Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning.
Speaker 1: This is Laura, Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
Speaker 1: episode will be a slightly longer one part of the
Speaker 1: series where I interview fascinating people about how they take
Speaker 1: their days from great to awesome and any advice they
Speaker 1: have for the rest of us.
Speaker 2: So today I.
Speaker 1: Am delighted to welcome Ruby Riba to Before Breakfast. Ruby
Speaker 1: is an expert on tech use and the author of
Speaker 1: the book How to Stop Scrolling. Ruby, Welcome to the show.
Speaker 2: Hi, Laura, thank you so much for having me this morning.
Speaker 1: Thanks for having it coming on. I'm glad to have
Speaker 1: you here. Why don't you tell our listeners a little
Speaker 1: bit about yourself. Sure, my name's Ruby Riba.
Speaker 3: I'm a screen time strategist, so I recently wrote the
Speaker 3: book How to Stop Scrolling. My mission is for people
Speaker 3: to be in charge of their phone use. You know,
Speaker 3: I can't tell anyone how they should use their phones.
Speaker 3: I don't know you, but if you your life is
Speaker 3: not totally aligned with how you're using your phone, that's
Speaker 3: where I come in and I can help you through
Speaker 3: design and through some reassuring encouragement that we've all been
Speaker 3: where you might be right now exactly?
Speaker 1: And how does one get into this line of work?
Speaker 3: I would say curiosity. Curiosity got me here. I was
Speaker 3: curious about it just for my own sake and for
Speaker 3: my own family. Like you, I've always been really interested
Speaker 3: in productivity, and I think intentionality comes hand in hand
Speaker 3: with productivity, because if you're being very productive at something
Speaker 3: completely unnecessary or relevant to you, that's not really helpful,
Speaker 3: is it. And then as I started having kids, I
Speaker 3: just it became more and more high stakes. You know,
Speaker 3: how do we interact with technology in a meaningful way
Speaker 3: that is aligned with our values? So I started thinking,
Speaker 3: you know, since technology is designed to draw us in,
Speaker 3: I should be able to also counter design on my side,
Speaker 3: a way to interact with it the way I want to.
Speaker 3: And that's sort of where my personal research started. And
Speaker 3: the more I talked about it with other people, because
Speaker 3: whenever I'm talking to someone, I'm telling them what I'm
Speaker 3: thinking about right now, what I'm curious about and learning about,
Speaker 3: the more people said, oh wow, like can you send
Speaker 3: some of this to me? Or like started asking me
Speaker 3: questions on how they should navigate their things.
Speaker 2: And I started realizing that this is something that.
Speaker 3: Could be of service to other people, and that's how
Speaker 3: I decided to turn it into a book. But it's
Speaker 3: really been something I enjoy and I'm very passionate about it.
Speaker 1: Absolutely. Well, you have three pillars of scrolling less. I
Speaker 1: wonder if you could run through those with us.
Speaker 2: Yes, of course.
Speaker 3: So in my research and with coaching people, I found
Speaker 3: that behavior change that sticks needs these three pillars. So
Speaker 3: one is design over willpower. So what I mean by
Speaker 3: that is when you are in a situation that you
Speaker 3: wish were different, instead of kicking yourself and wishing that
Speaker 3: you could grit through it, you want to design the
Speaker 3: situation to be better next time. So an example of
Speaker 3: that that we could probably all relate to is, let's
Speaker 3: say you're trying to eat healthier and you're meeting a
Speaker 3: friend for breakfast, and you're telling yourself, don't eat the
Speaker 3: chocolate croissant, don't eat the chocolate cissant, don't order it,
Speaker 3: don't order it.
Speaker 2: That's using willpower.
Speaker 3: Or you could say, hey, could we meet at the
Speaker 3: smoothie place instead? Then you don't have to use willpower.
Speaker 3: You've designed yourself what you want, So design over willpower
Speaker 3: when it comes to your phone might look like if
Speaker 3: you notice that you're scrolling a lot before bed, maybe
Speaker 3: you don't plug your phone in at night next to
Speaker 3: your bedside table.
Speaker 2: Or if you notice that.
