Morning Me Cannot Be Trusted: Six Things I Do the Night Before - podcast episode cover

Morning Me Cannot Be Trusted: Six Things I Do the Night Before

May 10, 202631 minSeason 2Ep. 9
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Episode description

Have you ever stood in the kitchen at 7:14am holding two odd shoes and a half-made sandwich, wondering whether it's Wednesday or Thursday? It’s no secret that I’m a hot mess. And mornings (and the 35,000 micro decisions we need to make by 9am) are always extra messy. 

So if you've ever been late to the meeting that mattered because morning-you wrote the wrong start time in your head, or your screen time number scares the shit out of you, or you've already snapped at someone you love before the day has even started, this one is for you. 

The secret? Stop trying to fix your morning. Fix your night. In this episode I share the six night-before rituals I follow, because morning me cannot be trusted. The handover document, the launchpad, and the toast I refuse to make.

In this episode:

- The day I was an hour late to the Steph Pase Planners Zoom that broke me — and the rules I made because of it

- 35,000 micro decisions by 9am: the science behind why your brain is exhausted before you've even started the day

- Ritual 1: Outfit prep with the labelled hangers (and the 6pm weather check)

- Ritual 2: Lunches 80% prepped (the alternative is the KFC drive-through, ask me how I know)

- Ritual 3: The launchpad + the life pouch (which was originally an SPP tech pouch I made)

- Ritual 4: Same brekkie every single day (overnight protein Whip-Bix because I hate toast)

- Ritual 5: The brain dump → handover document for your future self

- Ritual 6: The 15-minute increment alarm hack (and why "shaping" in psychology beats willpower)

- The two-step rule (pulled from S2E7): if it takes more than 2 steps, redesign it

Episode Links:

Shop the Life & Tech Organiser Pouch: https://www.stephpaseplanners.com.au/collections/tech-organiser-pouches 

Steph’s Amazon Storefront: https://www.amazon.com.au/shop/justanothermummyblog/list/17TTU785IMM53 

Follow Stephing Up

I’m Steph Pase, your (somewhat) organised bestie in your ears. This podcast is about growth that’s messy, building a life that actually fits you, and what happens when life doesn’t go to plan. We’ll talk mental health, motherhood, business, ADHD and how to stop being such an asshole to yourself.

New episodes drop every Monday morning.
So set your reminder. Pop in your headphones. Because we’re Stephing Up together.

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Stephing Up on Instagram: @stephing.up        

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Steph Pase on Youtube:  @stephpase.                

Shop Planners + Organisation: Steph Pase Planners    

Shop Steph’s book “Mastering my Messy Life”:    Penguin Books Australia 

 

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Transcript

Speaker 1

Thirty five thousand micro decisions by nine o'clock. Yeah, no, thanks. You don't realize how many decisions you make, just like, oh, has the kids done this?

Speaker 2

Have I done that?

Speaker 1

Like there's so many decisions you have to make every day and it's like, no, wonder why we're so exhausted. Hello, guys, and welcome back to Stepping Up. I am pumped for today's episode. I feel like I say that every week. But anyway, I'm very passionate about the things I talk about here obviously, but this is honestly, I feel like such a sore spot for everyone in life, Like think about you know, Freaky Friday, and you remember Lindsay Lohan and she has to be like literally dragged out of

bed and she's always running late. And then even like New York Minute, which you know that movie sparked my love of Planners Jane Ryan and Mary Kate Olsen was like one of the twins in that movie who also was just rushing around and just always like, I feel like mornings are just chaotic for everyone, even you know, before kids, my mornings, Like I've never been a morning person, to be honest with you, except until I got old and then I realized I would rather have less sleep

and have some alone time before my kids wake up, love them dearly, but yes, So today's episode is for those of you who feel like your morning's always a scramble. And these are the things I do the night before because mourning me cannot be trusted. Mourning me has a bad attitude usually, and she doesn't know what day of the week it is, or she knows is.

Speaker 2

She's got a lot of.

