For You From Eve
245: How I Plan + Organize to Optimize Time and Reach Success
(upbeat music) - Hello everybody and welcome or welcome back to another episode of my show for you from Eve in case you are new here. And it's your first time clicking on to one of my episodes. My name is Olivia Eve. I started this podcast about three years ago now. And I talk all about self growth, self improvement, everything to become the healthiest version of yourself, the most successful, the happiest and just growing as a person and really just unlocking your potential and creating goals, creating habits, creating routine. And if you've been following me for a while now, you know how many chapters of my life I've gone through with this podcast. When I first started it, I was in college. I think I was in my sophomore, junior year of college. And so a lot of the time when I was talking about optimizing time and success and planning and organizing, I was talking about school and it kind of really helped me too to have to balance school and work and my podcast because it made me have to really learn how to plan and be organized. And I've always grown up pretty type A. I've liked to plan things out. I've always liked to be kind of like the leader or the boss and make the plans for everybody. Like if I go on a trip with my friends, it's like Olivia's gonna make the itinerary. So I've always been that kind of person. And I think recently because I've been going into so many different realms and wearing so many different hats in business and I like to make as many streams of income as I can make and just tackle on as many hobbies and projects as I can because I like to do that. I've had to learn how to optimize my time really well and I had to learn how to plan things out really well. And so I'm really excited to share my tips with you guys today on how I plan and I organize my time because I think it's so underrated. Like knowing how to organize yourself, organize your business, organize your days, your weeks, your months, knowing how to do that, knowing how to plan and optimize your time and be productive and list out your priorities is such an underrated path to success. And I don't think enough people talk about it. People talk about the drive and the work ethic and the goals and all of those things are so important too. But no one really talks about the organization behind it. And I think that a lot of the time people experience burnout because they're unorganized and that's something I stand by. I feel like when I have a super overwhelming work week and when I get burned out, it's because I didn't prep for it. It's because I didn't plan for it. And obviously it's different when we're just talking about life and like going out last minute, going to a party last minute saying yes to a date last minute, all of those things I think are a little bit different. But when it comes to work and business, I like to go into my work day with a plan. I like to wake up in the morning with a plan of like, this is the things I need to get done. If this, if I could cross off this checklist today, I'll be the happiest person and I'll have a less stressful week because it never wants to get to like right before deadlines and you're like, oh my God, I did not plan out how to accomplish this. So I'm going to be giving you guys my best tips on organizing your time, how to plan the best. I'm going to tell you guys what I use as well. And then what I'm going to do as well. So in the show notes in the description below, you're going to find my Amazon storefront link where I list the physical things I'm talking about. So if I'm talking about a planner or to do list, I will list all that down below. And then something else I want to talk about too, if you follow me on my Instagram and TikTok at For You For Me. If you've probably heard about this already, if you don't, you definitely should. I created a reset package for you guys. And in this reset package, you guys, is everything that you need to be your most productive and successful self. I curated this in the most perfect way where I use it. So the first few pages are all kind of like towards self-love and self-confidence, their self-love journal prompts. And it's just you kind of writing to yourself and this is all digital. So you can print it out at home, you can print it out at Staples and make it into a book, or you can just leave it digital. And then I also created a to-do list, a habit tracker, a workout plan that I use and then one that you can use to-do list. All that good stuff is also in there as well, which is really great. The to-do list I use that I created on my canvas and I'll just print it out or I'll just use it digitally and fill it in. So I highly recommend you guys check that out. I'm going to link it down below for you guys to check out because it has been such a big help. I have my cleaning breakdown on there, my self-care routine, everything that I use to become my best self is in that package. And I want to work on more things like that for you guys because I get so many DMs on sources on how to be your most productive self, how to be your most confident self, all of that stuff towards self improvement. You guys like more kind of guidance with the services that I can provide for you. So that's why I decided to create that package and whoever has purchased it has sent me such a nice message about how helpful it's been for them and how much they loved it. So I want to thank everybody who's been supporting me through that and just everybody who follows my social, supports my show, rates my show. Thank you so much. And if you are an active listener, please make sure you guys give a good rating, good review and follow me on all my socials. And without speaking any further, let's get into the tips on how to plan and organize and optimize your time for success. The first tip that I have written