Speaker 1: Hi.
Speaker 2: I'm Laura Vanderkamp. I'm a mother of five, an author, journalist,
Speaker 2: and speaker.
Speaker 3: And I'm Sarah Hart Hunger, a mother of three, practicing physician, writer,
Speaker 3: and course creator. We are two working parents who love
Speaker 3: our careers and our families.
Speaker 2: Welcome to best of both worlds. Here we talk about
Speaker 2: how real women manage work, family, and time for fun,
Speaker 2: from figuring out childcare to mapping out long.
Speaker 1: Term career goals.
Speaker 2: We want you to get the most out of life.
Speaker 1: Welcome the best of both worlds. This is Laura.
Speaker 2: This episode is airing in mid January of twenty twenty six.
Speaker 2: We are going to be talking about nearly effortless good habits.
Speaker 2: So there is a certain cynicism out there about New
Speaker 2: Year's resolutions that they are destined to fail. I was
Speaker 2: just reading a statistic that has been batted around a
Speaker 2: lot that's something like ninety one percent of New Year's
Speaker 2: resolutions fail.
Speaker 1: I don't think they have to.
Speaker 2: I think the problem is that people set really ambitions,
Speaker 2: ones that have no chance of succeeding in life as
Speaker 2: it actually is. But there are lots of small things
Speaker 2: that people can do differently if they want, and can
Speaker 2: usually stick with them if they want as well. I mean, Sarah,
Speaker 2: why do resolutions tend to fail? Or what makes some
Speaker 2: happen more than others? Yeah, I have a couple thoughts
Speaker 2: on that. I mean, the first is that I guess
Speaker 2: I will just caveat that. I don't think a person
Speaker 2: not meeting every single goal in their list is an
Speaker 2: overall fail. If you set ten goals and you meet
Speaker 2: six of them, you might have done six really awesome things.
Speaker 2: That's something to be celebrated, not oh I failed, So
Speaker 2: that's number one and number two. I do think like
Speaker 2: the goals that are at highest risk of failing are
Speaker 2: I've thought about this. It's the size, it's the emotional
Speaker 2: intimidation or emotional fraughtness, or maybe they lack any degree
Speaker 2: of urgency or accountability. And then also that will relate
Speaker 2: to this episodisde Habit goals can be really dangerous because
Speaker 2: if you're setting a habit goal, it means you're setting
Speaker 2: out to do something multiple times. And because you're setting it,
Speaker 2: it's probably something you failed to do in the past.
Speaker 3: So setting it without a very clear strategy as to
Speaker 3: what makes this round different from before is really kind
Speaker 3: of dangerous. Territory. If you're going to set your habit goals,
Speaker 3: you better be thinking about what's going to support that,
Speaker 3: what's going to make this easier, and what it's going
Speaker 3: to make this experience different than it has been in
Speaker 3: years past.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So I think aiming for simple, Aiming for something
Speaker 2: that is often set to a specific time of day
Speaker 2: or is tied into something else that you already do
Speaker 2: that might be enjoyable.
Speaker 1: Right, That would deal with the motivation aspect.
Speaker 2: But really and then having a good reason for doing
Speaker 2: it is all things that would help with that. But
Speaker 2: I had this post on my vander Hack's substack newsletter
Speaker 2: a couple months ago or a couple weeks ago that
Speaker 2: was about Laura's little list of nearly effortless good habits,
Speaker 2: and I heard from a certain reader known as Sarah
Speaker 2: Hartunger that she's.
Speaker 1: Like, I like this, So we thought, you know, we
Speaker 1: can share some effortless good habits on this episode as well.
Speaker 3: Right, Yeah, I loved this list. It made me think
Speaker 3: and I thought it would be a really fun thing
Speaker 3: to talk about on the show. If you are not
Speaker 3: subscribed to vander Hacks, you're missing out, that is my opinion.
Speaker 2: Well, we can talk about some nearly effortless good habits.
Speaker 2: We can talk about some bad habits that we can
Speaker 2: try to avoid. We will pivot toward that at the
Speaker 2: end of this episode. But if you are looking for
Speaker 2: some substitute New Year's resolutions, maybe you haven't really thought
Speaker 2: about it, or the ones you've set are no longer
Speaker 2: appealing to you.
Speaker 1: Already here in mid January.
Speaker 2: Maybe some of these will be good, so we'll go
Speaker 2: ahead and start with them. My first one is to
Speaker 2: add a library stop into your weekly or perhaps bi
Speaker 2: weekly schedule. Right, so many people say they want to
Speaker 2: read more in the new year, or even set a
Speaker 2: goal for the number of books they will read. But
Speaker 2: reading a lot means always having compelling books on hand.
Speaker 2: And it is much easier to have compelling books on
Speaker 2: hand if you are constantly bringing in a fresh supply
Speaker 2: of books that look appealing to you. So one way
Speaker 2: to do that without going broke is to stop by
Speaker 2: the library regularly. So I've built this into my life
Speaker 2: this year. My youngest child sings in the church children's choir,
Speaker 2: and they have rehearsals at a certain night per week
Speaker 2: where it works for me to pick him up and
Speaker 2: the large branch library in my community is fairly close
Speaker 2: to the church, so I can go there because I
Speaker 2: have more or less exhausted the sort of books I
Speaker 2: like at my local branch library, which is much smaller.
