Annie:
Welcome to the Whole Assistant Podcast. I'm your host, Annie Croner. I'm a former assistant who's passionate about our profession, and I'm also a certified coach who's invested in your success. You've come to the right place if you want to know what it looks like to stand in your power and achieve success as an assistant from overwhelm and burnout. Now on to today's episode. Welcome to another episode. Before I get started on Life hacks, I do want to share about a special thing that I'm going to be hosting next Thursday, September 12. So for those of you who are on my waitlist for the leveled up assistant.
Annie:
The Leveled-up Assistant, by the way, is my premier group training and coaching program to help you level up and embrace your bad assery as a strategic business partner. So you're going to become a more strategic business partner. You are going to stand in your power. You're going to figure out what you want those parameters to look like. And also, it's just my goal that you all know what your superpower is. And that program is going to be opening up later on this month. And for those on my waitlist, I'm hosting a special happy hour event next Thursday, September 12. You are not going to want to miss it, but this is only for those on my waitlist.
Annie:
So if you want to register for the waitlist, go to wholeassistant.com/levelup. Wholeassistant.com/levelup all one word. This is going to be such a fun event. I'm going to give away one free registration for the leveled up assistant. I have never done this before, guys. I've never given away a free registration, and I'm also going to give a special discount to those on my waitlist as well. So you definitely want to be on the waitlist. You're getting exclusive freebies, you're going to get exclusive content, and you also get an exclusive happy hour event with me.
Annie:
So please be sure to register, go to wholeassistant.com levelup and sign up for my waitlist. And then I'm going to be emailing you all shortly about the event next Thursday, September 12. Okay, on to today's topic. So we are right in the middle of a three part series on hacks. Last week I shared my favorite hacks for your brain, how to manage your brain, how to manage different situations, and some helpful thoughts that I have found helpful, as have my clients around certain issues and things that come up in our work lives as well as our lives in general. And today I'm sharing life hacks and these life hacks are meant to streamline everything. And I am a big fan of what I'm about to share because these things have helped me focus on the things that are most important to me. And so I'm just going to share with you things that I've implemented in my own personal life as I was thinking about this episode that hopefully will help you as well.
Annie:
The first hack I'm going to share with you guys today is to set out your clothes the night before. I realize that this is an extremely simple thing, but I'm a huge fan of making decisions in advance and setting out your clothes the night before is a great way to not have to think about what you're going to wear the next day. So typically, if I'm working out the next day, I will set out my workout clothes. I walk up to a coffee shop a mile away in the mornings and I'm there when it opens. And then I walk back to my house every other day or at least twice a week I do this and it's a great way for me to relax and to exercise at the same time and to have some me time in the morning. I am definitely a morning person, so I love my early morning walks. I also love now that it's getting crisp and cool, I love being cozy in my sweatshirt and walking down to the coffee shop. I get 2 miles in before my family's even up.
Annie:
I love it. And how I do it is I set out my clothes in advance and I like this too, because it also sets my intention for the day. It sets my intention for how I'm going to spend my time and it also solidifies in my brain what my morning is going to look like. I also set out my work clothes. I have done this for as long as I can remember. I think I don't like picking out an outfit the morning of. I just tend to get caught up in all the options, whereas in the evening it's really easy and seamless for me. I'm not quite sure why that is, but it just is what it is.
Annie:
So I pick out my work clothes in the evening, I set them out for the next day. It's just a great strategy for me to make sure that I'm setting myself up for success for the next day. Now, another thing I like to do is meal planning. And I've been trying to do this more and more regularly, especially as I have had more of a focus on my health where I plan out in advance what I'm planning on eating. I have a Trello board with my meal plan on it for the week, and generally Saturday or Sunday I'll sit down and I'll write out my meals for the week. I generally create my meals in advance for my lunch anyway. And I have been doing protein shakes or a green smoothie for breakfast in the morning. So I'm a real fan of sheet meals and especially roasted vegetables.