down is to-do lists. You have to have a to-do list. If you have a busy week or a busy day, you have to write down the things that you need to get done that day. I actually physically cannot believe when people don't have to-do lists. I actually have so many friends that tell me like they're to-do lists just the notes list on their phone, which I guess is better than nothing. Like whatever works for you, whatever works for you. But I know for me, like when I wake up in the morning, or like if it's a Sunday night, for example, I'm recording this episode on Monday. Last night was Sunday, I had a super productive Sunday, woke up early, went to church. After church, I came home and I did a Sunday reset. So I cleaned my bedroom, I cleaned my bathroom and I cleaned my office. That took me like three or four hours, basically spent my whole Sunday doing that. And then after I was done cleaning, I went to the gym and then I came back from the gym, I showered and I sat in bed and I made a weekly to-do list of everything I wanted to get done. And I wrote down Monday through Friday and I said Monday I'm gonna do this, Tuesday I'm gonna do this. So that way Monday, for example, this morning I woke up, I knew what it was that I had to do. So I woke up, I went through my emails, I went through the to-do list, I did what I had to do for the day, and now I'm recording this episode because it was on my to-do list. Everything feels so much less overwhelming when you write it down, because when it's just all floating in your head, you're like, oh my God, I have so much to do, I have so much to do. But it's really not that much when you just sit down and you write it out, you realize this is very manageable to get done today or to get done this week. So writing things down instead of having them in your head helps you so much with feeling overwhelmed. So when it's a Sunday, I like to type everything out on my computer, but then I wake up in the morning and for example, tomorrow I'm gonna be going to Jersey City for work and I'm gonna be commuting in. So what I'll do is the second I step into work, I'll open up my physical planner and in my physical planner I'll sit with Anna, who I work with in social media, the social agency. I'll sit with her and we'll kind of debrief the week and then we'll talk about everything that we have to get done that day and that week. So that way I'm now making a list of the things that I have to get done that day, so that it's like visibly in front of me and physically in front of me, so that I could cross it off when I'm done with it. And then at the end of the day, she says, hey, what did we get done today? I have the list already of what it is that I got done. So creating a daily to-do list of the things that you plan to do that day, so that way those things are also fresh in your head. So like when I first, when I'm going to bed on a Sunday night, everything that I have to get done for the week is fresh in my head at that point because I've just had a relaxing, I just had like a busy, productive, relaxing Sunday. Now I'm sitting in bed, I don't have anything to do the rest of the night, so I feel kind of like calm enough and relaxed enough to just sit there and be like, okay, well, this is everything I wanna get done for the week. Tuesday I have this meeting, Tuesday I have that, Thursday I have this, Friday I have this. So that way I can just plan out my week and not be stressed about it. And also another thing too is don't just write out the things that you wanna get done, but how you're going to get them done. I wrote down yesterday Sunday night. I said record solo episode. What solo episode? What solo episode? Okay, you can record a solo episode. What is a solo episode about? What is a solo episode topic gonna be? So that's something I have to think about. Do I have a sponsor I have to bring up in the episode? Do I have, you know, there's things you have to think about when it comes to, okay, I'm gonna make it to do a list of things I wanna do, then what? You can't just write go-through emails. What email? Is there a specific email that you need to respond to? Do returns, returns where? Do you have to do a specific return somewhere? Like these are things that I think of because it's just like one of those things where I knew, I already had an episode planned out. So I wrote record solo episode on how to plan an organized time. So it's more specific. If you wanna get a workout done, let's say you're like get workout done today, where, what workout do you wanna get done? Where do you wanna go for your workout? What time do you wanna go for your workout? I think time is also a big thing when you're making it to do list. So knowing like, okay, I want to record my episode before this time so that I can do all of this stuff before I edit it or et cetera, right? Obviously everyone's schedule is different. You guys all have different tasks and all of you have podcasts that I'm like trying to relate to. But it's one of those things where it's like, what time do you wanna do certain things? Today, last thing I told myself, I wanna wake up early, I wanna get a bunch of work done because the sun today in Jersey, if you guys are anyone's based in Jersey, Monday is the only sunny day and then it's gonna be raining Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. So I was like, because Monday is the only sunny day that I have, I'm going to spend some time in the sun. What time can I go in the sun? I woke up at 7 a.m. I worked from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. Got three hours done of social media content and email. So I was like, if that gets done, then I can go be in the pool from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Come home at 3 p.m., record my solo episode and then I'll go to the gym. And then I actually ended up making an appointment to take my nails off for 6.30 