In short
The Goal Digger Podcast Episode 924: Drowning in To-Dos? This Home System Changes Everything
Episode Summary In this episode, Jenna Kutcher discusses the importance of creating a "life operating system" to streamline home and business tasks, especially for those who manage ADHD. Drawing parallels between business systems and home life, she emphasizes that both aspects of life are interconnected and should function harmoniously. Jenna shares her journey from chaos at home to order and clarity, demonstrating how strategic systems can enhance productivity and mental well-being.
Key Concepts Life Operating System
- Borrowing Business Tactics: The idea centers around applying successful business strategies—such as workflows, clear responsibilities, and automation—to personal life.
- Reducing Overwhelm: Establishing systems can alleviate decision fatigue, especially for individuals with ADHD, leading to a more organized and fulfilling life.
ADHD and Structure
- Struggles with Chaos: Jenna shares her personal experiences with ADHD, where home chaos significantly impacts her productivity and mental clarity.
- Embracing Systems: Realizing the necessity of structure, she transitioned from chaotic living to a more organized lifestyle, utilizing systems to streamline her personal and family tasks.
Practical Strategies Shared Weekly Rhythm and Meal Planning
- Sunday Night Preparations: Weekly meal planning and grocery ordering takes place, which sets the family up for a smooth week. This involves:
- Collecting laundry and preparing meals for the week.
- Utilizing grocery delivery services to minimize stress.
Delegation and Role Clarity
- Fair Play Deck: Introduced by Eve Rodsky, this concept involves dividing household responsibilities through a card system, ensuring clarity in roles and reducing mental load.
- Weekly Sync-Ups: Regular check-ins with partners to discuss tasks, plan for the week ahead, and ensure both parties are on the same page.
Outsourcing Tasks
- House Manager Concept: To focus on quality family time, Jenna discusses outsourcing household tasks, such as meal prep and laundry, to a house manager.
- Reframing Outsourcing: Shifting the perspective on outsourcing from inadequacy to enhancement of family time and quality of life.
Time Management and Energy Awareness
- Energy Matching: Tasks should align with energy levels, fostering a proactive approach rather than a reactive one.
- Use of Project Management Tools: Jenna implements project management tools and calendars to maintain visibility over household and business responsibilities.
Key Takeaways
- Interconnection of Home and Business: Chaos in one area negatively impacts the other. Creating systems in both domains leads to a more harmonious life.
- Mental Load Awareness: Acknowledge the invisible mental tasks that contribute to overwhelm and find ways to share or outsource them.
- Start Small: Implementing one system or strategy at a time can lead to significant improvements over time.
Final Thoughts Jenna challenges listeners to apply strategic, business-like thinking to their home life to reduce chaos and enhance well-being. By creating systems that work, individuals can foster a balanced life that supports their goals and family needs.
Community Engagement
- Join the Goal Digger Facebook Community.
- Follow the Goal Digger Podcast on Instagram.
- Subscribe and leave reviews to help others discover the podcast.
Resources Mentioned
- Fair Play by Eve Rodsky: Book on dividing household tasks fairly.
- Podcasting 101 Masterclass: Jenna's free class on starting and profiting from a podcast.
Conclusion Implementing systems in daily life can significantly improve clarity, reduce overwhelm, and enhance personal and family well-being. By considering the suggestions offered in this episode, listeners are encouraged to take tangible steps toward a more organized and fulfilling life.
Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.
Transcript
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2:10Your home life and your business life aren't separate. They are not mutually exclusive. They are feeding each other for better or for worse. And that is why I think today's topic and a question that has not left my brain for months is so important to talk about. I'm Jenna Kutcher and I help you trade hustle for purpose and build a business that gives you the life you actually want to live. From a$300 Craigslist camera to a seven-figure business I run from home, I've learned that success isn't just about what you do. It's about how you live. Here, you'll get strategies that work, systems that give you your time back, and steps that turn your effort into results and impact.
2:54If you're ready for clarity, confidence, and a business that feels as good as it looks, you're in the right place. This is the Goal Digger Podcast. There has been this question running through my head for months, and I have been thinking about it for so long that I decided to create an episode about it. So the question is, what if we could run our lives like we run our businesses? Like imagine this with me now. Imagine having streamlined workflows and clear responsibilities and built in rest and rhythm, not just for like the work you're doing daily, but in your actual daily life? Now, this question comes to me because as an entrepreneur with ADHD, I have spent years building these incredible, repeatable, scalable systems in my business.
3:44Like I have launch calendars that run like clockwork and podcast workflows that practically manage themselves. I have automated email funnels that nurture and convert while I sleep. My business, it hums like a well-oiled machine. It is literally built to rinse and repeat. I have very few surprises in my business life. And while business has been incredibly predictable, my home life for the longest time felt a little chaotic. And here's the thing about having ADHD. If there is any amount of chaos in your home, I will argue that everything feels 10 times worse. Like I am personally super scatterbrained.
4:23I lose things constantly. And I am very quick to spiral into overwhelm. Now, maybe you can relate to that feeling of your business maybe being buttoned up while your personal life feels like it's held together with duct tape and hope. So over a year ago, I learned this idea from my dear friend, Natalie Ellis. She introduced me to this concept of having a life operating system. And when I first learned about this, it completely changed my perspective. It made me ask this question, like, what if we borrowed what is actually working in other areas of our lives, including our businesses, like the structure, the systems, the automation?
