Let me tell you about three things that are really important to me, okay?
Number one, efficiency.
I don't like extra steps.
I don't like wasted time.
I spend probably an hour every day thinking about how I can make my day as efficient as possible, and I know what you're thinking.
Spending an hour a day thinking about how to be more efficient probably is inefficient, right?
Wrong, wrong. Because while I'm thinking about how to make my day more efficient, I'm doing other things that are productive, okay, and that's called optimization, okay, which leads me to number two, optimization, making every single step in the day count.
Every single action is accomplishing two tasks.
Do you see what I'm saying?
Optimization, getting the most done with the least amount of effort.
Is that even what optimization means?
I don't know. I actually have to google it to be honest. Optimization is the action of making the best or most effective use of a situation or resource.
Number three, crisis aversion and preparedness.
I think we all want to be prepared for a crisis.
Close your eyes and think about a time when maybe you had food poisoning at school and you pooped a little bit, not enough to like throw your whole pants away, but just a little bit in your underwear.
How nice would it be to have a pair of underwear in your backpack at all times ready just in case you shit yourself in math class?
It'd be really nice because moments that are traumatic like shitting yourself in math class become less traumatic when you're prepared.
What about when you're going on a road trip and you realize, oh fuck, I forgot my phone charger.
Oh wait, no problem, I always have an extra phone charger in my car.
Do you understand what I'm saying.
Being prepared is important to me.
Averting crises as often as possible is important to me.
Now what does this all really say about me?
If you were to simplify it, basically that I like life hacks, and I think most people think of life hacks and they cringe because there was this weird phase on the internet for a few years where like 90 % of Internet content was about some sort of life hack.
And you know there are only so many life hacks in life.
You know what I'm saying?
Like there are only so many.
And because this was such a video trend it became this thing of like people were just coming up with these ridiculous life hacks that actually didn't work and actually required more steps than the original.
Like it wasn't hacking life.
It was actually making life more complicated.
And so then the trend ultimately died, and then we all sort of started to hate life hacks.
But we really don't hate life hacks.
We all have our own life hacks in our day to day life, and we might not even realize that we have them, but we do.
And I am somebody who absolutely loves hacking my life, okay?
I am constantly trying to figure out how to hack my life.
It's almost like a hobby for me.
Honestly, because I will say, and I'm not like trying to shit on the people in my life, but I think my life is more hacked than anyone that I know.
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Now, let's get back to the episode.
But to be honest, I think I'm a little bit too obsessed with efficiency in optimization, in crisis aversion and preparedness.
Like I think it is kind of an unhealthy obsession at times for me.
Because I am really hard on myself when things are inefficient, when I am unprepared.
Like I really beat myself up about it.
And that's not healthy, but I do think it's overall a positive sort of sentiment to like, I don't know, like hack your life.
Like I think it's a positive concept.
I think I personally take it too far, but I think it's something that everyone can benefit from incorporating into their lives.
Like I think most of us could always be more efficient, more optimized, more prepared.
There's a few of us out there who become obsessed with it.
But even for us, it's still good.
We get a lot of shit done.
And we're always prepared, and it's great.
Anyway, with all of that being said, today I'm gonna be sharing some of my personal life hacks.
Listen, are these gonna work for you?
Maybe not, that's not the point.
I'm just trying to inspire you to figure out your own life hacks.
The truth is, you know what?
I'm actually thinking about this now.
I think the problem with the life hack era on the internet when everybody was posting about different life hacks that you should incorporate into your life because it'll make you more efficient, you more prepared.
The problem was not only were the hacks, for the most part, really bad, but they weren't personalized.
I really do think only you can hack your life.
You know, like don't copy all of my life hacks, just take inspiration from my life hacks, you know?
And as my yoga teacher says to me, this is so, take what you want and leave what you don't.
That's what my yoga teacher says to me before we start class.
Do I really know what it means?
No. I have no clue what she's even talking about by that, but I listen to her say it and I absorb it and then I do the downward dog.
Anyway, without further ado, I will be sharing with you my life hacks starting with something that everyone in my life thinks is very weird but I think it's genius and incredibly convenient.
I wear a cross body bag probably like 18 hours a day.
I am almost always wearing a cross body bag, around the house, doing chores, on a walk.
I mean, let me clarify, okay?
Obviously when I go out to like, I don't know, go get my nails done or go to the grocery store or or do that i will bring a bag and that's you that's normal right nobody's batting an eye at that what's weird about me is that i'm wearing a cross body bag like at my house all day you know what i'm saying i'm not just wearing a bag when i go out for the day no no no i get home and if i'm wearing like a cute purse that's like not that comfortable i'll put everything into a cross body bag and and continue to carry my things around throughout the day or if i'm wearing a cross body bag already that's
comfortable and convenient, I will just keep the bag on once I get home.
