Focus On This Podcast

155. 3 Rhythms to Help You Reset This Fall

Audio

Overview

With summer vacations wrapping up, school starting again, and various pumpkin-flavored drinks being consumed, that can mean only one thing: fall is upon us. A change in seasons means a change in your routines. Luckily, the Full Focus System gives you the chance to rethink the rhythms and rituals that help make you successful.

Blake, Verbs, and Courtney provide you with three rhythms you can use to transition into fall without missing a beat.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

  • Why the shorter days can cause problems with your schedule
  • How to build rituals that work for you
  • Why defining your wins is so important
  • How well Blake sings hoedowns

Go watch Blake’s hoedowns here: https://youtu.be/_y9z4znseHI

Join the Full Focus Planner Community!

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For more, visit www.focusonthispodcast.com.

Episode Transcript

Verbs Boyer:
It is that time of year. You have purchased all of the sweaters you could from TJ Maxx or Ross. You’re waiting for those leaves to change colors right now, so you can book those photo shoots with you and your family. Fall time is upon us, ladies and gentlemen. Things start to transition right now. Blake, Courtney, how do you feel around this time of year? How is that transition time like for you, going from summer into the highly anticipated fall season, which is my favorite season of the year, by the way? But what’s it like for you guys as you transition?

Blake Stratton:
I think the biggest football for me is football, football, football, when I’m football and football.

Verbs Boyer:
Are you ready for some fall football?

Blake Stratton:
Yes, I am. I’m a Bears fan, and I am ready to get hurt. Can’t wait to get hurt again. It’s going to be excellent.

Verbs Boyer:
Glutton for punishment.

Blake Stratton:
Yep.

Verbs Boyer:
There you go, yeah.

Courtney Baker:
I feel like right now, when we’re recording this episode, the way that I feel about fall is I wake up really excited, because in the air in the morning, there’s just that slight chill.

Blake Stratton:
Ooh, that crisp?

Courtney Baker:
Yeah, but then I get really mad, because by like 9:00, it’s blazing hot again. I’m like, “Nope. 90s, we’re supposed to be kind of…” The hope is there, and people are already talking pumpkin spice latte, but the weather here in Nashville is not… It’s not getting there for me, so right now, it’s a lot of excitement, but no, it’s not actually happening for me right now.

Blake Stratton:
Yeah.

Verbs Boyer:
Right.

Blake Stratton:
And part of it is you’re wearing this huge scarf the whole time. That’s not helping you, your huge autumn scarf.

Courtney Baker:
Yeah, maybe.

Blake Stratton:
Your fashion scarf.

Courtney Baker:
Maybe ditch that a little bit. I will say, I kind of with like new years, you have that natural like fresh start effect that happens. I do feel like this time of year also has that, maybe not to the same extent, but has a little bit of that built in, where a lot of us are thinking about schedules, and structure, and even if you don’t have kids, and you’re not thinking about it from school, you still have that transition of… I think in most companies, a lot of people are out on vacation. It’s just a different vibe in most companies during the summer than it is in the fall. You know, you’re kind of… A lot of people are moving into the end of your fiscal year, so it’s game time now, so I do think there is a little bit of that fresh start effect that can happen right now, which it’s like the same when you come from vacation. You’re like, “I’m actually kind of ready to get back to a routine.” I think this time of year has that same thing, like, “Yeah, I kind of… I’m looking for a little more structure than I’ve had the last couple months.”

Blake Stratton:
Which means it’s a great time to restructure. That’s what I’ve found myself doing, is looking at, as schedules are getting a little bit more normal, and my clients, like they’re done with all their different vacations and looking for more consistency, I’m seeing the fall as this time to take a look at those things. Like it’s not the new year, like you said, but it is a great time to just reevaluate, what do I need to install to help me finish this year strong? So even though it’s still… You know, it’s just barely fall, my head kind of goes, “Oh wow, the year… There’s only so much time left.”

Courtney Baker:
I know.

Verbs Boyer:
Yeah.

Blake Stratton:
How do I want to show up for the rest of this year?