5:00And what would it look like if we applied it to our real lives? What if we stopped treating our homes like the chaotic backdrop to our organized lives and started giving them the same strategic attention? So today, I want to take you completely behind the scenes of how we've built systems in our home that actually support our real life. I'm talking about everything from meal planning and laundry rhythms, to how Drew and I communicate about household responsibilities, to outsourcing the tasks that drain our energy instead of fueling us. Now, let me just preface this and say, just like everything I do, this is not perfect.
5:37These are not perfect systems, and we are absolutely positively not perfect people. But we have built a rhythm that is helping our family function in a way that lets me flourish, both as a mom, as a wife, as an entrepreneur. And I think that if you adopt even just a little piece of this, it might help you do the same. So grab your coffee, get comfortable, and let's dig into how to build a life that runs as smoothly as your business. Here we go. So I feel like I first have to just paint a picture of why this thought kept circulating in my brain in the first place. So I am 1000 % the type B person in our relationship.
6:20Like Drew is the type A. I often joke that like I should have known that this man was highly structured and highly organized when I started dating him in college. He was the kind of guy where I could say, do you have a double A battery? And he would pull out like a little clear storage tote from his closet that was labeled and he could give me the battery. Now for me, like if somebody asked me for AA battery, I would go steal a AA battery from the remote control and then hand it over to you. Like, I don't know where things are. Like, my brain is incredibly disorganized. And so for me, what I've learned is that for most of my adult life, I really pushed against having structure and systems.
7:05Like, to me, that felt like caging a wild animal. And I think for me, motherhood tipped me over the edge where I recognized that like, whoa, having structure and systems actually gives me freedom and clarity. It takes a lot of like the mental work off of not knowing what to expect next. And so I did like a full 180 on my belief of like, what are structures and systems built for? Because as somebody who went into motherhood with like zero structure, now I'm someone who absolutely craves it. And so I've realized that in areas in my life, if I don't have systems, my days feel really scattered. And I feel like I'm coming at life from this like reactive standpoint versus a proactive one.
7:51Like it feels like I'm just putting out fires instead of actually living. So here's what I've learned, especially after getting diagnosed with ADHD. ADHD thrives in structure and absolutely struggles in chaos, which means that for the majority of my life. I was struggling in total chaos. And so what's been interesting is, is that in my marriage, I'm the type B, Drew's the type A. In my business, I'm the type B and Marissa is my type A. She is the person who helps me build out these systems. And so I hired her after I became a mom and realized, oh my gosh, I don't even, I like sit down at the computer and I don't even know what I'm supposed to do.
8:28Like I don't, I know there's so much to get done and I don't even know where to start. And so over the last nearly seven years, we've built out so many systems. We built out launch calendars and workflows and sequences and all these different things. And I've realized that like, wow, this structure gives me clarity. It gives me certainty. It helps me stay efficient and focused. And so I started to think like, wait, where else in my life can I apply what I've learned both about my brain and about systems. And I recognized that my home life was actually the weakest link. And so this shift happened because I recognize like in business, it's really easy to create structure because you can recognize in your business that structure can save you time.
9:13It can eliminate decision fatigue. But what's interesting to me, and I think why so many of us, and I'll speak mainly for myself, why I was hesitant to implement these ideas in my home is that I was failing to connect the dots. Like I was failing to see that structure doesn't just save time. It can like save your brain, right? Like for me, when my ADHD brain is constantly making a million micro decisions, like should I start the laundry now? Did I water the plants? What are we eating tonight? I am operating from decision overload before I even sit down to work. and I've recognized that when I have predictable rhythms, when I know what's happening when, my brain can actually focus on the work that moves the needle and so it's been really interesting because in my business, I feel like I know what to expect.
10:08I know the rhythm. I know what is expected of me. I know what tasks I need to focus on and so I wanted to kind of take that blueprint and copy and paste it into my life. Because there is nothing worse to me when I feel like at the end of the day, I am just shut down. Like Drew will ask me a simple question of like, should I put a hard boiled egg or yogurt in the girls' lunches? And like, I just like shut down. Like I've decided too many things. I cannot make one more decision. And so I question like, what would this look like if we brought some of this system into our lives. So here's what led us to actually do this.
10:49I feel like so many humans out there, business owners or not, we are all juggling so much. And let me just preface and say, I recognize that what we are juggling is incredibly different across the board. You might be a caretaker. You might have children. You might not. You might be working a corporate job. You might be laid off. You might be unemployed. We all have different things, but there is truth that every single person I know is juggling something. And I don't want to make any assumptions about your business and where you're at, whether you have systems or not. And so I really want to speak from my own experience, but I want to hope that you've applied some of the strategies you've learned on this podcast and you've actually created some systems in your business.
11:40And so I think that there is this universal truth. And I think we should just call it out. Have you ever noticed that, like, let's say if your business is doing great, like maybe or maybe it's just any aspect of your life, like there's one area of your life where you are just crushing it, like everything is flowing, everything is feeling easy, maybe money's coming in. Like, have you ever noticed like when that's happening, other areas of your life are just like up in flames, like your laundry is a complete disaster, or you are eating takeout every single day, or you're heating up instant rice for every meal.
12:14Like, have you ever noticed that juxtaposition of like when one area of your life is thriving, it seems like another area of your life is barely surviving. Or maybe it's the opposite for you. Like when you finally get your house perfectly organized and tidy, you open your inbox and there are like 800 emails screaming at you. Here's what I realized. you cannot juggle two full-time jobs, running a home and running a business without systems. Okay. And what I would say is that most of us are trying to do just that. We're trying to be the CEO of our company, no matter what stage your business is in and the COO of our household.