p.m. So it's like just planning all that stuff, time managing it. And now I'm gonna get all those things done in one day because I optimize my time on it. If I just woke up and was like, let me record my episode, let me do this. And then maybe I wouldn't have time for the pool. Maybe I wouldn't have time to get my nails done. Maybe I wouldn't have time to go to the gym. So making sure you're not just writing down, I wanna get down ABC. But what time are you gonna get it done? Do you have the sources that you need to get it done? What if you wanna get your nails done but you don't have a car or something like that? What if your mom took your car? Like those are little things I like to think about when I'm planning because I feel like if I don't, I'll get really stressed out the moment of and I'll be like, my plan was to do this and now I can't do it and it throws everything off track. So create a to-do list the night before so things are still fresh in your brain, write out kind of more of timing, more specifics. And then the day of use that to-do list to kind of check things off and write it physically. I'm going to like my to-do list and my physical planner down below. My to-do list is pretty much what I use on Canva and the reset package. And then I also use Notion a lot. I wanna make you guys a Notion template that I use because I use Notion for everything, like calendar, to-do lists, everything. So I wanna make you guys a Notion template for you guys to use. I just have to kind of like work on it longer. I want it to be like perfect for you guys but I think that's a really good idea because I use Notion so much. I think it would be great for you guys to have a template of like calendar to-do lists, all that good stuff. So that is my first tip to-do list, write things down physically. My next tip is to have a calendar. So like a physical or a digital monthly calendar. I have a digital calendar. I use Google Calendar. I used to use a monthly planner and I don't anymore. I feel like I kinda wanna get back into it though because I love my planner now but my planner now is a daily planner. And even though I do like a daily planner, my digital planner being on Google Calendar is totally fine. I open up on my phone. I open it up on my computer. I've never really needed the physical need for it. When I was in school, I used the physical planner but now I kinda just use Google Calendar. Google Calendar I like to use for birthdays, appointments, events, like any types of plans and then also for like meetings and work. For example, I go into Jersey City every Tuesday and Thursday for social media work. So every Tuesday and Thursday in my calendar, I have social agency listed from like 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. 'cause I don't wanna forget that. And then it's also like I got, for example, I got asked to babysit Thursday night. It's okay, let me look at my calendar. I'll end up work at four. I'm able to babysit at seven. It's little things like that where I just like now I can write babysitting in my calendar. I made a nail appointment for Monday. I can write that down. I have the movie that I'm going to Friday night. Let me write that down because if you are somebody that also balances a lot of streams of income, you wanna make sure you're listing everything down. I like to color coordinated too. So like anything social agency related that I'm doing for social media is in purple. Any birthdays are in blue. Appointments are in red. Like I like to do it that way because then it helps me to kind of keep it more organized and just visually it's more pleasing to look at. So I love having a monthly calendar for just all those appointments, all those events, all those birthdays. And because I juggle so many things at once, I like to list the bigger things in there. So the things where, for example, if I had to babysit today, I'd be like, okay, I can babysit today because I'm recording an episode that could just be done in 30, 40 minutes. So it's just one of those things where it just really helps you to balance everything out. And even if I'm like, okay, I have to go grocery shopping on Sunday. I could put that in my calendar too. So that way I'm prioritizing it. I think a monthly calendar is for things that you have to prioritize. So that way you know that they're getting done and you're making sure that anything else you have to do is put around it. And it's like not interfering with it. So I like to put all my bigger things on Google Calendar. And it's like, if someone asks me to hang out, if someone asks me if I'm on the phone with the doctor and I have to make an appointment, I can easily put my Google Calendar on my phone. And I could just be like, I could just be like, okay, I could do this day, I could do this time. And then the second I make an appointment, I write it down to my Google Calendar. Today when I called the nail place, I was on the phone with them and I was looking at my calendar and I was like, okay, I could do 6.30 p.m. today. So making sure you have a monthly calendar as well as a daily calendar or just like a weekly planner. I know that most of my physical planners would be monthly, weekly. And then some would even be like daily or like their daily sections would be a little bigger. Those are really great as well. I care more so about a monthly and a daily because on Notion I will do my weekly to-do list. So that's kind of why I really only feel the need for a physical monthly and daily. Except is to have a clean space. If you want to be organized, if you want to be good at planning, you can't just be sitting in a messy room with your planner. So I personally can't concentrate in a messy space. If my room, if my room or my office or my bathroom or whatever is super messy, it's very hard for me to concentrate. I do all of my work pretty much from home. I do go into Jersey City a lot