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Speaker 1: Welcome to How I Work, a show about the tactics

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Speaker 1: used by leading innovators to get so much out of

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Speaker 1: their day. I'm your host, doctor Amantha Imba. I'm an

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Speaker 1: organizational psychologist, the CEO of Inventium, and I'm obsessed with

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Speaker 1: finding ways to optimize my workday. This episode is another

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Speaker 1: my Favorite Tip episode. The title is probably pretty self explanatory.

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Speaker 1: It's about my favorite tip from each of the interviews

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Speaker 1: I conduct. I use this format because I sometimes feel

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Speaker 1: myself as a podcast listener that I just want to

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Speaker 1: get in, get the most amount of value from an episode,

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Speaker 1: and then get out, So in this format, that's exactly

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Speaker 1: what I do. My guest today is Naomi Simpson. Naomi

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Speaker 1: is one of Australia's most well known entrepreneurs. She's the

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Speaker 1: founder of Red Balloon and co founder of the Big

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Speaker 1: Red Group, which turns over more than one hundred million

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Speaker 1: dollars annually. Naomi is also the Shark that Wears Red

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Speaker 1: on Shark Tank and happens to be the most followed

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Speaker 1: Australian on LinkedIn, with over two point seven million followers.

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Speaker 1: In this excerpt, we talk about Naomi's love of routines

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Speaker 1: and rituals, and we hear about what her daily and

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Speaker 1: weekly rituals look like and the critical role that these

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Speaker 1: play in her life. And on that note, over to Naomi.

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Speaker 1: You have like a bit of a morning ritual, is

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Speaker 1: that right?

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Speaker 2: In fact, if I don't do my morning ritual, I'm

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Speaker 2: quite put out for the day. And I'm feeling like

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Speaker 2: that today. Actually I never sleep in and I did

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Speaker 2: this morning, which is something telling me some but something

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Speaker 2: was telling me something. See, it's so clear, and the

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Speaker 2: difference between the morning and the afternoon. But no, I

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Speaker 2: have quite a rhythm and a routine and you know,

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Speaker 2: and I find it really important because I said, up

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Speaker 2: my day. I figure if I don't get personal time

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Speaker 2: in the morning, I might not get it for the

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Speaker 2: rest of the day. And I really need it. And

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Speaker 2: it does include a black coffee, which is you know,

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Speaker 2: the drug of choice. And it does include being present

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Speaker 2: with my husband, talking about the day, create the day,

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Speaker 2: what do we want to get out of the day,

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Speaker 2: and exercise, you know. So yeah, it's quite It is

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Speaker 2: a routine.

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Speaker 1: So what time does it start? Like, what time are

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Speaker 1: you awake in the morning, Well.

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Speaker 2: It used to be five point thirty. It's not anymore.

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Speaker 2: It's now six.

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Speaker 1: So why did you make that change?

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Speaker 2: Because I just I don't know. I'm either sleeping better

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Speaker 2: or I feel that. There's so much conversation about the

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Speaker 2: importance of sleep, and I realized that by if I

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Speaker 2: don't go to bed, you know, by nine point thirty,

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Speaker 2: then if I'm getting up at five thirty, I really

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Speaker 2: haven't had enough sleep. And I don't manage to get

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Speaker 2: to bed very often at nine thirty. So it was

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Speaker 2: about getting an extra half hour sleep.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, so making sure you get the eight hours.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, but I try not to use an alarm, let

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Speaker 2: the sunlight wake me up. Why why is that? I

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Speaker 2: just I don't know. It's like, you know, it's the

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Speaker 2: child and me stamping my feet saying I don't want

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Speaker 2: to be told what to do. Even the alarm can't

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Speaker 2: tell me what to do. And I like we just

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Speaker 2: waking up with a bi rhythm of when I'm ready

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Speaker 2: to wake up versus an exact exact time. I also

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Speaker 2: like getting the ferry to work. If I catch the

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Speaker 2: ferry to work, then I don't look at my phone.

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Speaker 2: I'm present. I feel gratitude and fortunate to live in

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Speaker 2: this rich, interesting and clean country. Whereas when I catch

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Speaker 2: the bus to work. If I catch the bus, it's

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Speaker 2: because I will do my social media and my answering

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Speaker 2: and this and the other thing. I won't even look

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Speaker 2: out the window. So so I prefer to catch the

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Speaker 2: ferry to work.

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Speaker 1: So what are you doing on the ferry if you're

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Speaker 1: not looking at your phone?

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Speaker 2: Well, I literally am watching people watching. It's only a

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Speaker 2: nine minute trip. It's not very long, so there's not

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Speaker 2: a lot to do.

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Speaker 1: I was imagining like this big sixty minute journey.

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Speaker 2: No, no, it's only nine minutes store to door, and

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Speaker 2: I'm just literally looking. There's so much to look at

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Speaker 2: on the harbor. There's boats and people and people working

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Speaker 2: and things being built. Yeah, it's always something to look

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Speaker 2: at on the harbor.

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Speaker 1: I love that. So you've got your morning routine. Are

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Speaker 1: there any other kind of routines, whether they be weekly, monthly, quarterly,

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Speaker 1: that you find are really important, you know, for being

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Speaker 1: as good as you can be.

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Speaker 2: I love routine. I love Sunday night meals with my family.