Speaker 3: Sarah, you do this right, Yeah, I mean I tend
Speaker 3: to do a lot of ordering of books like on reserve,
Speaker 3: and then I'm very lucky in that my library is
Speaker 3: on my commute home, so I tend to build it in.
Speaker 3: I wouldn't say I have a regular day, although it
Speaker 3: does absolutely appeal to me to just think, like on Wednesdays,
Speaker 3: I always stop at the library and pick up my
Speaker 3: holds and return what I'm finished with. So I might
Speaker 3: make this a little bit more of a regular occasion
Speaker 3: based on this recommendation.
Speaker 2: Well, see, I'm not putting lists of books I want
Speaker 2: to read for me, it's the discovery factor, Like I
Speaker 2: like to look at the shelves and see, ooh that
Speaker 2: looks appealing, And one of the things I often get
Speaker 2: is coffee table books. And this is a very conscious
Speaker 2: way to reduce the tendency to scroll because I am
Speaker 2: looking at beautiful photos of like nicely decorated houses or
Speaker 2: vacation destinations or things like that beautiful gardens, which is
Speaker 2: exactly the sort of thing I would be looking at
Speaker 2: on Instagram, but in analog form, I love.
Speaker 3: It, and probably a lot more in most cases, a
Speaker 3: lot more effort to when into each page than each story,
Speaker 3: perhaps exactly.
Speaker 1: All right, Sarah, what's next next?
Speaker 3: Is from Laura. I will add water on your nightstand
Speaker 3: and drink some of it when you wake up. So
Speaker 3: I read all these habits, and many of them I'm like, ooh,
Speaker 3: I would totally do that, or I already do that,
Speaker 3: and this one I'm like, Nope, not happening. I am
Speaker 3: not a thirsty human. I wrote that on the human
Speaker 3: spectrum of thirst on the scale of one to ten,
Speaker 3: I am a zero. I believe it's genetic. My sister
Speaker 3: is the same way. I do drink water in the
Speaker 3: morning with my coffee, mostly because I need a vehicle
Speaker 3: to like take my vitamins and my cardiac medicine. But yeah,
Speaker 3: I don't need the water on my nightstand. I would
Speaker 3: just spill it. But if you do, you should.
Speaker 1: You could put it in a water bottle and then
Speaker 1: that makes it less likely to spill. But I do
Speaker 1: you drink it when I get up in the morning.
Speaker 2: I mean, I like to have it there in case
Speaker 2: I wake up in the middle of the night and
Speaker 2: decide I am thirsty, since I am not a zero
Speaker 2: on a one to ten scale.
Speaker 1: I did not know this about you, Sarah.
Speaker 2: I haven't noticed, like when we're hanging out, like, oh,
Speaker 2: Sarah never has a glass of water. Sarah never has
Speaker 2: a water like This isn't something I've seen.
Speaker 3: But it was handy in my running days because I
Speaker 3: would never carry water.
Speaker 2: But then how do you keep, like medically from having
Speaker 2: a problem.
Speaker 3: Well, when I was running in the heat, I would
Speaker 3: drink water every few miles, but I just never needed
Speaker 3: it so desperately that I wanted to carry it with me.
Speaker 3: And I guess I just drink just enough to maintain
Speaker 3: my equilibrium.
Speaker 2: So yeah, things we didn't know we now know about
Speaker 2: Sarah that she apparently does not experience thirst like the
Speaker 2: rest of us. So Sarah, okay. Number three, Plan your
Speaker 2: listening material. So if you spend a lot of solo
Speaker 2: time in the car, this time can be spent listening
Speaker 2: to random things, or it can be spent listening to
Speaker 2: intentional things. So simply as part of your daily planning,
Speaker 2: like if you have a time where you plan your day,
Speaker 2: which I hope you do that you set out your
Speaker 2: to do list for work, or your intentions for your
Speaker 2: golden hours, whatever it is. Think about what you will
Speaker 2: be listening to while you are driving around in the car.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 2: Obviously, if you're driving people with you, you can talk
Speaker 2: to them, but if there's solo time in the car,
Speaker 2: is there a particular podcast like this one you might
Speaker 2: want to listen to, or is there some sort of
Speaker 2: cool music you would like to listen to a particular audiobook,
Speaker 2: But some way to use this time intentionally so it
Speaker 2: does not feel like a complete waste of time totally.
Speaker 3: I curate my podcast playlist regularly, and I even have
Speaker 3: different shows that I really like for different days, so
Speaker 3: you could curate your you know, a typical Friday commute home.
Speaker 3: I love NPR's New Music Friday. We got Laura's Long
Speaker 3: Before Breakfast episodes on Wednesdays, you got Bestly Plans on Mondays,
Speaker 3: and Best of Both Worlds on Tuesdays. So really, you
Speaker 3: just need something for Thursday, or if you're in the
Speaker 3: car a lot, you need more, But you know true,
Speaker 3: but yes, I love that all right. Number four was
Speaker 3: probably inspired by Laura's New Year's resolution in twenty twenty
Speaker 3: five is eat produce for breakfast. And I was thinking
Speaker 3: about this, and I think I do this automatically as well.
Speaker 3: It's just always fruit and not vegetables. I feel like
Speaker 3: vegetables would be like the level up version of this goal.
Speaker 3: Are you still doing this, Laura?
Speaker 1: I am.