of the days, but a lot of the time I do my work from home. I film my brand deals at home. I wake up at home, I go to sleep at home. I do a lot of things from my house. So I just like to feel super confident and I like to feel very at peace and at ease with being in my space. And if it's super messy and disorganized, I'm not going to feel that way. I can't concentrate in a messy space where I'm not motivated to be working in that space because I really, for example, my office space has been super messy because any PR package I got, I would just throw in there, I would throw in there, I would throw in there. And then I also use my office space to do my hair and makeup because it's just where my desk is and I could put my vanity mirror up there very easily. So I'll get ready there a lot. So it's like a lot of the time, when I get ready for work in the morning and I'm in a little bit of a rush, I'll do my makeup and hair super quick in there where it will be super messy. And then I'll get home from work later and I want to continue working and I'll step foot into my office and I'm like, I can't work in this messy space. I take my computer onto my bed because my bedroom will be clean and I'll do my work in there. But it's just like having a clean space, having clean bedding, having furniture that doesn't have closed all over it, not having piles of clothes on the floor, things like that really matter to me. I'm very big, I'm like aesthetic. I'm like feeling very happy in my space. My room is my safe space and I've been like making like slow improvements to cleaning it and stuff. But being in a clean space, you feel like a new person. I have a cleaning breakdown in the reset package I was telling you guys about. I follow it daily, weekly and then every month. So I have it listed on how I clean my space because it is just so important for me to have a clean space and that's just how it is. It's so crucial for me. Like I have to clean out my clothes at least like once every three months, sometimes even once a month if it's really rough. But normally I like to do a huge closet clean out for each season. So for example, a few months ago, I did a huge summer clean out and I also got two new dressers 'cause the dresser I had was broken. So I wanted to get a new dresser and I ended up getting two because it was smaller than my other one. I took every single article of clothing out of my closet and out of my dresser. I put it all out of my bed. I think I have a video of me resetting my room. Put it all out of my bed. Obviously organized it by like sports bras, bikers shorts, pajamas, sweatpants, t-shirts, et cetera. Got rid of the things I didn't want. I did a donation pile, a keep pile, a trash pile. I did all of that. And then once I had done that, I folded everything, put it away, put things in my closet and I felt like a brand new person. And once I had done that, I put new sheets, like clean sheets on my bed, wipe down all my surfaces, set the dressers up, I put a new rug in my room. I had new flowers in my room and I kid you not. I was like, I slept differently and I woke up differently. I woke up more motivated. I slept more peacefully. Having a clean space is so underrated and just being in a space that you love, you genuinely feel like a brand new person. So that's something I need to prioritize is having a clean space and just making sure that I'm really prioritizing the space that I'm in. My next tip is to use Notion. So I don't want to talk like too much about Notion because I want to actually make a template for you guys. But Notion is how I literally organize everything, every episode that I plan out, I organize on Notion. So in my Notion, I have a For You from Eve tab. And in that tab, I'll keep episodes, distribution platforms, like analytics, all that stuff I keep in my For You from Eve tab, brand deals, emails, all of that good stuff. Also, if you are trying to get into social media, I actually created a Google sheet of 100, over 100 brand emails for you guys to reach out to if you want to get into influencer and PR and you want to do gifted collaborations or paid collaborations, all you have to do, I put out over 100 emails for you guys with the brands, the brands are all beauty, lifestyle, wellness, health, haircare, skincare, all that good stuff. I put out all the emails for who you can reach out to because I know it's so hard to find brand emails. All you have to do is pitch yourself to them. If you don't know how to pitch yourself to them, I also have a service on my website where you could schedule a Zoom call with me and in that Zoom call I'll create a whole strategy for you based on your goals, you tell me your goals and I'll tell you what steps you should take, what sources you can use and I'll share the brand Google sheet with you and I'll also write out a pitch for you. I do all of that in the one-on-one Zoom calls so definitely make sure you guys check that out. Everything will be linked down below. But Notion has been huge for me when it comes to organizing my podcast, organizing brand deals and just organizing my life, to be honest, that's also why I want to create a Notion template for you guys because I genuinely think it will be so helpful for all of you to organize stuff digitally. So let me know if you're interested in that and if you are interested in me creating a Notion template, DM me what you would want in the Notion template. So if you want to do lists, a monthly calendar, whatever it is, let me know because Notion has, and this has not sponsored my Notion. It's just, it's been such a huge help to have everything on my computer and then also have the app on my phone because I love digital things and I think it's just convenient. I love physical things too, but I just think the digital is just so convenient if you're just out and you need to pull out your phone and see something. Really