Nobody Panic - How to be more organised (LIVE with Gina Martin and Kat Poole)

Episode Date: November 20, 2018

Want to get organised? Stevie and cohost Gina Martin chat to co-author of Being An Adult Kat Poole about what a box file is, how to make admin fun and Gina whips out some amazing hacks from women's magazines that make zero sense. Apologies for the audio guys, absolutely not our fault but we've tried our best to make it sound OK! Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/nobodypanic. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hello, I'm Carriad. I'm Sarah. And we are the Weirdo's Book Club podcast. We are doing a very special live show as part of the London Podcast Festival. The date is Thursday, 11th of September. The time is 7pm and our special guest is the brilliant Alan Davies. Tickets from kingsplace.com. Single ladies, it's coming to London.

True on Saturday, the 13th of September. At the London Podcast Festival. The rumours are true. Saturday the 13th of September. At King's Place. Oh, that sounds like a date to me, Harriet. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Nobody Panic! So, this week's episode is live, if you can't tell,

and it's about how to get organised, and it's with me, Stevie, but not Tessa. It's with, please introduce yourself, Gina. Hi, guys, I'm Gina Martin, Stevie's little sister. Gina is a freelance writer and an activist, and I've given her the task of introducing Kat. Kat is the co-author of being an adult and also the editor of Embold Street. Cat, please introduce me. This is Stevie.

All round legend and that is it. Okay. So, yes, what we're going to do is we're going to take a little bit of advice from Kat's book and use that rather than experts because Kat is the expert but she's asked me to tell you she's not. She's the side of the book who was like, oh, I fucked up. Is that correct? Absolutely correct, yes. Yes.

And Gina, what have you brought to the table? Okay, so I brought to the table. Do we all, have we ever read women's magazines, the really weird ones like chat in Women's Week? Okay, so they have these amazing tips So I'm convinced they're all trolling all of us And I'm just going to bob in with a couple of these mental tips Halfway through because they make me laugh more than anything in the world Yeah, Gina sent me an example which was

What happens if you get quite cold hands occasionally? Oh, easy, just boil two eggs Pop them in your pocket, nice and warm And then when they're not warm anymore you can eat them Also, what was all about sanitary towels? Oh, there was a bunch about sanitary towels One was if you go to a hotel and there's those, there's not those expensive slippers,

just get some extra sancho towels and just wrap them around your feet and wear those around the room. So that's one of them. So that's what you're going to be seeing throughout the whole podcast, because that's my type of organisation. Yeah, yeah, they will be organisational tips. I should make that very clear. I've just used two that aren't eggs and sannish tows, but be like, yeah, use the sannish chel's a filing cabinet.

Maybe that's one. So, oh yeah, firstly, we're going to do what adult things the audience here have done. Unfortunately, we can't do all of them. Sorry, but we're going to maybe do five each. And so Kat, do you want to do the first one? And we'll like alternate. We've got a bag which says the pen is mightier than the penis.

So this is the most adult thing I've done this week is bake cookies and took them into work for the team. Oh, hello. Who's that? Oh, nice. Oh, that's a hand. The cookie hand. Okay, pass it. I'll do the next one.

The most adult thing I've done this week is passed now probation at work. I thought I was like, jail! Fast operation at work, i.e. I didn't get fired. Is that someone over here? Well done. That's great. And good luck with jail as well if you ever go there. Sorry, can you hold that? Thank you. Okay, the most adult thing I've done this week is doing a weekly schedule in my plan of very adult. That's very adult. A weekly schedule in your planner. Go up next one.

I don't have a schedule. Or a week. Oh, no. This is the same one. Oh, you put it back, you asshole. It's not an adult thing to do. Oh, okay. I also know who this is. I enjoyed a Sunday of craft an nooning to shake off the Sunday scares. What's nooning?

Hi. Hi. Basically, what's nooning? No, craft anooning. Oh, as in crafting in the afternoon? Oh, yeah. But what is new name? What's nooning?

Same thing. Having an afternoon in your life. Yeah. That's excellent. That's very adult. I brought a reusable coffee cup and remember to use it. Very good. Saving the environment. Does anyone else lose those so much that it actually negates the environmental?

Yeah. I lose one a week. Okay, I've done the same thing and got one. We already got two. Oh, this would be fun to read. The most adult thing I've done this week is put the right bin out. What's the wrong bin? Oh, you've just put it back in again.

I've seen it. Oh, it's you. Go on. Looking after all four cats by myself, whoop. Also, waking up really early to work on creative stuff, 5am, whoa. That's what it says. That's what it says on the card. That's amazing.

Are they your cats? Okay, bye. That's great. To be fact, I wasn't looking out when I said that. Okay, that's the same one. I was me putting it back in. Jesus. This is... Yeah, this is ridiculous.

Yeah. Okay, right. Booked my smear. Oh, that's so good. Very good. Thank you. The most adult thing I've done this week is successfully baked the bake-off semi-final technical challenge cake. Prue leave seven-layer tort?

You baked a tortoise? We have tortoises. We think it's a tortoise. Fancy word for cake. Okay, I get it. One more round, and then we'll get organised. Thank you. Finally got my national insurance number sorted. From Sweden, it was terrifying. Oh, congratulations, Swedish friends.