Speaker 1

Things to do that day, and she can wake up pretty overwhelmed. You know, morning Steph is feral. She loses her keys, she's trying to put one shoe on, and she's yelling out, where's my laptop? Things like that, Like, we don't. We're not going to listen to her. She's not the person we want to be calling the shots for the day. So I realized at one point I think I was running late for probably life in general,

let's be honest. I just remember the girls were little, and for me, I had a really important Zoom meeting that day and it was for I'm pretty sure it was for Stephe's planners. Anyway, I had to drop the girls off at daycare and I ended up being over an hour late to this meeting because I thought it start later than it did. And that was a massive wake up call for me, because you know, I might be a hot mess, but I one thing I try to be really protective of is you know, you know,

you want to be professional in business. You want to be professional, like it's your livelihood, you're providing fee family, And this morning it really did wake me up pun intended, and for me, that was the moment I was like, you know, I can't keep being reactive because when you think about it, when you are not prepped and planned, which you know I love this stuff. Planning is you know, it's great, but if you're not prepped, you're always going to be on the back foot. You're never going to

be on time, You're not going to feel calm. That is why we are so stressed. It's because we're being reactive. We haven't planned and prepped for the next day. And so once this happened on this particular morning, I realized I cannot rely on morning Steph anymore. So I need to think of my future self. And you know, you guys would have heard me say this a lot talking about my future self, and the more.

Speaker 2

You look after her the smooth your.

Speaker 1

Life is going to run like genuinely, But before I get in today's episode and give you all these amazing tips and hacks that I do the night before, because morning meat is a mess, a little bit of a life update. I have been trying to really, you know, like we create routines in our lives, but sometimes they don't you know, we outgrow them and they don't serve

us anymore. It's like, you know, when our kids are babies, they'll have a little nap routine and then in two or three weeks they're like, no, we're not doing this anymore and you have to change it up. And that's the same with life. Our life will change and what we want out of our life, maybe our goals change, maybe our working situations change, And if we keep trying to stick to the same routines that don't work, it's just not really serving us. So this is happening with

us right now. With the kids sleep, And when I was writing the book before that, I was quite strict.

Speaker 2

With the girl's sleep schedules.

Speaker 1

Not like I don't run the house like a military camp, but I really just know how important sleep is, and I try to, you know, really help the girls with their sleep schedules because I've always really struggled with my own sleep. I have been on sleep medication for as long as I can remember. I did manage to come off of it once when I went to like a health retreat which is in Queensland. It was amazing, and I'm aiming.

Speaker 2

To get back there.

Speaker 1

But I've always struggled with sleep since I was a kid. Now, Harper Order she is more like right, she's horizontal, she's out, she's pretty good, and I think she's very She's got a lot of energy. And Willow's a bit more like me. So trying to get both girls to get into a nighttime routine when they're very different, I realized it can't be cookie cutter for both. So I've been really like

playing around with their routines. And you know, there's a couple of rules that we have in the house because I am someone like if we cannot have the overhead lights on past six pm, I'm like, I don't even care if it's still bright outside, Like the overhead lights are not happening. So it's been a bit of a

kerfuffle at home lately with that. But the biggest things that have helped us with the girls in their sleep is we now after dinner, like making sure we're having dinner at five PM, which you know, if you don't have kids, maybe you think that's really really early, and yeah it is, but trust me, you need to do that. So we have at dinner at five and then after that, depending on how long they take to eat their dinner,

I'll usually just say like no more TV. And that is again because their brain is going to signal to their brain like okay, it's time. We're winding down, so we'll do coloring in and stuff like that, and they're playing their rooms and you know, the girls actually really love reading, which is great. I'm buying so many books, but I'm not mad about that. And the other thing is, as you guys know, I do I close the kitchen

like I do closing shifts. So we all know, every child gets really hungry and thirsty when it's time to go to bed, so I will let them know, and I will let them know ahead of time, like you know, you've got twenty minutes and the kitchen's closed. And I found with the girls especially, and i'd think kids with ADHD and people in general. It is good to kind of say you've got this much time and not just

say okay, you're done. Because I noticed when I say the girls, okay, you're done, like you're cut off, that's when they get really upset. So that's what's kind of been going on at home. If you guys want more updates on that, let me know. I could probably do an episode on this. I could do an episode on anything really, So that's what's going on. And speaking of nighttime routines, let's get into the things I do the

night before for morning me. Now, this was a hack I shared on Instagram a little while ago, and you guys loved it.

Speaker 2

So we all know I love planning.

