1
00:00:00,080 --> 00:00:02,040
Speaker 1: We wake the kids up about ten or fifteen minutes

2
00:00:02,080 --> 00:00:04,520
Speaker 1: before they need to be awake. And what that does

3
00:00:04,600 --> 00:00:08,080
Speaker 1: is it creates two things. First of all, connection, because

4
00:00:08,080 --> 00:00:10,480
Speaker 1: when we wake them up, we walk into the room

5
00:00:10,600 --> 00:00:13,200
Speaker 1: gently and softly and sit with them and give them

6
00:00:13,240 --> 00:00:15,440
Speaker 1: a hug and talk to them about the dream that

7
00:00:15,440 --> 00:00:17,320
Speaker 1: we've wokened them from or what they're looking forward to

8
00:00:17,400 --> 00:00:19,080
Speaker 1: in the day. We just have two or three minutes

9
00:00:19,079 --> 00:00:21,360
Speaker 1: with each of them. It doesn't take long, but they

10
00:00:21,360 --> 00:00:22,759
Speaker 1: wake up feeling connection.

11
00:00:23,720 --> 00:00:27,280
Speaker 2: Hosting How I Work has taught me so much about

12
00:00:27,360 --> 00:00:32,240
Speaker 2: working more effectively, but it's also helped me as a parent.

13
00:00:33,240 --> 00:00:35,760
Speaker 2: It turns out that a lot of what makes people

14
00:00:35,800 --> 00:00:39,839
Speaker 2: super successful in the workplace can also make live smoother

15
00:00:40,040 --> 00:00:44,920
Speaker 2: at home. This parallel became especially clear when I spoke

16
00:00:45,000 --> 00:00:49,600
Speaker 2: to parenting expert Justin Coolson, who suggested a technique for

17
00:00:49,680 --> 00:00:53,360
Speaker 2: getting through those hectic school mornings with a little less fuss,

18
00:00:53,840 --> 00:00:57,160
Speaker 2: and his advice was almost identical to what Laura May

19
00:00:57,240 --> 00:01:06,200
Speaker 2: Martin tells her coaching clients in Google's executive Suite. My

20
00:01:06,360 --> 00:01:09,840
Speaker 2: name is doctor Amantha Imber. I'm an organizational psychologist and

21
00:01:09,880 --> 00:01:13,440
Speaker 2: the founder of Behavioral Science Consultancy invent him and this

22
00:01:13,640 --> 00:01:16,360
Speaker 2: is how I work a show about how to help

23
00:01:16,400 --> 00:01:22,240
Speaker 2: you do your best work. Welcome to your Favorite Tips

24
00:01:22,280 --> 00:01:26,640
Speaker 2: across ten bite size episodes. I'll be sharing tips from

25
00:01:26,680 --> 00:01:29,720
Speaker 2: some of the world's best thinkers that you, the listeners,

26
00:01:29,840 --> 00:01:33,760
Speaker 2: have found the most useful. We're covering everything from creating

27
00:01:33,800 --> 00:01:37,399
Speaker 2: better to do lists to setting more effective boundaries around

28
00:01:37,400 --> 00:01:40,280
Speaker 2: your time, and you'll be hearing from people like best

29
00:01:40,280 --> 00:01:44,880
Speaker 2: selling author Sally Hepworth, Corona Cast host and journalist Norman Swan,

30
00:01:45,360 --> 00:01:51,360
Speaker 2: and Google's executive productivity advisor Laura May Martin. Today's favorite

31
00:01:51,400 --> 00:01:55,280
Speaker 2: tip comes from Tracy and she writes, my favorite tip

32
00:01:55,400 --> 00:01:59,600
Speaker 2: was with doctor Justin Coulson Making Morning's Magic and his

33
00:01:59,720 --> 00:02:03,400
Speaker 2: four morning rules to keep the flow. So here is

34
00:02:03,480 --> 00:02:07,080
Speaker 2: parenting expert and host of the Happy Families podcast talking

35
00:02:07,080 --> 00:02:10,799
Speaker 2: about his strategy to make mornings magic when you are

36
00:02:10,960 --> 00:02:14,400
Speaker 2: a parent, and especially a working one.