quickly, before we continue with today's episode, I want to talk to you guys about HelloFresh. You guys have heard me talk about HelloFresh many times because I'm absolutely obsessed with them. For somebody, obviously in this episode, you guys can tell I juggle so many different hats. I do so many different things for work, try to keep on track with my health and my fitness and I'm just always constantly busy and something that's really easy to do when we're busy, just to grab the quickest thing in our fridge, which is normally not the healthiest option, which is why I love HelloFresh because the quickest thing to grab from your fridge will also be a healthy option for you. So with HelloFresh, you get farm fresh pre-portioned ingredients and seasonal recipes delivered right to your doorstep. You can skip trips to the grocery store and you can skip the stress that you feel when it comes to thinking of new meals, dealing with getting the right ingredients and this way you can do it in a very fun and affordable way. That is why it is America's number one meal kit. I was so excited because I got home from a super busy work day and I was absolutely starving and knowing that my family was home since I have to kind of fend for myself for dinner right now and I came home to my HelloFresh package, which was probably the best thing that I could have seen. I swear it had halos on it. I was able to just easily open up the box, everything was pre-packaged and on each little bag, it tells you what's in it so I knew what I was craving. So I made this like chicken squash bowl was absolutely delicious. It came with every single ingredient or seasoning that you would need for it. I made it in 15 minutes, there was no hard cleanup, nothing to stress out about getting at the grocery store super, super easy. I'm so excited because for a limited time, kids eat free. So all you have to do is go to hellofresh.com/fromethkids to unlock this exclusive offer. One free kids meal per box for two months while subscription is active. That's free kids meals just by going to hellofresh.com/fromethkids. You guys definitely do not want to miss out on America's number one meal kit. Let's continue with the episode. So my next tip is to build and plan out your routines. You have to have a routine. And I know people say like routine make life so boring and so repetitive and so mundane, 100%. I'm not even gonna sugar coat it, 100%. It makes life boring. But let me just replace the word boring with the word peaceful. We live in a society where everything is so fast-paced, so like work ethic, wake up at 5 a.m., go to the gym, do this, and it's like, everything has to be quick, everything has to be fast, everything has to be impulsive, spontaneous. It's like, can we just breathe? Can we just create a routine? Let's have non-negotiables that we wanna do every morning and every night. Let's build structure on it. Let's find peace and comfort rather than chaos. Like, that's something we're so accustomed to chaos. We enjoy being stressed out. We enjoy being stressed out because being stressed out means we're staying within our comfort zone. This is why like, put aside this whole episode topic, think about the relationships in your life. You're more engaged in the relationships in your life when there's chaos, when there's toxicity. When things are calm and peaceful and healthy in a relationship, that's when you start to get nervous and that's when you start to get cold feet 'cause you're like, I'm not used to this feeling. The same thing comes with life and planning. A lot of the time, a lot of us don't wanna start planning and we don't wanna start building routines because we're not used to it. We're not used to calming down our chaos. Building structure in your routine and having non-negotiables that you wanna get done every morning and every night is so important. And I'm not saying you have to time stamp every minute of your morning and every minute of your night and every minute of your day of six a.m. to seven a.m. I'm doing this. I personally do that sometimes. If I know it's gonna be a super chaotic day, I will do that. Especially if it's a work from home day where I have like 10 things I wanna get done work from home. The night before I will time stamp everything just to make sure I can get my grocery shopping done and my episode done and my appointment done and whatever it might be, I will sometimes time stamp 'cause it helps me personally. I think time stamping is great when it comes to routine. Or like if you have to be at work at a certain time but then you wanna also go to the gym in the morning, I 100% will time stamp for that. For example, tomorrow I have to go into work and I have to make my train at a certain time. Let's say I have to be at my train at 8.30 but I wanna work out. It's like, okay, this is how I think of it. And this might make me sound psycho but this is what works for me. If I have to be at my train at 8.30, I wanna be ready by 8.20 so I can leave my house at 8.20. If I wanna be ready at 8.20, I have to start getting ready at 7.45. If I wanna start getting ready at 7.45, I gotta eat breakfast at 7.30. If I wanna eat breakfast at 7.30, I gotta be home by 7.20. If I wanna be home at 7.20, I have to leave the gym at 7 a.m. If I wanna leave the gym at 7 a.m., then what time do I wanna start my workout? Six. If I wanna work out from six to seven, then I wanna leave my house 5.45, which means I have to make up at 5.15. That's how my brain works and that might literally make me sound. You might be listening to this and be like, this girl is psychotic. Crazy people are successful. I'm telling you that right now. The craziest people become successful. Building and planning routines is not crazy. It's not insane. Just have things that you wanna get done each morning. So for example, let's say every morning, you want to go to the gym, you