The Skinny Confidential Him & Her Podcast - #135: Lauryn's Time Management & Productivity Hacks

Episode Date: September 6, 2018

On this episode Lauryn is solo and talking time management and productivity hacks. She talks about the strategies she uses to manage her time so that she can maximize productivity. Lauryn also talks about how to use peel pads and optimize skin care.  To connect with Lauryn Evarts click HERE To connect with Michael Bosstick click HERE Read More on The Skinny Confidential HERE For Detailed Show Notes visit TSCPODCAST.COM To Call the Him & Her Hotline call: 1-833-SKINNYS (754-6697) This episode is brought to you by Dr. Dennis Gross, board-certified dermatologist and the Doctor behind Dr. Dennis Gross Skincare. All Him & Her listeners will receive 10% off his cult favorite Alpha Beta Peel at drdennisgross.com/tscpodcast with the code SKINNY10 This episode is brought to you by OMAX Stress remedy. We're excited to announce that our long-time partner OMAX just released a game-changing NEW product called OMAX Stress Remedy- a triple-action CBD fusion supplement that helps calm your mind, relax your body, & improve sleep. To try OMAX STRESS REMEDY go to OMAXCBD dot.com/skinny today to get 50 percent off a one-month supply, plus free shipping and a 60-day money-back guarantee. Terms and Conditions Apply. 

The following podcast is a Dear Media production. This episode is brought to you by Dr. Dennis Gross, board certified dermatologist and the doctor behind Dr. Dennis Gross Skin Care, my personal obsession. All skinny confidential listeners will receive, wait for it guys, 10% off his cult favorite alpha beta peel pads. I know, I'm freaking out. Okay, so go to drdennisgross.com slash TSC podcast and use the code skinny 10. I literally could not be more excited for this one. You guys, I mean, you know, my obsession with him and his peel pads. And now you get 10% off one of my favorite skincare items on the planet. I'm actually seriously using my own code. So go to drdennisgross.com

slash TSC podcast and use code skinny 10. This episode is also brought to you by Omax stress remedy. So let's face it. We all get stressed. It's 2018. There's a million things going on. Work-life balance is a distant memory. There seems to be constant stimulation, stress, anxiety, like our phones are in our face. So we're excited to announce that our long-term partner Omax just released a game-changing new product called Omax Stress Remedy. This is a triple action CBD fusion supplement that helps calm the mind. To try Omax Stress Remedy, go to omaxcbd.com slash skinny today to get 50% off a one month supply plus free shipping and a 60 day money back guarantee. That's O-M-A-X-C-B-D.com slash skinny today to get 50% off a one month supply plus free shipping

and a 60 day money back guarantee. Omax.com slash skinny. Terms and conditions do apply. She's a lifestyle blogger extraordinaire. Fantastic. And he's a serial entrepreneur. A very smart cookie. And now Lauren Everts and Michael Bostic are bringing you along for the ride. Get ready for some major realness.

Welcome to the Skinny Confidential. Him and her. Hey guys, welcome back to The Skinny Confidential, him and her show. Today, you just have her, no him. This is a solo episode. It's just me, Lauren Everts. I'm the creator of the blog and brand, The Skinny Confidential. And we're here, we're live. This is

so fitting and so on brand if you saw me right now. I have my white hydro flask with a little water with lemon, a couple of slices of ginger. Actually, they're not slices. I just sort of broke them in half and put them in my water, but whatever works, right? And I'm actually enjoying a golden milk latte, seriously, and a little mint tea. So I'm multitasking while I do this episode. Okay. So I decided that I wanted to do an episode all about time management. This has been something that's such a weakness for me. And I think that along the way, I've picked up tips and tricks and hacks that have helped me get better. I'm still not there yet. We're still working on it. Time is probably definitely actually my biggest weakness, like I said. So to sit down and record an episode

that's completely themed on time management is not only helpful, hopefully for you guys, it's also helpful for me. Okay. I need to re-listen to my episode. That's right. Before we get into it, I wanted to tell you guys about a couple of weekends ago. I threw a bachelorette party for Jordan. I did a blog post on it. Jordan is my sister-in-law. She's Michael's sister and she's getting married. And I thought it would be fun really quickly to just recap the bachelorette party before we get into time management. I know they're different topics, but I thought, why not just tell you guys a little bit about how I helped plan her bachelorette party. So it was three days and we did it in beautiful, sunny California. She had 14 girlfriends

