our kids are babies,
Speaker 1: they'll have a little nap routine and then in two
Speaker 1: or three weeks they're like, no, we're not doing this
Speaker 1: anymore and you have to change it up. And that's
Speaker 1: the same with life. Our life will change and what
Speaker 1: we want out of our life, maybe our goals change,
Speaker 1: maybe our working situations change, And if we keep trying
Speaker 1: to stick to the same routines that don't work, it's
Speaker 1: just not really serving us. So this is happening with
Speaker 1: us right now. With the kids sleep, And when I
Speaker 1: was writing the book before that, I was quite strict.
Speaker 2: With the girl's sleep schedules.
Speaker 1: Not like I don't run the house like a military camp,
Speaker 1: but I really just know how important sleep is, and
Speaker 1: I try to, you know, really help the girls with
Speaker 1: their sleep schedules because I've always really struggled with my
Speaker 1: own sleep. I have been on sleep medication for as
Speaker 1: long as I can remember. I did manage to come
Speaker 1: off of it once when I went to like a
Speaker 1: health retreat which is in Queensland. It was amazing, and
Speaker 1: I'm aiming.
Speaker 2: To get back there.
Speaker 1: But I've always struggled with sleep since I was a kid. Now,
Speaker 1: Harper Order she is more like right, she's horizontal, she's out,
Speaker 1: she's pretty good, and I think she's very She's got
Speaker 1: a lot of energy. And Willow's a bit more like me.
Speaker 1: So trying to get both girls to get into a
Speaker 1: nighttime routine when they're very different, I realized it can't
Speaker 1: be cookie cutter for both. So I've been really like
Speaker 1: playing around with their routines. And you know, there's a
Speaker 1: couple of rules that we have in the house because
Speaker 1: I am someone like if we cannot have the overhead
Speaker 1: lights on past six pm, I'm like, I don't even
Speaker 1: care if it's still bright outside, Like the overhead lights
Speaker 1: are not happening. So it's been a bit of a
Speaker 1: kerfuffle at home lately with that. But the biggest things
Speaker 1: that have helped us with the girls in their sleep
Speaker 1: is we now after dinner, like making sure we're having
Speaker 1: dinner at five PM, which you know, if you don't
Speaker 1: have kids, maybe you think that's really really early, and
Speaker 1: yeah it is, but trust me, you need to do that.
Speaker 1: So we have at dinner at five and then after that,
Speaker 1: depending on how long they take to eat their dinner,
Speaker 1: I'll usually just say like no more TV. And that
Speaker 1: is again because their brain is going to signal to
Speaker 1: their brain like okay, it's time. We're winding down, so
Speaker 1: we'll do coloring in and stuff like that, and they're
Speaker 1: playing their rooms and you know, the girls actually really
Speaker 1: love reading, which is great. I'm buying so many books,
Speaker 1: but I'm not mad about that. And the other thing is,
Speaker 1: as you guys know, I do I close the kitchen
Speaker 1: like I do closing shifts. So we all know, every
Speaker 1: child gets really hungry and thirsty when it's time to
Speaker 1: go to bed, so I will let them know, and
Speaker 1: I will let them know ahead of time, like you know,
Speaker 1: you've got twenty minutes and the kitchen's closed. And I
Speaker 1: found with the girls especially, and i'd think kids with
Speaker 1: ADHD and people in general. It is good to kind
Speaker 1: of say you've got this much time and not just
Speaker 1: say okay, you're done. Because I noticed when I say
Speaker 1: the girls, okay, you're done, like you're cut off, that's
Speaker 1: when they get really upset. So that's what's kind of
Speaker 1: been going on at home. If you guys want more
Speaker 1: updates on that, let me know. I could probably do
Speaker 1: an episode on this. I could do an episode on
Speaker 1: anything really, So that's what's going on. And speaking of
Speaker 1: nighttime routines, let's get into the things I do the
Speaker 1: night before for morning me. Now, this was a hack
Speaker 1: I shared on Instagram a little while ago, and you
Speaker 1: guys loved it.
Speaker 2: So we all know I love planning.
Speaker 1: But what I do so hack number one or step
Speaker 1: number one, is I plan my outfits for the week,
Speaker 1: so I prep them for the week. Now what this
Speaker 1: looks like for me is I've got these little hangars.