Speaker 2: I am still having it produce for breakfast. But yes,
Speaker 2: it is almost always fruit for me because that seems
Speaker 2: to feel better in the morning than really going overboard
Speaker 2: on the vegetables. Although I'm not a posed like the
Speaker 2: can me great, you know, like an omelet with mushrooms
Speaker 2: or broccoli or something like that.
Speaker 1: That would be very tasty, And I'm.
Speaker 2: Not that organized in the morning to make it, but
Speaker 2: I'm sure some people are and that would be great.
Speaker 1: But I have been doing this for the past year.
Speaker 2: It is so easy, and I'm pretty sure I've been
Speaker 2: eating more fruit as a result, because it nudges you
Speaker 2: to have fruit in the house so that you can
Speaker 2: eat it for breakfast, and you tend not to only
Speaker 2: buy a serving for breakfast, like you will buy six
Speaker 2: apples instead of one apple, and then you've got more
Speaker 2: apples in the house. That need to get eaten, or bananas,
Speaker 2: and then before they go bad, you wind up eating
Speaker 2: them or something. But it's not hard, and it is
Speaker 2: a way to eat more good stuff. All Right, we're
Speaker 2: going to take a quick ad break and then we'll
Speaker 2: be back talking with nearly effruitless good habits. Well, we
Speaker 2: are back talking through a list of nearly effortless good habits.
Speaker 2: If your original New Year's resolutions are either not happening
Speaker 2: or feeling like they're very big and not giving you
Speaker 2: that sort of daily boost of motivation that you want,
Speaker 2: here are some substitute ones you might try.
Speaker 1: So our next one is to downsize a little.
Speaker 2: So if there is any treat that you consume close
Speaker 2: to daily, and if there is a convenient way to
Speaker 2: make it slightly smaller, you can wind up making it
Speaker 2: a little bit still fun but not feel quite so
Speaker 2: over the top indulgent. And because it is done so frequently,
Speaker 2: the savings on that.
Speaker 1: Part can add up.
Speaker 2: So in my case, I am a nearly daily consumer
Speaker 2: of Starbucks strawberry aside lemonade refres.
Speaker 3: I did not know I had reached this fever pitch
Speaker 3: of nearly daily, okay really daily.
Speaker 1: My kids got me hooked.
Speaker 2: But during the past year I went from Venti down
Speaker 2: to Grande on my regular orders. So it's too just
Speaker 2: a little bit less sugar, and I don't really miss
Speaker 2: the extra volume. It's it's the first couple of SIPs
Speaker 2: that are good. It's not the fiftieth step.
Speaker 1: I don't really need that one.
Speaker 2: So, you know, with any sort of treat, like kitty
Speaker 2: sized ice cream cone, right, like if you are a
Speaker 2: regular visitor to an ice cream parlor, you know once
Speaker 2: or twice a week, like getting the kiddy cone instead
Speaker 2: of the bigger one. You still get those first bites,
Speaker 2: which are the ones you want. It's the others that
Speaker 2: you maybe don't need as much.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, the mini size of dairy Quain is the best.
Speaker 3: And I will add to this the option of sharing.
Speaker 3: So I often do this with like one of my
Speaker 3: kids at a restaurant, because like a restaurant sized burger
Speaker 3: and fries is definitely enough for two meals. So we'll
Speaker 3: just split one and then get like share a side
Speaker 3: salad or some kind of appetizer that's a little healthier,
Speaker 3: and it's like a great balance and we're all happy
Speaker 3: and cost us too, all right. Number six put exercise
Speaker 3: on your to do list or on your calendar. Yes,
Speaker 3: I one hundred percent agree with that. That is part
Speaker 3: of my weekly planning process every week to I don't
Speaker 3: really have to decide when I do it because the
Speaker 3: timeslot is so automatic for me. But I decide what
Speaker 3: I'm going to do each day and I love seeing
Speaker 3: it there. It's like a not a guarantee, but just
Speaker 3: built into my day like anything else. Is that how
Speaker 3: you do it as well?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I don't even necessarily set a time.
Speaker 2: I might think about a rough time when I would
Speaker 2: do it. But we're recording this on a Wednesday, and
Speaker 2: I tend to make Wednesdays to do list on Tuesday
Speaker 2: at the end of the workday, and so I made
Speaker 2: my list of what do I need to do on Wednesday?
Speaker 2: And on that list I put run And so I
Speaker 2: will run, like because I tend to obey the to
Speaker 2: do list, right, and I know there is a spot
Speaker 2: in my schedule where it fits, like if every minute
Speaker 2: were accounted for, and that would I didn't have it
Speaker 2: budgeted on my schedule for that that wouldn't work. But
Speaker 2: it's not that sort of day. I have an opening
Speaker 2: where I can see that it could go. Now, if
Speaker 2: you are very tightly scheduled, you might need to be
Speaker 2: a little bit more.
Speaker 1: Careful with this.
Speaker 2: But even if it's just a fifteen minute walk, like
Speaker 2: looking at your schedule and saying, oh, well, this is
Speaker 2: a thirty minute meeting at eleven, and then I have
Speaker 2: a meeting at twelve, but that thirty minutes is open.
Speaker 2: I could go walk for fifteen minutes and then check
Speaker 2: my email while eating my sandwich before.
Speaker 1: Going to my noon meeting.