come to a house with a huge pool, actually her parents' house, and her parents left for the weekend and we just took it over. We had lots of summer water. Okay. If you haven't tried summer water, it's insane. It's this rosé by Wink. And I love to put ice cubes in it and just drink it by the pool in a chilled glass. There's nothing better. We even went as far as to make frosé. And if you're wondering what that is, you have to try it. So what you do is you take rosé. I used summer water, highly recommend it. And I put it in a blender with ice and then I put some strawberries in there, little watermelon chunks, blended it up, like I said, with ice, poured it in a chilled glass and it was perfection. It's really the perfect summer drink. You could get creative with it. You could add some pomegranate seeds on

top, maybe a squeeze of lemon. I don't know, perhaps a sprig of mint. Is it a sprig? I'm not sure. Who knows? Anyway, yeah, try Frosé. It was great. We did that at our bachelorette party. We did some Juneshine kombucha. Juneshine is probably the most on-brand bougie kombucha that I have ever seen in my life. Okay. So it's a boozy kombucha. Am I saying this right? I always pronounce it wrong. Anyway, Juneshine has the cutest bottles. It's boozy kombucha. You can get kind of buzzed from it and it's like very low sugar. We also had Kopari goodie bags, which was so fun. You know I love Kopari. All the girls got these really cute little goodie bags that they took home with coconut oil and coconut lip gloss and Kopari's new deodorant.

Just a lot of fun stuff. We did a harmless harvest coconut water for electrolytes because you know we were hung over, especially from Flaming Hot Cheetos. Those give me the worst hangover if I mix them with rosé. So next time I got to just do the rosé and no Flaming Hot Cheetos. We did suja juice, always suja juice. They have a probiotic drink right now that's delish. They also have this watermelon cooler that's insane with mint in it. And they gave us little probiotic shots. So that was fun.

And then Suckerbit candy. I love Suckerbit candy. It's non-GMO. It has no artificial flavors in it. And it's all the good stuff. The candy is the most legit candy ever. If you're ever in West Hollywood, you have to check them out and stalk their situation. It's like a new age sweet factory,

but not bad for you. And it's so Instagrammy. Just trust me. Okay. Go there. So like I said, Jordan had 14 girls there and her maid of honor through her, this just incredible Peruvian themed bachelorette party. They even had llamas there. I think they were llamas or maybe they were, what do you call? Michael, what do you call those animals with an A? Alpaca guys, alpaca. It was definitely a fun spin to do the Peruvian theme. We had a lot of alcohol all weekend. I'm like still recovering and it's weeks later.

And we had some fun. We laid out. I was in the shade. Surprise, surprise. But it was fun. Good times, lots of good music. Jordan's getting married and we couldn't be more excited. And if you guys need SEO, just while we're at it, Jordan does SEO for bloggers. You'll have to check her out at Influencer SEO. All right. So before we get into this episode on time management, I am going to talk to you guys about peel pads. I've talked about them in so many of my YouTube videos on the Skinny Confidential. I've even talked to the creator of the peel pads on this podcast. You guys have heard it, Dr. Dennis Gross, we interviewed him twice because he's such a compelling person. So it shouldn't surprise you that I teamed up with them to give

you guys a fantastic, incredible deal on their peel pads. Okay. Honestly, I'm not joking. I am using my own code. Okay. Before we get to the code though, I want to explain what peel pads do. So what they do is they're going to reduce fine lines, reduce wrinkles, refine pores, and make your skin just feel tighter. I like to use them after I cleanse. There's two of them. Okay. There's like part one and part two. So after you cleanse, you put part one all over your face. I rub it down my neck. I even take it down to my boobs, sometimes my nipples. Can you do that, Dr. Dennis? I don't know. I put it on my shoulders, my hands. I use the pad, okay? It's like dry by the time I'm done with it. Then I wait two minutes and then I use part two and I do the same thing, never forgetting

the hands all over my face. It has helped me so much with hyperpigmentation. Okay. So that's kind of the basis and the foundation of the peel pads. If you want to know why they're important, it's because every skin type can benefit from a peel. And this isn't a peel where you're going to walk outside and be peeling like a snake everywhere, okay?