Speaker 1: They're like little plastic hangers. You get them from Amazon,
Speaker 1: and I labeled them Monday to Friday, so only we'll
Speaker 1: plan to Friday. And I have them on part of
Speaker 1: my hangar in my wardrobe and they're just there and
Speaker 1: I will put behind each little tag so say Monday,
Speaker 1: I'll have Monday's workoutfit or Monday's outfit, and also the
Speaker 1: gym outfit. Now why we do this, as I've talked
Speaker 1: about this before, is the micro decisions in the morning
Speaker 1: getting ready and trying to find an outfit for the
Speaker 1: day when you're already stressed and you're already running late.
Speaker 1: That's not a good combo. So for me, I really
Speaker 1: like to be able to on Sunday. I will literally
Speaker 1: plan my outfits Monday to Friday, and of course like
Speaker 1: weather changes and things like that. Which is one of
Speaker 1: the extra tips I'll put in here is to always
Speaker 1: check the weather the night before, at like six pm,
Speaker 1: just in case you need to change you know, shorts
Speaker 1: to pants or adding a jacket and things like that.
Speaker 2: So now when I wake up in the morning, I
Speaker 2: don't have to think.
Speaker 1: I walk over to my little prepped outfit section and
Speaker 1: I go to the little tab that says the day,
Speaker 1: and I grab my clothes, And that honestly has changed
Speaker 1: my life. I do this also with the girls. So
Speaker 1: we have this hangar behind the door, and it has
Speaker 1: little pouches and it says Monday to Friday, and I
Speaker 1: will make sure they have clean uniforms in there, their socks, undies,
Speaker 1: their sports uniforms under the right day. And the girls
Speaker 1: also will wake up and they are not like, Mum,
Speaker 1: where's my shorts, Mum, where's my skirt? But look, that
Speaker 1: still gonna happen from time to time. We are not
Speaker 1: perfect here. So prepping out outfits for the week for
Speaker 1: you and the kids, you need to get onto that.
Speaker 1: And you can even go so far as like say,
Speaker 1: if you like to change up your handbags, like having
Speaker 1: your handbag there, having your jewelry, like whatever you need
Speaker 1: to do to have the least amount of things to
Speaker 1: decide on in the morning.
Speaker 2: You need to do that.
Speaker 1: So yeah, again, I just got these little things from Amazon.
Speaker 1: I do have an Amazon storefront. If you guys want it,
Speaker 1: I'll pop it in the show notes if you want to. Again,
Speaker 1: that's an affiliate link, but you don't have to use it.
Speaker 1: And then I just use a label printer and that's
Speaker 1: how I get the labels on them.
Speaker 2: They're the best. Okay.
Speaker 1: Ritual Number two is I will have lunches eighty percent
Speaker 1: prepped for the next day. Now, I before kids, I
Speaker 1: always thought I'd be the mum who would have freshly
Speaker 1: baked soured.
Speaker 2: Okay, no, I never thought that.
Speaker 1: I did think I was going to prep their lunches
Speaker 1: fresh every single morning. And look, there will be times
Speaker 1: I will do that, but that's not really me. So
Speaker 1: what I do on a Sunday is I really like
Speaker 1: freezing wraps for the kids lunches. I feel like it's
Speaker 1: really easy and I just feel like they defrost better.
Speaker 1: And I would love to be the mom that you
Speaker 1: know preps their lunch fresh every morning, but it's not
Speaker 1: going to happen all the time. So for me, I
Speaker 1: will make sure they have eighty percent of their lunch
Speaker 1: or one hundred percent of their lunch ready the night before.
Speaker 1: And this also counts for me because when I don't
Speaker 1: do this, I either am in the KFC drive through
Speaker 1: more times than I'd like to admit, or I get
Speaker 1: so busy I barely eat and that is even worse.
Speaker 2: So this is why we need to prep.
Speaker 1: So when I say prepped, I mean down to their
Speaker 1: water bottles and my own water bottle being filled up and.
Speaker 2: Where their stuff is.
Speaker 1: So like as I've said, I've talked about the launch
Speaker 1: pad before, the kids also have their own kind of
Speaker 1: school one, so they have their school bag, they have
Speaker 1: the jumper in their bag all the time, and even
Speaker 1: like down to having a little checklist of like do
Speaker 1: I have this in my bag? Like I love making
Speaker 1: like checklists and things if you can't tell, and having
Speaker 1: like a little checklist for your own kids that literally
Speaker 1: can be hung on the wall, doesn't have to be
Speaker 1: fancy and to say do I have this? And you
Speaker 1: can have like a foat like pictures if you need it.