Secured a promotion at work last week. Woo-hoo! I love the exclamation. This is really great. Well done. Proud of yourself. That's great. Okay, the most adult thing I've done this week is

gave my 16-year-old brother a sensible but down with the kids talk when he got caught smoking weed. Yes, well done. Oh. That is so self-aware. Well done. Good business. Good business from everyone. Right. Okay. So what's the next thing? I haven't got in my right. Okay, great.

So, Gina, are you an organised person? No. Okay, bye. Would you like to, do you have any anecdotes to illustrate the fact that you are not organized or organized? Yes. Okay. So I'm a creative person inherently craved. So I'm not organized at all. And that is a psychological thing, which I've used as like a crotch my whole life. I'm creative, so it's fine. Stevie was doing here at Edinburgh show like, what, how many years ago? She's been doing it for years.

2015. You remember it? Okay. She was doing Edinburgh show in 2015. I was working in Soho. They said we were going for some drinks with work, and I was like, oh, that's fine. I'll just pack a bag. I'll leave it at work. I'll sleep at work for two hours. And I'll get on the train afterwards, right?

So I went out in Soho, obviously had far to me drinks, so I was 22, 23, something like that. Oh my God, thanks, babe. And went back to work, had locked the bag with the keys in the builder. So, oh no, everything. So I had a debit card and a phone. So I went home to where I was living, which was a storeroom of a pub because they had no money. And I went to sleep for two hours.

And the landlord woke me up at 9 o'clock, I think in the morning. Was that, aren't you meant to be in Edinburgh? And I was like, yeah, yeah, no, I definitely am. And it's been 150 quid on these tickets. So I ran to Houston, got to Houston, got on the train. Then they kicked me off because I got on the train with the wrong ticket. Then I got back on the train. Then I had a phone and debit card.

I was in my pajamas. fully. So this will explain a bit of what comes later. Anyway, they got back on the train and then the guy was like, can I see a ticket? I was like, yeah, no worries, it's fine. Got a ticket out and he was like, Railcord and I was like oh no, that's at work. So then I got flying a further £80. So this is like

200 quid at this point. But I was so like, I was so wanted to get to Stevie and I was so committed to get into her because she had a really tough year. I did, your phone would die. Oh yeah, my phone died. So see I know at it. So I befriended like a really nice, well-meaning old lady next to me and used her phone

and she called a friend. No, she called a friend who then called you. And then I finally got to Edinburgh. It's so messed up. And I finally got to Edinburgh. Steve had no idea where it was. We, by chance, Stevie came to the bottom of some stairs

and I came to the top of some stairs. And she went, Gina and I went, Stevie, and then my boobopped down. And she was like, oh, God, and I was like, no. And I was like, red wine, red wine lips on my mouth. No. And I think the moral of that story is the fact that you know we all know ourselves quite well at this point

so like if you know you're going to go out and get drunk and you're not going to be able to get on the train like just don't do it like you I think I thought I was going to get on that train and be like meet some girls and have some proscen and get there easy but actually I was 200 pound poor and my boob was out in Edinburgh Waverley station at like 9am so like know yourself

you know that's the lesson also crucially then like the 48 hours after we've been having a nice time in Edinburgh she found her work key card in her pocket you miss that so I think the answer is that is No. Mine's very short. I just keep, at the moment, I keep, and you did this the other day, I keep booking things in on dates that don't exist, like September the 31st, and being like,

see you then. And everyone's like, no, that doesn't exist. So I've realized that that's my thing. And are you organised? I think I am quite organised. Yes. Yes, I am organised. But I'm not very good at prioritising my organising. So this weekend, I went home for my nan's 90th birthday. big up to my nan, she's 90. She's a big listener. She is a big fan of the show. I knew. And I had quite a lot of things that I needed to help my mum with

to get ready for my nans, like big birthday dinner with the whole family. And like that's great. But my mind focused on making a seating plan and then taking little sprigs of lavender from the garden and painstakingly. I had to find ribbon too. We didn't have ribbons small enough

to fit through the holes of the little name tags we were using. So I painstakingly tied on these name tags with little scraps of ribbon to bits of lavender and there's 20 people. It's taking me in like two and a half hours. Like plus another hour to like fix the seating plan because I did it about five times

because I needed everybody to be in the right now. I was talking about it. I was quite relaxed but then I ended up. I'm not. about 45 minutes to like get changed, do my makeup, get my hair done, like sort my nan's birthday card, sort the presents, like get out the door with a packed suitcase. So yes, I'm organised but not necessarily with the right things. Yes, if you had like a pie chart of organisational things,

the biggest slice would be like the most useless thing. Yes, absolutely, yeah. And I also hear you because I took some lavender and put it next to my bed the other day with some ribbon that I found in a drawer. And then Tessa was like, oh, you don't have a ribbon drawer. I was like, no. I do. You do, right.

I mean, you really need to hang out with Tessimo because both of you have ribbon draw. I've never heard of that my life. Right. So do you want to give us your first tip that is from the book about from the, so the chapter is called the life admin draw, is that correct? The life admin, aka that draw. That draw, which is the drawer where you're like, and then you put it away again.

Yes, that's exactly it. And I'll have like some scissors, some ribbon and acorn in it. You're like, why? Yes. And some receipts as well. which you've never needed or never needed. Never needed. You don't need receipts.

Five years ago old receipts is usually what I find in that draw. That's a weird noise behind us. I'm just going to ignore it. I'm terrified about this entire set on. Right, so go on. What's your first tip? Well, I mean, I can't actually take credit for it because my co-author wrote this chapter of the book

because I'm really here as sort of like her. I'm like channeling her. But it is something that I have started to do in my own life now, which is have a system and have a routine, which sounds really dry and boring, and you're probably like, oh, Jesus, I don't need to know about systems. I want to have a system, but I can't do it.