Speaker 2: So putting it on your to do list or schedule
Speaker 2: means it happens the next one number seven. Think about
Speaker 2: Saturday by Wednesday. So I have a little bit of
Speaker 2: an elaborate approach to weekend planning where I tend to
Speaker 2: plan my weekends twice. As I plan my weeks on
Speaker 2: Thursday or Friday, I'm looking forward to the next Monday
Speaker 2: to Sunday week, So then I plan the far out weekend,
Speaker 2: and then I plan the one that is happening in
Speaker 2: two days much more tightly, knowing the weather and other
Speaker 2: things that have come up. Most people are not going
Speaker 2: to plan their weekends twice, but if you at least
Speaker 2: think about what you're going to do, on the weekend.
Speaker 2: By Wednesday or so, you'll have more options, like if
Speaker 2: you need a babysitter, if you need to make a reservation,
Speaker 2: if you want to do a half day trip somewhere,
Speaker 2: Like you're not going to wake up on Saturday morning
Speaker 2: and think, let's all get in the car and go
Speaker 2: to this place, like nobody's going to have the energy
Speaker 2: to do it.
Speaker 1: Like, you have to decide that ahead of time.
Speaker 2: So giving yourself some moment on your Wednesday schedule to
Speaker 2: think through the weekend will increase the odds of having
Speaker 2: good weekends. Well.
Speaker 3: I especially love this given that Wednesday has become a
Speaker 3: bigger and bigger planning day for me with my current rhythms.
Speaker 3: So I like it all right. The next one is
Speaker 3: one that is very aspirational for me. I like the idea,
Speaker 3: I don't think I can actually do it, and that
Speaker 3: is to check email on the hour. And Laura had
Speaker 3: written in her habits vander Hack's post, we all know
Speaker 3: it's best to check email less frequently. I know it
Speaker 3: can be hard to pull off if people are expecting responses.
Speaker 3: So for me, it is not that people are expecting
Speaker 3: response and says it's that of all the vices and
Speaker 3: like dopamine hits that one could be attracted to in
Speaker 3: the world. I don't do any social media anymore. I'm
Speaker 3: just sort of like left with email, and I find
Speaker 3: it very hard to resist when I am in moments
Speaker 3: of downtime checking my email. Now, sometimes I'm busy enough
Speaker 3: that that doesn't happen every hour, so great, But if
Speaker 3: I happen to, i don't know, be doing something very
Speaker 3: boring like catching up on charts or something. It's very
Speaker 3: hard for me to do this. So I guess I'm
Speaker 3: just going to share my real world experience. Lest anyone
Speaker 3: listen to this and think, wow, these two are just
Speaker 3: making every habit sound incredibly easy when I don't. Well,
Speaker 3: for me, this one would be difficult. It sounds awesome.
Speaker 3: Maybe I'll try to focus on it at one point,
Speaker 3: but sounds challenging.
Speaker 2: So to be clear, the idea of checking email on
Speaker 2: the hour is to get people to check email less. Yes, yeah,
Speaker 2: because I know that many people through the workday are
Speaker 2: sort of constantly in their inbox, and the problem with
Speaker 2: that is that you feel busy, but you aren't getting
Speaker 2: much done beyond response to things like you're not doing
Speaker 2: any of the things that you need to execute on,
Speaker 2: Like your day kind of goes back and forth between
Speaker 2: email and meetings, and sometimes even during the meetings, you're
Speaker 2: multitasking your email. So rather than have that happen and
Speaker 2: feel like you've gotten through the whole day and haven't
Speaker 2: gotten to anything other than the email, check on the
Speaker 2: hour and then get out of it. Right So, if
Speaker 2: you're in your inbox, like be in it for ten
Speaker 2: to fifteen minutes or whatever, and then don't be after that,
Speaker 2: because that will open up time for you to think
Speaker 2: to do other projects, and then you could go back
Speaker 2: in on the hour and you can sort of nudge
Speaker 2: yourself to wait forty minutes and know that you're still
Speaker 2: being responsive, Like most people will not notice that you're
Speaker 2: not responding for like forty five minutes, but that at
Speaker 2: least buys you some additional time.
Speaker 3: Totally makes sense, and maybe that is something I will
Speaker 3: aim for in the future, because I do see the
Speaker 3: rationale behind it. And to be clear, I don't check
Speaker 3: it all day long. It's just that when I get
Speaker 3: in so and moods or certain loops, that is the
Speaker 3: one one of those things I sort of can't resist
Speaker 3: and you're using the opal app on This is that
Speaker 3: I am currently using the opal app actually, and I
Speaker 3: really like it. I am trying to debate whether I
Speaker 3: need the paid version or whether I can just use
Speaker 3: the free version. But you can set certain times where
Speaker 3: and I did set my email as something I want
Speaker 3: to do less of, so that if I do want
Speaker 3: to check my email, it'll still let me the way
Speaker 3: I have it set, but I have to like wait
Speaker 3: for the thing to like do a break, And honestly
Speaker 3: it has been a bit of a deterrent. Plus I
Speaker 3: really like the you can tell how many breaks you're
Speaker 3: It gives you more insight compared to screen time, which really, honestly,
Speaker 3: I feel like has worked worse and worse over the years,
Speaker 3: probably on purpose. So it's been helpful to be like,
Speaker 3: oh wow, that was my fifth break, Like it's someone's
Speaker 3: keeping track, you know, so.
Speaker 2: To unneat this break, I don't know, yeah, maybe I didn't.