Do you see what I'm saying?
When I wake up in the morning, I put on a crossbody bag and I put my phone in it and anything else I may need.
I carry around little toothpicks and mints because I have a nicotine addiction and I'm trying not to vape, so I need to have little things in it so I keep those in my bag.
I'll keep hand sanitizer in there.
I'll cross body bag and carry them around all day.
Now, people think this is very odd because it's unusual to wear a bag around your house.
Most people put things in their pockets or just go and get the items that they need when they need them.
I'm sorry, that's inefficient, okay?
I always have what I need on me at all times and most of the time when I'm at home, I'm wearing pajamas, which either don't have pockets or the clothes are too loose to hold all the things that I want to hold.
Like if I put my phone in my pajama short pocket, the shorts are falling down.
The shorts will be on my ankles because I like loose pajamas.
Do you see what I'm saying?
It just makes sense to me.
And it looks weird. You know, I'm walking around my house with a bag on, with a cross -body bag, but it just makes so much sense to me.
And to me, it's a life hack.
And I don't know, maybe it's more common than I am aware of, but I have never met anyone else who does it and I am deeply judged by my loved ones for doing it.
I'm actually not deeply judged.
I think they just are like, this is so unusual.
You know, you're the only person who does this.
Anyways, let's move on.
Number two, car underwear.
You need to have a pair of underwear in your car.
You just do. There's a lot of things that you need to have in your car.
Like the list is quite long.
I think everybody should have a hairbrush, deodorant, salt.
If you're somebody who likes certain foods like that tastes good with hot sauce or tastes good with soy sauce, you should always have those condiments in the car.
If you're somebody who takes pills, like supplements or anything, you should keep a backup in your car.
You know, I just dropped 10 things that you should keep in your car.
Life hack. But I actually think one of the, oh, scissors.
Everyone should have scissors in their car.
A pen. Everyone should have a pen in their car.
utensils, napkins, wet wipes.
I mean, should I make an entire episode about what you need to keep in your car?
Maybe, actually, I don't think I need to because what you really need in your car is a pair of fucking underwear.
You don't know when you're gonna need them, you don't know why you're gonna need them, but I can almost guarantee that at some point, you will.
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I started keeping a pair of underwear in my car, when I, and this is TMI, but when I was in a phase of my life where I didn't like wearing underwear, okay, I don't know why, I just didn't like it.
And I remember one time I was going to a fitting like a fashion fitting, like I was going to try on an outfit actually at the Louis Vuitton store.
And there tailors there and like people, stylists there helping me pick out an outfit for an event and I realized that I had forgotten underwear.
And that was a problem because most of the time Louis Vuitton would put me in some sort of dress.
So it's like, I was frightened that either the stylist or the tailor would somehow see my vagina and that they would think it was weird because usually you would wear underwear to a fitting.
I was panicked and I don't remember what I did.
I either went home and got a pair of underwear or I stopped at a store and got underwear on the way.
But ever since then, I've had underwear in my car and recently the underwear came in handy again because I went to yoga and I don't wear underwear to yoga, you freak.
I wear my little shorts with no underwear, okay?
And after class, my clothes are so sweaty that they're obviously completely unwearable, so even if I was wearing underwear it wouldn't matter.
I was going to run errands after the class, and I wanted to look cute, and I was wearing these pants that would be really uncomfortable without underwear.
I realized that I had forgotten underwear when I was driving there, and I was like, oh my god, would I have a pair on the car?
Threw them in my little yoga bag, brought them in after the shower at yoga, put on my little undies, no problem.
them. Listen, would I have been fine without underwear in that scenario?
Sure, but I was so happy that I had them.
Okay? I don't know.
You might get your period, you know, if you're a woman.
Okay? And you might be happy if a pair of underwear, just trust me, okay?
Keep a pair of underwear in your car.
Next. I think I've talked about this before, but an underrated feature of the Stanley Cup, I cannot express to you how often I use the top of my Stanley cup as a little tray.
Okay? I carry around my toothpicks, my minty toothpicks that I chew on throughout the day.
I put lip balm in there to carry around.
When I'm chewing on a toothpick, and then I want to take it out for a second, I'll put it on the top of the Stanley cup.
It's a little holding place for it there.
If I want to take a little snack up to my bed, like maybe like a little cookie or something I'll put it in the top of my Stanley Cup.
Oh my god. You know what I do all the time?