So the first, literally the first tip in this section of the book, spoiler alert, is buy some box files, which sound boring, but actually they're a best friend. Okay. You buy like three box files and you label them with different things, like work crap, life crap. Call it crap because that's how we all feel about it. Don't shit in your box file.

Exactly. And like start with your big pile of admin, which is obviously piling up. Get it all into the right boxes. And then comes your routine and set yourself once a week where you go through the mounting pile of stuff and put it into the right box.

And if it's a bill, you can write on it paid, which is exciting, right? Yes, I have done this. And all you need is half an hour. Like initially maybe five hours. Yeah, I was going to say, like I've got a big drawer that's just paper and it's known as the paper draw.

Yeah. And I will occasionally, yeah, I don't know what, yeah, thank you. It's a bit long time, five hours started to come up with that. But yeah, also like, I feel like that applies to your, like, computer as well. So my laptop is just, what does your desktop look like? I'm just like someone just shat all over it. It's horrifically full of stuff, but I think putting windows in to organize stuff is good. Because allocated time is good because you never remember.

Yeah. So to plan that ahead and doing it for five minutes is like, it's, hell sure but you get it done people do it on a sunday i feel is that thing no sundays of a chilling out i'm sorry i was i was toying with the sunday thing before i came here today i thought do i people sundays or do i not i think it's probably a bad idea because friday night am right that's what i do no yeah do it but like if you can make a small window of time in the morning when you're really efficient and you can just get it no cat oh right i mean i'm not efficient in the morning oh you are a bit no i'm not cat used to well she doesn't know i don't know

at Emerald Street and I used to work there and I would come in looking like just a roll of just someone I just rolled in some cloth and she was like hey you're very much you're very much a morning person with your rive eater and your cashew nut butter every day every day every day

in the morning would you be able to do anything in the morning? No but recently because of the work I've been doing I have to you know so like I kind of forced myself to do it because of what I've been doing but before that if there was no full reason if there was no like I'll get shouted out then no okay yeah so so as admin but I mean like could you I mean

feasibly do it in the evening can you do it in the or like a lunch not on lunch break I think just whenever works for you know your time tell but you know what kind of person you are if you're not a morning person don't do it in the morning you know I'm I wake up at 2pm on the weekend so I'm probably not going to do things in the morning but depending on your lifestyle just get that window of time where you know you can probably feasibly do it then and also you saw me in the mornings when I had spent like an hour and a hot two hours at home trying to crawl out of bed like put my face on

get my bag packed, like possibly make a pack lunch. I hope my boyfriend done it for me. Like that was my, and then I'd walk into work being like, hi everyone. I was doing all that in work. I see now that was the issue. Yes, I see. But I was doing nothing at home, nothing productive at home in the morning. If I'm like.

I'm trying to make it better for you. No, it's good to have an organised person here. And you also, I think we can be very ashamed of being organized. You're like, oh no, I'm a mess. Like I'm an absolute mess. because it's funny to flop a tit out in Edinburgh for a way of this station but it's not funny to be like

oh I have a box file and every two weeks I go through it everyone's like boo! Get off! But actually I think it's really we should be more happy. I just booed you and told you to get off I realised that. But like, no but I think it's a really

we need to like own it. It's like I was talking to somebody recently about someone said that they bought a house but they said it in the most embarrassed way they're like, oh I've bought a house and it was like, that's great. Was that me Stevie? No, it wasn't.

No, no, no, no. You were just having a hard time with the balcony who owned it. There was a lot of business going on with cat's house. But like, yeah, no, just that kind of fear of being like, oh, I'm wealthy enough to have bought a house. And you start shaking and you're like, well, I'm, but no one minds being like, oh, I'll never buy a house.

You thought that's cool. I think there's like a weird amount of guilt and everything we do. Do you know what I mean? Like everything, even a good thing, buying a house, oh, it's the dream, but you still feel guilty about it. Do you know what I mean? And in terms of like being organized and stuff like that,

it's like, I think we all compare. ourselves continuously to other people. So being organised becomes a chore because it's like, I'm not the person that gets, but you know those articles that are like successful people like Steve Jobs wake up at 2am and they start work then. You're like, well, I would never do that. Everyone works up at 6.m. So like it becomes a comparison thing.

It becomes a negative thing. But if you just look at it as I'm just trying to make my life a bit easier for myself. You know what I mean? Like I'm going to get more organised or try and do a couple of things. I'm trying to make my life a bit more easier for me because actually I'm working really hard and I'm a good person. Think of it in a positive way instead of like I need to be good at stuff, you know? Yeah, or compare yourself like Steve Jobs.

I think anyone who compares himself to the steve jobs. So you can just like you pay us up to the steep, like yourself. The steve. Actually that would be very good comparison because I am not organised at all. But I find that the idea of like beating yourself up to be really not like to be so bad. And also I do it quite a lot like just then like you're so organized. I didn't look like a bed rolled through some cloth. I was wearing clothes.

Like I had shoes on. I'd brushed my hair. I had some glasses on that were relevant to my daily duties. But I often feel very, um, what's the word, just not as good as people who are organised. And I always think everyone else is organised, but when you speak to an organised person, actually, who in here would self-identify as being organised?

