This week I dive into the four habits that are helping me show up in my life right now. These are the practices that keep me going amidst the busy fall season. Even though some of them aren’t my favorite, they’ve made a significant difference in my daily routine and overall well-being.
I believe that small changes in our day-to-day life can lead to big improvements over time. Whether it’s about managing morning routines or finding joy in biking with my toddler, these habits are about making life more manageable and enjoyable. Let me show you how to implement helpful habits in your busy life, too!
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TRANSCRIPT
Monica Packer: Hi, this is Monica Packer and you’re listening to About Progress, where we are about progress made practical. Please excuse the lisp and the other speech impediments that are sure to exist in this episode. I have a kinker on the tip of my tongue and it shouldn’t be worth noting, except it’s really hard to talk.
So I apologize. I have to say as someone who suffers from chronic cankers, I feel like I could be one of those commercials. Remember. The Maybelline commercial’s like, maybe she’s born with it. Maybe it’s Maybelline. The kinkers do make my lips look really plump. So I have this own commercial in mind where it’s like, Maybe she’s born with it.
Maybe it’s kinkers. Anyway. If you were like me, it is now the official fall season. Now that it’s September and kids are back in school. And it really does feel like the beginning of the second new year of the year. We are transitioning back to fall. And as part of that, we are back to a lot of regular things.
Like for me right now, I am back to a regular load of clients that I’ve had in a year and a half. When the first year my baby was born in 2023, I only took two Two clients a whole year. And in 2024, I only took two clients first half of the year and it’s been feeling so good to get into my regular load of clients and my kids are back to doing more fall sports than they have in years past, it’s already been a lot to balance out, especially because we are still a one car family.
And I found myself this morning, desperately texting different people to ask them if they could carpool with my kids to certain places anyway. And to top it all off for us in the Packer household. I currently don’t have childcare anymore. Our sweet babysitter moved out of state, and we’ve decided to just try to do it without her.
So, for us around here, it’s been feeling pretty packed, and it has solidified for me that this is why I’m a habit person. Now, I never thought I was before, but it’s not because my life is so rigid. I’m a habit person because my life demands so much flexibility from me. And the habits that I have helped me feel strong enough to be able to show up as myself so I can meet all of the nuttiness in our lives.
So in that spirit today, I would like to share four habits that are helping me show up Right now that’s all coming up after a quick break for our sponsors
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With the fall’s cooling weather, colorful leaves and sweaters, oh I can’t wait, also comes the feeling that the year is winding down. I find that a lot of women resign themselves to waiting until the new year to put themselves on the list. Whether it’s with the habit they need, or A goal they have been wanting to work on or simply even prioritizing time for themselves.
With all the urgency I have, can I strongly suggest it is never too late. Fall is actually the perfect time to make or recommit to your do something list. My first DSL changed my life. It’s changed hundreds of women’s lives in this community. And guess what? Its only purpose is to explore what it looks and feels like to To prioritize your own fulfillment.
You can make a refresh yours for fall with a free training. I have for you at aboutprogress. com slash DSL. The training includes a workshop, a guide, and lots of real life examples from real progressors in our community. Again, make time for yourself this fall with your do something list and get your support at aboutprogress.
com slash DSL.
All right, the four habits that are helping me show up right now. Let’s start with number one. I wish this one weren’t on the list, but it really is. That’s the number one thing that is helping me show up the most right now. So not all habits have to be something that you love to do. And this is one of them for me.
It’s waking up earlier. As you likely know by now, I am definitely a reformed night owl. And this has been a longstanding work in progress. And when I say longstanding, I mean, years of ups and downs and getting better, getting harder. And with the disruption of having a newborn last year, I feel like around the nine month mark of after he was born.
I was able to slowly get back to waking up between six and six 30, which felt like a huge accomplishment. But now as we’re heading back into the school year and I have an official middle schooler now and kids who need to be every which direction after school. And I really want to use my time wisely with having a lot of one on one quality time with my toddler in the morning and working very well when he’s napping, which he is right now.
It has been paramount that I wake up. Earlier, and I’m doing that bit by bit. I’m slowly working my way back to waking up at 530 and most mornings. I’ve been waking up around 540, 545, which is usually about 20 minutes earlier than my typical wake up time of six. And I have to say that even waking up 20 minutes earlier than my normal time has made a massive difference.
And that’s partly because I have finally owned that I move very slowly in the morning. I know this because. Anytime I wake up, I can’t kneel down to say my morning prayers. Why? Because I will fall asleep and it will turn into an hour long in quotes, prayer. And it’s kind of the same way with using the bathroom and getting dressed and getting my water bottle.
