Before Breakfast

Discover how small, festive moments can brighten your everyday life. Learn to create a holiday fun list and schedule joyful events to ensure you celebrate the season. Transform your routines with festive music during car rides and stretches. Swap screen time for Christmas-themed puzzles and vintage holiday magazines for a cozy feel. Simple home changes like new soaps and candles can evoke the season's spirit. Embrace small traditions that bring light during the winter months and make every day a little more festive!

Successfully managing your household deserves a spot on your calendar! Learn how to treat life maintenance tasks like scheduled work hours to minimize stress. Discover tips on leveraging brief moments, like lunch breaks or planning sessions, to tackle household chores. Laura highlights the difference between flexible and inflexible work environments and offers strategies to protect your valuable life-maintenance time. Embrace the reality that managing life is a real job that requires dedicated time!

This episode tackles the concept of mindful shopping during the holidays. It highlights how sales can lead to overspending if you buy items you don’t truly need. Urgency tactics, like limited-time offers, often pressure shoppers into unnecessary purchases. A practical gift list can help ensure meaningful buys. Waiting periods for impulse purchases and delaying big-ticket items can keep your spending in check. Ultimately, being intentional with your money allows for more joy this season.

Explore the proactive side of gratitude! Discover how arranging experiences can lead to deeper appreciation. Dive into research on gratitude during Thanksgiving and the mixed results on its benefits. Laura emphasizes the importance of connecting with others and creating meaningful interactions. Balance appreciation of life’s gifts with recognizing your own actions. Learn practical steps to produce moments of gratitude in your life, enhancing your personal agency.

Natalie Nixon, a creativity strategist and CEO of Figure 8 Thinking, discusses how to weave creativity into business for better results. She introduces her MoveThinkRest framework, emphasizing the importance of movement and cognitive benefits. Nixon explains the value of slowing down for clear thinking and advocates for intentional daydreaming as a source of inspiration. She also shares techniques like question-storming to enhance meetings and the concept of a creativity-optimized workday. Plus, learn how to use AI as a thinking partner to boost creativity.

A clear to-do list is essential for productivity. Tasks should combine a noun and a verb for clarity. Examples show how vague items drain energy, making it harder to start. Writing tasks as if for someone else can enhance communication and delegation. Specific actions avoid procrastination; for instance, replace vague items with direct next steps. The key takeaway is to consistently use the verb+noun format for actionable tasks.

Discover the surprising truth about your available work hours! Routine tasks consume about 65% of your day, leaving only 2.5 hours for anything else. Learn why to-do lists can lead to stress when we overestimate our time. By tracking your routine tasks, you can better assess your actual discretionary time. Strategically approach new projects to fit your time constraints. With a clearer understanding of your schedule, you can create realistic plans and enjoy the satisfaction of completing them.

Get a head start on your New Year's resolutions by treating the weeks before January as a practice period. Discover common pitfalls that lead to failure, such as setting unrealistic goals and neglecting logistics. Learn that forming new habits requires realistic practice and experimentation, much like sports during preseason. Laura shares practical tips, like scheduling daily Bach listening and starting back exercises to establish routines before the new year. It's all about hitting the ground running come January!

Transform setbacks into stories you'll tell with a grin! Picture future narrations to lighten long processes, like job hunting and dating. Laura shares personal anecdotes, illustrating how reframing failures can turn them into hilarious tales. This mindset not only fosters resilience but also makes success feel more rewarding. Tune in for a fresh perspective on life's challenges and find encouragement in envisioning happy endings.

Explore the power of wishes in weekly planning! Learn how inviting others to share their hopes can create a sense of ownership. Discover a fun technique where kids' meal wishes shape family menus. Extend this concept to non-food desires like outings and quality time. The magic lies in framing requests as wishes, enhancing positivity and engagement. Laura emphasizes the importance of planning to turn those wishes into reality, ensuring everyone feels involved. Make the most of your week by fulfilling each other's wishes!