Annie:
I try to get a lot of variety of vegetables and fruits into my diet and this is a great way for me to do that. So I'll prep those on a Sunday and then I will plan out my meals in advance on my Trello board. Now, I am not perfect at this, not even close, but it's something I'm striving to do just to make sure that I'm making intentional choices. And I find that the more in advance we can make our decisions, the better and the more intentional our decisions tend to be. So when it comes to my meals and what I put in my mouth, I genuinely like to plan them out. And it also takes away the guesswork of what I'm going to have for lunch the next day or what I'm going to have for my meals the next day. And sometimes my brain will offer lots of drama. And I just reminded that the decision has already been made and that I can plan for the thing that I actually want to eat in the moment.
Annie:
I can plan that for the next day. And then the time comes for me to look at my schedule for the next day and look at my meals for the next day. And I'm kind of past it. That urge has passed. That's just another thing to be aware of. It kind of brings to light those urges that we have, especially with food. Another thing that I like to do is I like to prep well in advance. So there again, I prep those meals, especially my lunches on Sundays.
Annie:
And then I prep my protein shake or my smoothie in advance as well. I have a nice blendtec blender that I like to make my smoothies in. And I'll put my chia seeds and everything that I'm gonna put in my smoothie minus like the fresh produce. I'll put that into my blender well in advance so that when I come downstairs and it's sitting on my counter, it streamlines it. I don't have to think about what I'm going to eat because I've already prepped that smoothie and I just find that I am able to stay on track more with what I'm intentionally choosing to put in my body as opposed to coming downstairs super hungry and making myself a sandwich and chips, which I do from time to time anyway. But I try to make intentional choices and I feel that making decisions in advance, or I found that making decisions in advance, rather, is my best shot at actually making those intentional choices for me and my body. So another hack that I like to do are evening showers. I know that a lot of us are morning shower people, but not me.
Annie:
I like to get up and I like to hit the ground running. I like to either work out first thing in the morning, go for my walk first thing in the morning, or even sit down and do some writing early in the morning before my kids and my family are up. The reason I like to be up so early is because it's my time for myself. And I found that evening showers make the mornings go so much more smoothly and I'm actually able to hit the ground running even more if I'm taking an evening shower. Another thing I love about evening showers is that it's a great calming effect on me and on my body and on my muscles. And it's a great way for my body to relax in the evenings and also for me to get out from behind my tv or in front of my tv. Right, because we're sitting there watching tv and then we go to bed. And so I just love a good evening shower and I've just found that it streams streamlines my day the next day.
Annie:
And it also is a really relaxing, calming thing to do at night. The next hack is one that I would recommend for everyone who wants to spend more quality time with someone and that is leaving your phone in a different room. So my husband and I hang out in the evenings after we put our kids down. Up until our kids are down, we are constantly interrupted. Even if we try and have a conversation, we're constantly interrupted by mommy, mommy, daddy, daddy, and playing with our children and all of that. So we have just found that leaving your phone in a different room is a great way to connect, and it certainly is for my husband and I. And we have been enjoying our front porch so much. We've got some nice furniture on our front porch and we enjoy sitting out there after we put our kids down.
Annie:
And I'm loving doing that during the summer and I will into the fall as well. And then winter is going to come, it's going to be super cold and we won't be able to sit on our front porch. But typically we will play a game in the evenings or even just cuddle up in front of the television and watch one of our favorite shows. And I find that leaving your phone in another room is a great way to be intentional about time with someone and a great way to not be distracted. I think that many of us have trained ourselves to grab for our phone whenever there's downtime, to grab for our phone whenever there's a lull in conversation or I even just out of curiosity of what's going on. And so leaving your phone in a different room is great way to be intentional about actually connecting and not being on your devices all the time. The next hack I'm going to share is something that is very, very simple, but I have found to be very profound for me, and that is to have a place for your keys. I don't lose my things typically, but I do like to have one place for my keys.
Annie:
And prior to having one place for my keys, it could have been in a variety of different bags. They could have been on the counter in my kitchen. They could have been on this table by my entryway. And it's just not a helpful thing to have more than one place for your keys. So now we've got, hanging by our back door, a key hook. And it's very simple and it's very straightforward. But I love my key hook, and I love knowing exactly where my keys are going to be because I have trained myself to put my keys exactly where they go on the hook every single time I enter our home. And that way I'm not left looking for them when I've got a 15 year old, a four year old, and a two year old wanting to leave the house for school, and I don't know where my keys are.