Verbs Boyer:
Well, the gang’s all here, so we’re going to be talking about three rhythms to keep you grounded as you get back into the spring of fall. Cue the pumpkin spice latte theme song. Welcome to another episode of Focus on This, the most productive podcast on the internet, so you can banish distractions, get the right stuff done, and finally start loving Mondays. I’m Verbs, here with Courtney Baker and Blake Stratton. Happy Monday to you all.

Blake Stratton:
Happy Monday to-

Courtney Baker:
Happy Monday.

Blake Stratton:
… you both.

Courtney Baker:
I feel like I’m workshopping some dance moves to the beginning, and none of them are working right now, so feel free to provide some suggestions.

Verbs Boyer:
That was a nice one, though, what you just… You know, that’s-

Courtney Baker:
Yeah, and-

Blake Stratton:
What is this called?

Courtney Baker:
I’m sure there’s a move for that.

Verbs Boyer:
Depends when you… what era you grew up. This would almost be the… We used to call this the Reebok. I don’t know if that’s a… if we can say that on the podcast, but-

Courtney Baker:
If that’s the gen X version, or-

Verbs Boyer:
Exactly.

Courtney Baker:
… what are the cool gen Z-ers calling it? We probably should check.

Verbs Boyer:
Yeah.

Courtney Baker:
If you aren’t watching on YouTube, you should come check it out, and you can see our dance moves and help us get a dance move for our intro.

Blake Stratton:
A signature move, yeah.

Courtney Baker:
Yeah.

Blake Stratton:
That’s what this is missing.

Courtney Baker:
Exactly.

Blake Stratton:
People have been saying it. I’ve been saying it, Verbs has been saying it. That’s clearly what’s missing. That will be the thing. When we have the signature dance move, that will be the missing link, and people will go, “Now, this truly is the most productive podcast on the internet.”

Courtney Baker:
Let’s get it done.

Verbs Boyer:
One-stop shop.

Courtney Baker:
Maybe some of the things we’re talking about today could help us get this locked down.

Verbs Boyer:
Absolutely.

Blake Stratton:
Well, we are talking about rhythms.

Verbs Boyer:
Ah, I see what you did there, Blake.

Blake Stratton:
See what I’m talking about here.

Verbs Boyer:
This guy is good.

Blake Stratton:
So rhythm zero would be helping Courtney find a signature dance move. The first rhythm, after of course you’ve mastered, you’ve reintroduced your signature dance move so that all your coworkers and your family know, hey, I’m serious about my productivity, as you can tell from my dance moves, the first rhythm to take a look at, implementing a morning ritual, implementing a morning ritual. Now, the good news is, whether you say, “Oh, yeah, a morning ritual. I’ve got one,” or, “Oh, I don’t have one. I know I should do one,” you already do have one. It’s just probably a little jumbled, especially if you’re coming out of a season of, “Hey, we went on vacation this week. I’m catching up on a bunch of stuff this week. We’re traveling over here for that.” Fall is a perfect time to think about how do I want to set the tone for the rest of my day?
You already have a morning ritual, because you get up and you probably do 80% of what you do is the same every morning. The question is simply this. Is it preparing you the way that you want to be prepared for your day? Is it setting you up for the kind of day that you want to have? So this is a great time to do it. Courtney, Verbs, what do your morning rituals look like? How do you make them work for you?

Courtney Baker:
Well, one thing that I like to think about when I’m evaluating my morning ritual is what were the things that I was doing when I was hitting my daily big three the most consistently? I look at, okay, what were the things that I was doing as part of my morning ritual? And there are some things that it’s like, ah man, it’s hard to do that piece of the ritual, but the outcome of it is worth it, you know? So those are the type of things that I think about. I’m not even giving you examples, because I think that’s different for everybody, whether or not it’s working out, or it’s meditation, it’s taking a walk. What are those things that, in those seasons that you were the most successful at hitting your daily big three, were happening, and add those in your morning ritual. That seems to work really well for me.

Blake Stratton:
Verbs, what’s a tweak that you’ve made to your morning ritual, to make it work better for you?