This is a light peel. It's about exfoliation, revving up your collagen production, which we all love. It's just going to give you sort of a fresh layer of skin. So even though it's called a peel pad, you're not actually visibly seeing a peel, okay? We love this. There's so much buildup on the surface of skin. There's like dead skin cells and bacteria and there's cosmetics and serum and makeup and all this stuff that we don't want on our face. So what the peel pads do is they sort of detach

the cells and they leave you with this pretty glowy dewy skin. The best part is though, is that when you put products on your skin, after you use the peel pads, it absorbs quicker. So that's one of my favorite parts. It's like I do my peel pads and then I go and I put my mandelic serum on or maybe a hyaluronic acid and it just absorbs better. My skin feels like bright and youthful after I use the peel pads, which we love. So peel pads can also help with acne. And I feel like I need to shout this out because a lot of people have acne. In fact, I have four zits on my face right now and I'm going to use a peel pad after I drink my golden latte, just being real. So try it for acne. If you have acne, it just really helps acne causing bacteria from reentering your pores. Why I really love the peel pads is that it's not a harsh acid peel.

Okay. It's a gentle treatment that you can do on a daily basis. And it's better than doing something huge all at once, in my opinion. So after you use your peel pads, you're going to want to apply a serum, a moisturizer, and then makeup. Also, I like to add sunscreen in there and maybe an eye cream and perhaps a mist. But if you want to just start basic, do your serum, do your moisturizer, and then your makeup. Just make sure you got some sunscreen happening. And the man behind the peel

pads is Dr. Dennis Gross. My boyfriend, my, my helpful, I mean, if me and Michael broke up, you know, you know, I got to go for Dr. Dennis, but he's a board certified dermatologist and the doctor behind the full skincare line, Dr. Dennis Gross skincare. So the code, I know you're waiting. I know you're salivating. I'm freaking out. I've memorized my own code, my URL. So here's what you do. All skinny confidential listeners will receive 10% off the cult favorite alpha beta peel pad at drdennisgross.com slash TSC podcast. So use the code skinny 10 drdennisgross.com slash TSC podcast.

I'm excited. These peel pads are vegan, cruelty free, and they really, really help with uneven skin tone, texture, fine lines, and hyperpigmentation. Enjoy. They're worth it. You're going to freak. This is the skinny confidential him and her. Okay. Hey guys, it's Lauren. We're going to do a solo episode today. So no Michael. I love a good solo episode once in a while. This episode's about time management, which is kind of funny because today I showed up

a half an hour late. Right, Ray? Ray's ecstatic. It's so fitting that I'm doing an episode on one of my biggest weaknesses, time management, and I was a half an hour late. This is something I'm working on and we'll get to it. I'm going to give you guys lots of tips and tricks about how I'm trying to improve. Ray, if you think a half an hour is bad, there's been times where I've been an hour late. It's not good. So something

we're working on. I am currently trying to convince Michael to get on his master list solo episode because he needs to do a solo episode. So maybe go bother him on his Instagram. He has so many good finds and I want him to share those with you. Anyway, like I said, today we're going to focus on my biggest weakness, time management. I am a big believer in focusing on your strengths, not your weaknesses. But I do think that it's important to address your weaknesses and possibly delegate them out. And I'm going to sort of walk you through how I've delegated my weakness out and also how I am trying to kind of

improve it while working on my strengths. So let's just hop right into it since this is a solo episode. The first thing I do is time batching. Okay. I learned about this from my best friend, Tim Ferriss. Maybe you've heard of him. He's actually not my best friend, but I feel like he is because I listened to his podcast so much and he has so many good tips when it comes to time. So what time batching is, is it's when you do one thing in a batch of time. So let me give you a couple of examples. If I'm going to do a photo shoot, instead of doing four photo shoots a month, I'll do two a month and do them on a Friday and shoot the entire day. So I'll have tons of photos and I won't have to

get dressed up, do the clothes, get the photographer there, have the shot list. I'll just do it twice a month instead of four times a month. I know sometimes bloggers shoot twice a week. I personally have found that for me, it works a lot better if I do it twice a month and bang it out. Even if it takes nine hours, I find that when I'm focused on one task at once, it works better. And I feel like when I first started blogging, I was just flying by the seat of my pants, saying yes to everything, you know, shooting two times a week, three times a week, taking conference calls all throughout the week. And with time batching, I think it keeps my mind focused on one task as opposed to going in and out of the task. So say that I was shooting content on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, when I first started out, I would take conference calls while I was shooting.