12:53And we're wondering, why are we drowning? I mean, it's no surprise we're exhausted, right? And what I didn't realize for the longest time is that it is all connected. When there's chaos at home, my ADHD feels 10 times worse in business. Like I am scattered, I'm losing things, I'm spiraling. But when my home feels calm and organized, I am able to show up completely different as an entrepreneur. Like my creativity flows better, my focus is sharper, my energy is higher. And so here's what I want for you to just think about today. Your home life and your business life aren't separate. They are not mutually exclusive.
13:29They are feeding each other for better or for worse. And that is why I think today's topic and the question that has not left my brain for months is so important to talk about. So when I learned about life operating systems from my friend, Natalie Ellis, she cracked something open to me. So let me just first preface this and say, when I first started hearing just how type A she is, oh, I could just bow down at the temple of Natalie. But I am not that. OK, like this girl literally has manuals for when people stay at their house, just giving them all the information they need to know, like how to arm their house if they need to turn the alarm on or Wi-Fi or how to make a coffee.
14:10Like I freaking love the level of detail this woman has. But that is not me. OK, I just I do not operate at that level. I look at people with awe who do. And Natalie is one of those people. But what is so interesting and what took me so long to really fully adopt and like see is that what Natalie does so well is she essentially takes like SOPs, also known as standard operating procedures, and she turns them into rhythms like that is the way that this woman does business. That is also the way she lives her life. And so when I started learning about this idea of having like a life operating system, essentially stealing the things that work really well in business and applying them to my life, I was like, wait, I see opportunities to do this.
14:58And so Drew and I really started to sit down and figure out like, okay, how do we create systems that work? And here's the thing that's interesting. Drew is somebody who doesn't need systems and structure. Like he is already just a very linear thinker, right? Like his brain is wired to think of like A, B, C, D in that order. My brain is like A, Z, Z. Oh, I forgot to circle back to D. Like that is just like how my brain is. And so this has become more of something for me, less of something for him because he naturally just operates in that way. But it has been something that I think we both would argue has given us more clarity and certainty in our home life and just like how the rhythm works and feels.
15:47Okay, so here's kind of how we started to incorporate in a rhythm. So for example, on Sunday nights, this is kind of where the magic starts. So we are getting out of weekend mode, we are getting into the week. And so I would argue that Sunday night is like the night first set up for us. And this could look totally different for you. I'm just giving you our example so you can start to think through, okay, well, what of this could work for me? So I would argue Sunday night is where the magic starts. So when we put the girls to bed, we gather all of their dirty laundry from their hampers and bring it to the laundry room, right?
16:21Super simple step. We also open up Instacart. So we do grocery delivery, but if you go to the grocery store, this could work the same way. And Drew will go through and add in our grocery staples. So he is the kind of man who will stand in the kitchen, open up the fridge and be like, do we need more blueberries? Okay. Again, my brain does not work that way. Like I am the person sitting on the couch yelling into the kitchen, like, do we need more chia seeds? Yes. Okay. Got it. So Drew will add in all of the staples. And while he does that, I choose out a few meals that we are going to have prepped for the week.
16:58Now, here's the key. I am not a Pinterest perfect meal planner at all. I essentially choose some meals that can be fully prepped ahead of time. And then I add in those groceries to the Instacart order. Now I'm going to explain what happens next a little later into this episode. But essentially, we have figured out that this process works really well. I am a little bit picky in terms of like what I want to eat for the week. And so we found that if I just choose the meals and Drew does like all the rest, it works really well for us. And then we feel like we're both doing it together. We're looking at the grocery order together.
17:31No one blaming anyone if you forgot the granola bars, etc. And so then what I love is that we're already thinking through how to combat that like 4.30 p.m. panic of, oh my gosh, what are we going to eat tonight, right? Like we, that question alone, especially at that time of day, can literally set me off. It's been this way for years. I mean, we've literally talked about this since the inception of this podcast. I hate the question, what's for dinner? I don't know why it like, I just hate it. And so this is like our way to combat it. So Sunday is grocery prep, getting everything in order, figuring out what meals are we going to actually eat this week and getting all that ready to go.
18:14Now, what's interesting is, is like we only prep a few meals for the week. We could totally like get even more ham on this, but I've found that like a looser structure works for me, especially as we're implementing systems. And so the other nights, like we typically do one family date night per week where we all go out to eat for dinner. We have this little box of questions that I bring into the restaurants and we sit and like talk. And it's so fun. Like some of the questions are like, if you planted a magic tree in your backyard and it could grow anything, what would it grow? And like, let me just tell you, when you hear a three-year-old's answer to that question, it will make you cry.
18:49Like it's so sweet. So we do that. We do one family day per week. And then oftentimes we'll do like a really simple dinners. So for example, last week, I went to visit my grandma and I picked up the kids from school and I just made these little like bento box dinners for them because we were spending time in the car after school. And so like it's just super simple. I mean, it's like little mini charcuterie boards basically for kids. And so we do some really easy meals in between the prepped ones. The point here is not perfection. It is literally just having a plan so that we're not constantly decision making in the moment.
19:25A few of my other favorite meals, just because I know people might ask. So Drew and I love spaghetti squash. Like I freaking love spaghetti squash. So one of the meals that we do at least every other week is like basically a pizza casserole. It's spaghetti squash with marinara and ground beef that's been cooked up. And then you literally just put mozzarella cheese on top and pepperoni and you bake it. And that sucker is so good. We did a version of it last week that was like lasagna with ricotta and cottage cheese mixed in. So we do like almost like casseroles and that way they keep well in the fridge.