Speaker 3: You're getting a lot of notifications when you're trying to write,
Speaker 3: you turn the notifications off or you you move the
Speaker 3: phone away. So design usually exists in two realms, the
Speaker 3: physical environment and phone settings. So that's my first pillar
Speaker 3: design over willpower. The second pillar is to not leave
Speaker 3: a vacuum. So when you remove the phone, what will
Speaker 3: you place instead? So if you used to charge your
Speaker 3: phone on your bedside table and it's not there, now,
Speaker 3: do you just have like a blank bedside table and
Speaker 3: do you stare at the ceiling at night?
Speaker 1: No?
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 3: I mean if you do, you're probably going to be
Speaker 3: back on your phone tomorrow night, So you need to
Speaker 3: think about what you'd want to insert instead. And then finally,
Speaker 3: the last pillar is to be kind to yourself. So
Speaker 3: my little slogan is that scrolling is a signal, not
Speaker 3: a stepback. So when you find yourself scrolling, that is
Speaker 3: an indicator that you need to think about again at
Speaker 3: the design level. And that's why these are also interconnected.
Speaker 3: How can I design this to be different next time,
Speaker 3: or maybe it's okay. Like sometimes if I'm traveling, if
Speaker 3: I'm in a hotel room and my phone is in
Speaker 3: a different place than usual, i might notice that I'm
Speaker 3: on my phone more or something, and maybe I'm only
Speaker 3: going to be here for another couple of days, so
Speaker 3: it's really not a big deal and I'm not going to.
Speaker 2: Overhaul the design of my hotel room, you know.
Speaker 3: And so thinking about that and reminding yourself that it's
Speaker 3: not all about willpower can be really powerful.
Speaker 1: So absolutely, so let's talk a little bit about the
Speaker 1: practicalities of sort of ways to change the design. As
Speaker 1: we're you know, designing for no use it our phones
Speaker 1: less but not relying on willpower. One of the times
Speaker 1: that I think people notice they have these certain on ramps,
Speaker 1: there are certain cues that they always pick up their
Speaker 1: phone and start scrolling. What are some ways we can
Speaker 1: design to change that?
Speaker 3: So I think the first the first thing is just awareness.
Speaker 3: So when you start to notice some of these on ramps,
Speaker 3: you're going to be less likely to follow them. So
Speaker 3: when someone else goes on their phone at a dinner,
Speaker 3: you might notice your hand just starts moving towards your
Speaker 3: pocket to get your phone out. When you notice that,
Speaker 3: you can get rid of it. And then when it
Speaker 3: comes to.
Speaker 2: I call it like your drug of choice app.
Speaker 3: So a lot of people have a drug of choice app,
Speaker 3: like probably know which one it is while you're listening
Speaker 3: to this show. And so with that, with design, you
Speaker 3: can use distraction blockers. You can there are many apps
Speaker 3: that you can download that will block it. You could
Speaker 3: use the brick, you could just remove it from your
Speaker 3: home screen. There's lots of different ways. So I guess
Speaker 3: it really depends on the on ramp, but I do
Speaker 3: think that noticing it is the first step.
Speaker 1: And what about proximity, I mean you said often it's
Speaker 1: because the phone is right there that is very easy
Speaker 1: to pick up. What are some ways that we can
Speaker 1: kind of get some of the functionality of the phone
Speaker 1: but keep keep it at a kind of arms length.
Speaker 3: Yeah, So I believe in something called drop zones. So
Speaker 3: there are two important drop zones in your life that
Speaker 3: will change your life. So the first is where you
Speaker 3: charge your phone at night, which we've spoken about a bit.
Speaker 3: And the reason this is so powerful is because with
Speaker 3: this one action, you are actually changing your life in
Speaker 3: two times of your day at night and also when
Speaker 3: you wake up in the morning. Now, where you place
Speaker 3: your phone, I've told you not to place it on
Speaker 3: your bedside table, but where you decide to place it
Speaker 3: is also going to q when your phone enters the
Speaker 3: scene in the morning. So if you put your phone
Speaker 3: in the bathroom and as soon as you wake up,
Speaker 3: you go to the bathroom, then like congratulations, ten seconds
Speaker 3: into your morning, you're on your phone. Right, So you
Speaker 3: want to think about where you want it to enter
Speaker 3: the scene and then.