And what that was doing is it was really confusing to my brain. So other examples of time batching are conference calls. So I've talked about this with you guys a lot, but I do all my conference calls on Wednesday. I do my interviews and my conference calls. So when I wake up in the morning, I know my marching orders on Wednesdays are to talk on the phone. And it just honestly streamlines everything. It's so nice not to have to talk on the phone the rest of the week and just know that Wednesday is my day to do interviews. I've got a huge cup of coffee, my water, I'm prepared. I can look at exactly who I'm talking to. I can really stay focused instead of feeling scatterbrained. So I definitely time batch my conference calls. Other things that I time batch, and this is as of late, is my writing. So when I first started

blogging, I was writing a post every single day, seven days a week and shooting content for that post on the same day. Now times have changed. I have so many different things that I'm juggling. It's not just writing on the blog. There's so much back in. There's so much business that people don't see that that's not realistic for me anymore. And that was a really hard transition to realize that I'm not going to be able to write, you know, whenever I want. And it's not writing at 11 o'clock at night anymore and putting the post up. It's maybe sitting down once a week and dedicating four hours to just writing. So that's another thing that I time batch. And I want to talk about why I time batch, okay? Because the why is so important. So what it does is it reduces the cleanup time. So the time that it takes to set up, break down, rinse and repeat for a shoot is obnoxious. If I'm doing a shoot and I'm doing that four times a week. It just isn't streamlined. So just to put that all twice a month instead of once a week is very helpful.

I also think that you lose energy, right, if you're not time batching. So it's exhausting going from writing a blog post to getting on a conference call to shooting content to, to editing the content, to going into your email inbox. With time batching, you're just doing one task for a long period of time. I also think time batching gets rid of unnecessary clutter. So instead of checking your email 5 million times a day, you check it once. So how I batch my email is I wake up, I do a half an hour to an hour, usually after I do my morning stuff. And if you haven't listened to my morning episode, you should. I talk all about my self-care in the morning. I do a lot of self-care. And then I check my emails after my self-care. And that's like I said, I time batch that 30

minutes to an hour in the morning. And then at night, I'll do 30 minutes to an hour. And I have really had to learn not to live in my inbox. I think a lot of us are learning that. The email is a tool. It shouldn't be your job, if that makes sense. So with time batching, you can pick when you're going to answer emails. And so you're not checking them while you're running to your Uber or checking them while you're on to answer emails. And so you're not checking them while you're, you know, running to your Uber or checking them while you're on a conference call. It's just, it's too much for your

brain to handle at once. And I want to just mention this because I feel like this is an important tip as well. Text messages. Okay. I don't respond right away. In fact, I take days to respond. Sometimes I turned my notifications off on my text messages. I found them to be very distracting. And maybe that's because I work from my phone. My phone is like my number one tool. Text messages were taking me off my game. I was noticing that I would go into my text messages, respond, then someone would respond back and want a response right away. And it was like this conversation. And I think for my business, like I said, is on my phone. So to have that distraction was almost like I was sitting in an office space and someone was coming into my office every five minutes asking questions. And I just decided I'm going to check

my text messages once a day. If it's a huge emergency, someone can call me. I always say to my parents, I'm like, if someone was murdered, I'm not going to know because my notifications aren't on. So maybe call someone else. I'm kidding, but I'm kind of serious because I only do check my text messages once a day. I take a long time to text back. I really am going to be blunt about this. I feel like I, during the work hours, I'm not working off someone else's time. I'm working off my own time. And I think with text messages, it feels sometimes like you are working off someone else's time. So the text messages, the notifications are off. I batch my text messages. That might sound sound bat shit crazy, but I do. Okay. So today I'm