20:02And then also they double as amazing lunches the next day. So for me, I eat very healthy for breakfast and pretty darn healthy for dinner. And lunch is like where I fall off the bandwagon just because if I get into a work project or if I actually find a focus, I'll like come out of my focus cave and be like I want chicken nuggets and so what we found is is that if we prep meals like this then I also have healthy lunches which is super helpful for me and what I end up doing love it or hate it is I go on to chat GBT and I started a conversation with it and I said I'm looking to plan meals for my family that can keep well in the fridge be reheated I want them to be paleo we don't eat paleo but I think it's a great way to eat healthy so we want them to be mainly paleo not spicy for the kids these are ingredients the kids like these are things we don't like etc and so i've used this prompt and i've gotten about 20 different recipes now that we've tried and tested and so now we just kind of cycle through our favorites so this week we're doing chicken pot pie soup which is delicious as good as it sounds and we're doing a greek chicken quinoa salad and we just keep all the ingredients separate on that one and then we mix it up with all the veggies and things and then we keep the kids a little bit simpler.
21:16So that's how we do the meals and I have created a whole system around what that looks like. This podcast is brought to you by Mercury, banking that helps entrepreneurs do more with their money. Okay, I remember in the early days of my entrepreneurship journey, clients would literally mail me checks and then I would have to drive all the way to the bank to deposit them. It took me literal years to make things go digital. And I am ashamed to admit I still have a filing cabinet with paper contracts because I'm way too afraid to throw them away. But that's the beauty of growth, right? You learn what systems serve you and which ones hold you back.
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23:12Turn those dreams into and give them the best shot at success with Shopify. Sign up for your$1 per month trial and start selling today at shopify.com slash gold Digger. Shopify.com slash Gold Digger. Okay, so that's just an example of like how we start to set up, like how we're creating these standard operating procedures and turning them into weekly rhythms in our home. The next piece of the puzzle is really like delegation and role clarity. And this is something that's really tricky for a lot of people, especially if you are the sole person who is in control of these things, if you are a stay-at-home mom or a working mom, or I mean, literally anything, and you feel like the majority of these decisions and needs fall onto you, I think that can get really hard.
24:07And so one thing Drew and I have done for the last two years is based off of this book called Fair Play. It was actually a Reese's Book Club pick, and it's written by Eve Rodsky. And essentially it's, I mean, the subtitle of the book is a game changing solution for when you have too much to do and more life to live. Frickin love that subtitle. And essentially the author of that book created a deck of cards. And so two years ago, I bought this deck of cards. It's like the fair play deck of cards and we use it and we revisit it pretty often. I would say like once a quarter. And so essentially what it is, is it's a deck of cards and on the cards, it has all these different tasks.
24:49And what I love about this is it doesn't just have physical tasks like take out the garbage, but it also has tasks like remembering your child's doctor's appointment or buying your kid the next size up shoes. I mean, like maybe not that specific, but you get the point. Like there's a mental tasks and physical tasks. And so I will never forget, I can still like close my eyes. The first time we did this, we went to one of our local favorite restaurants. We went on a date night and we sat down and we started laying out these cards and we started dividing them. And essentially the goal of this is both to see like what you and your partner are agreeing to if you have a partner and also to see like how much the mental load is tasks that you're carrying, right?
25:30It's just a beautiful like physical reminder of Like all of these things that live inside my head are actual tasks that matter to our life, to our family life, etc. And so for Drew, he owns a lot of things. And one of the things I love about this fair play deck strategy is that the goal is, is if somebody takes that card and they say, this is my task, they own it. Right. You can release it from your brain. You do not have to follow up on it. It is theirs to own. So, for example, Drew has garbage. and so he is fully in control of taking out all of the garbages and bringing it all the way down to our street which is really far we have a long driveway and I can't even tell you literally I cannot tell you what day of the week garbage day is I don't even know because that is how far removed I am from that task which my mental load loves okay and so when you think of delegation and role clarity I think what's nice is a lot of times I have found that people share tasks and And that way nobody owns it and everyone is to blame.
26:33And to me, that just doesn't work. Like in my business, my team members own tasks. And if something falls through the cracks, we know what fell through the cracks. And if something is successful, we know who is responsible for that success. Right. And so what is interesting about doing this is like when we did this, I found that like I was owning the majority of the mental tasks. Right. Like the doctor's appointments, the ordering the clothes, the birthday party planning, getting gifts for friends, birthdays, like all these different things. And like, I felt like I was drowning in like the mental load.
27:05And yet it was like hard to vocalize where I was struggling. And so what we discovered is, is like, I'm handling the majority of the mental tasks. And these aren't small things like these feel like full time jobs that might not look like work, but they're happening in my head all the time. Like even this morning, I went to switch the laundry over and I realized like, oh man, Coco's PJs are like a size four and this girl is going to be seven. Like we need to get her new pajamas. And then it sends me on the spiral of like, well, while I'm ordering pajamas, didn't she just say that her rain boots are too small?
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27:36And speaking of rain boots, she also needs winter boots. And do her snow pants still fit her from last year? We should probably pull them out from the bin downstairs. Speaking of the bin downstairs, like this is just how my brain works, right? And so it can be so hard to really vocalize that and also to understand that. And what I found is tasks take up so much energy. And for me, mental tasks take up more energy than physical tasks. What's interesting is they're invisible, right? And they often get discounted or overlooked. But when you do this deck of cards, I think it's just phenomenal. And it's just so helpful.