37
00:02:14,480 --> 00:02:16,079
Speaker 1: The short answer, though, is we've got a couple of

38
00:02:16,080 --> 00:02:17,920
Speaker 1: things that we do. One of the things is what

39
00:02:17,960 --> 00:02:23,320
Speaker 1: we call our Making Morning's Magic system, and that's comprised

40
00:02:23,320 --> 00:02:26,480
Speaker 1: of four elements. Element number one, the morning begins the

41
00:02:26,560 --> 00:02:29,680
Speaker 1: night before, so that means that we get the kids

42
00:02:29,720 --> 00:02:32,440
Speaker 1: lunchboxes organized, or at least have them out and ready

43
00:02:32,440 --> 00:02:34,360
Speaker 1: for the next day. They've got their uniforms, is it

44
00:02:34,440 --> 00:02:36,799
Speaker 1: library days? At sports day? Do we know where their

45
00:02:36,800 --> 00:02:39,320
Speaker 1: shoes are? Has a rogue sock been left under the

46
00:02:39,360 --> 00:02:41,840
Speaker 1: seat in the car as their swimming gear ready.

47
00:02:41,600 --> 00:02:42,120
Speaker 2: For the next day?

48
00:02:42,120 --> 00:02:44,600
Speaker 1: All that sort of stuff. Morning begins the night before.

49
00:02:44,760 --> 00:02:46,920
Speaker 1: We have found that that is one of the most

50
00:02:46,960 --> 00:02:51,000
Speaker 1: incredibly useful things to make sure that we have smooth mornings.

51
00:02:51,000 --> 00:02:53,240
Speaker 1: We even sort of pull out the stuff for breakfast

52
00:02:53,240 --> 00:02:55,000
Speaker 1: and stick it on the kitchen bench so it's ready.

53
00:02:55,680 --> 00:02:57,560
Speaker 1: That's the first thing. The second part of the four

54
00:02:57,639 --> 00:02:59,880
Speaker 1: part process is that we wake the kids up about

55
00:02:59,880 --> 00:03:02,120
Speaker 1: tan or fifteen minutes before they need to be awake.

56
00:03:02,600 --> 00:03:05,240
Speaker 1: And what that does is it creates two things. First

57
00:03:05,240 --> 00:03:08,360
Speaker 1: of all, connection because when we wake them up, we

58
00:03:08,400 --> 00:03:11,400
Speaker 1: walk into the room gently and softly and sit with

59
00:03:11,440 --> 00:03:13,400
Speaker 1: them and give them a hug and talk to them

60
00:03:13,440 --> 00:03:15,320
Speaker 1: about the dream that we've wokened them from or what

61
00:03:15,320 --> 00:03:16,880
Speaker 1: they're looking forward to in the day. We just have

62
00:03:16,960 --> 00:03:18,760
Speaker 1: two or three minutes with each of them. It doesn't

63
00:03:18,800 --> 00:03:22,640
Speaker 1: take long, but they wake up feeling connection before we

64
00:03:22,680 --> 00:03:24,919
Speaker 1: move it to the next room. And then a Mantha

65
00:03:25,000 --> 00:03:29,000
Speaker 1: the critical thing. It also creates margin because no one's

66
00:03:29,080 --> 00:03:31,440
Speaker 1: rushing because we've got an extra tunnel fifteen minutes because

67
00:03:31,480 --> 00:03:35,280
Speaker 1: everyone's getting up a little bit early. The third thing

68
00:03:35,320 --> 00:03:39,000
Speaker 1: that we do is we actually have kind of like

69
00:03:39,040 --> 00:03:41,880
Speaker 1: a breakfast and lunch system. The kids put in their

70
00:03:41,920 --> 00:03:45,280
Speaker 1: breakfast order and their lunch order by you know, when

71
00:03:45,320 --> 00:03:48,000
Speaker 1: you go to a motel, usually a cheap motel on

72
00:03:48,040 --> 00:03:49,960
Speaker 1: the side of a highway, you can do a quick

73
00:03:50,000 --> 00:03:52,720
Speaker 1: tick and flick for room service breakfast the next day,

74
00:03:53,160 --> 00:03:56,800
Speaker 1: and you order those two pieces of thin white bread

75
00:03:57,480 --> 00:03:59,960
Speaker 1: with a couple of fried eggs that usually arrive cold

76
00:04:00,280 --> 00:04:02,560
Speaker 1: and a little bit too hard. Not running it off,

77
00:04:02,640 --> 00:04:05,040
Speaker 1: but you've got that tick inflict process. So we actually

78
00:04:05,200 --> 00:04:06,720
Speaker 1: us we don't do it anymore because the kids have

79
00:04:06,720 --> 00:04:08,800
Speaker 1: got the system nailed. But to start it off, we

80
00:04:08,840 --> 00:04:10,560
Speaker 1: would get the kids to fill in their menu for

81
00:04:10,560 --> 00:04:13,720
Speaker 1: breakfast and lunch the night before, which means that when

82
00:04:13,720 --> 00:04:17,080
Speaker 1: they walk out into the kitchen, the list of what

83
00:04:17,120 --> 00:04:20,279
Speaker 1: they need to do is already there. What they're going

84
00:04:20,360 --> 00:04:21,880
Speaker 1: to eat, what they're going to prepare, how it's going

85
00:04:21,960 --> 00:04:26,080
Speaker 1: to work. And I can't tell you how amazing that is.

