Season 3 Episode 2 “Let’s Get to Work” Building your THAT GIRL work routine
LOLA: Ya girl did dry January, I totally forgot to mention that when we started that this year. But yeah, I went an entire month without alcohol at all. Now I wasn’t a huge drinker but like wine has a lot of sugar in it for one thing and for 2 I just wanted to see if I could do it and I did. No drinks at dinner, no wine at home, I was without alcohol and I actually didn’t mind it. I honestly, I kinda forgot about alcohol for a minute. Like I was just ordering regular drinks and stuff at the restaurants and like I would only think about it or remember it when I was in the store and there was like a sale on some good wine or something. I would be like oh that wine is good but then I would be like nope it’s dry January. But yeah, I did dry January and it did save me like a few bucks in the month and the hubby when we went out to dinner , lol…
Podcast Intro: Grab yourself a glass of water or wine whichever suites your day and get ready cause The Awkward Mom Stage starts now….
Um, I guess I’m what they call sober curious, here we go with them trend names again. But yeah, I’m not an alcoholic, I don’t have a problem with alcohol though through quarantine we did get real close, lol. I wasn’t trying to get sober per say I was just curious to see how my body ya know and everything would feel without it if I sustained and honestly, I feel fine ya know. I actually have less headaches and all of that so I didn’t plan on cutting alcohol out of my life forever I just ya know wanted to see if I could do it. And I did it and I wasn’t one of those like obnoxious dry January people where I like told literally everyone because again, I forgot, lol. So, like, I forgot I was doing dry January I had so much other stuff going on that ya girl wasn’t even thinking about it. So yeah that’s, that’s what I’ve been up to ya know. I mean the less headaches thing could also be because of my blue light glasses but we’re just going to take all the wins that we can, right?
“Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life – think of it, dream of it, live on that idea. Let the brain, muscles, nerves, every part of your body, be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea alone. This is the way to success.” – Swami Vivekananda
LOLA: Hey y’all and welcome back to the podcast. If this is your first episode of the podcast, hello and welcome. I’m Lola and I’m so glad you’re here. I’m back and today we’re talking all about building a work routine that’s in line with our THAT GIRL motivation plan. Now we all know I hate trendy names but again, like I said in the last episode. You gotta take these names with a grain of salt. Last week we went over how to build a morning routine that works for you so today were going to continue on with the next steps of your day after your morning routine is done. Which would be either going to work or starting your day at home. Whatever it is, having a schedule helps move things along and keep you on track and on time.
Building a work routine is important because you want your work life to be just as smooth as your morning routine. Obviously, you don’t have to schedule every second of your days but scheduling the important stuff is what you should focus on. Everyone’s work routines are going to be different. A store manager isn’t going to have the same routine as a truck driver. But it’s important nonetheless that everyone has some sort of schedule to follow. Otherwise, things aren’t getting done like they need to or they’re getting done late or incorrectly.
So having a routine or schedule will help things get done. It’s also easier when you break your workday down into Morning Work routine and afternoon routine. AM and PM if you will.
LOLA: Now let’s say you work in an office or some office type job whether you are currently in the office or working from home, right? Your routine is going to look something like: Get into work, chat with your supervisor or whoever, check your emails, check your voicemails, update your work to-do list and alter it to reflect that morning’s conversations and messages. You have to make sure your list is still prioritized and prepare for any meetings or conference calls you may have. Then before or after the meeting get to work on your first to-do list item. When you get important work done early in the day it creates a good momentum for the rest of the day. It’s also a less stressful day because you’ve already gotten over some urgent humps that you otherwise would have procrastinated on or possibly not gotten done at all that day.
“The size of your success is measured by the strength of your desire; the size of your dream; and how you handle disappointment along the way.” -Robert Kiyosaki
You’re going to model your day based on your daily work tasks and the things you have to do in your work day. Like for me since I work from home and I’m also a stay-at-home mom my schedule is obviously going to look much different than someone running a billion-dollar business on the day to day. So, I would model my day a little different. For me I wake up at 7, do my morning routine, put on the headspace meditation show on Netflix and I make my kids breakfast. I wake them up and get them eating breakfast and then its brush teeth and get dressed and were out the door and when I get back more than likely I’ll have coffee or tea and then head into my office to start my task lists for the day. So, my “Work AM” is going to look different than someone in an office would.
LOLA: So, once you’ve gone through your morning work routine it’s time to move onto the afternoon or PM work routine. This is the part of the day where we’re wrapping things up for the day you want to start closing out the day. You want to tie up any loose ends like getting things off your desk or finishing any tasks that can be completed by the end of the day. That way they’re completed, out of the way, and out of your mind. You want to create a new to-do list with the things that you didn’t get done and tasks that need to get done the next day. There may be some things that you didn’t get to today that you’ll put on your to-do list for the next day but those will then go into the priority box for the next day. Just make sure your to-do list is prioritized just like it was for this day. You want to make sure you highlight the 3-5 most important tasks so that you can work on those first and foremost and move on from there.