28:12So when we divided all the life tasks using the fair play deck, we could see what each other was agreeing to and what each other was carrying. And like, I recognize like, whoa, Drew carries a lot of the physical tasks that happen in this house. I'll remember like one of the things he grabbed is like doing the dishes. Like I am the girl that just throws like the random bull into the dishwasher. And I had to clarify with him. And I said, okay, you're taking the dishes. So I have a question. If I just leave dishes in the sink after lunch in the middle of the day, are you going to resent me? And just getting clarity around what does this look like?
28:45And so it's just a really, really great way to separate. So once you've separated, the next piece of our puzzle, personally, is doing these weekly sync-ups. Now, this is something that we learned through a marriage coach, Julia. She is phenomenal, and we freaking love her. And essentially, what this is, and I tell everyone about this because I think it's just so life-changing, is it's like a 30-30 connection time is what she calls it. So every single week, you should aim to have 30 minutes of play with your partner and 30 minutes of dedicated conversation, like intentional conversation is how I should say it.
29:26And so essentially, we alternate who plans what each week. So this week, I am planning the play and Drew is planning the conversation. In fact, this morning, he texted me and he said, let's do our conversation tonight. Here's what I want to discuss. And I like freaking loved that. And what I think is fun is that I want him to lead conversations of topics he wants to talk about. I get to lead conversations of topics I talk about. I was literally just telling a mom about this at a hotel and we were in the sauna together and we were talking about it and she was just talking about how busy life is.
29:59And she was on this like 24 hour staycation to celebrate her anniversary with her husband. And she's like, I don't even know what to talk to him about because we're so busy like chasing our kids. And I was like, oh, okay, here's this thing that we do. And so Julia recommends having a shared iPhone note of just things you want to discuss with each other when the time is right. And I don't know about you, but like oftentimes at the end of the day, I'm like, I am too tired to go into like a really intense conversation or there are things I've just shoved under the rug that we should probably talk about, but right now does not feel like the right time, et cetera.
30:29Or just like things I've been curious about. And like, I want to hear what you think about this. Like, for example, two weeks ago, we talked about like, how do we want to contribute more in our community? Like, what do we want our community involvement to look like? How do we want to get involved in the kids school? How do we want to give back? Like, that was what our conversation was about. So it doesn't all have to be like heavy stuff, but it can be so good. And then for play, like we do fun things. So like we've done games of cribbage. We play banana grams. One time we spent 30 minutes outside in the garden together, just like gardening together and connecting.
31:02And the goal here is just like intentional fun time. Like remember that you have fun with your partner and that you make time for fun with your partner. And so I just think having these weekly sync ups has been really beneficial for us. And it's kind of funny, like I am so systemized now that I'm like, send me a calendar invite just so that I plan my mental bandwidth around knowing like, hey, after the kids to bed. We're going to have a conversation about X, Y, and Z. Like I want calendar invites. I want to know this is the intentional 30 minutes time. One week Drew was like, we were in the sauna and he was like, so how's work going?
31:38And I was like, uh, good. And it was like, it caught me so off guard. And then he was like, well, that was my conversation time. And I was like, wait a minute, what? Like, no, I just thought that was like a regular conversation. So we've gotten like really specific about like, here's the structure around this and here's how we do this. And it's been so fun. And I just think it's been really life-giving and such a great connection tool. So if you plan in your weekly sync ups, again, 30-30 connection time, 30 minutes of play, 30 minutes of conversation, you'll naturally kind of start to find a rhythm with that.
32:09And I think it's just really fun. After that, then we take a look at like, what are we doing this week? What does our next week look like? So for me, one of the big things I pulled from my business into our lives is more like project management tools, like having documents, things like that. I've talked about how we finally got like a visual calendar. So we got the skylight calendar. And I think we got it probably a few years ago. I've talked about it on the show before. And essentially, it is this like beautiful screen with a frame. And we keep it in our pantry. And it shows our shared calendar, like our shared calendar is up every single day.
32:47So every day, I know what Drew's got going on, he knows what my workload looks like he can look at that skylight calendar. Even the other day he was scheduling carpet cleaning and he was like, okay, I noticed on this day you have some things blocked off. What is that so that I know if we should do this or not? And so the skylight calendar has been so great so that both of us can see like we get a glance, here are things coming up. I love it. We also have a living Google Doc. And inside that doc, and this was inspired by Natalie Ellis, She calls it kind of like the hub. We have everything from like what our vitamin regimens are to doctor contacts to vets, even like favorite takeout orders.
33:26So like, let's say Drew is swinging through Chipotle and he says, hey, do you want Chipotle? I'm like, yeah, you can look up. Here's the order that I want instead of going back and forth a million times. Like, again, this is like when Natalie explained it to me at first, I was like, oh my gosh, this sounds crazy. And then I'm like, oh, I freaking love this. It eliminates so much back and forth. and so like anything that I can add to the hub we have all of our logins so I was traveling with Coco recently I don't know our Netflix login Drew manages all that so I went into the hub grabbed the login to log in and watch a movie with my daughter so like just things like that that take up a lot of little mental space I love that it's essentially just a brain dump for all the stuff that would otherwise just be floating around in our heads and when we created it like we put in you know, who manages our 401k and who do we go to for X, Y, and Z?