And be, see, this is great business. You're here. Why are you here? I can't teach you anything. But cat can. But see, that's, that is the minority, but also, like, there's also quite tentative hands. But I think a lot of, I think immediately, like, oh, great, you're like, you're like the real people.

You know, like, you know how to, are you all morning? people. Okay, I actually didn't know what that meant. And that's all we need to know, isn't it? Who here would say that they really, really struggle to be naturally organized and get shit done? Would anyone say that? Because that's

me. Okay, that makes me feel so much that's the same amount as the organised people. So then I guess there's a lot of people who are just like, I guess I'm a bit organized sometimes. Or whatever. But yeah, I think immediately when you started talking about a box file, I was like, I don't own that. I won. I'm sorry, yes. I take it back. Yeah, I will. I know what you're saying. I know what you're saying. But I had this day where I did it with my laptop where I just had icons, hey, but icons for days. And I just went through and like put folders in. And it was like, I didn't have a lot of all at the time. But it was a good thing to do. Like if you don't, if you're a bit like, if you're not getting, I mean, I'm freelance. So it's different. So if I don't get working, I can make myself feel better by doing admin. But if you're obviously working a salary job, you don't want to like come back at 630. And you're. And so if you're not going to like, come back at 6. And so it's. And if you're. And I'm. I'm. I'm. I'm. I'm. I'm. I'm. I

and clean up your desktop. No, but do, is what I'm saying. No, but it does make you feel a lot better doing these little things, because that's actually a fairly small thing. And if you can visit something into a couple of minutes, it makes you feel so much better if you just do that very, very small thing.

We need a women's weekly. Go on. Oh, God, guys, stop it. Okay, get that out. I'll edit this gap in. These are all basically about saving time. I can't look at them directly because it's so good. Okay, so this one's called Go bananas.

I'm often in a rush in the morning and don't have time for breakfast, but now I just tape fruit to my door. Sorry. Tape fruit to your door. Now, sorry, but now I just, I can't. It's so good. Okay.

Go bananas. I'm often in a rush in the morning and don't have time for breakfast, but now I just tape fruit to my door to remind me to start the day with some of my five a day. Plus, I'm always greeted by a smiley face. And then it has two apples and a banana.

No. What a great tip. Does that from a real person? This is from Tom Benham. via email. Tom Bell. Right, now let's counter that with a real tip. Not saying that's not real.

I think we should all try that. Another tip. I mean, can you imagine how drunk you have to be? Yes! I'm a new woman. I love it's to meet. There's Matt. Oh, my God.

Also, who eats two apples and a banana for breakfast? It's not one or five a day. It's three. That's too many. Also, where do you stop? He's not taking baked beans onto your door. Just meat. Right, another tip from me you can.

Yeah. If you have one. Yeah, I do. I do. I promise. I think an important one for me certainly has been finding out where I'm wasting time and on what. Because, and actually I was listening to your very own podcast, Stevie. And it was when you talked about going on Instagram and not scrolling.

Oh, I'm still doing that. It's very, very good tip everybody. I'm so happy. If you have to feed the Instagram. beast don't scroll right you just look at the top picture for ages yeah pretend scroll but it's true i was wasting so much time just scrolling and scrolling and scrolling and scrolling and also like fake online shopping which you know you will do where you just go on and you look at stuff and you put it into your saved item and so you have no intention of buying it

ever but it just like makes you feel better and then one day i was like hang on a second I'm wasting so much time. Haven't quite got to the point why I'm really using that time yet. But I am getting to the point. You recognise it. You recognise the time. Yeah, that's the first step.

You could spend half an hour, like, just scrolling and making yourself feel crap because you're looking at other people achieving things when you could just put on your phone and just achieve something, even if that's like putting a bit of paperwork away or like... Taping a banana to your door.

Taping a banana to your door. Yes. I think that's very important. I was like, I'm a big thing. I'm a big kind of, I'm a big thing. Thanks for just pulling me up on that, babe. I'm a big, I've lost all my words. I'm a big purveyor.

Sure. Of curating your Instagram feed as well, which I always shouts out and then when she actually did it, she was like, oh, it actually works. About not having things on that that makes you feel bad. So I just have like memes and dogs. Oh, and I've now started following hashtag seals, because I've really like sea lines.

which means that even when I do scroll, it eliminates the kind of like self-hage of like, oh, and I also don't have a six-pack, like that sort of thing. You're like, I don't need this. You can just get rid of people that are making you feel about it. Or just mute them so they don't feel like they're being. Does it be fair. Dogs are the killer because, you know,

those dog videos are like 20 seconds on and they just re-roll the next one on after. Then you're there for seven hours watching a Labrador, go into a hoop. Do you know what I mean? I think that is valuable time. And I think that's what you need. Yes, exactly.

But yeah, I think that is a really, just like casual scrolling. But I found that when I'm hung over, I let myself do it. Just because I'm so, I'm in pain. You can't stop yourself doing it from all the time because it brings joy in some way. Do you guys have, is this a thing? Because on my phone, there's a tracker. On my phone, I just have an Android.

That's why I say that because everyone else has an iPhone. On an Android, it shows you how long you spend on certain apps. Do you guys have that as well? Do you ever look at it or do you not want to like your bank balance? Yeah, okay. Because that might be a good way to... Because, I mean, it's very hard to sit there and look at it. But if you know...

