Speaker 1: Do you feel like you're just surviving and you're not thriving, you're just living an automated life, you're just kind of going through the motion, you're not actually enjoying the state that you're in, you're just kind of waiting for the next thing, what's the next career move, what do I, what happens when I finish my degree, what happens next month, what am I doing next year, that's the state that you're in, so you're just surviving, you're not necessarily enjoying the now and before you know it you've hit your 30s, you've hit your mid 20s, you're now having a kid and you haven't actually enjoyed any of the moments that have got you to this point. In today's video I want to tell you how you can thrive and not just survive using some tips that I have really kind of tried to make sure that I have picked up on in the last couple of years especially since the pandemic where like I'm sure all of us can say that we all woke up a little bit, we realized that we were just in this cycle, we were just in this kind of trance where we're waking up in the morning, going on, you know, going on a commute, doing our nine to five, getting back from work, repeat every single day. And it took a whole pandemic to force us to just to slow down and think about the things that we actually enjoy. Being at home for some of us, it was a year, it was like almost two years, like being at home, having to work from home, and having to really ask yourself, what do I want to do? Like, I have a lot more free time. What do I want to do with that free time? Like, what is it that I actually enjoy? Do I even like myself? Like, am I someone who can work for myself, on myself, like, with my own routine? These are questions that we were asking ourselves, and a lot of us realize that we don't even know what we actually enjoy, because we're not thriving. Like, we're just going by a routine that has been set to us by somebody else. Like this is not our routine. We are not living on our terms. And I think that's so important. And I really came to realise this during the pandemic. And at the time I also had a major life shift because I had a child, my first child. So there was a combination of, I was off work for the first time ever. Like I've never taken a break since I was four years old and entered education. I have gone back to back from education to education. my master's, my PhD, my post-grad teaching qualification. Then I went straight into work a month later and then I had a kid. This was the first time in my life where I had a whole year to myself, a whole year. And newborns are pretty simple, apart from the whole waking up at night. In the daytime, they're just on the floor moving around. They nap for most of, there was a point where I had to search on Google, Is it normal for my newborn to sleep for like 16 hours a day? Because I was just like, is this what they do? They just sleep. And I just found myself with so much time in my hands and I just didn't know what to do with it. That is where my productivity kind of stemmed from and where I realized that I need to put structures in place to help me thrive. The first thing that I did was I really tried to prioritize my wellbeing. I told myself that you need to sleep well, you need to eat well, and you need to be active every single day. And I was always, you know, I was quite active. Living in London, you're running around everywhere, like you can do 10,000 steps in London without even trying. But I told myself, you need to be really kind of explicit about activity in your life. You need to make sure that you are chasing those health goals that you want to reach, especially after having a child. You need to make sure that you're sleeping well. Again, these are all really difficult to do when you have a child, but it is important to try to be mindful about getting enough sleep, getting the right nutrition in and also making sure that you're being active because when we think about thriving, a lot of the time we're thinking about a lifestyle change or like where we can travel to or how much money we can make, but if we're not okay in our body and in our health, then nothing else matters. Like it all stems there. It all stems from being healthy in the inside and feeling good in the inside to be able to have a morning routine. Like I'm filming right now and it's 8 a.m. The only reason why I'm fresh, I'm awake, I'm smiling is because I had a good night's sleep. And I wouldn't have had a good night's sleep if I didn't put myself in a routine where I'm not scrolling endlessly all night, I'm not up late, and I have a continual routine that means that I can wake up in the morning and I can be fresh, and I can start the day feeling great about myself. The next thing that I did was I really tried to think about time management techniques. Again, remembering that I had a child when I was trying to set up my productivity, And so I made sure that I had really effective time management. So things like time blocking when I could, things like not multitasking, so not trying to do two things at the same time. And the thing that was most important to me was using the two minute rule. This is where you just say to yourself, right, I've got an hour right now, or I've got half an hour. I am just going to start this task for two minutes. And the biggest issue that I found, like for myself anyway, was just getting started. That was so difficult for me just getting the beginning part like I just have to think like I'm not ready It takes me ages to do this. It's gonna take me so long I won't have time baby's gonna wake up, but I told myself just start just give yourself two minutes to begin Start on the task and nine times out of ten when you've started two minutes You will continue on for at least 10 minutes 20 minutes 30 minutes like you'll get so sucked in that you don't want to stop. So the two-minute rule worked so well for me here. And I made sure that I was focusing on high-impact tasks. Are you just selecting the easiest thing to do? Like most of us look at our to-do list and we just say, right, I'm gonna go for the easiest thing. I'm gonna go for the thing that is the least effort, the thing that I know that I can do. But the problem with that is if you're not selecting the most impactful task, your to-do list is still waiting for you, right? And this is the problem. We are choosing things to do that aren't actually impactful towards getting to our goals. If you say that you have a goal and you want to reach your goal, but you're not actively working towards that goal, you won't reach it. And that's just me being blunt. You will not reach your goal if you're not actively working towards your goal. And if you're choosing tasks like booking an appointment, like doing random things, cleaning, those are not things that are going to help you work towards your goal. Yes, they'll help you pass your time, but you are not being productive. You're not thriving. You're just surviving. You're just doing things to keep yourself busy. You're not actually working towards what you actually want, and that's going to help you change your lifestyle in the long run. You want to create a really strong morning routine. Your morning routine will make or break your day. A lot of us wake up in the morning, we scroll on the phone, we spend hours just kind of looking at other people's perfect lives. Then we're already in this mood where we're thinking, right, I don't have that, I have this, I need that. Like, we're already there in the morning. So how can you now say or expect that your day will be good if that's how you've begun your day? It's so anti-productive and it's such a bad way to start. Starting your morning late, starting it without a plan, starting it without knowing what you're actually going to