To me it's like a little jewelry box, okay?
Well not a box but like a little jewelry tray.
If I'm at yoga, for example, and I forgot to take my big hoops off before before the class I'll just take them off and put them in the top of my Stanley Cup, in the little lid, and they'll just sit there safely all class and I can pop them on afterwards, no big deal.
I use it as a little tray.
I'm not being paid by Stanley, okay, I'm just saying.
It's incredible. Um, kind of random, kind of niche, but it's genuinely like a little life hack that I utilize on a daily basis and it actually is helpful.
Like there's probably more examples that I can't even remember of ways that I use the top of the Stanley Cup, it's very efficient.
My next life hack kind of changed my life.
So I have to take a pill or a few pills every morning and every evening with food.
Because I have PCOS, polycystic ovarian syndrome, I think, or ovary syndrome.
It's a hormonal thing.
It's no big deal, but I do take medication for it twice a day.
And I've been taking it for like probably a year or two.
And in the beginning it was so new and I hadn't ever really taken something twice a day like that before like indefinitely, in the past. It's been like, oh, I need to take this medication for like a week and then I'm done.
And there's like only a certain amount of pills.
I got like 10 pills and I have to take the 10 pills over the next week and then and then it's done and then whatever.
It's always been easier to organize.
This is the first time where it's like, okay, I'm just taking these pills every single day, twice a day, and I have to remember to do that.
And in the beginning it was sort of easy because it was new and it was always like, oh shit, I have to take it again.
And then it became such a routine that I started to forget like midday like, wait, did I take my pills this morning or like in the evening I'd be like, wait, did I take my pill?
So I created my own little mini calendar that I make every single month on a post -it note, okay?
So I take a little post -it note and I take like a ruler and I draw sort of a grid, okay?
One column is the date, the next column is morning and the next column is night.
And so basically I just do a little X in the morning when I take it and a little X at night when I take it.
And I'm very strict about making sure that I mark the x every single time I take it, if I have to take the pill when I'm not home, I will basically give myself one daily dose in a container for that day and then I use that container only to know whether or not I've taken the pills.
Does that make sense?
So then when I get home, I can check the pill container and be like, oh, I did take the morning dose and then I'll exit immediately when I get home.
And this is how I make sure that I don't forget or I don't take a double dose on accident, and it has changed my life because it was really starting to stress me out.
I can't tell you. I have such severe health anxiety, and every single time I would get confused about whether or not I had taken the pills, I would fully like have a panic attack because I was like, oh my God, what if I don't take it and it like fucks with me or what if I took too much and that fucks with me?
and then I would start to convince myself that I was feeling sick or dizzy or weird. It wasn't just like, oh no, I'm, you know, not taking my medication that I'm supposed to take.
It was like also causing me to have a panic attack.
So it was a fucking nightmare.
The little customized pill calendar truly, truly has changed the game for me.
And there's something kind of satisfying about making it.
Like I make it myself, you know, every month.
And it's this like beautifully made little calendar on a post -it note.
I don't know. And I stick it to my counter and I leave my little pen out and it's always there.
I don't know. I like making the little thing.
It's kind of a fun little activity to make it.
It's kind of satisfying.
Putting X's in the boxes is sort of satisfying.
It's overall a good experience.
It makes taking the pills seamless and just easy.
Oh my God, I just remembered another life hack that I just remembered because my ears are really itchy.
I have really, really horrible seasonal allergies to pollen and dust and all these different things and cats, I think.
I actually do think I have an allergy to cats, however, I have two.
So what I'm trying to say is I have really, really bad allergies and I'm constantly dealing with like itchy ears, sneezing, like allergy attacks, eyes watering, nose running, like the whole thing.
Sometimes to a point where it's like debilitating in the itchy ears.
I'm on a medication for that as well or not a medication but I take an over the counter allergy medicine for that but that's not enough okay.
And it's so funny, recently somebody gave me a life hack for itchy ears.
Now ask your doctor before you do this okay because I don't know if this is like actually bad or not.
Somebody just told me to do it and I did it and it helped.
Their doctor told them to do it.
But like, listen, this game of telephone to me, I feel irresponsible with it.
You ask your doctor before you do this, but itchy ears wanna know what I do?
Take a little Q -tip, put a little bit of cortisone cream on it, put it in the ears, okay?
Not too deep, but just where it feels comfortable.
And I rub the cream in the ear.
I don't know how it works, but it fully makes the ear itch go away.
It's incredible, and I struggle so much with itchy ears, like inside the ears, and I'm constantly having to make sounds such as this, which is absolutely horrible.