And I don't... I haven't looked at mine either because I reckon it's like 25 hours, which they're on even in the day. But I reckon if you looked at that, then you can start to apply that time elsewhere in some way. Just knowing that is good, you know? I did it for a little while. When the whole breaking up with your phone thing came about...

Beginning of the summer, or earlier in the year, I did download one for my phone. And I was, like, so alarmed. I think the first day I spent... four and a half hours on my phone. It was a work day. I was like, what hell am I doing? Yeah, it is horrible.

But then it's such a nice idea that you'll be like, and now I won't go on Instagram, but you just will, unless you're not into Instagram, then that's fine. But like, you just will waste time, but I suppose it's about just catching it. And knowing when you is the worst, like if you know that you've got like two hours

on Saturday morning and you could like spend them just... Building a shed. Exactly. I wish. I know. But you know, like make the right. make a choice for 20 minutes of that time to do something productive,

then spend the next 10 scrolling, right? Those things, you know, those things are like, put your alarm on for 20 minutes, and that's not organising, that's just being productive, isn't it? But there's, like, if you are doing a boring job, is there a way to, like, make it more fun? Do you do anything, like, treats?

It's going to be treats. Just like, just give yourself like. Yeah, that's a good one. I do that with, well, I used to do it. I mean, no, I still do it. I was going to say I did one of it was young, but I'd be a liar, I don't know. Cleaning up bedroom,

my bedroom and shit is whatever I touch I have to do something with it. So like making a game. Well, because what happens? Like a rubbish game. No, it is so shit. But you go around and you'll be like, oh, pick up this shirn, but what does that look on with this jacket? And then you do that for half an hour.

But if you touch it, you've got to do something with it. Like, I trick myself and make, like, you do watering Wednesday. I do watering Wednesdays, right? I do watering Wednesdays. So we have many, many, many houseplants in our house. Oh, you keep them alive. I do keep them alive. I killed a succulent last week.

So my, but I keep mine so alive that they are just reproducing at a rate cannot keep up with. So we started like 12 and now we've got like 54 or something in the house and we don't have a garden so they're just all inside the house and they grow babies. They have babies.

Did they come in tiny little pots? So they do come in tiny little pots but then you then then you put them in bigger pots and grow them. Okay I understand that's why I'm yes. But we have so many that we've had to create a day of the week and a

and a game called watering. It sounds like you love the game. I actually do love the game. But every Wednesday it has to be before work after work. You've got to do it at some point because we don't want them to die. It would be so sad. Where's the game aspect?

Oh, it's just watering Wednesday. Right, okay. Just called it a thing. I want like proper games like a hose pipe fire or something. And then the plants get watered in like I'm just riffing here. Okay, cool. I love it. Okay, I've got a game is just as shit as last one.

So when you go to bed at night, me and my boyfriend do this, bedroom's a bit crap or like you know house a bit untidy just put one song on and you can only do stuff for that one song so like you know a song that gets you like really happy like I have charles and eddie which is my favorite song all the time would I lie to you baby I play that every no one knows it here that's fine it's been the 90s guys it's an absolute classic tune but just put one song on and then do what you need to get done in that one song and even if you haven't finished it then the song's gone oh no I've got to go bed now but you don't feel guilty because you're like the song's finished I can't finish it but I'll do the rest tomorrow when I put the song on again I see logic That is a great idea.

Do you want to keep on with those ideas and hit us with another top tip? Okay. You've got so many. Oh, this is weird. So this is making it quicker to go out at night and get ready for going out, you know, because these magazines obviously

so gender binary. They're all like, is your husband angry at you for getting ready for going out and taking too long? Yes. Yes, always. So this one is, can't find two earrings that match. Just paint on a pair of bright earrings with glitter glue. it stays on brilliantly and you can always match your outfit

I receive loads of compliments my earrings who is what's her name Sharon Marguerite Marguerite I don't believe that she exists She's crafty She's pictures too

Oh I want to show everyone on the picture but it's Something Something And go on another tip Yeah I'm just going to refer to my sheet Oh my God refer to your sheet I'm organised everybody That's really good

Oh yeah. So, like the biggest problem I tend to have when it comes to organising something is that something in my brain becomes really, really big. And then I'm like, I'll talk about it for ages. And I'll be like, I'll do that massive thing. And I'm freaking out. And I'll keep saying, I'll keep talking about it, but I'll never do anything about it. Yeah, it becomes scary. Yes, so scary.

So this is about embracing lists. And I know it's another boring one, but whatever, break it down into. Sassy. Like broken her. No, break it down into like much smaller chunks where you can actually start doing stuff as soon as you've written it down and make it manageable for yourself

because there's, right, I was thinking, this is a weird thing to think about. Watching making a murderer at the moment. Yes. Like, imagine if they'd be like, let's put all of this into one 12 hour show. You'd be like, no, no, thank you.

Too much. So they broke it down into our episodes. Yeah. And that's basically what you have to do with your big task. I'm a murderer, but over like, like 12 episodes.

Exactly. Is it six? I don't know. That's exactly what I'm saying. I see. Yes. Because I suppose if you just like things to do today, one, buy house or like do taxes. That's quite scary.

That's really scary. But if you're like, organize my receipts and then whatever. Look at my bank statement. That's like self preservation as well because when you know you have a list of things do and I did it for the last year with the work I was doing, it's like 15 things on it. That actually in my head I was like, oh, it's like 10 minutes and it was two hours. It's so much better to have, you know, three things that you know you can get on at the end of the end of the day. hit them off and feel good about it.