Even though I have my clothes set out the night before and even the water bottle, it just, it’s just. I, it usually takes me about 15 to 20 minutes to actually get up to where I need to be. And for me, that’s exercising in the early morning before my kids get up. And so, just owning that about myself and just knowing, okay, it’s okay that it can take you up to 20 minutes to actually be working out, even though you work out from home, let’s own that let’s gradually wake up earlier.
So right now, again, between five 40, 545 and I’m just going to keep working my way back to the 5 30 a. m. wake up time. And it’s not going to be every single day. Just so you know, my target for consistency is more times than not. And that goes with my definition of consistency is that we Consistency is doing your best most of the time over time.
And so if I’m hitting more days than not, slowly working my way back, that’s going to be great. And I am starting to get that magical thing of you like waking up more on your own around the time you’re supposed to be waking up. So Brad gets up like at 5 15 every day. And I mean like almost every day. So.
I think I would love to gradually wake up just when he does. So that would be more convenient. Cause I already wake up a little bit when he’s, when he’s waking up and getting dressed, he’s very quiet, very quiet, like a little mouse, but I’m a very sensitive sleeper thanks to having kids. So anyway, that’s all to say, maybe it will say to 5 30, maybe not, but either way.
I’m glad for this habit of waking up earlier. The next habit that is helping me show up right now is going to bed earlier. And you probably knew I was going to say that because a common saying around these parts meeting on this podcast is that the morning starts the night before, which is something I learned in my optimized coaching program years ago.
And it’s Stuck so clearly because most of the time women come to work with me on their morning habits. Hmm, I would say nine times out of 10, if they want to work on a morning habit, we actually start on a nighttime routine. That’s the same thing I’ve been working on waking up earlier. That means I really need to make sure I’m buckling down.
I’m going to bed earlier too. And I’m just gradually working that back as well. My normal bedtime is I go to sleep between 10 and 10 30. Again, more times than not. And I would like to gradually work on me being asleep. around 930 to 10. So what’s actually been helping me do this habit of going to bed earlier is kind of a series of other habits.
And one is I try to get ready for bed, like do my whole skincare routine and in my pajamas as early into the evening as possible, whether that’s shortly after the dinner cleanup. And Putting my toddler to bed, which is ideal, or even just a little bit after that. That helps me because getting ready for bed is my biggest obstacle to get to bed.
Do you feel me on that? I love the results of my skincare routine, but it requires a lot of energy. So if I need to do that, like at nine 30, I will delay that I will procrastinate. It becomes an obstacle. I’d rather be productive and all these other ways than to do my skincare and get in pajamas. So. If I do that earlier, while I’m already having more energy and I’m already in motion with doing things around the house, I can just walk right into my bedroom and get ready.
It really does help overall in getting to bed earlier. Another kind of habit that goes with the going to bed earlier habit is that I have an alarm on my watch, my Apple watch for 9 PM. And that used to remind me to start to wrap things up for work. And now that alarm is like, stop work. And by work, I mean my literal work, because I’m trying to work during nap time, or right when the kids go down, I usually work for about an hour.
And so, It’s also if I’m not working, it’s stop working around the house. Like stop putting things away, stop vacuuming, stop doing laundry, like stop it all. You are off the clock. So my 9 PM alarm is off the clock time and I am doing everything I can to not just automatically turn that off my watch, but to like, Seriously stop the timer or the alarm and to get up and get moving in a different direction, which for me is actually the next little habit.
That’s helping the going to bed earlier habit, which is I have something I look forward to doing, whether it’s watching a show with Brad or. Something I’m really loving reading on my nightstand and either of those two things are things I look forward to. So having something to look forward to that helps me wind down and then go to bed is key to me going to bed earlier.
Because I know I don’t have to just be more productive in different ways. I get to rest. I get to do something I enjoy. Something that feels good. So that second habit was going to bed earlier. And I also shared a few other habits that helped that overall habit. I have two more habits to share with you, but first let’s take a quick break for our sponsors.
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I’ll never forget my own eureka moment when it came to habit formation. After years of learning about, and even trying to teach habits to my first coaching clients, I realized the biggest reason why women had to do habits differently. Our lives are different from men’s lives and oops, all the biggest books and habit formation methods we were learning from you.
were written and designed by men. You may be wondering why I’d make such blanket statements, but I’ll tell you now that these aren’t just my opinions. They’re research backed, and it all goes back to a decades long area of study, invisible labor. Studies show that all women have less time, energy, and support than even the best of men in their lives.