Then you’re going to check in with your boss and or co-workers if you are working on a group project or something like that or maybe you need something signed off on whatever that is because you want to get that done before people start leaving the office because we all know, people be looking at that clock and 4:57 and they got their purse in hand ready to walk out the door so you want to make sure that you have everything wrapped up, preferably before 4:30 because people are trying to get out that office. Update your list, clean off your desk so there isn’t crazy clutter coming into the next day. I feel like you always feel more stressed out when you walk in your office and there’s like a bunch of crap everywhere cause you’re like damn what do I have to do, or what didn’t’ I do, or what did I already do? It’s a hot mess so you want to make sure that things are clear for the next day.
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LOLA: You kind of wanna, it’s easier if you just like schedule 10-15 mins at the end of your day to clean up your clutter, then you don’t have to worry about it at all in your work day. You can just work until it’s time to stop, get your little 10-15 minutes of straightening up in and then dip out the door. That way (work hack y’all) if your boss walks by close to the end of the day and you aren’t trying to start something new, you look busy cause you’re cleaning up for your last 15 minutes, see you’re welcome.
Anyway, you want to do your last email and voicemail checks, say goodbye to co-workers if you want to or just run out the door so nobody asks you nothing, idk. You wanna unplug for the day. Your PM work routine is going to look different than your AM routine and it’s going to look different than everyone else’s based on what you do on a daily basis. we just adjust our routines accordingly.
Now if you still have some sort of commute home than you want to make the most of your trip home. Whether you drive, take the bus, subway, uber, whatever, or you’re already at home. If you have a significant amount of time at your disposal you want to use it to your advantage. Like for me my work routine before I was at home, I had about a good 35-minute drive home and to work so my routine in the morning driving to and from work I had about an hour to and from to do other things. So, you could use the time to listen to an audiobook (y’all know I love audiobooks, Audible is my jam) but listening to a book about the career you’re trying to break into or maybe a self-help book or maybe you’re listening to music to wind down from the day. You just want to ensure that you’re taking the time to use the ride home as effectively as possible. For me that was my winddown time. So, you want to find something that helps you relax. For me I do love a good true crime podcast when I’m not listening to self-help or improvement or something like that.
LOLA: Basically, if you take the end of your work day to make a routine that helps you wind down and clear out for the day it also will help you relax, feel less stressed, and also unplug from the work day. Then when you go into the office the next day, you’re in a clean and clear environment and it will also boost your mood and productivity as well.
“Success depends upon previous preparation, and without such preparation there is sure to be failure.” -Confucius
LOLA: The best way to have a successful and efficient work routine is to do a few things to eliminate any distractions. You want to get started on your day quickly. You don’t want to drag on and waste time before starting so a few tips to keep the day moving efficiently would be to get started quickly. Once you start your day, keep that momentum going throughout the work day. Momentum is hard to get back once you stop. So, flopping down at your desk and “taking a breather” isn’t going to work if you want to maintain the momentum throughout your work day. You want to avoid isolating yourself, make sure if you’re working with other people that you keep the communication open, don’t like just ignore everybody, lol and remember the further up the ladder you travel at work, the more important communication becomes. Also, avoid distractions, don’t open that TikTok your homegirl sent you until lunch time because you know you’re just going to open it and it’s just going to turn into you scrolling on TikTok for 2 hours at your desk and you got nothing done. You want to focus on work and limit the distractions and let everybody else waste their time. You’ll get to catch up on all the gossip during lunch or after work and you won’t have to stress about what you didn’t get to at work or what you forgot.
There’s also a thing where we we’ve become addicted to being “busy” like being busy and hating Mondays was like the hot topic of the year I feel, lol. All kinds of merch being made that had something to do with being super busy and being busy hating Mondays, idk. But you don’t want to confuse being busy with actually being effective. Many of us could work half as much and get twice as much done with just a little focus and prioritization.
Ok, so y’all knew it was going to come up again. It’s probably gonna come up a lot but all I’m saying is hear me out. Get a little exercise. I know I know how dare I but seriously we should definitely get a little exercise. If the movie Wall E taught us nothing, it showed that we should be moving our bodies otherwise we will end up immobile and bloated little beach ball people and nobody really wants that ya know? I just downloaded this new fitness app. I’ll see how I like it and I’ll let you know what I think. I wanna start doing the yoga classes they have that on the app. Plus it was like two months free so I was like bet, lol. But anyway, some sort of fitness is not only good for you but it boosts your endorphins, helps blood flow, brain function, and a bunch of other stuff an actual fitness and nutrition specialist can tell you all about because that’s definitely not me.