Speaker 1

But what I do so hack number one or step number one, is I plan my outfits for the week, so I prep them for the week. Now what this looks like for me is I've got these little hangars. They're like little plastic hangers. You get them from Amazon, and I labeled them Monday to Friday, so only we'll

plan to Friday. And I have them on part of my hangar in my wardrobe and they're just there and I will put behind each little tag so say Monday, I'll have Monday's workoutfit or Monday's outfit, and also the gym outfit. Now why we do this, as I've talked about this before, is the micro decisions in the morning getting ready and trying to find an outfit for the day when you're already stressed and you're already running late. That's not a good combo. So for me, I really

like to be able to on Sunday. I will literally plan my outfits Monday to Friday, and of course like weather changes and things like that. Which is one of the extra tips I'll put in here is to always check the weather the night before, at like six pm, just in case you need to change you know, shorts to pants or adding a jacket and things like that.

Speaker 2

So now when I wake up in the morning, I don't have to think.

Speaker 1

I walk over to my little prepped outfit section and I go to the little tab that says the day, and I grab my clothes, And that honestly has changed my life. I do this also with the girls. So we have this hangar behind the door, and it has little pouches and it says Monday to Friday, and I will make sure they have clean uniforms in there, their socks, undies, their sports uniforms under the right day. And the girls also will wake up and they are not like, Mum,

where's my shorts, Mum, where's my skirt? But look, that still gonna happen from time to time. We are not perfect here. So prepping out outfits for the week for you and the kids, you need to get onto that. And you can even go so far as like say, if you like to change up your handbags, like having your handbag there, having your jewelry, like whatever you need to do to have the least amount of things to decide on in the morning.

Speaker 2

You need to do that.

Speaker 1

So yeah, again, I just got these little things from Amazon. I do have an Amazon storefront. If you guys want it, I'll pop it in the show notes if you want to. Again, that's an affiliate link, but you don't have to use it. And then I just use a label printer and that's how I get the labels on them.

Speaker 2

They're the best. Okay.

Speaker 1

Ritual Number two is I will have lunches eighty percent prepped for the next day. Now, I before kids, I always thought I'd be the mum who would have freshly baked soured.

Speaker 2

Okay, no, I never thought that.

Speaker 1

I did think I was going to prep their lunches fresh every single morning. And look, there will be times I will do that, but that's not really me. So what I do on a Sunday is I really like freezing wraps for the kids lunches. I feel like it's really easy and I just feel like they defrost better. And I would love to be the mom that you know preps their lunch fresh every morning, but it's not

going to happen all the time. So for me, I will make sure they have eighty percent of their lunch or one hundred percent of their lunch ready the night before. And this also counts for me because when I don't do this, I either am in the KFC drive through more times than I'd like to admit, or I get so busy I barely eat and that is even worse.

Speaker 2

So this is why we need to prep.

Speaker 1

So when I say prepped, I mean down to their water bottles and my own water bottle being filled up and.

Speaker 2

Where their stuff is.

Speaker 1

So like as I've said, I've talked about the launch pad before, the kids also have their own kind of school one, so they have their school bag, they have the jumper in their bag all the time, and even like down to having a little checklist of like do I have this in my bag? Like I love making like checklists and things if you can't tell, and having like a little checklist for your own kids that literally can be hung on the wall, doesn't have to be

fancy and to say do I have this? And you can have like a foat like pictures if you need it. Depending on how old your kids are, it could be a picture of like school heart, school jumper, lunch drink bottle, anything like that, and then they can go through it themselves. And like visual cues are so so important, Like think about when you go into a classroom, what's on the walls. It's visual cues of things they're learning, so then their

brain actually absorbs it. And it's kind of like as adults, we stop doing that, and then we wonder why we're so forgetful, and it's like we do need those visual cues every day. And I'm actually even making I've been playing around with like my skincare routine and stuff, and I do forget what nights I'm doing what because I'm kind of like.

Speaker 2

Into skin cycling at the moment.

Speaker 1

So if you haven't heard of that, basically night wine you exfoliate night to use like a retinol because you know it was born in nineteen ninety.

Speaker 2

And then night three and four is like recovery nights.