86
00:04:26,120 --> 00:04:29,760
Speaker 1: To remove the decision making process from a tired, sleepy

87
00:04:30,880 --> 00:04:33,200
Speaker 1: child's mind. They just have to look at the piece

88
00:04:33,240 --> 00:04:36,480
Speaker 1: of paper and make that. And we've spent the time

89
00:04:36,520 --> 00:04:38,400
Speaker 1: to teach them to make it, which means that step

90
00:04:38,520 --> 00:04:40,359
Speaker 1: number four is that we don't tell them what to

91
00:04:40,440 --> 00:04:43,040
Speaker 1: do what we do instead, as we say, hey, how

92
00:04:43,040 --> 00:04:45,040
Speaker 1: are you going with the five things that need to

93
00:04:45,040 --> 00:04:47,839
Speaker 1: be done this morning? What's next? How can I help?

94
00:04:48,560 --> 00:04:50,000
Speaker 1: That is so good.

95
00:04:50,120 --> 00:04:55,400
Speaker 2: I'm taking copious notes as you're talking, justin I'm loving this.

96
00:04:55,640 --> 00:04:59,120
Speaker 1: We found that it's made an enormous difference, and in fact,

97
00:04:59,320 --> 00:05:01,800
Speaker 1: it was so popular that the New York Times picked

98
00:05:01,839 --> 00:05:03,760
Speaker 1: up an article that I wrote and they published it.

99
00:05:03,839 --> 00:05:06,080
Speaker 1: So if people want more, you could probably just link

100
00:05:06,120 --> 00:05:08,760
Speaker 1: to the Making Morning's Magic New York Times piece that

101
00:05:08,800 --> 00:05:11,719
Speaker 1: I wrote, and it outlines precisely what those steps are

102
00:05:11,760 --> 00:05:14,680
Speaker 1: and also how it taps in with basic psychological needs

103
00:05:14,720 --> 00:05:17,400
Speaker 1: that kids have. And this is why it works because

104
00:05:17,839 --> 00:05:20,599
Speaker 1: it fulfills the need for connection. They're getting lots of

105
00:05:20,640 --> 00:05:22,560
Speaker 1: that when we wake them up nice and early and

106
00:05:22,600 --> 00:05:24,880
Speaker 1: spend time with them, but also as we say, hey,

107
00:05:24,920 --> 00:05:27,520
Speaker 1: how are you going? What help do you need? Which

108
00:05:27,560 --> 00:05:30,520
Speaker 1: is connection rather than where are your shoes? Why haven't

109
00:05:30,520 --> 00:05:31,960
Speaker 1: you done this, hurry up, we're going to be late,

110
00:05:32,000 --> 00:05:35,200
Speaker 1: which is correction and direction. So it meets that need

111
00:05:35,240 --> 00:05:38,120
Speaker 1: for connection. It satisfies the need for autonomy because they're

112
00:05:38,160 --> 00:05:40,520
Speaker 1: making lots of choices about what they're going to eat

113
00:05:40,760 --> 00:05:43,720
Speaker 1: or what they're going to do to make the morning work.

114
00:05:43,920 --> 00:05:47,640
Speaker 1: And it also satisfies a basic psychological need for what

115
00:05:47,720 --> 00:05:53,240
Speaker 1: research is called competence because they do it themselves. We

116
00:05:53,279 --> 00:05:55,960
Speaker 1: spend the time teaching them how to make their breakfasts,

117
00:05:55,960 --> 00:05:58,360
Speaker 1: how to scramble their eggs, how to pour milk onto

118
00:05:58,400 --> 00:06:01,640
Speaker 1: their week bics, and how to get their lunch organized,

119
00:06:01,680 --> 00:06:03,760
Speaker 1: which means that by the time they're about sort of

120
00:06:03,800 --> 00:06:06,360
Speaker 1: eight or nine years old, they're doing it all on

121
00:06:06,400 --> 00:06:09,239
Speaker 1: their own, which is just bliss for a parent who

122
00:06:09,800 --> 00:06:12,080
Speaker 1: is busy and tired and probably stayed up till late

123
00:06:12,120 --> 00:06:14,520
Speaker 1: the night before watching Netflix instead of remembering that their

124
00:06:14,560 --> 00:06:15,880
Speaker 1: morning began the night before as well.