I hate the feeling of not finishing something I said I would do. Do you write things you've already done on your list? Then you can be like, done? Yes. Great start. A to done list? A to done list. A to done list.

That's so annoying. Yes, but she doesn't really. She has like a thing that she will do, but she hasn't crossed off yet. It's things that she would like to. No, she does ever to done list. But she does it on her computer, so she can't cross it off. I know that as a listener and you can't remember. I've got a lot on.

It's got an odd list. It's huge. I like the, oh, there's something about this. Oh yes, something that Tessa or I, or someone on the podcast did say once, which I really liked, was that if you have a task and you're like, oh, it'll take less than five minutes. Like, do it now.

I like that one. I've started doing that since you guys said that and it works because of the immediacy of it is so much easier because you feel so good you get it immediately and then you carry on. Because putting stuff off is exactly what happens. It gets massive in your head and then you feel like you can't do it

or you put it off and you feel guilty about it. That's so genius that. That's changed stuff for me, genuinely. Or doing like, there's another thing was like doing the thing that, you know, like if you look at your studio list for the day and you're like, oh, pop the thing I don't want to do at the bottom and then hopefully I won't get to it.

You pop it right, pop it right at the top because then you feel like, oh, you feel such a relief that you've done the thing that you're like, I've done the thing I didn't want to do. And then you can just pop onto the, I said pop like so much. Pop on with another tip cat. Let's do it.

Okay, controversially, saying no to stuff because... That's not controversial. That's liberating. Okay, liberate. Cut that bit out. No. Sateratingly, saying no stuff. Because I think we associate organizing so much with doing stuff, getting stuff done,

like working our way through lists. And actually, if you're really busy and you have a busy job and you have a busy social life and you don't say no to anything, there is no way that you're going to fit anything into your own life. Like, you can't even start on organizing stuff if you're not organized. And it's quite like scary to. say no to your mates for the first time. And you're like, actually, I can't.

And the reason is I just need to not do anything. But it's so important. I have a question. So, because you wrote this book alongside a full-time job, right? Yeah. We just talked about this briefing in the room. You must have had to do a lot of that,

because I had to do a lot of that last year. And how was that? Gina's changing the law and upskirting. Yes. Yeah, your thing probably was... No, let's not do comparison. No! We're not...

We're not comparison. Rear book, changing the law. Same. Exactly. Same thing. Yeah, I'd taken on the writing of the book, co-writing the book, I should say, when I thought I was about to go freelance, but I didn't go freelance, and I stayed on Emron Street, and then just as I was about to start writing my half properly,

I got promoted to editor, and I then just sort of crumbled a bit, momentarily, crumbled because I didn't know how on earth I was going to fit it in, because I had about three months to write my half, finish my half, and also take on an editorship. So it was pretty shit at the time, but I remember texting all of my girlfriends on our friend chat and saying to them, for the first time in probably my life ever, I'm not going to be able to do anything with you for at least two months

because my time is just going to have to be work and book. And it made me feel really sad actually, because I don't want to miss out and stuff once I'd said it to them and they were all like, of course, don't worry. Like, they're your friends. Like they're going to be supportive. Once I'd got it out and said it,

I suddenly felt like a huge weight off my shoulders because it freed up some mental space for me at least to be able to do it. Yeah, I think that's such a good at, like a disclaimer, that's such a good idea because I don't think we do that enough. I think we always feel so bad about saying, you know, so bad about missing out and stuff that we don't.

And I mean, I know I've done that a lot recently is people have wanted, you know, friends want to get together, or whatever and I've kind of known I'm too busy to do it and I've said yes because I really want to see them and then it's come down to it and I'm just exhausted and I can't go and I wish I'd said at the beginning of what I started out to do listen I'm going to be really busy

for this year and I'm really going to need you to give me more time and more space and I love you loads but I'm going to see you when I can't day to day basis like I have I have days where like I'm like sorry I can't come from it's like I need to do laundry I do I need to do a towel wash and like I don't do that enough and you need to like just like be in your house and just like I don't know, look around and be like, ah, yes, that looks like shit, I need to sort that out, or whatever.

Sometimes I think it's really nice. It's like, yeah, and that is a legitimate reason to not go and get drunk with people. I think, or like, you know, your friends will be there, but, you know, your towels will remain dirty. You don't have to use a towel. Because it's stuff that nags at you as well. You're like, I need to do that. I need to do that. And the more that you've got stuff like that building up, the worse you feel about yourself, the more stress you become.

And then everything seems like such a massive tour. If you just step back for a second, go, actually, you probably, you probably, probably saying yes to this was not a good idea. Do you mind if we reschedule? Yeah. And also if you look, if you've got like, if you look at the week ahead and you're just like, I can't fit it all in, there will be things that you can say no to. I always look and I'm like, oh well, that's it.

I'm fucked. But actually you can say no to things. It's prioritising, isn't it? I think prioritising is something we need to do more. I definitely don't prioritize enough. And that's such a good way of saying it. Like you've just said like, oh, I'm really sorry. Probably shouldn't have said yes to this, but I love you and I'll see you soon. I'm always like, oh my God, I'm so sorry. I'm like an asshole. I'm such a piece of shit.

I'll see you're sitting by. Like that's such a good way of doing it. Yeah. No one's going to be pissed off. If you like genuinely just can't for either your sake of your diary or your mental health, you know, no one's going to be annoyed at you. And that is a massive part of organising, because if you think of organising, you think of post-it notes and like we've been talking about lists and all these things.