Speaker 1: Depending on how old your kids are, it could be
Speaker 1: a picture of like school heart, school jumper, lunch drink bottle,
Speaker 1: anything like that, and then they can go through it themselves.
Speaker 1: And like visual cues are so so important, Like think
Speaker 1: about when you go into a classroom, what's on the walls.
Speaker 1: It's visual cues of things they're learning, so then their
Speaker 1: brain actually absorbs it. And it's kind of like as adults,
Speaker 1: we stop doing that, and then we wonder why we're
Speaker 1: so forgetful, and it's like we do need those visual
Speaker 1: cues every day. And I'm actually even making I've been
Speaker 1: playing around with like my skincare routine and stuff, and
Speaker 1: I do forget what nights I'm doing what because I'm
Speaker 1: kind of like.
Speaker 2: Into skin cycling at the moment.
Speaker 1: So if you haven't heard of that, basically night wine
Speaker 1: you exfoliate night to use like a retinol because you
Speaker 1: know it was born in nineteen ninety.
Speaker 2: And then night three and four is like recovery nights.
Speaker 1: And I forget what day I do what And yeah,
Speaker 1: I do like pop it in the planner, but when
Speaker 1: I'm in my bathroom, my plan is not with me,
Speaker 1: so I won't remember. So even down to me, I
Speaker 1: want to create like a cute little skincare menu and
Speaker 1: like laminate it and stick it up on the wall
Speaker 1: in my vent, like in my bathroom. Yeah, I'm a
Speaker 1: bit weird. So yeah, having visual cues for your family,
Speaker 1: which I guess is another tip in itself. It's not daycaresh,
Speaker 1: it's not preschoolish. I think it's something that we should
Speaker 1: all do more of. And I would love to like
Speaker 1: just make ten plates for it and put it in
Speaker 1: a really cute frame, so you know, having lunch is
Speaker 1: packed the night before, even down to like I'll have mine,
Speaker 1: I'll prep our fruit and veg. I'll cut that up
Speaker 1: on a Sunday and during the week I'll do another
Speaker 1: lot on a Wednesday, so even down to having things
Speaker 1: cut up makes that easier. So instead of me having
Speaker 1: to shop it every single day, I'll grab some out
Speaker 1: of the container and chuck it in a little container
Speaker 1: for them ready for school. And then when it comes
Speaker 1: to like their snacks for their lunches, we have a
Speaker 1: little basket in our pantry and they know this is
Speaker 1: like school approved snacks and they can grab like three
Speaker 1: or three or two or however many they want out
Speaker 1: of that and that is their snacks for the day.
Speaker 1: So also like that's really good for kids to kind
Speaker 1: of feel, you know, empowered and have like some autonomy
Speaker 1: with that, so feeling like you know, as a kid,
Speaker 1: you just feel like everything's being decided for you. So
Speaker 1: I think I do notice a massive difference with my
Speaker 1: girls when it's like here's your options, you go for it,
Speaker 1: and again having their own checklist on the wall to
Speaker 1: be like have you got this? It makes them feel empowered,
Speaker 1: not like you know, you go then they go to
Speaker 1: school all day and they've been told what to do.
Speaker 2: So I think that's a really good step to do
Speaker 2: because I.
Speaker 1: Can't actually tell you it's been more than one time
Speaker 1: that when I haven't done this, I might be okay,
Speaker 1: not might be.
Speaker 2: This is what happened. I was taking the kids to
Speaker 2: school and Harper was like, mum, my lunch isn't in here.
Speaker 1: And I realized I hadn't even made her lunch and
Speaker 1: they had Subway for lunch. But less you say, the
Speaker 1: kids were pretty jealous. Subway is awesome, But that's happened
Speaker 1: more times than I'd like to admit. Now, this next
Speaker 1: one is kind of tied into the last one. I
Speaker 1: was saying, it's having everything at the front door. Now,
Speaker 1: I've talked about the launch pad before, which is having
Speaker 1: everything you could possibly need in one section near where
Speaker 1: you're exiting from your house. So I'm talking filled up
Speaker 1: drink bottles, I'm talking keys, the form that you need
Speaker 1: to take to that appointment that day, that's filled in
Speaker 1: and that's.