So of course that means we have to do habits. If you’re ready to do so, and still form habits that stick, the kind that support you, instead of you hustling to support the habits, sign up for my Sticky Habit Intensive, my 21 day live habit course, challenge, and community. We are now open for September’s Sticky Habit Intensive, and a new bonus is a free buddy pass, so you’ll get an extra layer of accountability.
You can sign up at aboutprogress. com slash intensive. And if it’s not open, get on the wait list to get first dibs to our limited spots for the next one again, aboutprogress. com slash intensive to join us in the next sticky habit intensive. The third habit that is helping me show up right now is doing my bi weekly meal planning.
Now, I got back into meal planning, maybe around the halfway mark of 2023, moving into the latter end of 2023. Again, this is one of those habits that had to be put on the back burner when I was in that survival period with a newborn. And bringing it back Off the back burner helped me because not only did we know what we were having for dinner, it also helped me grocery shop better.
Now, I shared this on Instagram for a while, but I was really worried about our grocery bills because they were just so out of this world. And even though I felt like I was trying to be so careful and only getting what was on our list and making sure we had a list, like all that stuff, it was just really hard.
I shopped around at different stores. I tried doing different kinds of budgets. Anyway. What ended up working was this tip from a podcast guest we had, Rachel Koons. And her tip was to not meal plan for a week, but meal plan for a two week period. And I have some simple ways that I do this. So let me just share.
I don’t plan breakfast, lunches, and snacks. Those are pretty typical. Breakfast, we always have oatmeal or pancakes or eggs. So we just typically have, we always have those ingredients on hand actually. And if not, I mean, toast, like we have toast. We have cereal on Fridays and Saturdays because it’s expensive.
And my kids. Sail through it and they’re hungry right after. So not to knock on cereal, but that’s why we don’t really eat cereal on the weekday mornings, typically. And so those are always on hand. Lunches, my kids, do we do frozen sandwiches on Hawaiian rolls with ham and cheese? I got this idea from Brittany Hanks from Home and Kind years ago.
We put them in the freezer and my kids just make their lunches the night before and put their own sandwiches in a, in a container. My middle schooler has gotten sick of those and I don’t blame him because we’ve been doing them for like five years. So we’ve been coming up with different freezable things for him, like now we’ve just been doing bagels with cream cheese already in them frozen, and he puts that in his lunchbox the night before.
Anyway, so, and then like apples and carrots and crackers and goldfish or whatever else is on the side, those are just always in stock. And snacks are typically apples and cheese, and anyway, so we just keep those ingredients on hand. But dinner typically needs to be ingredients that I don’t like.
Always remember to have on hand. Or I need to make sure we do like, I need to make sure we have the cheese or the beef or the tortillas. So that’s why helping, making sure I have our meals planned out helps me grocery shop better. Now what’s been crazy about this is not only has meal planning for two weeks at a time for just our, our, our dinners, that’s all my meal planning.
Not only has that helped with my mental load, which has been amazing, it’s also helped us save money on groceries because as going with Rachel Coon’s advice here, when you’re doing a two week meal planning, then you’re able to bulk shop for that, those two weeks. That means you try to get all your groceries for the two weeks.
And we don’t always like the second week, we may need to do a really brief grocery run for just some produce. And we always do pick up. So that helps me not. Spend more money than we need to, but it really does save money. And it saves on the brain power and that mental load, but also saves money on groceries.
And I also have found it’s not that hard. I think it would, I would have thought so because I’m not someone who typically loves to meal plan. Actually, I would not say I love it at all. I would say I do not like it. I dislike this habit, but I do it because. It makes life easier. It saves us money. And I also do it in a very simple way.
So let me just share how I do the dinner specifically. We have one night that’s always leftovers. We have Friday nights that are always homemade pizza night. So that’s really easy. We already always know the ingredients we need on hand for that. And and on Saturdays, Brad and I either go out and, or we do like something quesadillas or.
Mac and cheese from a box for the kids. And so I’m really only planning meals for four nights of the week. And that’s pretty doable, right? So I’m not planning 16 or no, sorry, 14 meals. I’m planning eight total. And of those dinners, I don’t go through. Pinterest or through all my cookbooks. Sometimes I pull out a cookbook just to make sure I know the recipe that we love and just what ingredients may be on there, but I don’t go through my cookbooks to find what dinners I’m making.
I just pull them from my head of like, okay, what’s the weather. What’s my time looking like for that day? We need a pretty fast meal. So what’s one of our go to fast meals. And I just pull from our. Family favorite go to meals most of the time. So eight family favorite meals. Great. Sometimes for a Sunday or a special meal with other friends or something, I may have my cookbooks out and be looking for a meal like that.