Verbs Boyer:
Yes. I think obviously one of the most significant changes that comes about going from summer to fall is the darkness when you’re waking up and the earliness of when the darkness hits. I think we were talking about this right before we pressed record with Nick, that you have to look at your exercise times differently, one because as you’re adjusting to that new season of fall coming in, your body… You wake up in the morning and it’s still dark, and then you feel like, “Ah,” so you feel a little bit more of that resistance to maybe pop back up and get into the morning, and then work out, do your coffee ritual, the routine, and all that.
So it’s reconfiguring maybe some of those ritual items, like a working out, maybe pushing that to the evening time, but still making sure I’m getting it in. And then how can I maximize on my morning, because for us, that comes with getting kids up and all that good stuff. It’s just those fine-tunings of if I need to move something to another segment of the day, like an exercise routine, just making sure I’m doing that as the fall draws nigh.

Blake Stratton:
When I’m working with people on their morning ritual, the challenge a lot of people find is when they start getting in the head space of, “Oh, I’m going to change my morning ritual,” they end up with a list of like 20 different things. “Well, I heard that I should be doing this, and I’d love to be able to exercise, and do this, and do this, and do this,” and all these different things, and one way, if you feel overwhelmed by that prospect, or if you’ve tried that and then it doesn’t last, is to recognize you’re essentially… One of my clients said, “Oh, well I’m trying to do this and this.” I said, “You realize you’re trying to install seven habits at one time.”

Courtney Baker:
Yeah.

Blake Stratton:
Like cold. It’s not going to work out super well, and that’s not because you aren’t good at having a ritual. It’s just because that’s the nature of installing habits. So think about it in terms of how do I feel now when I’m entering into my workday, and what is one thing I could tweak about my current ritual or my current routine, that would help me feel even 10% better? And the simple approach to make that tweak and install that, I think is super helpful.

Courtney Baker:
Yeah, I think especially for folks that are listening… I don’t know why I keep saying folks all the time. I’m like what is the deal with that?

Verbs Boyer:
Because you’re from Nashville.

Blake Stratton:
Hey, folks. (singing)

Courtney Baker:
He was scary in the new Thor movie.

Verbs Boyer:
What in the world?

Courtney Baker:
Wow.

Blake Stratton:
I don’t know where that came from, guys.

Verbs Boyer:
That was amazing.

Blake Stratton:
I had a song in my heart, and I had to get it out.

Courtney Baker:
Thank you for that. I do think for people that are new to using the planner, like you never really thought about a morning ritual, start simple. Just simple, simple, simple. Just really even start with what you’re doing now, and write it down, and go from there. Guys, I hope that this makes the cut, because Verbs and Blake are losing their minds right now, and normally, it’s me, okay? I want the record to show, and Nick, they’re all losing it. I am the one not cracking up right now.

Blake Stratton:
Oh my gosh.

Courtney Baker:
[inaudible 00:11:40]

Verbs Boyer:
I’m not sure what it is.

Blake Stratton:
Oh.

Verbs Boyer:
I don’t know why that’s so funny. It was the randomness of it that was-

Courtney Baker:
It’s because of that song.

Verbs Boyer:
It was a whole song.

Nick Jaworski:
I also think Courtney’s sort of ignoring it was part of just like, “Okay, I guess that didn’t happen.” Oh.

Verbs Boyer:
It was an entire song was… That wasn’t like a line or two. Oh, that was… Then I was like, “This is the fall harvest theme song right now. That was just…” That was a pumpkin spice… Oh.

Courtney Baker:
So again, the first rhythm for helping you reset this fall is implementing a morning ritual or updating your morning ritual. Rhythm number two is setting your daily big three. This actually might be something that you even decide to include as part of your morning ritual. I think the three of us, and maybe all four of us on this podcast, do this at different times, but that might be I do mine as part of my workday shutdown. Blake, I know you do yours as part of your workday startup. I can’t remember, now that… I was so confident to like .2 seconds ago.

Blake Stratton:
No, that’s because I kind of do it both. I do it in my workday shutdown, but then I actually write it in my planner. I confirm. I suggest in my workday shutdown, and then upon further evaluation in the morning, I reconfirm, and commit it to paper.