Speaker 2: There like your life pouch.
Speaker 1: Everything is there, and that means you're not going to
Speaker 1: be forgetting things. So when you think about it, already,
Speaker 1: from these tips, I've already just told you you've woken up.
Speaker 1: Your outfit is picked for you, the lunches are done
Speaker 1: and picked for you. Everything you need to take out
Speaker 1: your door is there and put together for you. This
Speaker 1: is being proactive and allowing your brain to have a
Speaker 1: second in the morning. Now if you're sitting there wondering
Speaker 1: like okay, steph, well that sounds great. I want to
Speaker 1: do this launch pad thing. I want to have all
Speaker 1: of this set up, but I have like no storage
Speaker 1: at my exit, my entryway or whatever. It honestly is
Speaker 1: so so simple. Like I remember in our old house,
Speaker 1: I grabbed a little shoe like seat thing for the
Speaker 1: front door. So I grabbed one of them from Kmart.
Speaker 1: It was just like, yeah, like a little bench seat
Speaker 1: that you sit on while you put your shoes on,
Speaker 1: but underneath a shelf where you have your shoes. And
Speaker 1: then I literally got some of my keya hooks and
Speaker 1: I popped them on the wall. And then I got
Speaker 1: like a little side table and there was like you know,
Speaker 1: the little tray for your keys and things like that.
Speaker 1: Like you don't have to have all this like custom
Speaker 1: cabinet tree and stuff like, just grab a couple of
Speaker 1: bits and pieces. Even if for you your launch pad
Speaker 1: is in the kitchen on the bench and that is
Speaker 1: where everything is placed. And even down to having like
Speaker 1: you know, your paneled ale, your medication, like your pens AirPods,
Speaker 1: everything already in your life pouch, which if you guys
Speaker 1: don't know what that is, it's it's actually it was
Speaker 1: actually a tech pouch, and it was basically this cute
Speaker 1: little product I made for Steph face planners, and it
Speaker 1: was meant to just be for like organizing your tech
Speaker 1: and your cables. But I loved it so much that
Speaker 1: now it's my life pouch and it comes with me everywhere.
Speaker 1: So having your version of that or whatever and having
Speaker 1: that altogether. But you don't have to spend money to
Speaker 1: set these systems up, like you really really don't even
Speaker 1: down to like mail systems. You don't have to have
Speaker 1: like a little pigeonhole shelf for anything, Like I got this.
Speaker 2: It's a magazine.
Speaker 1: Holder, and I put it on the wall and it's
Speaker 1: just I got some labels and we pop that up
Speaker 1: like it's You can make it so budget friendly, all right.
Speaker 1: So the next thing I do the night before for
Speaker 1: morning me is I will always have the same breakfast
Speaker 1: every single day. Again, this comes down to having less
Speaker 1: decisions to make, and for me this is made even
Speaker 1: easier because I actually make overnight protein wikbis. Now I
Speaker 1: know you guys would know about the overnight oats and
Speaker 1: that type of thing. So I do overnight Witbicks because
Speaker 1: it's like gluten free, and I had overnight oats. I
Speaker 1: feel like I had them for like twelve years, so
Speaker 1: kind of got over it. So I just get the
Speaker 1: gluten free. It's like a coconut flavored Whitbicks. And I
Speaker 1: have these little cute jars I got from Amazon. Has
Speaker 1: like a little spoon in the side. So even if
Speaker 1: I can't eat it at home, I can grab this
Speaker 1: out of the fridge. It's got the spoon with it,
Speaker 1: and I can chuck it in my bag and I
Speaker 1: can go and then I can eat it. So I
Speaker 1: will prep these three to four days ahead of time.
Speaker 1: You can prep this and also put it in the freezer.
Speaker 1: I just like to prep it in the fridge. But
Speaker 1: my rule of thumb, Now, look, this is just what
Speaker 1: I think. I'm not going to tell you. You know
Speaker 1: that this is one hundred percent accurate, so proceed with
Speaker 1: your own risk. I will prep youah three days in
Speaker 1: the fridge generally for pretty much anything like anything, So
Speaker 1: any type of lunch I prep. If I make my
Speaker 1: Mexican beef, any of those meals, I will let it
Speaker 1: sit in the fridge for three days before I feel
Speaker 1: like I can't eat it anymore, and then after that
Speaker 1: it will go in the freezer.