Speaker 1

And I forget what day I do what And yeah, I do like pop it in the planner, but when I'm in my bathroom, my plan is not with me, so I won't remember. So even down to me, I want to create like a cute little skincare menu and like laminate it and stick it up on the wall in my vent, like in my bathroom. Yeah, I'm a bit weird. So yeah, having visual cues for your family, which I guess is another tip in itself. It's not daycaresh, it's not preschoolish. I think it's something that we should

all do more of. And I would love to like just make ten plates for it and put it in a really cute frame, so you know, having lunch is packed the night before, even down to like I'll have mine, I'll prep our fruit and veg. I'll cut that up on a Sunday and during the week I'll do another lot on a Wednesday, so even down to having things cut up makes that easier. So instead of me having to shop it every single day, I'll grab some out of the container and chuck it in a little container

for them ready for school. And then when it comes to like their snacks for their lunches, we have a little basket in our pantry and they know this is like school approved snacks and they can grab like three or three or two or however many they want out of that and that is their snacks for the day. So also like that's really good for kids to kind of feel, you know, empowered and have like some autonomy with that, so feeling like you know, as a kid,

you just feel like everything's being decided for you. So I think I do notice a massive difference with my girls when it's like here's your options, you go for it, and again having their own checklist on the wall to be like have you got this? It makes them feel empowered, not like you know, you go then they go to school all day and they've been told what to do.

Speaker 2

So I think that's a really good step to do because I.

Speaker 1

Can't actually tell you it's been more than one time that when I haven't done this, I might be okay, not might be.

Speaker 2

This is what happened. I was taking the kids to school and Harper was like, mum, my lunch isn't in here.

Speaker 1

And I realized I hadn't even made her lunch and they had Subway for lunch. But less you say, the kids were pretty jealous. Subway is awesome, But that's happened more times than I'd like to admit. Now, this next one is kind of tied into the last one. I was saying, it's having everything at the front door. Now, I've talked about the launch pad before, which is having everything you could possibly need in one section near where

you're exiting from your house. So I'm talking filled up drink bottles, I'm talking keys, the form that you need to take to that appointment that day, that's filled in and that's.

Speaker 2

There like your life pouch.

Speaker 1

Everything is there, and that means you're not going to be forgetting things. So when you think about it, already, from these tips, I've already just told you you've woken up. Your outfit is picked for you, the lunches are done and picked for you. Everything you need to take out your door is there and put together for you. This is being proactive and allowing your brain to have a second in the morning. Now if you're sitting there wondering like okay, steph, well that sounds great. I want to

do this launch pad thing. I want to have all of this set up, but I have like no storage at my exit, my entryway or whatever. It honestly is so so simple. Like I remember in our old house, I grabbed a little shoe like seat thing for the front door. So I grabbed one of them from Kmart. It was just like, yeah, like a little bench seat that you sit on while you put your shoes on, but underneath a shelf where you have your shoes. And then I literally got some of my keya hooks and

I popped them on the wall. And then I got like a little side table and there was like you know, the little tray for your keys and things like that. Like you don't have to have all this like custom cabinet tree and stuff like, just grab a couple of bits and pieces. Even if for you your launch pad is in the kitchen on the bench and that is

where everything is placed. And even down to having like you know, your paneled ale, your medication, like your pens AirPods, everything already in your life pouch, which if you guys don't know what that is, it's it's actually it was actually a tech pouch, and it was basically this cute little product I made for Steph face planners, and it was meant to just be for like organizing your tech and your cables. But I loved it so much that now it's my life pouch and it comes with me everywhere.

So having your version of that or whatever and having that altogether. But you don't have to spend money to set these systems up, like you really really don't even down to like mail systems. You don't have to have like a little pigeonhole shelf for anything, Like I got this.

Speaker 2

It's a magazine.