want to read your Bible, you want to do five minutes of meditation or prayer and you wanna drink your coffee. Those are the four things you wanna do every morning aside from like brushing your teeth and you wanna make your bed, okay? And then obviously the other things like skincare, brushing teeth, getting dressed, those are things you have to do anyways to leave your house. But let's say those are the five things that you don't normally do that you wanna start doing. Start to slowly incorporate them in your routine. So let's say right now you wake up at 9 a.m. every day and you get ready in 10 minutes and you go to work. You don't drink green tea, you don't drink coffee, you get coffee on your way, you don't make your bed, you don't go to the gym and let's say you wanna start doing those things which would mean you have to start waking up at 5.30 or 6. Don't just the next day try to do all those things at once. Don't just the next day wake up at 5.36 and go to the gym and do this and this and this because then you're gonna burn yourself out and it's gonna seem like a very unattainable lifestyle for you because you're just trying to do it all at once. You need to slowly incorporate those things into your life because when you slowly incorporate them they're a lot less overwhelming. So building and planning out your routine and getting like make a list of five things you wanna do every morning when you wake up and every night before you go to sleep. So for me, for example, every morning I need to make my bed every morning. That's always been like a habit for me. I wanna make my bed every morning. I wanna take my supplements and my probiotics every morning. I wanna drink green tea every morning or like have a spoon of sea moss gel every morning. I wanna go to the gym every morning and I wanna eat breakfast every morning. Those are the five things that I don't normally do or that I don't have to do that I want to do for myself. Those are the five things that I wanna do for myself. So what I will do is when I plan out my routine I will squeeze those five things in. Let's say I wake up a little bit late and I can't go to the gym. At least those non-negotiables that I wanna do like my breakfast and my green tea, those things can still get done. So creating those non-negotiables of I'm not leaving my house until I read my Bible for five minutes today. I'm not leaving my house until I do a five-minute meditation or prayer today. Having those non-negotiables is so important. My non-negotiables at night, skincare, planning everything for the next day, reading my Bible, doing a prayer. Those are my non-negotiables. Those have to get done every single night before I go to sleep. I won't go to sleep without a prayer. I will never go to sleep. That's just how I grew up. That's how I was raised. It's like waking up and not making my bed. I've always done that since I was a kid. So that's a non-negotiable for me. Create those non-negotiables. What are five things you wanna do every morning? Five things you wanna do every night and then build your routine and plan it out. And for me, those things are really fun. Like I enjoy sitting there in time stamping my morning and then waking up and getting it done. And it's so much easier said than done. Like the night before, when you tell yourself I'm gonna wake up at five AM, five AM club. Yeah, let's get it. And then you wake up the next morning at five AM and you're like, what was I thinking last night? Like this is not, no, I don't want this right now. But you gotta like fight through it. I promise you guys, it's worth it, especially. I can do a whole episode on like waking up early 'cause it's something I'm still getting used to and I haven't been that great at. Some days I'm really great at it, some days I'm not. But once I get really good at it, I wanna give you guys really good tips on it because it really does change so much about you and like your life and your routine. So make sure you have a morning routine, a night routine. And if you don't wanna time stamp and have a super strict routine, then just make sure that you are at least creating those non-negotiables that you wanna do every morning and every night. And those non-negotiables should obviously include good habits that are going to help you be healthier, happier and more successful. My next tip, get enough sleep. Without sleep, you won't have the energy to be productive. Without sleep, you're not gonna be able to wake up early and have a good workout and have the energy to make breakfast and have the energy to get ready for work and then have the energy to go to work and spend a whole day at work. Make sure you are getting enough rest. Rest is so underrated. There's honestly not much to say about this tip 'cause that makes sure you're getting enough sleep. Try your hardest to go to sleep every night at the same time and wake up at the same time. Without sleep, you are literally nothing. Sleep heals you, you heal in your sleep, your body heals in your sleep, your energy, you get recharged, your body needs sleep. So whatever it is that you have to do to kind of calm yourself down before bed, red light therapy, taking magnesium, drinking a bedtime tea, whatever it might be, doing those things before bed, do it. I sometimes struggle with sleeping. At night I've gotten better at it, but it's something I used to struggle with a lot so I understand the struggle of not being able to sleep and I promise once you create non-negotiable's at night and you get into routine of shutting down your screen at a certain time and all of that, it becomes so much easier to go to sleep. So get enough sleep because without sleep, anything I shared with you today is not going to matter. My next tip is to read self-help books or just listen to self-help podcasts. This is just really good to listen to people that help you be productive and that make