Courtney Baker:
Okay. Okay, okay. And then Verbs, I feel like you’re workday startup.

Verbs Boyer:
That is correct.

Courtney Baker:
All right, and then Nick, I’m going to say you are workday startup as well.

Nick Jaworski:
No. Nope. I’m a workday shutdown.

Courtney Baker:
Yes. I should have known, Nick. You and I, we’re just like twins. We’re always twins. I should have just said, “What do I do? That’s what Nick does.” Okay, so you may want to think about… It might be part of your morning ritual, but part of resetting this fall is you need to define the win for your day. So as you’re resetting, it really helps to get back to these basics, and deciding, “Okay, what is the win going to be for today?” And your daily big three is the tool that does that for you.
Again, everybody has tons of tasks. We all have never-ending to-do lists, so getting that done, over, and totally checked off in one day is nearly impossible. So what we’ve got to do is figure out what are the most important things for me to pursue today, and get those done first. The rest of the to-do list is just going to keep growing. It’s going to be there tomorrow, but as you’re thinking about these rhythms, make sure that you are setting your daily big three.

Blake Stratton:
Setting a big three is hard to do when you feel like it’s pointless, but we’re lying to ourself if we don’t realize that so much of our actual productivity, in terms of consistently doing the right things in the right way, is dependent upon our psychological or our heart state, our emotional state. And when you set a big three, this goes back to when I first started using the planner, when I started setting the big three, and I did not get anything quote-unquote “more” done when I started doing that. But what changed was I started sleeping better at night, and I started sleeping better at night because psychologically, I had defined a reachable goal for the day, that I determined, I said, “This is what’s most important to me today,” and I could check those things off and say, “That’s what the win is.”

Courtney Baker:
Yeah.

Blake Stratton:
If you can do that consistently, especially when there’s way too much to do and you’re feeling overwhelmed, maybe you don’t get all the logistics of things done, but you start feeling significantly better, internally, physically, emotionally, and when you feel better, you will perform better. Give it a long enough time horizon, your life will change. So it seems small, and it may seem insignificant, because it’s not going to help you accomplish more items today by setting the daily big three, but it’s very important from a rhythm standpoint, and that’s what we’re talking about today, is important rhythms that you can install, or reinstall, to make the back half or the last part of this year really, really great for you.

Verbs Boyer:
I want to come in on something real quick, because I think Blake might have just offered an upgrade to what we said we were doing previously, when we said when do we set our daily big three, on the day of or the night before? But this whole sleep factor is an interesting comment, because if you get better sleep because you’ve already established and identified what those daily big three are for the next day, it actually added to your quality of sleep, there may be something there worth experimenting. I may try that myself, but yeah, that was a good word right there.
So moving to rhythm number three, completing your weekly preview. Again, better known on this show as the secret sauce. Now, your weekly preview is for your week, what your morning ritual is for your day, so it really helps you get oriented to what’s ahead. It helps you kind of look back at what you might not have finished or might not have completed the week before, and lets you know where can I place these things to make sure they are done, as well as the newer tasks or projects that you have for the upcoming week.
We often talk about getting into the habit of doing it the same time every week. There’s a highly hot debated issue on whether or not you should do it on the Friday, or the Sunday, or the Monday. I forget where we all land. I’m a Sunday guy myself. Courtney, Blake, where do you find it the most beneficial?

Blake Stratton:
I really like to do it Saturday night. I just say, “Hey.” All my friends, my wife-

Verbs Boyer:
Are you serious?

Blake Stratton:
… I’m like, “Listen, lets all grab our planners.” No.

Verbs Boyer:
Order Domino’s, get those planners, and let’s knock this out.

Blake Stratton:
I have no friends. So Sunday afternoon is what I do, but I have a lot of respect. One of my clients does Friday afternoon, which is perfect, because his main challenge was, “I keep taking work home,” or, “I’m struggling to unplug on my Saturdays, to be fully in off work mode,” and therefore, just like setting your daily big three in your workday shutdown, it’s that same principle. If you do your weekly preview before you hit your weekend, you can actually have permission to be like, “Oh yeah. Listen, that work week is done, and I know what’s coming next week. I’m free to be on Saturday, and hang out with Blake calm, because he has no friends.”