Speaker 2: The next one, number nine is to end your meetings
Speaker 2: ten minutes early. So if you are in charge of meetings,
Speaker 2: give yourself and your tea members a few minutes to
Speaker 2: decompress and to process any to do's coming out of
Speaker 2: those meetings by ending on the fifty minute mark.
Speaker 1: Instead of on the hour mark.
Speaker 2: And I guess the other version of this, if thirty
Speaker 2: minute meetings, try and be done that like twenty minutes
Speaker 2: if you can. Twenty minutes doesn't feel rude if somebody
Speaker 2: has to you to have a meeting, like if you're
Speaker 2: off the phone in twenty minutes, but it still buys
Speaker 2: you a little bit of breathing room in your schedule. Now, obviously,
Speaker 2: if you are not in charge of the meeting, it
Speaker 2: can be harder to make this happen. But try to
Speaker 2: get the agenda for any meeting ahead of time, and
Speaker 2: if you can help edit it to make it only
Speaker 2: take fifty minutes, that would be great. You can also
Speaker 2: offer to be the timekeeper and to keep people on
Speaker 2: schedule so that you end on time and get everyone
Speaker 2: off to their next thing.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I would say, at best, please don't go
Speaker 3: over the time allotted for the meeting. I mean, unless
Speaker 3: there's an emergency. Realize that some people may consider it
Speaker 3: really really frustrating and disrespectful. I may or may not
Speaker 3: be one of those people. So yeah, there you go,
Speaker 3: all right, Number ten move by three pm or it
Speaker 3: writes ten minutes of movement by midday is pretty easy
Speaker 3: and forces you to build in a real break. I
Speaker 3: love that I generally exercise before three pm, in part
Speaker 3: because I know myself and I don't really enjoy afternoon
Speaker 3: or evening workouts, So I really like to do that
Speaker 3: in the morning. And I would even add to that,
Speaker 3: maybe aim to make ten minutes of that movement outside
Speaker 3: if you can.
Speaker 2: If you can't, yeah, well, and to be clear here,
Speaker 2: I'm not even talking about doing a full on, like
Speaker 2: hour long gym workout. Do that by three pm. Say
Speaker 2: just move your body for ten minutes by three pm.
Speaker 1: That is a lot easier to pull off.
Speaker 2: It's just you know, going up and down the stairs
Speaker 2: a few times, if it's walking your kid to the
Speaker 2: bus stop and then taking a walk around the block
Speaker 2: on the way home. But something to not have been
Speaker 2: sitting for ten hours by three pm.
Speaker 1: That's the goal here. Awesome, all right.
Speaker 3: Number eleven. Look at your goals frequently. Yes, I'm a
Speaker 3: huge fan of this, in part because with the planning
Speaker 3: system that I teach and my courses and everything talks
Speaker 3: about looking at your annual goals every season and your
Speaker 3: changestal goals every month, et cetera, et cetera. You will
Speaker 3: not remember your annual goals if you do not pull
Speaker 3: them out at some point throughout the year. And in
Speaker 3: my opinion, it's best to do that systematically, not just assume,
Speaker 3: oh yeah, you know, I'll do that when the spirit
Speaker 3: moves me.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I mean, if you're going to bother to set goals,
Speaker 1: you should look at them. And it's not a hard
Speaker 1: thing to do.
Speaker 2: You just have to have them somewhere that you can
Speaker 2: see them. So figure out where is the place that
Speaker 2: you will see these goals.
Speaker 1: And where will you look at them? When will you
Speaker 1: look at them?
Speaker 2: And that in and of itself is more likely to
Speaker 2: have you stick with them. All right, We're going to
Speaker 2: do one more before our second ad break, and this
Speaker 2: one is.
Speaker 1: To capture it.
Speaker 2: So stop telling yourself that you will remember things, because
Speaker 2: you won't. If something occurs to you, either put it
Speaker 2: on your calendar or planner immediately, or else email it
Speaker 2: to yourself so you can process it to those places later.
Speaker 3: I hard agree, and I will say my latest thing
Speaker 3: is to make sure that if I get a text
Speaker 3: that needs a response and I can't respond at that moment,
Speaker 3: make sure to leave it unread, so I don't mistakenly
Speaker 3: bypass it. All right, we'll be back in just a
Speaker 3: couple minutes with number thirteen.
Speaker 2: Well, we are back with our list of nearly effortless
Speaker 2: good habits. These are little things that you can try
Speaker 2: as resolutions. If your big ones aren't happeninggger or are
Speaker 2: not particularly motivating to you anymore, you might try adding
Speaker 2: these in. Or if you haven't thought of all your resolutions,
Speaker 2: these are ones you can add to the list.
Speaker 1: So number thirteen is to trash or recycle junk mail immediately.
Speaker 2: Obviously, it's even better if you can stop it from coming,
Speaker 2: and there are places you can go to opt out
Speaker 2: of various mailings. But if you can't do that, or
Speaker 2: you don't, just don't let it linger on the counter
Speaker 2: or in a basket.
Speaker 1: It makes everything feel more cluttered.
Speaker 2: As you get it from the mailbox, walk it straight
Speaker 2: to the recycling been or trash unless you are.
Speaker 1: Keeping it totally.
Speaker 3: Agree process mail every day, and I would add to that,
Speaker 3: do not keep any newspaper once you've received the next one.