Speaker 2: Put it there.
Speaker 3: So that's the first drop zone should think about. And
Speaker 3: the second drop zone is and you get home. So
Speaker 3: people usually have a place to put their keys and
Speaker 3: their shoes, but not their phone, And so if there's
Speaker 3: no home for your phone, it's just going.
Speaker 2: To follow you around the house.
Speaker 3: So I like to keep it in a drop zone,
Speaker 3: and I have one on both floors in my home.
Speaker 3: And then I keep my ringer on and I only
Speaker 3: keep important notifications on. So that means that even if
Speaker 3: my phone is not right next to me, I will
Speaker 3: hear it ding. And of course nothing is perfect. Sometimes
Speaker 3: I miss calls, sometimes I miss texts, but I'm okay
Speaker 3: with that.
Speaker 2: Because you're gonna have.
Speaker 3: You're either going to be a little bit too plugged
Speaker 3: in or a little bit not plugged in enough, and
Speaker 3: so you kind of have to choose which one you're
Speaker 3: more willing to take on.
Speaker 1: Sounds good, All right, Well we're going to take a
Speaker 1: quick ad break and I'll be back with more from
Speaker 1: Ruby Riba. Well, I am back talking with Ruby Riba,
Speaker 1: who's the author of How to Stop Scrolling. So you
Speaker 1: mentioned I mean one of the reasons people have their
Speaker 1: phones on them is their phones are very functional. I
Speaker 1: mean not just for reaching people, which their obvious purpose,
Speaker 1: but things like tracking my steps right or reading if
Speaker 1: I have a bit of time, Like the phone's always
Speaker 1: on there, you can read the New York Times, you
Speaker 1: can read a new book, listening to music. Are there
Speaker 1: you talk about dedicated devices and way of sort of
Speaker 1: breaking up some of these functionalities. I wonder if you
Speaker 1: can talk about that.
Speaker 3: Yes, So, our phone has so many abilities, as you mentioned,
Speaker 3: which is wonderful and it's really useful, especially for those
Speaker 3: one off times where you like need the compass or something.
Speaker 3: We don't need to be carrying a compass around with us,
Speaker 3: but wow, our phone can be a compass for us.
Speaker 2: But when you notice that you're.
Speaker 3: Continuously reaching for the phone for the same thing, then
Speaker 3: that's a cue for me that maybe you should have
Speaker 3: a dedicated device. And so for me, I use timers
Speaker 3: a lot, both like for my kids like TV time
Speaker 3: or cooking, or even just for myself, like I hate cleaning,
Speaker 3: so I'll like I'll be like, okay, just clean for
Speaker 3: five minutes, and I put a five minute timer on.
Speaker 3: And so I have a few timers around the house.
Speaker 3: My kids know how to use them, and that really
Speaker 3: helps because now I'm removing the on ramp of the phone.
Speaker 3: And I also think that you get to personalize your
Speaker 3: life that way. You get to decorate your home with
Speaker 3: artifacts of who you are. You know, so if you
Speaker 3: listen to a lot of music and you have a
Speaker 3: record player. My one of my best friends, her family
Speaker 3: has a record player, and it's a family routine now
Speaker 3: to pick out these records. And you'll also find that
Speaker 3: a lot of these things when you get the dedicated
Speaker 3: device a little more tactile. You know, whether it's the
Speaker 3: timer or the record, it's more tactile, and so you
Speaker 3: can really fully enjoy it more so anything that you
Speaker 3: yeah you use a lot on your phone. There's a
Speaker 3: dedicated device for that. And we don't need one hundred
Speaker 3: dedicated devices, but two or three might really change how
Speaker 3: many times you pick up your phone.
Speaker 1: What would you recommend for reading?
Speaker 3: For reading, I mean, I think variety is key, Like
Speaker 3: you want to have different things accessible for you for
Speaker 3: different situations.
Speaker 2: So I use a Kindle. I also so use paper books.