But typically that’s how it’s kept very simple. So I started doing this after my interview with Rachel Coons and it has. And again, this is a habit I don’t love, and I’ve already shared about two of those, but it’s also showing how you don’t have to do it in this very intense way to make it work. And if habits are meant to be supportive, that’s what this habit is doing for me is supporting me in multiple ways.
So the third habit was bi weekly meal planning. The fourth and final habit I want to share with you that is helping me show up right now is riding my bike with my youngest, with my toddler. We love this so much. I went to go buy my Well, how old is he now? Nine year, nine year old, a bike who he loves riding our janky rusted bikes that are literally falling apart until they were not working.
I say they, because we had multiple and I told him for his birthday, you can get one big gift and it will be a bike. And we had our grandparents go in on it too. And it took us a couple of weeks, but we made it to the back store. And what do you know? They had a buy one, get one half off and his bike was already on discount and the bike I was looking at was already on discount.
And it’s just like a yellow bike fell into my cart because by the way, that yellow, that yellow color really drew me in. Like, I was kind of thinking about it until I saw the bike with yellow. And then I was like, okay. I’m coming home with a bike and I have loved having that because even though it was on my DSL for years, I finally did it and it wasn’t even on my list this year.
I took it off because I’m like, oh, that one’s just not happening. And it’s because I had a road bike in mind, but now I’m like, no, I can get this cool kind of like, It’s a townie and it’s like a bike cruiser and I had the bike store put the bike seat on because it was very complicated. I was really glad I had them do it.
It was complicated for them. So we have that cute bike seat on the back for my toddler and riding with him has been a delight. And the reason it’s a habit is because we ride my bike. On, for sure, every Tuesday and Thursday morning we ride at other times too, but Tuesday morning we have this little toddler music art class that we go to now for him, and Thursday mornings we go somewhere else, like the library or the park, and Having those two days, just actually the mornings, just for like an hour and a half set aside for us to bike somewhere and have some fun and bike home.
And it’s all really local has been so beautiful. And I have to say, even he loves it. He was signs more, you know, when I’m getting him out and, or he’ll go to the shed where the bike is, it’s locked up. By the way, and he’s like signing more, please. Can I go on the bike with you? So it is a delight for both of us.
We get time together. We get fresh air And we’re doing it all before the winter months and i’m sure i’m going to be missing this habit desperately when that season comes But I love this habit so much and I also hope it shows to you that Habits aren’t just about productivity and, and organizing and doing more in your day and being this good, diligent person, or even about your health.
It can be about enjoyment and fun and connection. And that is this habit for me. I love it so much. That is it for the four simple habits that are helping me show up right now. I hope this episode gave you the hug and kick in the pants that you need to also prioritize some supportive habits for yourself, whether they are ones you don’t like too much, like my waking up earlier or my biweekly meal planning, but also help you get supported in other ways, or the really fun.
Supportive habits like me riding a bike and I don’t have progress pointers for you today But I do have a do something challenge for you I want you to think about some simple habits that could make a big difference in your life And I would love to encourage you to choose one One of those and start small with it.
So again, your do something challenge for this week is to choose one simple habit that you would like to better prioritize and start small. If you want to work on that habit or another one in our next sticky habit intensive, which is my 21 day live course habit challenge and community, It is currently open for enrollment as this episode airs.
And if you go on what I have linked for you in the show notes, and it’s clearly not available anymore, the wait list will be there for you. So go to aboutprogress. com slash intensive to download it. Either enroll for our Sticky Habit Intensive for September or to get on the waitlist for the next one, which won’t be until 2025, unfortunately, likely not until February then.
So, get on the waitlist for sure because waitlist people get first dibs the week before the general public because my spots for the intensive are always capped. So I can really deliver the personal support that I promise to provide and I love to provide. And also waitlist people get a little discount that nobody else gets.
So. That is something you want to get again about progress. com slash intensive. Before we go a quick reminder that this show is listener supported. Members of the supporters club get access to three levels of exclusive benefits from more content to free in person and online meetups with me. One benefit is my private premium, always ad free podcast called more personal, where we lean into the personal side of personal development.
Our episodes range from casual combos on not so casual topics, And deep dives and my monthly book report and honest reviews on things we bought ourselves. The Supporters Club has helped bridge some big financial gaps this year. Consider joining the fun by going to aboutprogress. com slash support. And just know that you can always support the show for free.
Keep listening, make sure you’re following this podcast, leave a review, share it with a friend. So many free ways to extend your support and thank you for doing so. And thank you so much for listening. Now go and do something with what you learned today.
That’s all showing up.