Speaker 3: So if you get it daily, get rid of the
Speaker 3: next days. If you get it weekly, get rid of
Speaker 3: it by the time the next week rolls around.
Speaker 2: I'll argue on the magazine ones, I'm happy that I've
Speaker 2: kept some of my old magazines because I like looking
Speaker 2: back at like the holiday issues, you know, in years
Speaker 2: in the future, especially the ones that aren't publishing anymore,
Speaker 2: like Martha Stewart Living.
Speaker 3: But hey, yeah, I figured the magazines might be a
Speaker 3: little more debatable. But nobody needs to keep their newspapers.
Speaker 3: So this next one is to set a bedtime. Now
Speaker 3: you do not have to observe it. That's why this
Speaker 3: is a really nearly effortless good habit. It's more that
Speaker 3: you just know what your bedtime is. You are grown up,
Speaker 3: and you can decide to blow past it.
Speaker 2: But knowing what time you should get in bed on
Speaker 2: weekdays can nudge you to make it happen slightly more often,
Speaker 2: especially if you set some sort of reminder for thirty
Speaker 2: minutes prior in order to start winding down.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and since I complained about Apple, I will say
Speaker 3: Apple does do a decent job that you can set
Speaker 3: a wind down. It will tell you on your watch,
Speaker 3: it will tell you on your device, It will even
Speaker 3: change your screen color, all sorts of things to remind
Speaker 3: you and I think that can actually be useful for
Speaker 3: many people whose device might be one of the key
Speaker 3: culprits in keeping them from going to bed.
Speaker 1: All right.
Speaker 3: The next one is to schedule a quarterly pickup. This
Speaker 3: is another one for me that I was thinking that
Speaker 3: this would be hard, but then I was reading it,
Speaker 3: I'm like, well, she doesn't mean a quarterly clean out
Speaker 3: your house, but just to make sure you have someone
Speaker 3: coming every few months to take your stuff, and that
Speaker 3: that might move you to have donations set aside. That
Speaker 3: feels a little bit more doable to me. I also,
Speaker 3: some people may live in a neighborhood like mine that
Speaker 3: has a bulk pickup schedule, so that you know that
Speaker 3: there's a day every month. Make sure you know what
Speaker 3: that day is so that you can then go through
Speaker 3: the house and take advantage of it, as it's a
Speaker 3: service you're probably paying for whether you use.
Speaker 1: It or not.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's lots of companies like green Drop will come
Speaker 2: to your house if you schedule a pickup and you
Speaker 2: put your donations on the and sometimes just knowing that
Speaker 2: day is coming up is going to make you get
Speaker 2: rid of a few more things than you would have otherwise.
Speaker 2: So I think we'll just do maybe two more of
Speaker 2: our good habits. This one is very easy and fun,
Speaker 2: which is to find an accountability partner. So no need
Speaker 2: for anything fancy, but just find someone in your life
Speaker 2: that you will check in, maybe just via email once
Speaker 2: a week or so, about how life is going and
Speaker 2: if you are making progress on any sort of long
Speaker 2: term projects or goals, or just sort of updating on
Speaker 2: any issues you're having and weighing in on it.
Speaker 1: But just so you have you might make progress on
Speaker 1: your goals, just so you have something to email to
Speaker 1: this person about.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I definitely have text friends, and I feel like
Speaker 3: I discuss goals with which I love, so can be
Speaker 3: informal and then evolve into something where you really check
Speaker 3: in with each other. Well, we can't skip track your time.
Speaker 3: That's number seventeen. Laura says it's effortless. But if it
Speaker 3: were so effortless, would I be able to do it
Speaker 3: more insistantly? I love tracking my time on a like
Speaker 3: one off basis, but a couple of weeks per season.
Speaker 3: So this is my plug to try it, even if
Speaker 3: it's not something you want to do all of the time.
Speaker 2: Absolutely all right, And now we're going to pivot to
Speaker 2: a list of little habits not to do so small
Speaker 2: bad habits that maybe this is the year to kick
Speaker 2: first one hitting snooze. Sarah, you're with me on this one.
Speaker 3: Right, I am so with you. That would have been
Speaker 3: the first one you came up with that, and I'm like, hey,
Speaker 3: that was going to be my first one. I just
Speaker 3: I don't see the appeal. You're ruining your sleep, but
Speaker 3: you're not getting up. Why it's the worst of all situations.
Speaker 2: Yeah, if you're going to wake up later, just set
Speaker 2: your alarm for that time and enjoy every single minute
Speaker 2: of sleep up until that moment, right, Like, be honest
Speaker 2: about it, Like it would be better to sleep for
Speaker 2: another twenty seven minutes than to wake up every nine
Speaker 2: minutes three times like that.
Speaker 1: It just sounds terrible.
Speaker 3: I think there are some people who might defend their
Speaker 3: snooze by saying, well, I kind of want warning and
Speaker 3: like maybe I'll sleep lighter over those nine minutes, and
Speaker 3: like it's I don't know, so I mean, to be fair,
Speaker 3: I'm not someone who has trouble getting up, so for
Speaker 3: me to be like this is so dumb. Maybe that's
Speaker 3: unfair for people who find it really hard to get
Speaker 3: up in the morning. But I would say, try life
Speaker 3: without it.
Speaker 2: But then maybe we should go to bed earlier the
Speaker 2: night before. Yeah, true, is that a bedtime?
Speaker 1: Yes?
Speaker 3: That was number.