Speaker 3: The Kindle's great, especially if you, you know, sleep with
Speaker 3: a partner. I can still read the Kindle when my
Speaker 3: husband's sleeping. It's useful for travel. I use the Libby app,
Speaker 3: which I love, where you can borrow kindle and audiobooks
Speaker 3: from your local library. And yeah, actually I recently started
Speaker 3: reading because I've never read fully The Count of Monte Cristo,
Speaker 3: and it's my husband's favorite book.
Speaker 2: And I was like, okay, I got to read this.
Speaker 3: I feel like it's like a very dramatic sitcom right now,
Speaker 3: side note, but anyway, I was.
Speaker 1: Reading hilarious that it's his favorite book.
Speaker 3: But okay, yeah, now you know something about my husband
Speaker 3: favorite book. And I'm going to learn something about my
Speaker 3: husband too while reading this, Like I know the general
Speaker 3: you are, but yeah.
Speaker 1: You are you are you're going to learn something about him?
Speaker 1: But anyway, go on.
Speaker 2: Anyway with stories.
Speaker 3: For me, I often prefer a paper book because I
Speaker 3: like to know how far along in the story I am.
Speaker 3: It just helps me like understand the shape of the
Speaker 3: story more. And so yeah, I picked it up at
Speaker 3: the library yesterday. God, I have a long way to ghost.
Speaker 1: You have a long way to go. It's a thick
Speaker 1: one for sure. Well, speaking of reading and things like that,
Speaker 1: I mean, you talk about replacing screen time with something else,
Speaker 1: and I love the question of the way you put
Speaker 1: it in your book of what would you do with
Speaker 1: an extra ten hours a week? Because often, you know,
Speaker 1: I come into this and I ask people this somewhat
Speaker 1: silly question of like what would you do with an
Speaker 1: extra hour? Right? And people are like, oh, all the
Speaker 1: amazing things I do, and here you're like ten hours.
Speaker 1: I'm guessing many, even very pusy people are on their
Speaker 1: phones doing things that are not a top priority for
Speaker 1: ten hours a week. I mean, is that where you're
Speaker 1: getting that question from?
Speaker 3: Yes, I mean, on average, the average American uses their
Speaker 3: phone for more than thirty seven and a half hours
Speaker 3: a week, so almost a full time job.
Speaker 2: So yeah, I love the exercise of what would you do.
Speaker 3: I'm gifting you ten hours, and then when you think
Speaker 3: about it, you can actually gift that to yourself pretty
Speaker 3: easily because when you look at your screen time, I
Speaker 3: guarantee you almost all the listeners are on their phone
Speaker 3: for more than ten hours a week. And I mean,
Speaker 3: of course, some of it is things we need to do.
Speaker 3: I pay for parking with my phone, I respond to
Speaker 3: emails with my phone, I pay.
Speaker 2: Bills, whatever.
Speaker 3: But if you're like I never have time to stretch,
Speaker 3: It's like, Okay, if stretching picks five minutes and you're
Speaker 3: on your phone for.
Speaker 2: Thirty hours a week, I feel like there's time for that.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, I think your quote is the time is there.
Speaker 1: It's the energy and intention that's missing, which is which
Speaker 1: is a different matter, right, Like, I mean, time and
Speaker 1: energy and intention are related, but they are not the
Speaker 1: same things.
Speaker 3: Yes, very true, and they work beautifully together. But we
Speaker 3: need all three.
Speaker 1: So how can we make hobbies and leisure as attractive
Speaker 1: as what are in effect our electronic hobbies on our phone?
Speaker 2: Yes?
Speaker 3: So first, I think we talked a little bit about
Speaker 3: proximity earlier. So just like we want to increase the proximity,
Speaker 3: get our phones away from us. We want we want
Speaker 3: the things that we want to do closer to us.
Speaker 3: So if you want to be stretching, maybe you put
Speaker 3: a phone roller next to your desk at home so
Speaker 3: that you can be doing those things. You want to
Speaker 3: surround yourself with the things that you want to be
Speaker 3: doing instead of using your phone. And I think the
Speaker 3: other really important thing is to make sure that you
Speaker 3: have variety. I think that So when I asked that
Speaker 3: question to someone I was coaching months ago, I remember
Speaker 3: she was like, I want to learn more about the
Speaker 3: electoral College.