125
00:06:16,760 --> 00:06:20,680
Speaker 2: I loved Justin's parenting advice, especially the tick and flick

126
00:06:20,760 --> 00:06:24,240
Speaker 2: process for my daughter. I remember I tried this for

127
00:06:24,320 --> 00:06:28,440
Speaker 2: a while and it worked like a dream. If you'd

128
00:06:28,520 --> 00:06:32,520
Speaker 2: like to dive deeper into Justin's Making Morning's Magic system,

129
00:06:32,720 --> 00:06:34,599
Speaker 2: follow the link in the show Notes to find his

130
00:06:34,760 --> 00:06:37,680
Speaker 2: New York Times article. And if you want to find

131
00:06:37,680 --> 00:06:40,039
Speaker 2: out how planning your day the night before can help

132
00:06:40,080 --> 00:06:42,599
Speaker 2: you in the office, listen to the previous episode of

133
00:06:42,640 --> 00:06:47,400
Speaker 2: this mini series with Laura May Martin as the listener

134
00:06:47,400 --> 00:06:49,800
Speaker 2: of How I Work. You've hopefully picked up a few

135
00:06:49,839 --> 00:06:52,400
Speaker 2: tips on this show to help you work better, But

136
00:06:52,520 --> 00:06:55,400
Speaker 2: do you want more? And maybe in a book form,

137
00:06:55,640 --> 00:06:58,440
Speaker 2: because let's face it, books are the most awesome thing

138
00:06:58,480 --> 00:07:03,040
Speaker 2: on the planet. Well, now you can. In my new book,

139
00:07:03,240 --> 00:07:06,760
Speaker 2: time Wise, I uncover a wealth of proven strategies that

140
00:07:06,960 --> 00:07:10,800
Speaker 2: anyone can use to improve their productivity, work, and lifestyle.

141
00:07:11,480 --> 00:07:14,080
Speaker 2: Time Wise brings together all of the gems that I've

142
00:07:14,120 --> 00:07:18,600
Speaker 2: learned from conversations with the world's greatest thinkers, including Adam Grant,

143
00:07:18,760 --> 00:07:22,640
Speaker 2: Dan Pink, Mia Friedman, and Turia Pitt and many many others.

144
00:07:23,360 --> 00:07:26,680
Speaker 2: Time Wise is launching on July five, but you can

145
00:07:26,760 --> 00:07:30,800
Speaker 2: preorder it now from Amantha dot com. And if you

146
00:07:30,920 --> 00:07:33,560
Speaker 2: pre order time Wise, I have a couple of bonuses.

147
00:07:33,680 --> 00:07:37,360
Speaker 2: View First, you'll receive an ebook that details my top

148
00:07:37,480 --> 00:07:42,800
Speaker 2: twenty favorite absence software for being time Wise with email, calendar, passwords, reading,

149
00:07:42,840 --> 00:07:46,920
Speaker 2: cooking ideas and more. You will also get a complementary

150
00:07:46,920 --> 00:07:49,760
Speaker 2: spot in a webinar that I'm running on June twenty nine,

151
00:07:50,040 --> 00:07:52,800
Speaker 2: where I will be sharing the tactics from time Wise

152
00:07:52,840 --> 00:07:55,800
Speaker 2: that I use most often, and also some bonus ones

153
00:07:55,800 --> 00:07:58,240
Speaker 2: that are not in the book that I use and love.

154
00:07:58,920 --> 00:08:02,520
Speaker 2: Hop onto a man dot com to pre order now.

155
00:08:03,680 --> 00:08:07,000
Speaker 2: How I Work is produced by Inventium with production support

156
00:08:07,040 --> 00:08:10,119
Speaker 2: from Dead Set Studios, and thank you to Matt Nimma

157
00:08:10,200 --> 00:08:12,880
Speaker 2: who does the audio mix for every episode and makes

158
00:08:12,920 --> 00:08:15,720
Speaker 2: everything sound so much better than it would have otherwise.

159
00:08:16,360 --> 00:08:17,160
Speaker 2: See you next time.