34:16What is their contact info? Like it was just nice to coordinate everything into one place. You know, I only share stuff I'm genuinely obsessed with. And so when I kept seeing Bolin Branch sheets all over Instagram, I was like, okay, are these actually worth the hype? Drew and I have been using their sheets and duvets for over a year now. And honestly, our bedroom feels like a completely different space. The moment you touch these sheets, you'll get it. They're incredibly soft to start, but they literally get softer every time you wash them. They're made from 100 % organic cotton, so they're super durable and they're breathable, which is perfect for piling on cozy layers without turning into a furnace at 2am.
34:58This is hands down the best bedding I've slept on and I'm so genuinely excited for you to try it. Start building your sanctuary of comfort this fall with Bowl & Branch. For a limited time, get 20 % off your first set of sheets plus free shipping at bowlandbranch.com slash golddigger. That's bowlandbranch, B-O-L-L-A-N-D, branch.com slash golddigger to save 20 % and unlock free shipping. Exclusions apply. Okay, can we talk about bras for a second? Because honestly, for the longest time, I just accepted that being uncomfortable was just a part of being a woman. Like those underwire digs, the straps that leave marks on your shoulders, spending half of your day readjusting everything.
35:41I thought that was just life. But then I kept hearing about the Skims Fits Everybody collection everywhere. And I finally gave in and I tried it and I totally get the hype now. The fabric is ridiculously soft and stretchy, but not in that cheap way where it loses its shape. It literally feels like it was made for your body specifically. And I'm not even kidding when I say I forget I'm wearing anything half the time. It is one of those things where you don't realize how uncomfortable you've been until you finally experience what comfortable actually feels like. Now, trust me on this one. You just need to try it.
36:15Shop Skims fits everybody collection at skims.com. Once you place your order, make sure to let them know we sent you. Just select podcast in the survey and choose a gold digger podcast in the drop down menu that follows. anyone who knows me knows that I'm all about creating spaces where people actually want to be so when we started hosting on Airbnb it honestly felt like the most natural thing in the world and it's turned into one of the best decisions we've ever made over the years we've hosted hundreds of couples in our little spaces we've had so many repeat guests come back and we've created this incredible community not just with our guests but also with the people who help us care for our space.
36:55Whether you've bought properties as an investment or have unused rooms waiting to be shared, hosting on Airbnb is a practical and profitable choice. And just think about it. If you've put a ton of time, effort, and work into your home, someone out there probably would love to experience it while they're traveling. So next time you're planning a trip or want to make some extra income from your spaces, you should definitely host on Airbnb. Your home might be worth more than you think. Find out how much at airbnb.com slash host. So I am just pro having everything documented, having documents for things.
37:30Even for example, some friends went to stay at our lake house and we have a document that we can just send them. And it's like, here's how to get in. Here's what you need to know. Here's the wifi code. Here's how to access a sauna. Here's how to turn it on. There's this weird little switch you need to put in the back. Like, and so we have like everything that we need, even a little like info sheet for if somebody's dog sitting, like it has everything. So as we started compiling all these resources, I was like, oh, we've created a lot of this. It just doesn't have a home. So now it lives in the hub.
37:59The next strategy that I stole from my business is just really looking at like, how am I time blocking? And I am really trying to look at it from a place of like energy awareness and like, what is this going to look like in terms of scheduling? Now, I have done this for a long time in my business where like, for example, I take no meetings on Mondays and Thursdays. So all meetings happen on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. And when I record my podcast, it happens on a Wednesday. Like I just figured out like a rhythm that works for me and my energy. And I am so lucky to be able to do this. I recognize like running a business and having the time and space to be able to call the shots like this.
38:36What a freaking privilege, right? Not everybody has that. So I just want to call that out and say, I recognize and acknowledge that. And I feel so lucky that I can kind of say like, hey, I don't want to do this on Monday. Not everyone can do that, right? Like how lucky. So I took what was working really well in my business and started to bring it into my life. And so I've recognized like when my energy is low, I don't want to tackle high execution tasks in my home life. If I'm feeling mentally drained, I don't want to try to like go in and organize the pantry or plan next week's meals. Like I want to figure out the rhythm and flow.
39:09And that's why like having the structure of like, okay, Sunday nights, this is when we do this, like do this, like Sunday's a pretty fun, chill day as a family. I have the energy to devote to like thinking through the rest of the week. It's really just about like matching tasks to your energy levels instead of just powering through everything. And for me, that's been so helpful. And I recognize there are different constraints for every person out there. So when I think about all of the areas that I've brought this in, the biggest thing that I've learned to lean on is something that might be slightly controversial.
39:41I was slightly nervous to talk about, but I'm just bringing it on here. So I recognize that I wanted extra support in areas of our home that I felt like were slipping through the cracks or just simply not getting done. And here's something that I want for you to think about. So let me set the stage and then let me set the reframe here. So earlier this summer, we recognized like we don't need a lot of child care. So the kids were both home full time during the summer. I'm still working, right? Drew's home. And we had three hours of child care every single week this entire summer. Okay. So it was Wednesday mornings from nine to noon.
40:23That was the amount of child care we had for the summer. We didn't have date nights. We didn't have any extra support. So three hours of child care for a week. So if you think of like the entire week of it at a glance, we had Wednesday mornings for child care. But I recognize that like we are, for us personally, we want to spend time with our kids and like quality time. And so instead of outsourcing child care, we decided, can we outsource some of the things that take us away from our kids or make us be not fully present there? And so I had been talking to one of my friends and she was talking about having kind of like a house manager.