Speaker 2: So yeah, I get the Whitbicks.
Speaker 1: I put like two of them in this jar, and
Speaker 1: then I put in my protein powder. I use like
Speaker 1: the naked Harvest. I think it's called New Harvest now sorry,
Speaker 1: it's like their bisc of flavor.
Speaker 2: I think it's caramel biscuit.
Speaker 1: It's so yum, So I put that in there, and
Speaker 1: then I use this other collagen. Chuck that in there,
Speaker 1: and I'll put my arm and milk and I always
Speaker 1: put a fair bit and then you mix it really
Speaker 1: really well. I will chuck in frozen blueberries because by
Speaker 1: the time they defrost it is so yummy, and I
Speaker 1: pop the lid on, put the spoon in there, and
Speaker 1: then I chuck it in the fridge. And it's so
Speaker 1: cute because Ryan has it too. But the girls actually
Speaker 1: love it as well, and they'll make their own, like
Speaker 1: overnight Whitbicks or overnight oats. They're actually into the oats more.
Speaker 1: But that's another idea for you and the kids. Like
Speaker 1: instead of having to ploody, I don't know about you guys,
Speaker 1: but I hate making toast. I hate toast, like I
Speaker 1: having to like put it in the toaster and then
Speaker 1: you got to make the butter all good, get the
Speaker 1: vegeto might cut the cruster. Oh my god, I hate it.
Speaker 1: I wish I had a hack for that. If you
Speaker 1: guys have a hack for that, let me know, because
Speaker 1: I hate it very much.
Speaker 2: Anyway.
Speaker 1: So if your kids are happy to have overnight oats
Speaker 1: and get like a kid friendly protein or whatever, go
Speaker 1: for it. Like that's so much easier. And you know,
Speaker 1: you could even get this down to For me. I
Speaker 1: love an ic latte, so instead of having to run
Speaker 1: the coffee machine and get the expresso shot, I'll do
Speaker 1: a few and I'll pop that in the fridge and
Speaker 1: then at least it's cold as well.
Speaker 2: So prep whatever.
Speaker 1: You can put your coffee machine on auto, like whatever
Speaker 1: you can do so you can just literally walk through
Speaker 1: your house and grab all the things and go your set.
Speaker 1: There was even research done at the Western Reserve University
Speaker 1: and that showed that decision making uses the same mental
Speaker 1: resource as self control. So every micro decision like what
Speaker 1: to wear, what to eat, what cup to use, depletes
Speaker 1: that resource so by nine am, neurotypical people have made
Speaker 1: thirty five thousand micro decisions, and ADHD brains process each
Speaker 1: one with more effort because our executive function has to
Speaker 1: work harder to filter, prioritize, and choose thirty five thousand
Speaker 1: micro decisions by nine o'clock.
Speaker 2: Yeah, no thanks.
Speaker 1: It's true though, Like you literally you don't realize how
Speaker 1: many decisions you make. Yeah, even down to opening the drawer,
Speaker 1: grabbing the spoon that you like. It's like me, I
Speaker 1: always have the one spoon I always use, just like, oh,
Speaker 1: has the kids done this?
Speaker 2: Have I done that?
Speaker 1: Like, there's all so many decisions you have to make
Speaker 1: every day, and it's like, no, wonder why we're so exhausted,
Speaker 1: and especially like you know what I was seeking the
Speaker 1: other day, why is it that us Like now that
Speaker 1: I'm like thirty five, I'm just so I feel like
Speaker 1: I'm more forgetful, more tired. And yes, I've got kids
Speaker 1: and all the businesses and that, but it's also I
Speaker 1: do feel like, and I'm not trying to generalize here,
Speaker 1: but I do feel like there's so many more decisions
Speaker 1: you have to make every day as you get older
Speaker 1: with the kids. That's like you're running other people's lives
Speaker 1: on top of your own, and it's hard enough to
Speaker 1: run your own like it's and you got to keep
Speaker 1: everyone alive and stuff and keep yourself alive, like no
Speaker 1: one we're so tired. So the easier you can make
Speaker 1: it the better. Now a little hack with this, if
Speaker 1: you're someone that doesn't like to eat the same breakfast
Speaker 1: every morning, put on like a bit of a rotation schedule.
Speaker 2: Maybe eat you know, overnight.