Courtney Baker:
Full disclosure.

Blake Stratton:
It’s because you do your weekly preview on Saturday.

Courtney Baker:
I actually tested this myself recently, and tried it on Friday afternoons, and I got to say, it is pretty awesome. The problem is, for me, I run into that time gets sucked up into other things, like closing out the week on other projects. But when I was able to do it, it’s really great, because it does allow a lot of freedom in the weekend. You’re like, “I’ve already got that all cleared away.” The one part that was missing for me, if you’re considering this, was just syncing with my husband.
You know, for me, it’s really helpful to make sure we’re in alignment on the week ahead, so yeah, it might be something to test out. All of these things are really… These rhythms need to work for you, so try it out. Test it out on a Friday. See if it works. Try it on Sunday. Same with what we talked about with setting your daily big three. These rhythms are just tools for you to work for you, and to set up this fall for you to be successful, and I think there’s a variety of ways that they can work to yield success for you.

Verbs Boyer:
But try to avoid doing it on Wednesdays at all costs. It’s not that helpful at that point.

Courtney Baker:
That is true, but I will say, because I think I’ve admitted this on the podcast before, but I missed a weekly preview one time. Actually, more than one time.

Blake Stratton:
What was that like? I’ve never-

Courtney Baker:
I know.

Verbs Boyer:
Get out.

Blake Stratton:
I’ve never done that.

Verbs Boyer:
You’re fired. You once missed a weekly preview?

Courtney Baker:
Yeah, I did. Yeah. It happened, y’all. And I was really, truly, like really kind of floundering. It’s more than once, okay? But I-

Verbs Boyer:
The truth comes out.

Courtney Baker:
I think once I get to the middle of the week, in retrospect, like in my after-action review, I’ve been like, “I just need to stop and do it. Like, do the weekly preview, even if it’s Wednesday,” and just get back in realignment for the rest of the week. Like, why sacrifice the whole thing just because I’m in the middle of the week? So that actually, I think, is a valuable takeaway in those times where you don’t do it exactly the way that you were intending to do it. It’s still a valuable tool, even if we tease you for it.

Verbs Boyer:
No planner shaming at all.

Courtney Baker:
That’s right.

Verbs Boyer:
Plus, you paid for those pages, so you want to write something on that weekly preview.

Courtney Baker:
True story, yeah. Get some permanent ink on there.

Blake Stratton:
Am I frozen to anybody else, or does it just look frozen to me?

Courtney Baker:
Just you.

Blake Stratton:
Oh, okay. Well, that’s fine.

Courtney Baker:
Do you want to sing another song for us?

Verbs Boyer:
No.

Blake Stratton:
(singing) All right. Kind of floundered at the end, but… All right, Nick hates his life right now. We need to-

Courtney Baker:
Oh my god.

Blake Stratton:
… go to the next episode as soon as possible.

Courtney Baker:
Okay, next ep. Let’s do this.

Verbs Boyer:
The dance, the melody.

Nick Jaworski:
Yeah, you couldn’t even see how quickly you were moving on your own screen. That was what-

Blake Stratton:
I can’t see myself. What if I did this? Here we go, I’ll clip… Nope, I’m still frozen.

Verbs Boyer:
So today’s tip to level up your focus is to take 15 minutes to reevaluate your morning ritual. Ask what’s working, what’s not working, then adjust accordingly. Thanks for joining us on Focus on This.

Courtney Baker:
This is the most productive podcast on the internet, so make sure you share it with your friends. And don’t forget to join us in the Full Focus planner community on Facebook. We will be back here next Monday with another great episode. Until then…

Blake Stratton:
Stay focused.

Verbs Boyer:
Stay focused.

Courtney Baker:
Stay focused.

Blake Stratton:
Stay focused, folks.

Courtney Baker:
Folks.