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Speaker 2: You know, it's a way when people are busy. I've

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Speaker 2: adult children, we come back together. I like calling my

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Speaker 2: mother on a Sunday. I know, it got done because

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Speaker 2: actually the weeks we're by and it's very oops, I

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Speaker 2: forgot to call, and so Sunday is almost family day

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Speaker 2: for me. How do I connect to my family wherever

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Speaker 2: they are, whatever they're doing. How am I connecting in

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Speaker 2: So that's important to me. In a work rhythm too,

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Speaker 2: I like having I like being able to know when

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Speaker 2: things are so the rhythm of meetings is really important,

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Speaker 2: whether it's our senior leadership team always meets at the

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Speaker 2: same time the same way, versus the one on ones

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Speaker 2: that I have with my team, my team meetings, and

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Speaker 2: I find that people people I can prepare for them

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Speaker 2: because they know they're expected, they know what the agenda is,

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Speaker 2: and they actually deliver a better outcome. I've worked in

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Speaker 2: companies where I never had meetings with my boss. I

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Speaker 2: didn't know what was going on, you know, and it

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Speaker 2: was so frustrating. And versus when I moved to Apple

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Speaker 2: a long time ago, obviously because you haven't had a

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Speaker 2: job in twenty years, but Apple was so rhythm or

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Speaker 2: everything was based on rhythm, and I found that that

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Speaker 2: actually set me through, so I knew what I was

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Speaker 2: working towards. Rhythm really helps.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, that's interesting, and you talk about meetings, I

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Speaker 1: would imagine you would spend a fair chunk of your

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Speaker 1: week in meetings. Is that fair to say?

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Speaker 2: Oh, I try not to, try not to. But also

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Speaker 2: that rhythm helps is does that need a special meeting

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Speaker 2: or can it just be a part of an agenda

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Speaker 2: that goes into I think it's very important when they're

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Speaker 2: managing and leading people that there is a rhythm because

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Speaker 2: often they don't want to interrupt you. I think, oh,

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Speaker 2: she's so busy, but then they'll never get any time hearing, coaching, whatever.

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Speaker 2: So I think it's important to set up that rhythm

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Speaker 2: for the people who are in your team so that

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Speaker 2: they do get your true present intention love in that moment.

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Speaker 2: I think that's really important. They don't have to ask

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Speaker 2: for it. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: I read recently that the average executive spends twenty three

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Speaker 1: hours per week in meetings, which is kind of crazy.

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Speaker 1: That's over half a forty hour week. I want to

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Speaker 1: know for you, like.

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Speaker 2: I don't spend twenty three hours and meetings, Okay, I

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Speaker 2: really struggle. I try to have all my internal meetings

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Speaker 2: on a Monday. External meetings. I also block up and

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Speaker 2: then Fridays is my deep thinking. No Fridays, I don't

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Speaker 2: come to work and I do my work shof the week.

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Speaker 2: It doesn't matter whether it's finishing off the emails I

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Speaker 2: said i'd write, or finishing off the projects. But really

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Speaker 2: I don't have appointments on a Friday. I might come

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Speaker 2: to the office on a Friday, but I don't have

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Speaker 2: any meetings or price and that will sometimes go into

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Speaker 2: a Thurst day as well.

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Speaker 1: That's interesting. So you're kind of batching the different types

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Speaker 1: of work that you have.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely absolutely how.

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Speaker 1: Long have you done that for?

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Speaker 2: I don't know, probably probably since the whole Shark Tank

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Speaker 2: thing about four years, because time just became so precious,

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Speaker 2: you know, because effectively I had more than one job.

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Speaker 1: Hello, it's me again. I just love how deliberate Naomi

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Speaker 1: is about thinking about this stuff, and I love what

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Speaker 1: she says about structure and rhythm will set you free.

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Speaker 1: I definitely find this in my own life. And what

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Speaker 1: I think is one of the most important things about

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Speaker 1: rhythm is that it essentially eliminates decisions, especially in the morning.

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Speaker 1: So rather than using precious mental energy to make decisions,

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Speaker 1: first thing, I can channel that energy into my work

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Speaker 1: projects By having that structure around my mornings. So for me,

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Speaker 1: the first hour of my day, which is from around

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Speaker 1: five thirty to six thirty am before my family is awake,

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Speaker 1: and is always around movement. So I go to a

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Speaker 1: gym class on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and then I

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Speaker 1: go for a long walk on Tuesdays and Thursdays mornings,

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Speaker 1: and then when I get home, I get showered and dress,

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Speaker 1: and by that point my husband and daughter are typically awake.

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Speaker 1: We have breakfast, and I'll do school drop off a

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Speaker 1: couple of mornings a week, and then I have about

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Speaker 1: three different go to cafes where I do my deep

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Speaker 1: work from until around eleven or twelve o'clock, and then

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Speaker 1: I get into emails and meetings and shallow work. And

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Speaker 1: that's pretty much what every day looks like for me,

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Speaker 1: unless I'm traveling or doing keynote speaking, which does break

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Speaker 1: up my routine a bit. So I find that I'm

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Speaker 1: so much more effective in my mornings because of this

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Speaker 1: rhythm and structure that I now have in my life.

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Speaker 1: So that is it for today's episode. If you like

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Speaker 1: this excerpt, you might want to listen to my full

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Speaker 1: chat with Naomi, which I'll link to in the show notes,

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Speaker 1: and if you are not currently a subscriber to How

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Speaker 1: I Work, but you liked this episode, you might want

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Speaker 1: to hit the subscribe button in Apple Podcasts or wherever

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Speaker 1: you get your podcasts from so that you get alerted

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Speaker 1: whenever a new episode drops. So that is it for

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Speaker 1: today and I'll see you next time.