Speaker 1: I don't know it was.
Speaker 2: We already talked about it. Yes, Yes, snoozing not so great.
Speaker 2: Don't keep reading a book you hate, Sarah. Is this
Speaker 2: a one for you?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 3: I have done this, especially if I get it's not
Speaker 3: a problem if I hate it like ten pages in,
Speaker 3: I am pretty okay at abandoning a book fro I'm
Speaker 3: just like, nope, not for me. But when I get
Speaker 3: like eighty or one hundred pages in, oh man, it
Speaker 3: can be really hard. Just admit to myself, like it's
Speaker 3: just better to cut bait. But I really think it
Speaker 3: does prevent us from reading more and it takes the
Speaker 3: fun out of reading. So I'm really going to try
Speaker 3: not to do this habit, and you should too.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, I will abandon a book.
Speaker 2: I abandon a book like two hundred pages in to
Speaker 2: a three hundred and fifty page book, so I you know,
Speaker 2: I feel like I got it at that point, but
Speaker 2: it was nonfiction, right, So I mean, I guess I
Speaker 2: may not have done that with a story, but because
Speaker 2: it was nonfiction, of like, well, I pretty much have
Speaker 2: the idea, but.
Speaker 3: You can with a story too. You're just like just
Speaker 3: plot getting so hackneyed. And I can't stand these characters anymore,
Speaker 3: and I don't want to pick it up. And you
Speaker 3: know what, I can live with it. I can google
Speaker 3: the ending.
Speaker 1: Like that's true. You can google the ending. Oh my gosh.
Speaker 3: All right. Number three was mine, and I said, do
Speaker 3: not pick it random leftovers or food just because it's there.
Speaker 3: I actually don't really do this, but I know a
Speaker 3: lot of people who do, and then they're frustrated by it,
Speaker 3: and I'm like, just don't, well.
Speaker 1: Why you just like put it away, throw it out?
Speaker 3: Yeah, like either sit down or like if it's dessert,
Speaker 3: like either order it and sit down and like share
Speaker 3: it and enjoy it. But don't be like, oh, I
Speaker 3: don't want it, but then like you're like stealing someone
Speaker 3: out or like I don't know, like I just decide
Speaker 3: and then enjoy your decision.
Speaker 1: Yes or no, I love this one.
Speaker 2: Don't say I'll replace it later if something is broken
Speaker 2: or you're out of it. Put it on a list,
Speaker 2: or even order it right then and there. Especially the
Speaker 2: broken things. Like we had a guest a couple of
Speaker 2: years ago who mentioned, like, throw out your pins that
Speaker 2: are broken, Like it's not going to suddenly start working.
Speaker 1: Like if you write with it, it doesn't work.
Speaker 2: Don't put it back in the drawer or you're just
Speaker 2: going to repeat that frustration the next time you pull
Speaker 2: it out, so into the trash it goes.
Speaker 3: I would have to don't think I add one for
Speaker 3: my children. That's like, don't put back empty snack containers
Speaker 3: a yes, or the.
Speaker 2: One sip of milk is in the container and it
Speaker 2: goes back because they didn't want to deal with it.
Speaker 1: So like if I leave one sip, it's not my problem.
Speaker 3: Empty person say, that's so true. And also on a
Speaker 3: food note, do not buy perishable food without a basic
Speaker 3: idea of how you're going to use it.
Speaker 1: You don't need.
Speaker 3: To detailed day by day plan if that's not how
Speaker 3: you like to do things. But don't like buy a
Speaker 3: box of rootabagas unless you have already found a recipe
Speaker 3: for rudebega soup.
Speaker 1: I think with.
Speaker 2: That, I mean because one of our first habits was
Speaker 2: to add produce to breakfast, and so you have to
Speaker 2: have a plan here in the sense of, like, it
Speaker 2: can be food you like and you're buying more of
Speaker 2: it to nudge you to eat more of it, but
Speaker 2: you have to have a general time of when you're
Speaker 2: going to eat it. So like, these are the apples
Speaker 2: I am going to eat for breakfast. If I am
Speaker 2: buying ruda begas, then if you went shopping on a Sunday,
Speaker 2: for instance, maybe you just go ahead and prep them
Speaker 2: right then, like, go ahead and roast them so you
Speaker 2: can eat them as a side during the week. But
Speaker 2: you're not going to suddenly decide in between zoom calls
Speaker 2: when you're quickly grabbing your lunch on Tuesday and you're
Speaker 2: working from home, like now's the time for ruda bega.
Speaker 3: I'll just see some rudabaga.
Speaker 1: I'm like laughing.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't know why I picked that as an example,
Speaker 3: but you get my drip, and we all can benefit
Speaker 3: from wasting less food obviously for many many reasons. All right,
Speaker 3: so should we head on to our Q and A.
Speaker 3: That was such a fun episode. I enjoyed that list immensely.
Speaker 1: Absolutely. That list are nearly effortless good.
Speaker 2: Habits and some bad habits that might be worth kicking
Speaker 2: this year if they happen to be issues for you.
Speaker 1: All right.
Speaker 2: So the question this week from a listener says, I
Speaker 2: heard you guys talk about skiing being a good family vacation,
Speaker 2: which even I have said, even though I don't ski.
Speaker 2: She said, none of us know how to ski, So
Speaker 2: is it hard to learn? And especially is it hard
Speaker 2: to learn as an adult?