40:59I don't really know the best term or words for it, but essentially somebody that helps you with some of the tasks around the house so that you can be more present for your kids. Now, I recognize this is not totally relatable. This is not feasible for everyone. I am not coming at this from a place of saying that. But here's something I want you to think about. If we're taking strategies that work in our business, how fast are we to invest in our business? Like we'll buy a$97 course or we'll sign up for our$47 a month software subscription or we'll hire a VA for our business. And oftentimes we do those things without blinking, right?
41:32But when it comes to investing in support in our home life, like I know for me, we hesitate. Like we feel guilty. We're the kind of people that can handle all of this by ourselves, surely. But here's what I found. The more freedom and peace you have in your home life, the better you show up in your business. Again, They're not separate buckets. They're connected systems. And so for me, like when my home runs smoothly, I have way more mental bandwidth for creativity, for strategy, for growth in my business. I also have way more presence for my family when I'm not working. I was the kind of person who, you know, I would try to get my kids excited about like doing the laundry on Saturday and like, oh my gosh, this is so fun.
42:13And then I would be half in and half out like playing Elsa and Ana with them. And I'd be like, shoot, I got to switch the load over. Oh my gosh, I didn't, I didn't actually get it put away. Oh, I'm so mad at myself. Now the kids are in bed. Now I'm doing all these things. I get it. Like that is a lot of our realities. And so what I realized is like, there are different ways you can outsource. And so for us, we ended up getting a quote, house manager. I don't know the best way to say it. And essentially she comes over on Mondays and Fridays. So Mondays, she will put away the Instacart order that was ordered on Sundays.
42:45she will prep the meals that we selected and she will fold and put away the laundry. So meal prep and laundry. And then on Fridays, she'll come in and if there's laundry from the week, she'll do that so that we go into the weekend without laundry to do. She'll water the plants. She does all my vitamin regimens, like just like little things, like returns a package to FedEx, like things that would threaten to keep me away from being fully present with my kids. And so it is a few hours a week. It is probably the best money I've spent. We have never eaten healthier as a family. Like I look at it as if we door dash one time less this week, we have just paid for the investment and we get to support an amazing local woman who loves doing this work.
43:28And she's like phenomenal. She's the phenomenal chef. And it's just so fun. So anyways, again, might not be relatable, hesitant to share it, but I just wanted to help you start to imagine like for me, I have always looked at outsourcing as for the money I'm spending and the time I'm getting back, could I earn that amount of money in the time? And or could I just enjoy my life more in the amount of time to make it worth it? And if the answer is yes, it is a valuable spend. And so maybe it's not hiring somebody to do those things for you. Maybe it is using Instacart. And I will always argue that Instacart saves me money because I'm not impulse buying things in the grocery store, right?
44:08Yeah, it costs more than shopping for yourself, but it saves you time and it prevents you buying all the things on the end caps that look delicious because you're hungry, right? Or maybe for you, it's instead of ordering DoorDash a few times a week, you invest in a meal delivery service that gives you healthy foods. So here's what I want you to say. Look at where you're already spending money reactively and see if you can spend it proactively instead. And so for us, we hired our house manager for under 10 hours a week. And her focus is on repetitive, low-grade stressors that just drain my energy.
44:40Again, like the goal is like Monday set us up for the week, Friday set us up for the weekend. And it has been so helpful. Like they're not super hard tasks. Yes, I absolutely could do them. But they are the kind of tasks that create mental clutter and that really just hold me back. So this is a reframe that changed everything for me because I am 100 % like you. I'm a Midwest girl. I can do everything by myself. I don't need help. Here's my reframe. We're not outsourcing because we can't do these things. We're outsourcing so we can be fully present for the things that matter most. Again. And the other reframe for me was like, for me personally, this is something I had to just understand for myself.
45:19And again, this is going to look entirely different for you. But for me, instead of outsourcing childcare so we can do laundry, we outsource laundry so we could be with our kids, right? Like just understanding this is the reframe I personally needed and so it has been so helpful for us it has been really life-changing and like let me just tell you the joy of like opening up the fridge and seeing beautiful cooked meals ready to go that I can just pop into the oven and pull out and enjoy with my family we are eating healthier we're eating together more and I have awesome leftovers per lunch. So again, I can't stress it enough.
45:56So here's the final thing that I want to walk through before I give you my weekly rhythm. So I just think that the mental load deserves more respect. And I recently did an episode with the amazing Morgan Cutlip, and we talked about the invisible work that's exhausting women. And I think that most women, especially entrepreneurial moms, we're not just managing to-do lists. We're holding mental tabs open constantly. It's like essentially my brain feels like having 47 browser windows open all the time and every single one is running in the background and it is draining me. It is just draining my mental battery.
46:36And so before I had systems, let me just paint you kind of a picture of what my brain used to feel like. I would walk into the kitchen and I'd see a dirty hand towel and then I'd think, wait, have we washed these? when did we wash them? When was the last time we did towel? Should I start a load real quick? And then I'd walk past the plants and I'd think, did I water those yesterday or was that two weeks ago? And then I'd open up the fridge and I'd panic because we have no plan for dinner. And I'd start playing a game of chopped in my head of like, what ingredients can I throw together that will make something that's slightly nutritious that my kids will actually eat?
47:07Basically everywhere I looked, I would see open loops. And then here's what would happen. I would sit down and I'd try to work on something important for my business, but instead I'd be thinking about laundry. So then I'd get up and I'd start the load, but then I noticed that the bathroom needed cleaning. So then I'd start that. And then I noticed that I never actually used those organizational tools that I bought at Target. And so then I'd grab those out. And before I knew it, I'd spent two hours on household tasks and I completely skipped the work that actually moved my business forward. This is just like a tiny glimpse into my brain.