Speaker 1: Wibis one week, then the next week, have something else
Speaker 1: like you can make even like breakfast bars, even if
Speaker 1: you need to portion your cereal into the bowl or
Speaker 1: into containers beforehand, do that. Like with me, I am
Speaker 1: really bad with taking my supplements, so I have a
Speaker 1: natural path among bean health she's amazing. And I'm really
Speaker 1: really bad at taking the powders. And for me, I
Speaker 1: realize it's because I have to open the lid, get
Speaker 1: a teaspoon and shovel it out and then do that.
Speaker 1: So again it's the extra steps. And I did talk
Speaker 1: about this in my eight Weird Systems for my ADHD,
Speaker 1: and one of the things was if it's more than
Speaker 1: two steps, redesign it.
Speaker 2: And that comes with this.
Speaker 1: So what I did for this is, you know when
Speaker 1: they're baby, like your kids are babies, you get the
Speaker 1: little formula containers and there's little sections and you twist
Speaker 1: it and then you can take the lid off and
Speaker 1: you pour it in. I did that with my my
Speaker 1: supplement powders, so I would portion them into this formula
Speaker 1: thin and then every morning, all I have to do
Speaker 1: is open the lid and put it in in the
Speaker 1: in a cup. So it went from having opening the lid,
Speaker 1: getting the tea spoon out, portioning that into the cup,
Speaker 1: blah blah blah blah blah, to me opening a lid.
Speaker 1: So that's what I'm talking about with redesigning your life.
Speaker 1: Simplify the steps, use formula containers, do what you have
Speaker 1: to do to survive. The next thing I do at
Speaker 1: night for my future self is I will write any
Speaker 1: lists or brain dumps or ideas that night, So the
Speaker 1: night before, because I am the first to admit thinking
Speaker 1: that I will remember the things. It's like, you know
Speaker 1: when you get a really good idea or you like, remember,
Speaker 1: oh I got to do that two seconds later, that
Speaker 1: will be gone from my brain. My brain is full,
Speaker 1: So my brain's mdfile is full. If you guys are
Speaker 1: into AI, you would know what I'm talking about. So
Speaker 1: when I'm finishing up my workday or even like anything
Speaker 1: with the kids, I will just even if it doesn't
Speaker 1: even make sense to other people, I will brain dump
Speaker 1: that for the next day so when I wake up
Speaker 1: the next day, I know where we left off. It's
Speaker 1: like a handover. Think of it literally as a handover.
Speaker 1: It's your handover to your future self, Like, Okay, this
Speaker 1: is what the things you have to do tomorrow, here's
Speaker 1: your process, here's your list. Go with it because think
Speaker 1: about it, like I know for myself as a business owner,
Speaker 1: I've hired staff and if I haven't got a handover prepped,
Speaker 1: it is a scramble because you're like, quick, We've got
Speaker 1: to get them.
Speaker 2: Miss got to get them that.
Speaker 1: Because think about how much more efficient this new staff
Speaker 1: member is going to be at getting those tasks done
Speaker 1: if they have a handover document. This is your future
Speaker 1: self's handover document, so they can get the things done.
Speaker 1: So they know I do have to go to the
Speaker 1: post office on the way to school because if I don't,
Speaker 1: my past was going to get sent back. Things like that,
Speaker 1: And also in the morning, everything does feel urgent. I
Speaker 1: struggle really bad with prioritization. That's why I created the
Speaker 1: framework in my planners. That is a bit of a process,
Speaker 1: like I get everyone to brain dump their tasks and
Speaker 1: then I make them look at the most important ones.
Speaker 1: But there's all these different questions and things you can
Speaker 1: do to help figure out what's important. And when you're
Speaker 1: in your morning state, the way your brain is, everything
Speaker 1: is going to feel urgent more so feel someone like me.
Speaker 1: So if you are you know already, if you've already
Speaker 1: planned that out for future you, you are going to
Speaker 1: wake up so much more clearer and you're like, Okay,
Speaker 1: these are my top three and my quick three.
Speaker 2: These are the things I need to do.