Speaker 2: And I was like, that's great, but like that's kind of.
Speaker 1: Like having your favorite book be The Count of Monte Cristo.
Speaker 3: By the way, exactly, yeah, nerd alert no. So I
Speaker 3: was like, that's great, but like maybe it's just me.
Speaker 3: But if I'm like it's an end of a long
Speaker 3: day and my choices are scroll through Instagram or like
Speaker 3: learn about the electoral College, I'm pretty sure I'm going
Speaker 3: to scroll. So you you know, we are nuanced, layered people,
Speaker 3: and so you want to create all those different things.
Speaker 3: So actually, one thing that I've started getting into because
Speaker 3: my daughter's into it is bracelet making, Like she was like, mom,
Speaker 3: can you help me with this bracelet? And now sometimes
Speaker 3: when we're like when I'm talking to my husband and night,
Speaker 3: I'm just like, oh, like, let me just make one
Speaker 3: more bracelet. But that's like that's something that literally a
Speaker 3: six year old can do, you know. And so you
Speaker 3: want to meet yourself at all of your levels. What
Speaker 3: does the six year old you want to do? Or
Speaker 3: sometimes maybe you want like a tabloid or a trashy
Speaker 3: magazine Like that's fine too, you know. And so to
Speaker 3: make sure that we're not just curating something for this
Speaker 3: like idealized, imaginary, higher moral self and looking at things
Speaker 3: for our whole self and then to make that really
Speaker 3: accessible and I think, sorry, So.
Speaker 1: Think about things that your very low energy self.
Speaker 3: Can do, yes, and matching those things, you know, thinking
Speaker 3: about your energy levels throughout the day. What do you
Speaker 3: like doing in the morning, in the afternoon, at night,
Speaker 3: what about a work break, what about something social? Think
Speaker 3: about like all your different selves and also just taking
Speaker 3: that time to think about what those things are.
Speaker 1: And I imagine there's a time element here too, because
Speaker 1: of one of the attractive things about a phone is
Speaker 1: it can fill thirty seconds, it can fill three hours,
Speaker 1: like it will do either of those if you ask
Speaker 1: it too. Yes, and a lot of other things do
Speaker 1: not equally fill thirty seconds or three hours. So how
Speaker 1: can we sort of design our hobbies to fit that
Speaker 1: to solve that problem.
Speaker 2: That's a great question.
Speaker 3: Yeah, So I used to have a menu for myself
Speaker 3: where I said, Okay, if I had one minute, I
Speaker 3: can do box breathing. If I have five minutes, I
Speaker 3: can like stretch. And so you can make menus for
Speaker 3: yourself of what would I do with one five thirty minutes,
Speaker 3: sixty minutes, Like I love going to yoga classes, but
Speaker 3: I'm going to need more than an hour for that,
Speaker 3: And so you're going to be setting yourself up for
Speaker 3: failure if you're not taking the time.
Speaker 2: Comes straight into consideration. Great question.
Speaker 1: And then one practical tip you gave people to consider
Speaker 1: about having little space in your life where you are
Speaker 1: just not on your phone. I think bathroom breaks that
Speaker 1: a challenge you're giving to people.
Speaker 3: I think, so I just I feel like it's not necessary.
Speaker 3: And I also, I mean people talk about how they
Speaker 3: have their best ideas in the shower, you know, And
Speaker 3: I think we're losing a lot of that meditative time
Speaker 3: where we're kind of zoning out and we have great ideas.
Speaker 3: So you know, if everyone gets off their phones while
Speaker 3: they're going to the bathroom, I bet you we're just
Speaker 3: gonna humanity.
Speaker 2: We'll have so many more great ideas. I'm excited for that.
Speaker 1: Or spend less time in the bathroom.
Speaker 2: Where's the most time in the bathroom? Yeah, it does
Speaker 2: not take that long for sure. For sure.