Do you use post-it notes? How do you use them? I know, I just don't know what to do with them. That was for my book. Oh, right. Fine. That's different. But do you use them? I have one post-it note on my desk computer.

Okay. Which says all of my invoice. codes and that's clever it's so that I don't have to find that information that's the only thing I have so you bought one post it note yeah from Ryman I was just about to say I'll do that on my passwords no no no no no no no no don't do that don't do that no just write them on a note pad and put them there just remember them absolutely um yeah do you have like a die do you guys have a diary or a like what how do you do because I I'm so scatty with like dates and things I have written diary and also a phone thing.

I have a phone one, which is, but I have different calendars. Okay. Well, I have two different calendars. Like work and play. Okay, so I have a work calendar, which I only really look at at work because that is. The work calendar? A work calendar. And then I have my own calendar.

And then I have a shared calendar with my boyfriend. Oh, for love. Yeah, it's a love calendar. No, it's not. It's so that we know, like, if there are nights that one of us are going to be in for dinner and one's not. So we like know how much to make or. Wow. That's great. If he had like four things on in the week, I probably

wouldn't put something on the fifth. It's just like a respectful calendar. A calendar of respect. Yeah. Oh, I like that. And then it means no one's springing anything on the other one. Or doing doodles. Yeah. You don't do a doodle in a relationship. Sometimes you put silly, silly things in there. Yeah. Oh yeah. You know. Why wouldn't you? Loll. But I can't, I have paper lists. I have notebooks.

Yeah. I've actually started using an online thing, Evernote. Because you can sync your lists across devices. And so it's just good because if you're like, say you on the, didn't make that sound fun at all. No, it's not fun. That's not the point of it. This is good.

So if you have it on your, if you have the app on your phone and you're like remembering stuff on the train or whatever, it's why I do on the way to work, you just put them in that one bit on your phone and it would just sync across to that list on your work desktop or your mat. Does everyone know this? Is that just me that didn't know? know that. Okay, there's something that's going to go great learning. But I'm not stupid.

I really struggle with like to do this being everywhere. So I'm trying with one. Centralised. I do exactly the same as you. I've got a did on my phone, I've got a digital like on my phone calendar and then I also have a physical one. But the issue is is I find as I put stuff in and then things change and then I haven't changed it in the physical one so they're just turn up at places. And and you can't it's just so I've got two of them but I still can't get the dates right. And I don't understand why. I need a lot. I need a lot. I've started setting alarms and reminders for things because it physically tells me I have to be somewhere.

Yeah, the reminders thing was like, it was, I felt so stupid when I first realized, like, that was really useful. I was telling people like, do you know the reminders? And they were like, yes, that's what they are. They remind you, and you've had it for years. And it's like, oh, I use it now. But now I always said it for the wrong day.

And then I'm like, like, I've got that day. I have a thing every Wednesday where I send June a message just telling her it's Wednesday. I don't know when it started. It's a frog and it says, it's Wednesday, my dudes. And then I've tried to do it like via. I tried to get like someone at work to send her the email to be like F-A-O-Stevie says this and like um but then now I've just got a reminder that says like 74 days ago

remind Juner is Wednesday on my phone. I get these I get these screenshots of her iPhone with her obviously the background on her iPhone and it's like Friday the 24th and just says remind you know it's Wednesday. Yeah that that's how that's how I use the reminder it's not like the most useful way of my time. I just want to know why Wednesday what so I don't know the frog says it I didn't make the frog meme it's a meme i think i mean it's i just saw it was like that's so great i'm going to do that every wednesday that's maybe why i'm not organized because i put a lot of time and effort into things like that yeah and actually i actually have executed that very well but i won't turn up to anyone's birthday on the right day i'll send me the frog i will send you the frog

and remind you what day it is a woman's one please okay let's do two in a row if you've got them are we okay for time how great she's nodded This one is when you're parking so you can find your car. I don't know why I put the mic to mine. No, that's fine. We're very similar people. So smart car it's called. If you always spend ages hunting for your car in a massive car park,

simply attach a bunch of different brightly colored helium balloons to your aerial. You'll spot it a mile off. Right, that's from Sam Higgs in North London. No. Can we just think about that? Because if you're not organised, yeah, that means you have to take a helium pump. A balloon.

Or go to cards galore or whatever it's called and get them to pump it up and your car's outside. Yeah, and not one balloon. Multiple coloured balloons. Also, just take a picture of your frigging car where it is. Like what?

Another one. Okay. If you don't have much space in your house, create a buffet table by covering your ironing board of the tablecloth. But the picture of the ironing board it's like this far off the floor.

That's also a good one. That's really great. Can't any more normal tips, please? No, well. This wasn't when I wrote down, but the thing that, taking the picture of the thing, that is actually a really good idea because if you do collect lots of, like, we send a lot, we sell a lot of stuff on eBay and when we moved to house, we just need to like sell everything that wouldn't fit.

So when you send it and you get your proof of postage, I'm losing them all the time. Just take a picture of it. Take a picture of it. Yeah. Like take a picture of everything that you could possibly lose. We think of, I think a bit too much of like stuff as digital on paper. You know, you separate them in your head. But if you just take a picture of everything you need, it's on your phone.

Also, really good one is I do. Maybe this is too far because I'm an idiot. But when I've got really important stuff to do, I'll take a picture of it and I actually set it as my phone background. Because whenever I look at my phone, it's right there. So it's like, Gina, go to Parliament. I'm like, oh, shit. That is the best thing you need to remind yourself of ever.