driving back to LA at nine o'clock at night and I just wrote in my calendar from nine to nine 30. I will go through, um, I have like 56 text messages right now, go through them and respond. And I don't get 56 text messages a day. That's probably from yesterday too. So it gets rid of unnecessary clutter. That's the point. It also, time batching, helps with focus. It's so much easier to focus on one thing at a time. I'm all about a good multitasking moment, but the difference is I do passive multitasking. And I've talked about passive multitasking before. Basically, it means when you get a facial, but you're doing emails for one hour. So you're doing something that is working your brain while getting something done to

you like a blowout or a facial or whatever that is. You know, when I get my nails done, I try to listen to a podcast or do DMs. I'm a big fan of also listening to a podcast in the morning while I respond to my Instagram DMs. I'm a big fan of also listening to a podcast in the morning while I respond to my Instagram DMs. I'm always passive multitasking. And I think that that's also something that you can sort of incorporate into time batching. Text messages, people taking your time, setting your schedule, all of these things are stressful. So enter OMAX. Okay, whether you're working a nine to five or you're a mom or you're an entrepreneur or starting a new venture,

perhaps a new side project, it's stressful. It's 2018, there's constant stimulation. The phone is always in our face and more than ever, people can reach us with the touch of a button. I mean, there's email, text, phone, FaceTime, just really no escape. It's very, very stressful. So enter one of our longtime sponsors and favorite brands, Omax. And Omax has a new fresh product presenting Omax Stress Remedy. This is a triple

action CBD fusion supplement that can help calm your mind, relax your body, improve your sleep, relieve joint pain, and even inflammation, which is my favorite. You can use their stress remedy every night and you'll immediately feel a hundred percent less anxious and more at ease. Like you'll feel calm, the calm feeling that we want to feel when we get in bed, when we want to get a good night's rest, maybe we're a little high strung. Michael, I hope you're listening. Take a little of this CBD fusion supplement. You'll love it. I love it. So we've been talking a lot about CBD on this podcast and on the Skinny Confidential. Michael and I both love it. Unlike other CBD products, the real secret is the patent pending blend of three therapeutic ingredients. And it puts your body in ultimate bliss zone.

There's no THC in it and there's no high. So you just basically relax and chill out. Sort of just takes the edge off to be honest. And before I forget, Omax is offering our listeners 50% off a one month supply of stress remedy plus free shipping and a 60 day money back guarantee. Just go to OmaxCBD.com slash skinny today to take advantage of this insane savings. That's O-M-A-XCBD.com slash skinny for 50% off a one month supply. If you're stressed out, having trouble sleeping, just need to take some time to chill and relax, then Omax Stress Remedy is for you. Maybe you even have trouble with time management like me. Overall, Omex has the highest quality supplement products

on the market. You know we love their omega-3s. So add some CBD to your routine at night. Thank me later. Let me know how it goes. DM me. Give me your results. I want to hear all the juice. Go to omexcbd.com slash skinny today to get 50% off a one month supply plus free shipping and a 60 day money back guarantee. Terms and conditions do apply. I also, like I said, am a fan of focusing on my strengths, not my weaknesses. So I decided that I was going to hire out for my time management. And let me just explain what I mean here. Gary Vee, who I look up to, I talk about him a lot because I think he's done a really good job of executing his business in the digital space, decided that he wanted to get fit. He knew that he was too busy

focusing on his weaknesses and building his business to actually execute getting very, very fit. So what he did is he hired a young college student who was a professional trainer. And he had the trainer come everywhere with him for three months. And what that did is it got him into shape because he woke up with the trainer. They went straight to the gym. He worked out at night with the trainer and the trainer was able to see what he was eating and drinking. Was he drinking enough water? Was he getting enough sleep? All these things. He hired out his weakness. Now, all of us can't obviously hire a trainer to follow us around, but we can find our weaknesses and we can get creative, whether that's getting an intern or, you know, maybe working with a coworker to keep you accountable. For me, what I did is I realized that my time

management skills were atrocious and to build an empire like I want to build, I needed someone to keep me accountable for my time. So I hired Emily. She is amazing. Shout out to Emily. And what she does is she basically manages my schedule from the second I get up to the second I go to bed. So she in the morning will text me what calls I have if it's a Wednesday. She'll text me what I have to do for the day. She'll text me priorities. If I have a collaboration or a partnership, she'll text me what to do and when to do it. She'll text me reminders. She'll tell me when to get in an Uber. It's in my calendar when to get in an Uber. She'll text me what to do and when to do it. She'll text me reminders. She'll tell me when to get in an Uber. It's in my calendar when to get in an Uber. She even has driving time. Ray, that didn't work today, but you know, we're working on it. She has every little detail in my