Speaker 3: Okay, I learned as a kid, so my answer may
Speaker 3: not be accurate. I wish I could tell you, Oh,
Speaker 3: I learned as an adult and I love it. I
Speaker 3: do know adults who have learned to ski as adults.
Speaker 3: In fact, I think Christine co from Edit Your Life
Speaker 3: learned as an adult and she's a pretty advanced skier
Speaker 3: now who skis all the time, so I know it
Speaker 3: is something that is possible. I also think you don't
Speaker 3: have to decide you're going to learn to ski and
Speaker 3: be like my goal is to go down every triple
Speaker 3: Black Diamond and beat everyone down the mountain. You can
Speaker 3: learn to ski and be a comfortable skier on easy slopes,
Speaker 3: and that can be it, and you can still enjoy
Speaker 3: ski vacations. In fact, I will share that I generally
Speaker 3: only do greens and Blues, maybe the occasional double blue,
Speaker 3: but really not into trying to hurt myself at this
Speaker 3: point in my life, and my middle school learned ski
Speaker 3: technique doesn't really support I think, the hardest and steepest
Speaker 3: slopes that are out there. But I still really enjoy
Speaker 3: a good family ski vacation, and I still can ski
Speaker 3: with most of my children. Some of them may be
Speaker 3: leaving me for steeper territory, but that's okay too. It's
Speaker 3: such a fun family activity. So I suggest you give
Speaker 3: it a try, and I would invest in lessons or
Speaker 3: a place with a really well established ski school, because
Speaker 3: that expertise makes all of the difference.
Speaker 2: Yeah, your first day or two on the bake, you're
Speaker 2: definitely going to want to have lessons, particularly for you
Speaker 2: if you don't know how to ski, and then their kids.
Speaker 1: The upside of I mean, the reason we've.
Speaker 2: Suggested the ski vacation for a family vacation is a
Speaker 2: lot of the major resorts do, in fact have ski schools,
Speaker 2: so you can put your five year old in ski
Speaker 2: school from nine to three, and then the adults can
Speaker 2: go ski different hills or ski with older children than
Speaker 2: they might if you were trying to keep pace with
Speaker 2: a five year old. Of course, in my case, the
Speaker 2: five year old would be a lot better than me
Speaker 2: because I do not ski.
Speaker 1: However, I will say that even if.
Speaker 2: You are a person who doesn't ski, if your spouse
Speaker 2: skis or some of your kids ski, it still might
Speaker 2: be worth doing as a family vacation because of that.
Speaker 2: So I can now put the five year old in
Speaker 2: ski school. The others can all ski with Michael, who's
Speaker 2: been skiing forever. I can sit in the lodge, I
Speaker 2: can sit in the apartment whatever. So when we went
Speaker 2: skiing as a family in March last year, that is
Speaker 2: what I did, and took myself.
Speaker 1: Out to lunch in the nice little lunch.
Speaker 2: Places by the ski resorts, and so there's something for everyone.
Speaker 2: The kids will be doing outdoor activities from like nine
Speaker 2: to three, and then you can if the rest of
Speaker 2: the day is on screens or whatever, but you meet
Speaker 2: up for dinner and it's good.
Speaker 1: So that's why we.
Speaker 3: Yes, there is usually a lot of very cozy activities
Speaker 3: to partake in other than skiing at many ski resorts,
Speaker 3: so that can be a fun alternative.
Speaker 1: Alternative for everyone. Yeah, well this has been best of
Speaker 1: both worlds.
Speaker 3: Love.
Speaker 2: Oh, we have to do our love of the week.
Speaker 2: I keep forgetting Okay, Sarah, what's your love of the week.
Speaker 3: Well, since we were talking about skiing and being cold
Speaker 3: and I was doing these notes at work, my heart
Speaker 3: goes out to my Space heater at work because it's
Speaker 3: really over air conditioned in my office unfortunately, so even
Speaker 3: when it is very hot outside, I cannot function without it,
Speaker 3: and I'm just so so happy that I have that
Speaker 3: and can use it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, gosh, doctor's offices really should not be over air conditioned.
Speaker 3: Well, my patient rooms are. Actually my office is very cold,
Speaker 3: like where I sit and do my notes, and it's
Speaker 3: I have Yeah, so it's a whole thing.
Speaker 2: That's a holy okay, all right, just checking for sheer
Speaker 2: patient comfort here.
Speaker 1: But my love of the week is Substack. It's a
Speaker 1: great place.
Speaker 2: To find newsletters on different topics. And you may be
Speaker 2: peak substack at this point or whatever, but it's still
Speaker 2: some cool things to discover, and it has been fun
Speaker 2: to find sort of bigger name writers out there who
Speaker 2: are posting things on occasion you get it straight from them,
Speaker 2: So I kind of enjoy that. Super cool. I love it,
Speaker 2: super cool. Yeah, Well, this has been best of both worlds.
Speaker 2: We've been talking nearly effortless good habits. We will be
Speaker 2: back next week.
Speaker 1: With more and making work and life fit together.
Speaker 3: Thanks for listening. You can find me Sarah at the
Speaker 3: shoebox dot com or at the Underscore shoe Box on Instagram,
Speaker 3: and you can find me Laura at Laura vandercam dot com.
Speaker 1: This has been the best of both worlds podcasts.
Speaker 2: Please join us next time from more on making work
Speaker 2: and life work together.