Annie:
So I really think that that is a great hack to have. If you do not have a key spot in your house or a key hook near your door, I highly recommend doing that. I know it's a very simple hack, but it's definitely one that has served me well. And last but not least, on today's life hacks, or the life hacks that have helped me streamline my life are freezer meals, especially as we enter the fall season. So there are certain people out there, there are certain influencers out there who actually make freezer meal plans for a living. And so freezer meal planning is where you basically take a Saturday, you do all your grocery shopping for these meals. You break everything down into bags, and then you freeze them and you date the bags and everything. You freeze them and then you pull out your crock pot or instapot.
Annie:
I'm not a big insta pot person. I don't have one. But I love, love, love my crock pot. And so I love being able to pull a meal out of the freezer, stick it in my crock pot and be ready to go. And I love it, especially this time of year, because I have lots of things like soups, I have lots of things like chili. I have lots of cozy, cozy, comfortable food. I've got my chicken tortilla soup that I batch create and freezer meals. And it's just a way to batch create something that will serve you well into the future.
Annie:
And I like to make anywhere between ten and 20 meals every time I create freezer meals. So I'll create a stack of freezer meals. I'll put them down in the deep freeze in our basement, I'll grab one, and then we're ready to go for the next day. My husband is the primary cook of our household, and he also loves the freezer meals because that is my contribution to our eating in our house now. We both like doing different things. I love laundry. I love it. I love cleaning everything.
Annie:
I love folding everything and putting it away. My husband really enjoys cooking, and he also really loves when I make freezer meals because it just streamlines his day. He doesn't have to think about a meal. I also really appreciate just putting something in my crock pot and leaving and coming back 8 hours later and having it be done. It feels like magic to me. And so if I can create a day of freezer meal making and then have it last for several weeks, just a great thing to do. So I will do one to two freezer meals a week for our family, one to two crock pot meals a week for our family. And just creating them in advance and sticking them in our freezer is a great way to do that.
Annie:
And like I said before, I think you can pinterest it like freezer meals. And you will see several people have created several different meal plans and several different ways of making meals and whatnot. And I have actually paid for a service long time ago, two or three years ago, especially when my babies were brand brand new. I think I had a two year old and a zero year old at the time where I actually paid for a freezer meal plan. And I loved it. Some of the recipes weren't great, but some of them were. And I've definitely held on to the ones that were a favorite of our families and then have incorporated some other fun recipes as well. So I love my crock pot.
Annie:
I love freezer meals. Give that a shot. I am also planning this is not a hack, but I just want to share it with you guys. I'm also planning on exploring a new soup every week through winter as a way to kind of spice things up and as a way to add a bit of variety to our diet because I feel like especially during winter, we can get in a rut with what we eat, whereas in the summer there's lots of fresh fruits and vegetables. There's lots of things you can explore that way, but in the winter it's a bit challenging. So I've got it on my list this year to explore a new soup, probably starting in October or November every week. Okay guys, that is what I have for you guys today. I hope I've given you some good food for thought for your own life hacks and I'd love to hear a life hack that has worked well for you as well.
Annie:
So please email me your life hack at [email protected] and please be sure to get on the waitlist for the leveled up assistant. I'd love to have you at this event. Next Thursday I'm going to be hosting a free happy hour sip and learn event for Tlua and it's gonna be a really small group guys, because there's very few people on my waitlist. Relatively speaking, I guess there's very few people on my waitlist, so there'll probably be even fewer showing up. And I'd love to get to know you better with inside that event or at that event. So please, please check that out. You can go to wholeassistant.com levelup. I've also linked to it in the show notes below so you can just click the link in the show notes and head over there to register for my waitlist.
Annie:
Okay guys, that's what I have for you guys today. Be intentional. Be whole. That is all for now. I help assistants apply the concepts I share on this podcast. If you're ready to take your growth deeper and you're curious whether working with me in a coaching capacity is right for you, please email me at [email protected] to schedule your complimentary discovery call.