calendar. She knows that I like my morning time. So she blocks that off for me. She knows that I like to write for four hours when I write. So that's in my calendar. And not only that, she color codes it. So it's very clear. Now this may sound obnoxious to you, but it's actually, it's, it's not because what it's doing is it's creating those little habits every day that make up big success. So it may sound tiny that she puts driving time or writing time or shoot prep time in my calendar and it's color coded, but it's actually these little things that add up to big results. When we do a shoot, she has the shot list in the calendar. It's all ready to go. Any details about people's Skype names, she does invites, and she does things like my workout is always in yellow. My workouts are non-negotiable. I think that they're a time, an hour for in my workouts for all seven days that week. Normally I hit five of them, but the point is, is they're in there. Sometimes I hit seven, which go me.

It doesn't really happen a lot, but sometimes it does. And I even will put walking time when I want to walk, take the dogs for a walk. Like I just took the dogs for an hour walk in the morning and I was able to get a bunch of calls done that I needed to get done. So I'm able to walk and talk at the same time. I got that tip from Ryan Holiday, who's been on the podcast. He says, if you want to be a happier person when you're talking on the phone, walk. I thought that was such a good tip. It's so simple.

Anyway, so she does my workouts in yellow. She does due dates and deadlines in red. She does my writing time in blue. We have which blog posts are going live every night in there. We have the podcast episodes that are going live. Everyone is able to access my calendar and see it. And I remember when I was bartending and I was hustling seven days a week, like hitting it, like just burning myself out. I mean, I was, I was teaching pure bar and Pilates during the day, then going to school full time, then coming straight home, shooting my content, putting my blog post up, going straight to work to bartend until midnight. And I remember going into the bathroom and bathroom and working in the

bathroom at Delisious, which is really funny, and just really hitting it so hard. And I remember kind of using it as a badge of honor, like bragging to the customers at the bar that I was working so hard. And this very wealthy, smart guy said to me, you know, you should schedule a day of relaxation. And at this point, you know, I'm like 21 years old. I'm like, oh, relaxation. I can sleep when I'm dead. You know, ego. Ego's the enemy, Ryan Holiday. Anyway, so I was thinking that I was so cool. I was hustling, and this guy said, you should schedule relaxation time. And I didn't really know what he meant. And then my dad, who is a total hustler and an entrepreneur, told me, you know, it is really important to have rest time because you will get burnt out. Still didn't believe them. So as I'm going on, I'm hustling seven days a week for about five

years. And then I started to see the importance of taking a day to myself. And whether that's reading or relaxing, that is actually time batched. So I put in my schedule, relaxation and rest time. And I personally like to batch that. I find my mornings to be therapeutic and time batched. So that's kind of my relaxation every day. But then I will batch one day that's completely dedicated to reading or connecting with my husband or hanging out with friends. Just to give you an example specifically, last Saturday, I went out with my friend Jackie and her son Ford. And we went out and got drinks and did breakfast. And then we went to her house and relaxed. And then I came home and I went out to dinner with Michael. So that was a very chill day. I wasn't posting content and on social media. And then of course,

I'll have a day. It's an off day. I just did a YouTube about depression and anxiety, what I do when I feel low. And when I have an off day, I really, truly let my phone die. I don't turn it off. I let it die. So it's not even an option. And I will do a social media blackout day. I think that's also important. And that's something that you can time batch. Okay. So time batching, hire out on your weaknesses. If you can get an intern or collaborate with someone that that can keep you accountable whether that's a co-worker or a family member another thing that I do is my top seven things when I wake up in the morning I like to make a list after I meditate of the top seven things that are my priorities that I need to get done.

Now, I'm not perfect, guys, but this does work. And if it doesn't work, what happens is the thing, like, let's say I have seven things on Monday. If I miss two of those things, it rolls over to Tuesday, if that makes sense. So like I said, I'm not perfect. Like I don't always get those seven things done. But if I can, I really try to focus on those priorities. An example is today, some of my things that I need to get done. I need to refine my media kit. I'm working on a one sheet for the podcast. So that needs edits.