For my loved ones, they hate it.
Although my dad does it too.
So my dad doesn't hate it, because he does it as well, and then when he does it, it doesn't bother me, because I do it as well.
But for everybody else I know it's so annoying.
Like everyone thinks it's so annoying like why are you like making that sound?
Like figure it out, fix it.
Like what's happening?
This is insane that you're making that sound but it's so itchy.
It's unbearable. Anyway so this life hack of putting the cortisone cream in my ear it's amazing.
I have the cortisone cream with aloe which is even more like you know moisturizing and good.
Ask your doctor before you do that But if your doctor says go, then you're good to go.
Listen, it works for me though, I'll tell you.
Okay, moving on. Whenever I find that I'm being faced with a reoccurring issue, I try to find some sort of niche object that could be the solution.
And I tried to think outside the box.
Okay, let me give some examples because I feel like that is a bit abstract.
Let me paint this picture for you, okay?
Something that I bought recently was this sort of pair of tongs or tweezers almost that you can clip onto your key chain that basically helps you pull your credit card out of credit card slots.
For example, if you're paying for parking at a parking meter or if you're at the gas station and you insert the card and then pull it out, it's a little pair of tweezers slash tongs that you can use to pull your card out if you have long acrylic nails.
I can't tell you how many times my card, credit card, has gotten stuck in either a parking meter or gas station, whatever, where you have to insert your card and then pull it out.
If you have long nails, there's a chance that you will not be able to get your card out, and I've had moments where I've been like, I don't know if I can get my card out.
It might just be stuck.
And that's really frightening.
So, canceling a credit card and getting a new one or a debit card, debit card's even worse.
Wow, that's not fun.
So, I was so traumatized and scarred by that experience that I somewhat recently bought this little product that would prevent that from ever happening again because I...
It was so traumatic.
It's always very traumatic.
Another example, okay?
This actually also relates to having really long acrylic nails.
Maybe the life hack is to just not have really long acrylic nails, I'm realizing.
something, but I really like having them sometimes.
So you know what? No, I'm going to work around that.
I'm going to work around the long acrylic nails.
A lot of my skincare products come in like a little pot where you have to dig your dirty little finger in there and get the product out.
If you have long acrylic nails, digging your little finger in there, well, I guess your long finger in there, if you have long acrylic nails, digging your long fingernail into the skin care product, it's horrible for so many different reasons.
Number one, who knows what's under those nails?
Okay? That's number one.
Number two, having product under your nail stuck under your nail, it feels disgusting and horrible and it's a waste of product because a lot of times you can't even get it out fully.
Anyway, I bought little scoopers, like little silicone scoopers where you can just scoop product out and then put it into the bottom of your hand and then rub it together and then put it wherever.
So helpful and then actually recently I got a gift actually from a brand, they sent me like this sort of gua sha and like skincare spoon kit.
It was like super beautiful and I started using these little fancy spoons, skincare spoons and I was like, this is incredible.
You know, that is something that came out of necessity being like this is so annoying.
This is a daily pet peeve.
Another thing. I can't tell you how many times I need a pair of scissors out of nowhere or I need a toothpick out of nowhere or I need tweezers out of nowhere or I need a nail file out of nowhere.
You know what has all of those things in one?
A mini Swiss Army knife, okay?
I got a mini Swiss Army knife and put it on my key chain and I use it all the time.
Before Before I was chewing on minty toothpicks to help with my oral fixation problem, I would use the little mini toothpick in there all the time.
If a rogue weird hair grows on my face, like on my chin or something and I need to pluck it, boom, pull out the Swiss Army knife, pull out the little tweezers.
If a nail breaks and it's sharp, nail file.
If I need to cut a tag off of something, I have many scissors.
It's incredible, okay?
And I always have my keys with me.
It's incredible. The mini Swiss Army knife, it's unbelievable.
Truly the Swiss Army knife is like, to me, it is the pinnacle of design.
It's incredible, I love the Swiss Army knife.
Another example, I drink electrolytes, like electrolyte powders, all the time, on a daily basis, actually.
And a recurring issue that I was having was that I was like pouring my powdered electrolytes into the water and it wasn't combining very well, it was kind of chunky, you know?
And so you want to know what I got?
I got a blender cup, okay?
I got this blender cup.
It's not like a blender with sharp, like you couldn't make a smoothie in it, but it's honestly a blender cup for mixing powders into water.
It has like a little plastic propeller.
It just looks like a cup.
Has like a little base on it, pretty lightweight and small, that's chargeable and I basically just put like a little bit of water in there, probably like a half cup.
cup, I put my powders in there, I press the on button, it spins it, it disperses it evenly.