Speaker 1: If you guys don't know what the top three quick
Speaker 1: three is, make sure you listen to I think it
Speaker 1: might be next week's episode. Maybe it's how I plan
Speaker 1: my week, but it's like your top three things for
Speaker 1: the day, and that's all you have to do. And
Speaker 1: that's going to allow you not only to be less
Speaker 1: stressed to be, but be more present, more present with
Speaker 1: your kids and your family and actually maybe take the
Speaker 1: longer route to work, maybe go for a walk and
Speaker 1: actually just like live your life and not like what
Speaker 1: they say. You're a human being, not a human doing,
Speaker 1: and we forget that. So for you, this could literally
Speaker 1: look like every afternoon, you have an alarm set that's
Speaker 1: labeled that says plan a check. You go into your
Speaker 1: planner and you right your top three and you quick
Speaker 1: three for the next morning. This is all about external
Speaker 1: prioritization and it's not carrying it in your brain anymore,
Speaker 1: so you don't have that mental load.
Speaker 2: Now. My final ritual and this is more like it's
Speaker 2: more like a tip or a hack.
Speaker 1: And this is for those of you who are maybe
Speaker 1: trying to get more sleep, trying to get up earlier.
Speaker 1: This is my hack that changed my life to help me,
Speaker 1: you know starkting up at five o'clock a long time ago.
Speaker 1: A lot of people tend to, you know, decide, okay,
Speaker 1: I want to get up at five o'clock from now on,
Speaker 1: and what they do is they will just set their
Speaker 1: alarm for five o'clock in the morning. So when five
Speaker 1: o'clock rolls around, the alarm goes off and you're like,
Speaker 1: all the shit, I don't want to do this, and
Speaker 1: you know, you get up some I'm okay. Twenty percent
Speaker 1: of us might get up and by lunch you were cooked.
Speaker 1: You are so tired, and you're like, why did I
Speaker 1: do this? I hate this? And you give up the
Speaker 1: next day. Does that sound familiar? And that is because
Speaker 1: you haven't given your body body clock time to adjust.
Speaker 1: You've just gone it could be like an hour earlier
Speaker 1: you're trying to get up. So what I do is
Speaker 1: I will only set my alarm earlier for fifteen minutes,
Speaker 1: fifteen minutes earlier. So say I was getting up at six,
Speaker 1: I'm now going to be getting up at five forty five.
Speaker 1: And the one thing I do that makes this work
Speaker 1: is when that alarm goes off, I say to myself,
Speaker 1: it's only fifteen minutes. It's fifteen minutes, step get up.
Speaker 1: And I do that for a week, and then the
Speaker 1: next week I'll set it for another fifteen minutes earlier,
Speaker 1: and then it's five point thirty and I do the
Speaker 1: same thing, and my body has now had time to
Speaker 1: gradually adjust. So when I do in a month, or
Speaker 1: you could do this over a couple of days. You
Speaker 1: could do the fifteen minute increments every two or three days,
Speaker 1: but make sure you're giving your body time to adjust,
Speaker 1: so in a month or even a couple of weeks,
Speaker 1: you're now getting up an hour earlier and you're not
Speaker 1: a potato by lunchtime. That was just a game changer
Speaker 1: for me because I am someone I'm very much like
Speaker 1: all or nothing, go big or go home, and I
Speaker 1: usually go home, So just just chill like and it's
Speaker 1: great to be ambitious, but I'm the same. I can
Speaker 1: be so ambitious, but to a fault, And it's like,
Speaker 1: why are we so hard on ourselves and why are
Speaker 1: we trying to take such big steps to get to
Speaker 1: these goals when we really need to bridge the gap.
Speaker 2: A little bit.
Speaker 1: Like I talk about with the ten k step thing,
Speaker 1: I was never even close to hitting ten k steps
Speaker 1: in the afternoon, So what did I do. I reduced
Speaker 1: my goal to eight case steps, So when three o'clock hit,
Speaker 1: I was like, oh, I could just go for a walk,
Speaker 1: and then I'm nearly there. So I was actually hitting
Speaker 1: that goal and I'm bridging the gap. So I'd rather
Speaker 1: be someone hitting eight k steps a day than someone
Speaker 1: that's giving up and only hitting four k. Like it
Speaker 1: all counts now when it comes to the fifteen minute increment,
Speaker 1: bedtime hack.
Speaker 2: There's actually science behind this, of course.
Speaker 1: Now this is called shaping in psychology, and basically it's
Speaker 1: research that shows that gradually adjusting behavior in tiny increments
Speaker 1: is dramatically more effective than demanding large changes because your
Speaker 1: brain accepts the small shifts, but when there's a large one,
Speaker 1: your brain is like, I'm out, it's done. And it
Speaker 1: also comes down to how I said. You know, our
Speaker 1: brain likes the familiar. It likes what it knows because
Speaker 1: it knows the outcome, and it knows the outcome is safe,
Speaker 1: even if the things you are doing aren't good for you.