I need to work on the newsletter. And just another example is there's a book by Ray Dalio that I want to start reading called Principles. So I want to dig into that. And those are just examples of, you know, some of the priorities that I make, goals that I set for myself for the day. I also want to talk about my time blocking cube. Okay. Does anyone know what I'm talking about? There's like this tomato timer that a lot of moms have in the kitchen. Well, there's this method that I don't have all the history on it. But basically, it's this method that you use a timer to block your time and do one task at a time. And let me give you an example because that

sounded confusing. Basically, you decide you're going to do emails for 30 minutes. So you take your cube or your tomato timer, you put it on your desk, you put your phone away. Okay. The phone is not anywhere near you. And don't use your phone for this because you'll get distracted. Trust me. I mean, it's happened to me a hundred times. Don't use your phone. You want to buy the tomato timer or the time cube. Say you want to do emails, like I mean, it's happened to me 100 times. Don't use your phone. You want to buy the tomato timer or the time cube. Say you want to do emails, like I said, for 30 minutes. You put your cube on 30 minutes and you sit at your computer and for 30 minutes you do not let anything interrupt you.

Now, if you have kids, I don't know how that is because I don't have kids. I'm talking about my journey and what's worked for me. Time blocking has worked wonders because I've been able to sit down and focus on one task. I get easily distracted. I'm like, oh, there's a squirrel. There's a butterfly. How's my Instagram doing? You know, it's on and on. I even put my phone on airplane mode and throw it across the room when I do this.

You could also time. I time block even with my tomato timer or my time cube cleaning my closet. That sounds weird, but when you're in your closet and you're cleaning out your closet, you know, it should take you 40 minutes max in my opinion. So you could even time block getting ready. You know, I don't want to, I don't want to take more than 15 minutes getting myself ready. Like let's take a hot, cold shower. Let's slap some skincare on and let's go. Put a hat on.

Gotta go. You could time block anything. I carry my time cube in my purse with me. I just recently, don't mean to brag, picked up a pink strawberry time cube from Suckerbit. It's this candy store and it's so cute and I've been using that. We'll try to find the link to that in the show notes because it's so cute and it's so TSC related. So, okay, what all of this is going to do is it's going to help you make smart choices in regards to the priority of each item, time required to complete

each item, and how much time is available to work on each item. You might find that you're spending way too much time in your inbox. To go back and really evaluate your time and look at what you're spending your time on and see that on a calendar and then take it a step further and actually use a cube to time yourself will surprise you. I mean, people waste time. When anyone tells me they don't have time, I think it's because they're not making time. And I've learned that the hard way. Okay. So like I said, I'm not perfect. This is just how I've been working on my weakness. And before I go, I want to give you a couple bullets of other little tiny things that have

made a big difference. Setting alarms in my phone. Okay. If I'm supposed to be at Dear Media at 11, like I should have been today, right? I should have set a 20 minute alarm before I got here. So 20 minutes before here, I should have called an Uber to get here. And that should have been an alarm in my phone conference calls. I set them a minute before they're happening. Can you tell I'm a little anal and OCD? I set them a minute before they're

happening. So if the call is at 1130, I do 1129. I also, like I said, and I really want to nail this one into everyone because I feel like this one has been such a helpful tip for me, walking while I do conference calls. Now, I'm not saying you have to go out and walk and get a coffee. I'm just saying walk around the office. Go walk downstairs. Walk up the stairs. Move while you're getting a conference call. You'll feel better.

I always, as you know, listen to podcasts. I feel like when I'm doing something like getting my nails done or getting a facial or driving or doing my makeup or cooking, to be learning while I'm doing that really, really helps with time. So I can learn and get something done. Folding laundry. How can you not fold laundry without a podcast? I mean, I guess an audio book would work too. One of those two things. I have, when I'm folding laundry and Michael's underwear,

I have to be listening to something. Okay, another tip is from Ray, my producer. He says to write everything down. I think that's a great time-saving tip. If you don't write everything down, you're forgetting things and things are falling through the cracks. I use Reminders on my iPhone. It's like this cute, pretty, colorful, bulleted app where I have, let me actually pull it up. I have different lists. I'll read them to you guys so you guys can really get the specifics. So it's the Reminders app, and I have different lists.