You want to keep all this in mind when you’re creating your work routine. Take everything you have to do in a day into account. Write that down, then look at the tasks you have to get done, and then the things you would like to start doing or implementing into your daily routine. Once you have it all down then you want to begin putting everything together. You can then start prioritizing that list and that’s how you’re going to create your daily routine for the morning and it just kind of flows right into the work day as well.
Alright, so let’s recap, after you’ve done your morning routine, you can go into your work routine and keep that momentum going throughout the day so that way you’re more productive, things run a lot smoother, and you get more of the important stuff done on time.
“You don’t have to be a genius or a visionary or even a college graduate to be successful. You just need a framework and a dream.” -Michael Dell
Next week we’re wrapping up building our New Year “THAT GIRL” routine. We have our Morning routine, our AM/PM Work Routine, and next Friday we will be building our Evening Routine which aside from your morning routine I feel like the evening routine is also just as important. It’s the time you take to get ready for the next day and it helps to have a smooth evening routine so that way you can decompress from the day and ease your mind before bed.
LOLA: Ok, this episode was a little shorter than last week and I think that’s also because the morning and evening routines are the ones you kind of have to tailor to you the most. Because like I said our work routines or what we do during work hours on a daily basis for the majority of us is going to be the same stuff day after day because it’s already a routine.
You already know what you’re doing. Like, unless you just got a new job or something there’s no need to kinda like make a work routine because you already have one. It’s just going to be about making sure your routine is working for you and getting all the things you need to get completed in your work day. So, it’s more creating habit in your mind for everything else, like remembering your skincare or journaling or something. Maybe you want to start a side hustle and you’re trying…
Oh, here comes Brooklen jingling her little collar, probably asking me to take her outside. Let me go take her outside, lol.
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LOLA: Ok, I’m back. So, as I was saying. Maybe you want to start a side hustle and you’re trying to find time in the day. Having your routine and goals laid out in front of you is the best way to see what you’re currently doing. That way you can assess when you need to change things in your routine to match what your goals are.
LOLA: So, I hope this little mini-series really helps you start to building the life and routine you really want. Just please remember to be kind to yourself. We are all trying and beating yourself up is defiantly not going to help. I was the worst with negative self-talk. I’m still learning to be better to myself but I’ve been really trying to work on my positive self-talk. I know the positivity movement is another thing that’s been kind of like toxic in a way sometimes because it becomes kind of like overly outrageous positivity and it’s like no that’s not what I’m talking about. Talking yourself up and making sure that you feel confident and having positive self-talk is definitely going to help your health mentality and physically over time. I don’t think we realize just how much negative self-talk hurts us.
LOLA: Alright, so like I said every week we will be ending the podcast on a positive. So, what are y’all Grateful for this week? For me this week I’m definitely grateful, even though Amazon has made me mad, I’m still grateful for Amazon Prime. Because, even though I need to stay off of it, Amazon be hookin ya girl up with the stuff she needs on time. So, yeah that’s what I’m grateful for. Totally a first world grateful thing but yeah like we get toilet paper, we get household stuff, we get everything from Amazon now. Like, I don’t leave my house if I don’t have to, lol.
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Now back to the show…
LOLA: Alright y’all that’s it for today’s episode. I hope you’re enjoying this little THAT GIRL series. This year is all about empowerment and building the life you want. A good routine certainly Is at the top of the list of things you need to be that bitch, ok? Lol. I’m working on the next series podcast, and I also have an episode coming up a little moms after dark chat with my girl Kourt so look out for that, and I’m also about to start booking guests for season 3 of the podcast so stay tuned for that. I will keep you updated on social media as well.
LOLA: As always thank you so much for listening to the podcast. Thank you for the support in the last 2 seasons. If you haven’t already, please rate and leave ya girl a written review on iTunes, apple podcasts. Let me know you’re listening and you love it.
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Well, That’s it, that’s all y’all until next week. Always Remember You’re Beautiful! Lola.
Byeeee!!!!
PODCAST OUTRO: Thanks for joining me this week on The Awkward Mom Stage podcast. Make sure to visit our Instagram page @theawkwardmomstage, where you can follow and find information on next week’s show, updates for the podcast, behind the scenes clips, and more. You can subscribe to the show on iTunes Apple podcast, google podcast, Spotify or wherever you listen to your favorite podcast shows. While you’re at it, if you are enjoying the show, I’d appreciate it so much if you rate the show on iTunes or share this podcast with a friend. Be sure to tune in next week for an all-new episode.
I hope you have an awesome week! “Always Remember You’re Beautiful!”
-Lola