Speaker 1

Holder, and I put it on the wall and it's just I got some labels and we pop that up like it's You can make it so budget friendly, all right. So the next thing I do the night before for morning me is I will always have the same breakfast every single day. Again, this comes down to having less decisions to make, and for me this is made even easier because I actually make overnight protein wikbis. Now I know you guys would know about the overnight oats and

that type of thing. So I do overnight Witbicks because it's like gluten free, and I had overnight oats. I feel like I had them for like twelve years, so kind of got over it. So I just get the gluten free. It's like a coconut flavored Whitbicks. And I have these little cute jars I got from Amazon. Has like a little spoon in the side. So even if I can't eat it at home, I can grab this out of the fridge. It's got the spoon with it, and I can chuck it in my bag and I

can go and then I can eat it. So I will prep these three to four days ahead of time. You can prep this and also put it in the freezer. I just like to prep it in the fridge. But my rule of thumb, Now, look, this is just what I think. I'm not going to tell you. You know that this is one hundred percent accurate, so proceed with your own risk. I will prep youah three days in the fridge generally for pretty much anything like anything, So

any type of lunch I prep. If I make my Mexican beef, any of those meals, I will let it sit in the fridge for three days before I feel like I can't eat it anymore, and then after that it will go in the freezer.

Speaker 2

So yeah, I get the Whitbicks.

Speaker 1

I put like two of them in this jar, and then I put in my protein powder. I use like the naked Harvest. I think it's called New Harvest now sorry, it's like their bisc of flavor.

Speaker 2

I think it's caramel biscuit.

Speaker 1

It's so yum, So I put that in there, and then I use this other collagen. Chuck that in there, and I'll put my arm and milk and I always put a fair bit and then you mix it really really well. I will chuck in frozen blueberries because by the time they defrost it is so yummy, and I pop the lid on, put the spoon in there, and then I chuck it in the fridge. And it's so cute because Ryan has it too. But the girls actually love it as well, and they'll make their own, like

overnight Whitbicks or overnight oats. They're actually into the oats more. But that's another idea for you and the kids. Like instead of having to ploody, I don't know about you guys, but I hate making toast. I hate toast, like I having to like put it in the toaster and then you got to make the butter all good, get the vegeto might cut the cruster. Oh my god, I hate it. I wish I had a hack for that. If you guys have a hack for that, let me know, because I hate it very much.

Speaker 2

Anyway.

Speaker 1

So if your kids are happy to have overnight oats and get like a kid friendly protein or whatever, go for it. Like that's so much easier. And you know, you could even get this down to For me. I love an ic latte, so instead of having to run the coffee machine and get the expresso shot, I'll do a few and I'll pop that in the fridge and then at least it's cold as well.

Speaker 2

So prep whatever.

Speaker 1

You can put your coffee machine on auto, like whatever you can do so you can just literally walk through your house and grab all the things and go your set. There was even research done at the Western Reserve University and that showed that decision making uses the same mental

resource as self control. So every micro decision like what to wear, what to eat, what cup to use, depletes that resource so by nine am, neurotypical people have made thirty five thousand micro decisions, and ADHD brains process each one with more effort because our executive function has to work harder to filter, prioritize, and choose thirty five thousand micro decisions by nine o'clock.

Speaker 2

Yeah, no thanks.

Speaker 1

It's true though, Like you literally you don't realize how many decisions you make. Yeah, even down to opening the drawer, grabbing the spoon that you like. It's like me, I always have the one spoon I always use, just like, oh, has the kids done this?

Speaker 2

Have I done that?

Speaker 1

Like, there's all so many decisions you have to make every day, and it's like, no, wonder why we're so exhausted, and especially like you know what I was seeking the other day, why is it that us Like now that I'm like thirty five, I'm just so I feel like

I'm more forgetful, more tired. And yes, I've got kids and all the businesses and that, but it's also I do feel like, and I'm not trying to generalize here, but I do feel like there's so many more decisions you have to make every day as you get older with the kids. That's like you're running other people's lives on top of your own, and it's hard enough to run your own like it's and you got to keep everyone alive and stuff and keep yourself alive, like no

one we're so tired. So the easier you can make it the better. Now a little hack with this, if you're someone that doesn't like to eat the same breakfast every morning, put on like a bit of a rotation schedule.

Speaker 2

Maybe eat you know, overnight.

Speaker 1

Wibis one week, then the next week, have something else like you can make even like breakfast bars, even if you need to portion your cereal into the bowl or into containers beforehand, do that. Like with me, I am really bad with taking my supplements, so I have a natural path among bean health she's amazing. And I'm really really bad at taking the powders. And for me, I realize it's because I have to open the lid, get a teaspoon and shovel it out and then do that.

So again it's the extra steps. And I did talk about this in my eight Weird Systems for my ADHD, and one of the things was if it's more than two steps, redesign it.

Speaker 2

And that comes with this.