you wanna be productive. I feel like when I listen to somebody that's super successful, whether it's on a podcast or whatever it is, I feel motivated then to be successful and to have a good day and have a productive day. So read self-help books, get into your self-growth, inspirational mood and get into those hobbies that will make you wanna grow. Like reading is a hobby that makes you wanna be more successful, that makes you wanna optimize your time and you can learn so much from other people. Next tip is to set boundaries and balance and list out your priorities. So let's say you have a deadline on Monday and you didn't start it the whole week, you were just busy with other things. I think there's a fine line between making sure you're still enjoying your life while getting things done and then taking advantage of it. Like for me personally, when I say no, I mean no. Like if my friends are like, let's do this on Saturday and I'm like, no, I have to do this other thing on Saturday or like I need to babysit this Saturday because I'm low on money this week or whatever it might be. That's something that I think is like huge on prioritize. Like what are your priorities? Are your priorities this week to grow your business? Are your priorities this week to spend time with your boyfriend? Like what are your priorities this week? Because I think that is a really, really, really important thing to talk about is like, or just to even think about when you are planning your week is what is it that you're gonna prioritize? So for example, I needed to prioritize my nail appointment this week because my nails are outgrown. I feel dirty. I don't feel clean, girl, aesthetic. I need to prioritize my nail appointment this week. That's something I have to get done. Let's say next week was my sister's birthday. I need to prioritize my sister next week because it's her birthday. I need to plan something out for her. So making sure you're listing out your priorities and then setting boundaries and also balancing things out. And it's so much easier said than done. And I could do a whole episode on like work hard play hard and making sure you're not completely just drowning yourself in corporate life. 'Cause it's so easy to just get lost in corporate life and in business and like not focus on your friends and like lose track of people. I had a few months of like kind of just like a period of waking up, going to the gym, spending all day working, spending all night working and not going out, not talking to anybody, not posting on social media, just really focusing on myself and my career. And I think it's okay to sometimes just like go on, do not disturb, shut people out and just lock in. And I honestly think everybody in their life goes through a period where they just need to lock in. Like they need no distractions and they need to lock in on their goals. They need to create their habits, create their routines. And then after three months, after six months of locking in and creating those habits in routine, they've become more lenient with themselves. They become more like, okay, I could drink a little bit this weekend. Okay, I could go out this weekend because I'm still gonna have my habits. I'm still gonna have my good routines because I spent the time building that. So that's something I focus on a lot too is just setting those boundaries and setting that balance of being honest with myself. Like I'll be like, for example, today, I really wanted to go to the pool today. I was like, this is the only day of the week where it's gonna be sunny, okay? And like thinking long term of like, yolo, it's like, okay, yeah, I wanna go, I wanna spend time at the pool, I wanna spend time with my family at the pool, all of that. However, I'm also very locked in right now with the gym and with my goals with my podcast. So I was like, if I wanna spend the day at the pool, if I wanna be at the pool from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. today, I need to make sure that I'm prioritizing the gym and my nail appointment or whatever after I leave the pool, I need to make sure I'm prioritizing my podcast before I go to the pool. So if I wanna have fun and I wanna enjoy those few hours, 11 to three and enjoy my whole day at the pool, well, then my morning better be productive and my evening better reproductive. That's how I balance things. Tomorrow, I'm gonna be in Jersey City all day for work. I'm not really, but like maybe I'm gonna come home and I'm gonna cook a cool meal for myself and like enjoy a nice dinner by myself. Wednesday, I'm not gonna be doing anything. I get to make my own schedule. So it's like, okay, Wednesday, I'm gonna spend time with somebody that I love. It's like little things like that and just balancing the people in your life and then your business and then the gym. And like, it's a lot, it's a lot. Like, I don't want you to like listen to this episode and feel super overwhelmed of like even planning things. Like that's not my goal, but I'm not gonna act like it's easy. It's not easy to balance everything in your life. It's like, you know, do your skincare but then also do your hair care and then also go to the gym and then also meal prep and eat healthy and get enough sleep and hang out with your boyfriend and hang out with your friends and hang out with your family and go to work and run a business. Like, can I breathe? Like, it's a lot. And that's why I say to slowly incorporate things into your routine and into your life. Don't just wake up tomorrow morning and try to do everything at once. Don't wake up tomorrow morning and completely clean your room and workout and do all of these things that you wanna get done because then you will burn out and then you will feel overwhelmed. You need to slowly incorporate everything into your life. And that is when things will start to feel more natural and you'll be able to