Change law. Oh, yes. Oh, yeah, sorry, yeah, that thing. I like it when people email receipts. They start doing that now. So then you know that you can't ever lose it because it's in your inbox. Also, inbox situation with Gmail, I've only just started realizing how to, like, use the starred, like, flagging messages. And I just, whenever there's, like, an ongoing thing, I'm like, I can't reply to that majorly.

I start it. I sound like a child, but I'm really proud of that because I used to just be like, just forget stuff. Let me find it three pages down. Go on. Another one that's from an adult, please. Okay. Another one, let me think. So I guess the one that for me is tied into like money and also other important life stuff is not putting things off because you're scared of looking at them.

Oh, that thing that was in stylist called FOFO. Yeah, so FOFO has been called my vagina. And also, stylists have now taken over. So it's a thing called FOFO, which is a fear of finding out. So apparently a third of millennials now are too scared to look at their bank accounts, which I mean like hands up who's too scared to look at their bank accounts. Oh my God. Like once a month, I'd be like, I guess I must.

Yeah. And it's so frightening because when you can't really keep track of what's going out and what's, until you know what's coming in, it's your salary. And then what's going out is like everything else. But I think it is worse when you don't check in with it regularly because it then does become a thing that's really scary and that you can, can't control because suddenly something scary you can't control it and then you're always worse if you put it off for ages that moment when you're like I now have to look at it is always way worse

than it's just like I've got like the banking app on my phone or whatever so I just like I just like I just force myself to look at it as much as much as possible five times a minute I'm just like I haven't looked actually now I don't but it's just good yeah it's that feeling of like it may feel awful but it's so much worse if you don't yeah so much better to know that because it just I don't know where it goes it goes so quickly. Do you have Monzo? Because I've got Monzo. Have you got Monzo?

Has anyone who they got Monzo cards? How good are they? They're so good. They basically, it's a cash card. It's like, you know when you were 16 and you were so excited to get a bank card? Now I'm 27 and I've gone back to a cash card. I don't know how that happened. But basically you put cash on it and then it budgets everything into what you're spending it on.

And when you spend some money, it makes a really cool noise on your phone. It goes, you've spent this much money. But it's really nice. It's like, you've got this much left this month. Don't worry. Just don't spend this much on food. very bright colour, you can always find it in your bag. Stuff like that is actually really helpful because

I never look, I mean, I do look at my bank, but only one of been paid because I'm like, I've got money and then my brain thinks I've got it every month. There's that thing with Monzo there where you have to like top up your card. So there's loads of people just like the front of a key being like, oh, I haven't topped up a monso. Like it's Gina. If you do it once a week with a certain amount, like a realistic amount of money,

you know you're going to spend. Don't put £50 on for a week because you know you're going to spend more than that. It's really useful. It's a really good thing. Being realistic, I think is a really good point too. because that's one of my biggest problem with budgets and to be fair, like, time as well is I'm never realistic about how much something is going to cost me

or how much time it's going to take me. And so I just don't, I try not to think about it until I'm like, oh no, Google Maps or City Mapper and stuff and it'll be like, it will take 15 minutes to walk to this place. I'm like, can do it in two, mate. Yes. So watch me. And it doesn't.

It takes the amount of time that it's told you. Yeah. So I'm late. I literally, I run for the, I, like, lived in our house for almost a year. I run to the train every morning. Like, it's shoes like this and I'm like, running along the road. Like, I will make this train.

If I'd left three minutes earlier, I only lived like seven minutes away from the station. It's absolutely pathetic. But if you do, if I just faced it and gone, okay, I'll leave the house now rather than faffing around. Yeah, and being like, I can do it. Yeah. No, yeah. Knowing the amount of time, also like just simple tasks take as well. Being like, oh, like, I remember Tessa saying once, like, we had an hour.

we were somewhere and it was about an hour tube ride and she was like well it's an hour tube ride we've got to be there an hour and a half I might go to the gym it's like no no don't she's like yeah I get a massage in and I was like absolutely get on the bus like get no

it's a thing where yeah you sort of like optimism some people have like really optimistic viewpoints of what they can achieve in a day and then when they don't it's like oh I've failed or like it's me every Sunday and And I've, apparently, it's a thing in our house called a KP minute. So I'll say, I'll just take me five minutes. And my boyfriend will say, is that a KP minute?

Because it takes two hours to do what you're trying to say. You're going to do in five minutes. Yeah. Yeah, I think know it, knowing. It's all about accepting, isn't it? Knowing yourself. Know thyself. Is that one of the ten commandments?

Yeah, it's in the book. Know thyself. I'm a staunch, Kristen. So I should know that. Sure. Amazing. Well, I think we're going to have to wrap it up. but a big thanks to Cat

with the actual adult amazing tips and a big thanks to Gina for doing a great job being an adult and my own saying is around now and you're going to be signing stuff and buying stuff have a flick through, have a look through it's amazing book and thank you so much for coming I'm sorry that we started a little bit late

and you've been so nice if you're listening at home please do tweet us at Oh Jesus At Nobody Panic Pod And Gina is at Beanie G-G which is like B-E-A-N-I-E-G-I-G-I

And then it's at Kat-F-P-Poole Hashtag being an adult Anyone listening by the book? And thank you so much and goodbye. Oh I thought I was going to nod to end.