Speaker 1

So what I did for this is, you know when they're baby, like your kids are babies, you get the little formula containers and there's little sections and you twist it and then you can take the lid off and you pour it in. I did that with my my supplement powders, so I would portion them into this formula thin and then every morning, all I have to do is open the lid and put it in in the

in a cup. So it went from having opening the lid, getting the tea spoon out, portioning that into the cup, blah blah blah blah blah, to me opening a lid. So that's what I'm talking about with redesigning your life. Simplify the steps, use formula containers, do what you have to do to survive. The next thing I do at night for my future self is I will write any lists or brain dumps or ideas that night, So the night before, because I am the first to admit thinking

that I will remember the things. It's like, you know when you get a really good idea or you like, remember, oh I got to do that two seconds later, that will be gone from my brain. My brain is full, So my brain's mdfile is full. If you guys are into AI, you would know what I'm talking about. So when I'm finishing up my workday or even like anything with the kids, I will just even if it doesn't even make sense to other people, I will brain dump that for the next day so when I wake up

the next day, I know where we left off. It's like a handover. Think of it literally as a handover. It's your handover to your future self, Like, Okay, this is what the things you have to do tomorrow, here's your process, here's your list. Go with it because think about it, like I know for myself as a business owner, I've hired staff and if I haven't got a handover prepped, it is a scramble because you're like, quick, We've got to get them.

Speaker 2

Miss got to get them that.

Speaker 1

Because think about how much more efficient this new staff member is going to be at getting those tasks done if they have a handover document. This is your future self's handover document, so they can get the things done. So they know I do have to go to the post office on the way to school because if I don't, my past was going to get sent back. Things like that, And also in the morning, everything does feel urgent. I struggle really bad with prioritization. That's why I created the

framework in my planners. That is a bit of a process, like I get everyone to brain dump their tasks and then I make them look at the most important ones. But there's all these different questions and things you can do to help figure out what's important. And when you're in your morning state, the way your brain is, everything is going to feel urgent more so feel someone like me.

So if you are you know already, if you've already planned that out for future you, you are going to wake up so much more clearer and you're like, Okay, these are my top three and my quick three.

Speaker 2

These are the things I need to do.

Speaker 1

If you guys don't know what the top three quick three is, make sure you listen to I think it might be next week's episode. Maybe it's how I plan my week, but it's like your top three things for the day, and that's all you have to do. And that's going to allow you not only to be less stressed to be, but be more present, more present with your kids and your family and actually maybe take the longer route to work, maybe go for a walk and actually just like live your life and not like what

they say. You're a human being, not a human doing, and we forget that. So for you, this could literally look like every afternoon, you have an alarm set that's labeled that says plan a check. You go into your planner and you right your top three and you quick three for the next morning. This is all about external prioritization and it's not carrying it in your brain anymore, so you don't have that mental load.

Speaker 2

Now. My final ritual and this is more like it's more like a tip or a hack.

Speaker 1

And this is for those of you who are maybe trying to get more sleep, trying to get up earlier. This is my hack that changed my life to help me, you know starkting up at five o'clock a long time ago. A lot of people tend to, you know, decide, okay, I want to get up at five o'clock from now on, and what they do is they will just set their alarm for five o'clock in the morning. So when five o'clock rolls around, the alarm goes off and you're like, all the shit, I don't want to do this, and

you know, you get up some I'm okay. Twenty percent of us might get up and by lunch you were cooked. You are so tired, and you're like, why did I do this? I hate this? And you give up the next day. Does that sound familiar? And that is because you haven't given your body body clock time to adjust. You've just gone it could be like an hour earlier you're trying to get up. So what I do is I will only set my alarm earlier for fifteen minutes,

fifteen minutes earlier. So say I was getting up at six, I'm now going to be getting up at five forty five. And the one thing I do that makes this work is when that alarm goes off, I say to myself, it's only fifteen minutes. It's fifteen minutes, step get up. And I do that for a week, and then the next week I'll set it for another fifteen minutes earlier, and then it's five point thirty and I do the same thing, and my body has now had time to gradually adjust. So when I do in a month, or

you could do this over a couple of days. You could do the fifteen minute increments every two or three days, but make sure you're giving your body time to adjust, so in a month or even a couple of weeks, you're now getting up an hour earlier and you're not a potato by lunchtime. That was just a game changer for me because I am someone I'm very much like all or nothing, go big or go home, and I usually go home, So just just chill like and it's

great to be ambitious, but I'm the same. I can be so ambitious, but to a fault, And it's like, why are we so hard on ourselves and why are we trying to take such big steps to get to these goals when we really need to bridge the gap.