build it more as a habit. My last tip is to focus on consistency over perfection. So this is something that I wanna highlight a lot and this is the last tip we'll end off on. Focus more on being consistent than everything being perfect. So for example, if I tell myself, I wanna go to the gym every day this week. I wanna be consistent with the gym. Every day that I go to the gym is not going to be a great workout. Every day that I go to the gym, I'm not gonna be in a cute workout set. Every day I go to the gym, I might not know what I wanna workout that day. It might not fit into my schedule that day. Don't focus on the perfection of, I'm not going to the gym unless my workout outfit is perfect and my workout is perfect and the plan I have for myself is my schedule on the, focus on consistency. Every workout doesn't need to be an hour. Every workout doesn't need to be an hour and a half. Your workout could be 15 minutes on the floor of your bedroom or it could be an hour at the gym. It could be a walk outside. Focus on being consistent with your goals, not perfecting your goals because it's not about that. I always talk about the mom method. I heard about Ed Mylett talking about the mom method in a podcast and he said, think of the mom method. If you grew up with a good mom, God willing, you did, but obviously not all of us are that lucky or a mother figure, let's say, a mom that would pick you up for school every day, make you dinner every day, all that stuff, your mom was consistent. She wasn't perfect. So your mom might not have made the best dinner every night, but when you got home from school or you got home from school and I got home from my sports after school, there was always dinner on the stove. There was always dinner on the table. It might not have been my favorite dinner. It might not have been the best cook dinner, but there was always dinner. That's what matters. Every morning that I would wake up, I knew I had a ride to school and I knew I had a ride home. That's consistent. That's what I mean when I say focus on consistent rather than perfection. Your mom is not a perfect mom because of the things she does. She's perfect for you because she was consistent for you. So those are things I like to focus on when I say focus on consistency over perfection because you should be focusing on slowly building up your goals and really just focusing on, okay, this is who I wanna be in the future. What steps do I have to take to do that? What do I have to do every single day to be successful, to be healthy, to be happy, to be in a good relationship? What kind of woman do I wanna be 10 years from now, five years from now, three years from now, one year from now? Let me start being that woman today. Every single day, wake up and choose to be healthy. Every single day, wake up and choose to be motivated. You need to make that decision. And once you realize that you have the power in your mind to decide what kind of day you're going to have, that is when you win. There's so many days I'll wake up. I'll say today's gonna be a great day. I'm gonna be so productive today. I'll spill my coffee all over the floor. I'll dirty my shirt with makeup. I'll miss my train. I'll get a flat tire on my way to work. And I still have to have the power to say, today's gonna be a productive day. Today's gonna be a productive day. Your computer crashes. It's like, okay, Liv, this is no longer in my control. It's not gonna be a productive day. Keep telling yourself that it will be, and it will be. Focus on consistency over perfection when it comes to building habits and building your goals and planning things out. That was all I had for today's episode. I hope you guys enjoyed it. I know we had so many good tips in today's episode. So I hope it helped you all out. Please make sure that you guys follow me on my Instagram. Follow me on my TikTok at 4u for me. I've been super active on it. I also started posting a lot on my LTK and then also a lot on my TikTok shop, my Amazon storefront. I'm trying to give you guys all the best services to follow me and to keep up with me and to also just grow and be the best to you. So I try to share everything that I use with you guys. Also make sure you guys shop my reset package or schedule Zoom call with me if you are interested in starting in social media and need some help or some guidance on where to start. I want to thank all of you for your constant love and support with my show. And I will talk to you guys next week. Mwah. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) - Vitamin Water is from New York. We needed a drink that can keep up with the music scene in the city. We got to see our favorite DJ performing Brooklyn. At 3 a.m. Or St. Karaoke in the Village. Also at 3 a.m. Drink Vitamin Water. It's from New York. Dogs are an important part of our lives. That means protecting them from parasites. Ask your vet about next guard plus. A fox liner, Moxie decked in, and pyrantal chewable tablets. Next guard plus chews provide one and done monthly protection against fleas, ticks, heartworm disease, roundworms, and hookworms. Plus, they're delicious and easy to give. Use with caution in dogs with a history of seizures or neurologic disorders. Dogs should be tested for existing heartworm infection prior to starting a preventive. Ask about next guard plus chews. - As school messes return, rest easy. Clorox has got your back to school. - Oh no. - I'm back. That messy science experiment. And I brought baking soda, cornstarch. - And you're due tomorrow, right? Well, at least I stocked up on Clorox disinfecting wipes. 'Cause you're not messing up my kitchen counters like last time. - Ooh, smart. Got any food coloring? - And off to the store we go. - Stock up on Clorox disinfecting wipes that clean three times better. Then what paper towels on kitchen crease and soap scum use as directed. [BLANK_AUDIO]