Speaker 1: All right, Well, we're going to take one more quick
Speaker 1: ad break and then i'll be back with more from
Speaker 1: Ruby Riba. Well, I am back talking with Ruby Riba,
Speaker 1: who is the author of How to Stop Scrolling. So
Speaker 1: we've been talking a little bit about your schedule already,
Speaker 1: but I want to pivot a bit more to how
Speaker 1: you structure your time because this podcast is all about
Speaker 1: time management. Do you have any sort of morning routine.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I would say that my kids keep my schedule
Speaker 3: pretty rigid. So I wake up at six thirty, thankfully
Speaker 3: before they do. I make their breakfast and lunches, I
Speaker 3: get them ready, I get them out the door, and
Speaker 3: then it's kind of like my morning finally begins at
Speaker 3: that point.
Speaker 2: I do still have a.
Speaker 3: Baby at home, but I bring her down to the
Speaker 3: gym with me, and she has a little jumper and
Speaker 3: she's jumping in her jumper while I do my workout.
Speaker 3: We spend a little more time together and then I
Speaker 3: pass her off to ro pair and I start my
Speaker 3: work day.
Speaker 1: And what do you tend to do at the beginning
Speaker 1: of your work day? How do you structure all that?
Speaker 3: So I usually spend about two hours. If I don't
Speaker 3: have meetings, I get out of the house, so I
Speaker 3: go to a local coffee shop or a library, and
Speaker 3: I spend two hours there taking care of emails, working
Speaker 3: that sort of thing. And then as the day goes on,
Speaker 3: I shift from book like author mom to author to mom.
Speaker 2: Basically as the day goes on, it like creeps in
Speaker 2: more and more.
Speaker 1: And how do you keep yourself focused while you are writing?
Speaker 1: I mean, this is this is always an interesting question
Speaker 1: to me because some writing is like you have all
Speaker 1: your stuff and you're just writing, and other times you're
Speaker 1: engaging with other things. There are things in your email,
Speaker 1: there are things online, your studies you're looking up. I mean,
Speaker 1: sort of, how do you structure your work to focus
Speaker 1: when you need to and not when you.
Speaker 2: Don't it's so hard. I feel like I will have
Speaker 2: a different answer for you every week.
Speaker 3: But I think that I use a lot of lists
Speaker 3: and that helps me stay focused because then I have
Speaker 3: an objective, you know, whether it's research or whatever. And
Speaker 3: then if I'm feeling particularly unmotivated. I mentioned timers earlier,
Speaker 3: I just put on a timer for twenty five minutes.
Speaker 3: That always helps me, or I start keeping track. I
Speaker 3: also like the stopwatch method where I see how long
Speaker 3: I can go, and if I'm just working on writing,
Speaker 3: for example, i might say, Okay, I want to get
Speaker 3: like ten hours of writing done this week. So then
Speaker 3: on Monday, I really want to get done more than
Speaker 3: two hours because I feel like I'm ahead, I'm more
Speaker 3: than average. I'm like, maybe i'll finish it before Thursday.
Speaker 3: So just setting small goals for myself like that, and
Speaker 3: they might be time based or they might be objective based.
Speaker 2: That really helps.
Speaker 1: And you mentioned you keep a lot of lists. I'm
Speaker 1: curious if there are other interesting lists in your life
Speaker 1: that you make use of.
Speaker 3: Oh, I have so many lists. I have like my
Speaker 3: mom to do list. I have my Ruby to do list.
Speaker 3: Because I identify as a person outside of a mother, I
Speaker 3: have my author to do list.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean lots of to do lists.
Speaker 3: Lots of ideas, date night lists, places we want to
Speaker 3: go as a family in Europe or anywhere else, so
Speaker 3: many lists. I have lots of notebooks with lists that
Speaker 3: I've forgotten about.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we have a lot of little notebooks around here too,
Speaker 1: notebooks for my good ideas. And I now have probably
Speaker 1: more notebooks than I have good ideas.
Speaker 2: So it is what it is.
Speaker 1: So I always ask my guests, what is something you
Speaker 1: have done recently to take a day from great to awesome?
Speaker 3: So I am very lucky in that I have a
Speaker 3: lot of amazing girlfriends, most of them are not local,
Speaker 3: and so thanks to the voice note, I feel like
Speaker 3: I get to listen to my favorite podcast every day
Speaker 3: because I'm listening to them talk to me all day.