Speaker 2

A little bit.

Speaker 1

Like I talk about with the ten k step thing, I was never even close to hitting ten k steps in the afternoon, So what did I do. I reduced my goal to eight case steps, So when three o'clock hit, I was like, oh, I could just go for a walk, and then I'm nearly there. So I was actually hitting

that goal and I'm bridging the gap. So I'd rather be someone hitting eight k steps a day than someone that's giving up and only hitting four k. Like it all counts now when it comes to the fifteen minute increment, bedtime hack.

Speaker 2

There's actually science behind this, of course.

Speaker 1

Now this is called shaping in psychology, and basically it's research that shows that gradually adjusting behavior in tiny increments is dramatically more effective than demanding large changes because your brain accepts the small shifts, but when there's a large one, your brain is like, I'm out, it's done. And it also comes down to how I said. You know, our

brain likes the familiar. It likes what it knows because it knows the outcome, and it knows the outcome is safe, even if the things you are doing aren't good for you. So if you're trying to do such drastic changes in your life, your brain's alarm bells are going to go off unless you kind of tone it back a little bit and do the smaller increments, do the fifteen minutes earlier. So your brain's like, oh no, we're not being chased by a bear.

Speaker 2

We're just getting up earlier.

Speaker 1

And again, like it was sleep researchers like your cycadian rhythm. It's not gonna lie like you changing things that dramatically. So even on a scientifical level, sorry, a scientifical oh my god, it's not even a word. Oh I've only had like half a coffee today anyway. So on a like physiological level, yeah, it's not sciences.

Speaker 2

I don't know. Oh my god.

Speaker 1

On a biological level, our body is going to be better off. So you're working with your psychology of your

brain resistance, but also your biological levels as well. And to make this even easier for you, you do need to be prompted sometimes to start winding down because if aen you think about it, you're doing the closing shift, you're getting the kids to bed, you're probably scrolling on TikTok, let's be honest, but sometimes we do need prompts to be like, hey, it's time to wind down, because you're not going to then expect yourself to fall asleep that much faster.

Speaker 2

And yeah, your body will gradually adjust because.

Speaker 1

You're getting up fifteen minutes earlier. But unless you're prompting yourself to start winding down, maybe put your phone away, read a book, whatever you want to do, then you're going to still be going to sleep too late.

Speaker 2

So kind of prompt yourself as well.

Speaker 1

You know, we spend so much time trying to be in the morning, and like we really do when you think of being productive and habits, you do tend to think of your morning routine first. But what if that's where we've been going wrong this whole time. What if it's the night routine that we need to be focusing on so our morning routine then runs smoother.

Speaker 2

And for me that was the case. So if you are a.

Speaker 1

Bloody hot mess and your morning's are a shit show, start focusing on your night routine first.

Speaker 2

I hope you guys love this episode.

Speaker 1

And if you can take one thing from all of these tips and tricks is just do one thing tonight to set yourself up for tomorrow. You don't have to then go home now and bloody go on Amazon and get all your outfits prepped and have your breakfast done and all the things I said. Just do one thing, even if it's writing a handover list for future you, because that is going to like literally change the game. And remember what I said, We're doing small, tiny increments

to change, not the big scary steps. And as you guys know, my book Mastering My Massy Life has literally I have chapters on this stuff. I literally lay out how much of a mess I was. I was worse than Lindsay Lohan and Mary Kate Olson. And this is all in my book and I talk about all the ways that I managed to work with my brain than against it. Anyways, as always, please share this episode with someone that would need it, and please subscribe to the show.

And I love seeing you guys. Tag us on Instagram. I love seeing you guys, just like implementing all these things. It makes me so happy. But please remember, yes, I am giving you all these tips and tricks, but you don't have to do all of them. I want you to take like I literally would rather you start one thing at a time, one thing at a time, one day at a time. Anyways, I love you, guys, and I will be back in your ears next Monday.

Speaker 2

Bye.

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