Speaker 1: So if you're trying to do such drastic changes in
Speaker 1: your life, your brain's alarm bells are going to go
Speaker 1: off unless you kind of tone it back a little
Speaker 1: bit and do the smaller increments, do the fifteen minutes earlier.
Speaker 1: So your brain's like, oh no, we're not being chased
Speaker 1: by a bear.
Speaker 2: We're just getting up earlier.
Speaker 1: And again, like it was sleep researchers like your cycadian rhythm.
Speaker 1: It's not gonna lie like you changing things that dramatically.
Speaker 1: So even on a scientifical level, sorry, a scientifical oh
Speaker 1: my god, it's not even a word. Oh I've only
Speaker 1: had like half a coffee today anyway. So on a
Speaker 1: like physiological level, yeah, it's not sciences.
Speaker 2: I don't know. Oh my god.
Speaker 1: On a biological level, our body is going to be
Speaker 1: better off. So you're working with your psychology of your
Speaker 1: brain resistance, but also your biological levels as well. And
Speaker 1: to make this even easier for you, you do need
Speaker 1: to be prompted sometimes to start winding down because if
Speaker 1: aen you think about it, you're doing the closing shift,
Speaker 1: you're getting the kids to bed, you're probably scrolling on TikTok,
Speaker 1: let's be honest, but sometimes we do need prompts to
Speaker 1: be like, hey, it's time to wind down, because you're
Speaker 1: not going to then expect yourself to fall asleep that
Speaker 1: much faster.
Speaker 2: And yeah, your body will gradually adjust because.
Speaker 1: You're getting up fifteen minutes earlier. But unless you're prompting
Speaker 1: yourself to start winding down, maybe put your phone away,
Speaker 1: read a book, whatever you want to do, then you're
Speaker 1: going to still be going to sleep too late.
Speaker 2: So kind of prompt yourself as well.
Speaker 1: You know, we spend so much time trying to be
Speaker 1: in the morning, and like we really do when you
Speaker 1: think of being productive and habits, you do tend to
Speaker 1: think of your morning routine first. But what if that's
Speaker 1: where we've been going wrong this whole time. What if
Speaker 1: it's the night routine that we need to be focusing
Speaker 1: on so our morning routine then runs smoother.
Speaker 2: And for me that was the case. So if you
Speaker 2: are a.
Speaker 1: Bloody hot mess and your morning's are a shit show,
Speaker 1: start focusing on your night routine first.
Speaker 2: I hope you guys love this episode.
Speaker 1: And if you can take one thing from all of
Speaker 1: these tips and tricks is just do one thing tonight
Speaker 1: to set yourself up for tomorrow. You don't have to
Speaker 1: then go home now and bloody go on Amazon and
Speaker 1: get all your outfits prepped and have your breakfast done
Speaker 1: and all the things I said. Just do one thing,
Speaker 1: even if it's writing a handover list for future you,
Speaker 1: because that is going to like literally change the game.
Speaker 1: And remember what I said, We're doing small, tiny increments
Speaker 1: to change, not the big scary steps. And as you
Speaker 1: guys know, my book Mastering My Massy Life has literally
Speaker 1: I have chapters on this stuff. I literally lay out
Speaker 1: how much of a mess I was. I was worse
Speaker 1: than Lindsay Lohan and Mary Kate Olson. And this is
Speaker 1: all in my book and I talk about all the
Speaker 1: ways that I managed to work with my brain than
Speaker 1: against it. Anyways, as always, please share this episode with
Speaker 1: someone that would need it, and please subscribe to the show.
Speaker 1: And I love seeing you guys. Tag us on Instagram.
Speaker 1: I love seeing you guys, just like implementing all these things.
Speaker 1: It makes me so happy. But please remember, yes, I
Speaker 1: am giving you all these tips and tricks, but you
Speaker 1: don't have to do all of them. I want you
Speaker 1: to take like I literally would rather you start one
Speaker 1: thing at a time, one thing at a time, one
Speaker 1: day at a time. Anyways, I love you, guys, and
Speaker 1: I will be back in your ears next Monday.
Speaker 2: Bye.