47:36And so now having systems, I know, okay, Monday is laundry day. and I know that Alex waters the plans on Friday and I know that our meals are planned on Sunday and prepped on Monday and the mental tabs can finally close because there is a system, there is a plan and I can trust that things will get done without me having to remember everything. The goal is not perfection. The goal is about reducing unnecessary mental friction so that you can actually be present for your work, for your family and for yourself. And here's what I'll say, systems don't solve everything, but they do create space. And I feel like most of us are just craving space.
48:13Space can give us the ability to rest. It can give us the ability to play, to feel human again outside of being a constantly running machine. And so maybe the way that you approach this is entirely different than me. Maybe you take a mix of what works for Natalie and you take a mix of what works for me and you create your own sort of system and structure. But whatever you do, I hope that you collect a nugget that you want to put into action today. This is not meant to be a here's how to change your life. But this is meant to be here's how to think about your life maybe in a slightly different way.
48:49So in closing, I want to give you just kind of our weekly rhythm breakdown again, not as a blueprint, but just so you can kind of understand how this has helped me and how predictability reduces decision fatigue at a mass scale for me. And so this has been so helpful. So again, Sunday night, we do the Instacart and we plan out the meals. We collect the laundry. Monday morning we hit order on Instacart right away and we start the laundry I will switch the laundry over before I start work on Monday and then by the end of Monday our groceries are put away all of the fruits are washed the meals are prepped the laundry is folded and put away and the week starts out beautifully now again not everyone is going to have a house manager I get that but like how can you take some semblance of this rhythm and apply it to life then throughout the week we leverage the meals we do our family date night etc we do 30 minutes of play 30 minutes of conversation as a couple and just make sure we're connecting on that and then on Fridays we reset the house so this is just anything that could take me away from being fully present with my kids on the weekend what a freaking joy that is and so like I just want to start the weekend feeling fresh and not frazzled and that has been such a game changer for me.
50:06And so, you know, Drew annals garbage day, we trade off who packs the lunches. We've just created this kind of system in our house in the mornings, Drew does breakfast, I get the kids up and dressed and their hair done for school, etc. So we have this kind of just rhythm moving through as a current, you know, we have a system and a schedule for things like when we wash the sheets, when we wash the towels. So like on Fridays, we go through our house, collect all of the towels, collect our sauna towels, like everything, load those up. That gets all done on Fridays. Again, just like creating a system and structure has helped me so much.
50:44And I want for you to just take what works for you in this and let the rest fall away. And maybe I'll come back and visit this. Like maybe you'll be like me when I first heard Natalie's systems. I'll be like, yeah, I could know that sounds crazy. And now I'm like, oh, give it to me. Like I want more. And what I found is that it's just really helped me to walk through my house and not feel angst, not feel resentment, not ask a million questions, not feel like I am the only one carrying all of the things. It has just been so helpful for me. So whether you are a working mom, an entrepreneur, whether you're neurodivergent like me or all of the above, here's what I want for you to walk away from this episode with.
51:22Life does not have to feel like a constant game of catch up. For me, for the longest time, I thought like juggling it all means I just kind of accept this chaos that being an entrepreneur and a mom meant living in survival mode, always feeling like I'm one step behind, always putting up fires. But what I've learned through building systems like these are systems don't just save you time. They save your sanity. They save your relationships. They save your energy for the things that actually matter. They save your ability to be present instead of constantly worried about what you're forgetting or what's falling through the cracks.
51:55So here's my challenge for you. If your business runs with clarity, rhythm, and purpose, what if your life could too? What if you stopped treating your home like the chaotic sidekick to your organized business and started giving it the same strategic attention? I want for you to think about this. What is one system you use outside of your home life that you could apply to your home this week? Maybe it's time blocking. Maybe it's having standard operating procedures. Maybe it's delegation or project management. Maybe it's simply scheduling important things instead of hoping they happen. Start small, Pick one thing, try it for a week and see if anything shifts.
52:29And here's what I personally know to be true. You didn't start a business to burn out. You didn't become a mom to live in constant overwhelm. You deserve systems that support the life that you're actually trying to build, not just what you're trying to grow. Until next time, gold diggers, keep on digging your biggest goals. Thank you so much for listening to this episode. If you know someone who would benefit from it, be a good friend, hit that share button. and I hope you loved this episode and I hope you apply these systems to your life. Thanks for listening to the Gold Digger podcast. I hope today left you inspired and equipped with something you can put into action as you build a business that truly supports your life.
53:09If this episode resonated with you, here's how you can help the show reach even more entrepreneurs. Hit follow, share it with a friend who's building something meaningful and if you're feeling generous, leave us a review. Those reviews help other listeners discover these conversations when they need them the most. This show has become so much more than I ever imagined. And it's because of listeners like you who show up and share. You are helping build something that will inspire entrepreneurs for years to come. For show notes, links and resources, head to golddiggerpodcast.com. Keep digging your biggest goals.
53:43The world needs what you're building.
From the publisher
What if your life ran like your business? What if you had streamlined workflows, clear responsibilities, and built-in rest and rhythm not just in your work, but in your actual daily life?
As an entrepreneur with ADHD, I've spent years building incredible systems in my business. Launch calendars run like clockwork. Podcast workflows practically manage themselves. My business hums like a well-oiled machine. But at home? Pure chaos.
That is, until my friend Natalie Ellis introduced me to the concept of a "life operating system," and it completely changed my perspective. What if we borrowed what's working in our businesses and applied it to our real lives? Click play to find out how I did it, and you can too!
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