do, without being prepared, without a to-do list, without having planned the night before, like you're already setting yourself up for failure. And having a consistent morning routine just means that you're able to replicate that every day. It means that you'll start on a positive. So some things that I like to do in the morning is I like to go to the gym, or even just get some movement if it just means going for a walk, if that just means stretching, like anything that means that you're getting some movement in is really, really effective. The second thing that I always do is I always try to just think about what goals do I want to achieve today? Like what are the two things that I really want to achieve today? If your to-do list is as long as your arm, it's, you're not, you're not going to do it. Like you're already setting yourself up for failure and that is the biggest problem. Giving yourself two tasks that you want to achieve today and just kind of sticking to those two. If you can get them done, fantastic, that would be perfect. And then you can move on to the second ones. But then if you can't get them done, you can also reassess and ask yourself, why have I not been able to complete these tasks today? What is it about those tasks that did not enable me to have a productive day? And reassess for tomorrow. You want to set really clear goals. And going back to what I said about having goals and kind of building your to-do list based on it, it's really important to have clear goals. A good goal is one that you can very easily measure. So there's something called SMART goals. So it's a goal that you can very easily measure. It's a goal that has a time to it. So you'll be able to complete that goal by this date. It's a goal that is clear to you, to someone who can, from the outside, so you have accountability. And it's something that you can actually achieve. An ambitious goal would be for me to say, I want to make a million pounds this year. That's super ambitious, but it isn't realistic, right? Like I could probably say I could make 500,000. That would be something realistic, but obviously it's a push, but it's realistic. But saying I can make a million is unachievable, I think, at this stage. But it sets me up for failure because if I don't reach that goal, I'll feel bad in myself. It needs to be a goal that you can achieve with some level of effort, of course. This one, you're not going to like, but learn to say no. I learned to say no a little while ago now, like a good while ago. I think, again, becoming a mother really changes you because it really helps you refocus your priorities. I'm not going to go out with a friend when my baby's at home, you know? Like, I'm gonna say no. I'm not going to take on work for free and stay at work till 9 p.m. without being paid overtime when my baby's at home. Like, there's clear priorities here. So I have had to learn to say no, and it has done me the world of good. I've said no to deals, I've said no to campaigns that will pay me thousands of pounds just because it didn't align with my values, or the timeline was too quick, or it just didn't work for me. And I think it's really important to learn to say no and learn to have authority in saying no. It's such a powerful skill, I would say, to have. A lot of us can't say no, because we've grown up saying yes to our friends, to our family, and we've never been in a position where we can say no to money or no to an opportunity, but sometimes it just doesn't serve you. Sometimes saying no means that you'll be able to prioritize what is actually important to you. So you're saying no to this opportunity, but you're actually working on a longer term goal that yes, might not bring you money today, but you know that you're working towards something that's valuable to you, that's valuable to yourself your long-term future and your goals. Something else I've done a lot this year especially and last year is thinking about automation and how much can I automate my life. I realised that passive income and having a more passive lifestyle that's bringing you financial freedom is the key and the only way to be able to do this is to really think about how much you can automate, how much can you kind of take away from yourself. The fact that with a 9-5 you have to exchange your time, yourself, your availability for money that is not passive that's active income and that's what you want to try to reduce. Now what does it mean for the average person that maybe yes you have a 9-5 job and you enjoy it. There are other things and other ways that you can automate. Let's say for example you're trying to start your social media and you want to start a business online or start a brand, you can use an app or a tool called for example ManyChat or Later and these are scheduling tools. These are really cool tools because they allow you to schedule in advance and plan in advance and then it looks like you're being active online on social media every single day when actually you've just been smart and you've automated a little bit. And I think when you look at the people that are really successful online, you don't realise that they're not posting every single day. They're not active every single day on their phones. A lot of them have just used scheduling tools, which makes it look like they're posting every single day. But actually, they have simply just put their content, batch filmed their content, and put their content online to be put out every single day for you. So just a top tip, you do not have to be online and active and stuck and glued and chronically online, you can have a balance using scheduling tools and automating parts of your life. The last thing that I wanted to mention is that you want to focus on quality and not quantity and I think this is the case with a lot of things in life in general. You really want to make sure that your day is filled with tasks that have quality and that will lead you closer to your goals than doing lots of tasks sporadically. Do you find yourself going from here to here to here and just like kind of picking up random things and then by the end of the day you still don't feel accomplished? There's a reason why you don't feel accomplished and it's because you actually haven't accomplished. You've just kept yourself busy with petty things, with small things that yes they're on your to-do list but they're not helping you reach your goals. So take another look at what it is that you want to achieve and ask yourself right, have I set myself up with tasks that will help me achieve my goals? Am I focusing on quantity? It's okay if all I do today is design a logo because that's quality, that's going to help me launch my brand. It doesn't matter if it's just one thing, it's better than running around and doing a thousand things and I find myself in this position a lot sometimes because I find myself overwhelmed by how many tasks it is that I need to complete and then I have to kind of remind myself okay yes you have to complete all of these tasks but which one is the most important right now which one is going to push you towards your goal and that is how I have to kind of find a way to make things work where I'm focusing on the quality of what it is that I do than the quantity. I hope this video was helpful I really wanted to help you find ways in your life to thrive and not just survive and I thought, let me pick out the top eight, nine productivity tips that I have really embedded into my lifestyle that I have to actually think about it. I have to actually say, what is it that I do? Like, what are the tips that I embed into my everyday life? And then bring that out to find ways that we can help each other. But yeah, if you found this video helpful, let me know and I'll see you in my next one. Bye.