Speaker 3: But last week I booked myself a trip to San
Speaker 3: Francisco to visit one of my best friends in the fall.
Speaker 3: So that definitely took that day to awesome.
Speaker 1: That is amazing. But let's go to this voice note thing. Yes,
Speaker 1: sure so, because I've heard this tip from a lot
Speaker 1: of people who want to stay in touch with friends,
Speaker 1: how practically does that work? In your life, like when
Speaker 1: are you recording your notes? When are you listening to theirs?
Speaker 1: Does it go back and forth? You cross notes? Like
Speaker 1: how do you keep the narrative going here?
Speaker 3: Yes, I mean I am no expert, but I use
Speaker 3: voice notes while I'm driving, so it's very efficient for me.
Speaker 3: But one of my best friends did ask me. She
Speaker 3: was like, are you an angry person? Because sometimes when
Speaker 3: I'm driving, I'm like, what is this guy doing? Oh
Speaker 3: my god, he's so stupid, and then I go right
Speaker 3: back into So I realized that I might have some
Speaker 3: road rage while doing these voice notes, but I primarily
Speaker 3: do them while driving, and it works for us, and.
Speaker 1: Then you listen to them as well while driving.
Speaker 3: I listen to them while driving also, so that means
Speaker 3: that if I'm not driving for a while, I might
Speaker 3: not listen to your voice note for like a week,
Speaker 3: and they still are friends with me.
Speaker 2: So I guess it works.
Speaker 1: And is the etiquette that you go back and forth
Speaker 1: or do notes stack up?
Speaker 3: Sometimes they stack up, but I think with one of
Speaker 3: my close friends we go back and forth, and with
Speaker 3: the other one they just stack shell. She doesn't care,
Speaker 3: She's like, I have stuff to tell you. I'm going
Speaker 3: to keep sending you voice notes and it's on you
Speaker 3: to catch up.
Speaker 2: And I have to do that. Yeah, I love it.
Speaker 1: I love it. So what's something you are looking forward to?
Speaker 1: You obviously mentioned your trip with your girlfriends. I'm curious
Speaker 1: if there's anything else in your life currently that you
Speaker 1: are looking forward to.
Speaker 3: I am also hopping on a plane on Saturday. I'm
Speaker 3: bringing my three year old and my six year old
Speaker 3: to Paris in London with my husband, So that's going
Speaker 3: to be a lot of fun. And then when we
Speaker 3: get back, my three year old son insisted on starting
Speaker 3: hockey camp and I think that's just going to be
Speaker 3: kind of funny.
Speaker 2: So I'm looking forward to that.
Speaker 1: Got to be adorable. Can he ice?
Speaker 3: No, he cannot, so I don't know why he asked
Speaker 3: for that. His options were gymnastics, swimming, and hockey. He's
Speaker 3: done gymnastics and swimming, and he just insisted on hockey.
Speaker 3: So that reminds me I need to pick up some
Speaker 3: equipment for him before we we traveled here.
Speaker 1: That is going to be so fun to watch. I'm
Speaker 1: enjoying the picture right now. Yes, I'm even thinking. So Ribby,
Speaker 1: where can people find you?
Speaker 2: Yes?
Speaker 3: So how to Stop Scrolling dot com. It's just the
Speaker 3: title of my book, How to Stop Scrolling. On there,
Speaker 3: you can subscribe to my weekly newsletter, The Scroll Shift,
Speaker 3: where I give you a simple, actionable tip every Wednesday,
Speaker 3: along with a story, a true story. You can also
Speaker 3: preview my book there and download some resources, and of
Speaker 3: course purchase.
Speaker 1: My book Wonderful Well. Thank you so much Riby for
Speaker 1: joining us. Thank you to everyone for listening. If you
Speaker 1: have feedback on this or any other episode, you can
Speaker 1: always reach me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com.
Speaker 1: In the meantime, this is Laura, Thanks for listening, and
Speaker 1: here's to making the most of our time. Thanks for
Speaker 1: listening to Before Breakfast. If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback,
Speaker 1: you can reach me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com.
Speaker 1: Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts
Speaker 1: from iHeartMedia, please visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
Speaker 1: wherever you listen to your favorite shows.