So the first list says to-do. That's all my to-do stuff. Then I have a book list. And the book list is just books that I want to read. I have YouTube, and on that list are YouTube ideas. So whenever I have a YouTube idea, I write it down. I have a gratitude list of things I'm grateful for. And this is not something that I do every day, but just when I have a thought, I put it in that list. It's just nice to go back and have a reminder. I have a TSC

vision board. And then I have my top seven. And we talked about my top seven. And that's what I'm doing every single day. And they're super cute because they're color coded and I added emojis and it's really fun and organized. So I like that app. I think everyone should have it. Again, it's called Reminders. Ray also recommended a book called Getting Things Done, The Art of Stress-Free Productivity by David Allen. And we will link it in the show notes. He's a best-selling author from Europe. And I have not read this book. I'm going to.

He just let me borrow it. But basically, it's all about productivity. And Ray told me that it's Howard Stern's favorite. He read it, and it changed his life. And I mean, I really look up to Howard Stern on how he's managed his time. He's up every morning, I think, at 3 a.m. He has the same breakfast every single day. He's very methodical and strategic about how he lays out his time. I know he preps for two hours before every show.

So he's definitely a role model when it comes to time. I didn't think I would ever say the word role model and Howard Stern in a sentence, but he is a role model. Don't you think? I mean, right. He is right with time. I didn't think I would ever say the word role model and Howard Stern in a sentence, but he is a role model. Don't you think? I mean, right. He is right with time. And he's also a role model with the career and empire he's built. But, um, it's again, it's called getting things done. So, uh, that's maybe a book to read. If you're, if you have trouble with time, like I do another book that Michael recommends is managing oneself by Peter Drucker. This is a famous book. It's a classic. It's iconic. It's a book that Michael gifted me five years ago, and I just cracked it open about two months ago. So don't sue me. I think everyone should own this book. It's dry, but I think the message is important. And if you feel like it's too dry, just do an audio book.

It's a short read. Okay, so those are my time batching, time blocking, time management, productivity tips and hacks. Again, I am not perfect at this. This is a constant work in progress. I always am looking to try to be the best version of myself. And that means constantly refining what I do every day. And when it comes to time, I think that that it is a big part of success. You got to be able to manage your time. So hopefully I won't

be 30 minutes late, right? Next time we podcast. Before we go, tell me your favorite part of this episode on my latest Instagram and I will send you a very TSC goodie bag with a pop socket. Okay. I'll pick one of you. I will DM you on Instagram. I'll send you lots of pink beauty goodies. Okay. So tell me your favorite part of this episode on my latest Instagram to win some TSC goodies. And make sure you check out the new podcast site. It's super, super cheeky and cute. It's tscpodcast.com. And what we found is that we were sharing everything on my blog, theskinnyconfidential.com. And we wanted something that was more streamlined for you guys.

So we created a separate site that just has resources and the offers and all the guests we've had and everything in one place. And I think it's fun. I worked on it with a fine tooth comb and it certainly took a long time to launch because we're still working on time management, but it's up and it's running and it's fresh and it's ready for you guys. So definitely check that out and make sure you're following at TSC podcast on Instagram. If you guys like these solo episodes, please, please, please let me know. Rate and review the podcast and send it to asklaurenattheskinnyconfidential.com and we'll send you my five secret beauty hacks to your email inbox. Thank you guys so much for listening. I hope you liked this episode. I have to get off the mic or I'm going to be late to my next appointment.

And we don't want that to happen after this podcast. That just wouldn't be good. All right, guys. See you next week. This episode was brought to you by Dr. Dennis Gross, board certified dermatologist and the doctor behind Dr. Dennis Gross skincare. All skinny confidential listeners will receive, wait for it, 10% off my cult favorite, his cult favorite, Alpha Beta Peel Pads. All you have to do is go to drdennisgross.com slash TSC podcast and enter code skinny10. I am using my own code, okay? I'm sending it to all my friends and family. You guys all get 10% off. Just go to drdennisgross.com slash TSC podcast and use code SKINNY10.

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