Once it's dispersed evenly and dissolved evenly, I pour it into my larger Stanley cup, of course, and then everything's all good and it's all evenly dispersed.
It's so helpful to dissolve liquids in a more controlled environment like that first. And then mix it into your big Stanley cup that has the ice and the rest of the water that's very cold, et cetera.
It's like, I don't know scientifically why that is the way that it is, why it's easier to do it that way.
There's definitely a reason, but I don't even wanna google it.
And I don't even need to because I've solved the problem with my little blender cup, okay?
Another example, I have infinite examples for little niche, helpful items that I use on a daily basis that I've solved daily problems, the list goes on, okay?
Putting an AirTag on my cat's collar.
Okay, I used to constantly be overwhelmed with paranoia about my cats getting out and them getting lost and them getting eaten by coyotes because there are many coyotes in my neighborhood and the only thing that has helped not only ease my mind but also keep tabs on them in general is the AirTag on the collar.
It's on my iPhone, I can check whenever I want, you know, it's just incredible.
I think that's kind of a common thing.
and I think a lot of people use the AirTag on their pets.
But it is so good. Oh my god another little weird random niche thing that I bought a little bag holder.
A little bag hook. Like a little hook that you can put onto a table.
You can slide onto a table at a restaurant for example and you can hang your bags so that you have a place to put your bag at a restaurant.
I absolutely love this thing.
It's so funny. I remember when I was like eight years old, I was at the car wash with my mom and we were looking around in the little gift shop at the car wash, because obviously they have a little gift shop so that you hopefully buy things while you're waiting for your car to be done.
I remember I saw this invention for the first time and I showed my mom and she was like, whoa.
And I think she bought one.
I swear she did. And then eventually we both forgot about this invention.
And then I remembered it again sort of recently like within the last few years because I just had started to realize that I needed it.
And I was like, I need to buy one of the little table.
It's a little retractable hook that you can again, unfold and then attach it to the table.
And then you can just hang your bag on it.
I was like, wait, I need that thing again.
And so I bought it again, and it is good.
Next, bug catcher. Yeah, they exist. You don't need to use the cup in the piece of paper anymore to catch the bug and put it outside.
There are bug catchers that make it so easy.
They're online, and they are worth it, because you're saving a little bug's life, and I actually use mine all the time.
I literally use mine all the time.
It's incredible. And my veggie dicer.
Wow. The veggie dicer.
It's this like, sort of, it's this kitchen appliance, if you will, where there's like a big container at the bottom and then there's a sort of lid that goes on top of the container.
And the lid has this like, it has two like layers on it, and the top layer hinges up and then it reveals this lattice of metal, of course, and you can put down vegetables, and then you slam down the top, and then it dices vegetables for you.
This has changed. I don't want to fucking dice vegetables.
What do I look like, an inefficient person to you?
No, I want a machine to dice vegetables for me.
It's incredible, and it dices each little thing into equal pieces.
It's so symmetrical, and even, and beautiful.
people, oh, like it creates such a beautiful dice.
Anyway, that was inspired by the fact that I hate dicing vegetables.
I think most people do.
I think even trained chefs who probably find it to be somewhat like meditative would even be like, I'd rather use a veggie chopper.
Like it's so good. It's such a good invention.
If you have a daily inconvenience, there's probably an appliance that could help with it.
And I know there are some of you at home, like, literally punching your phone or punching your computer or whatever device you're using to watch or listen to this episode thinking, Emma, you're all about not buying stuff you don't need.
Like you said that you're trying to buy less stuff.
You're saying. Did I say I buy nothing?
Did I say I buy nothing?
No, I didn't. Okay.
I use every single thing that I just listed constantly.
These are things that enhance my life, make my life better.
And there are some people out there that are like, you don't need those things.
Sure, you don't need those things.
But to me, they make my life better, okay?
And so I'm all about it.
I'm just not about buying things that you don't need, that you're not gonna use.
That's what I have a problem with.
Finding the perfect object that makes your life more efficient, that solves a problem, that's what products are for.
So I'm all about buying the niche little thing.
Like if you're somebody who eats strawberries every day, then you should probably buy the little strawberry thing that the little strawberry distemmer where you like shove this sharp thing into the top of the strawberry and then twist and then it takes out the green stem.
Do you know what I'm talking about?
Like, if you're somebody who never eats strawberries, you don't need that.
So buying that's a waste for you.
But if you eat strawberries every day, that is a great purchase for you.
Do you see what I'm saying?
Or if you put a banana in your lunch every day, buying a little banana -shaped plastic, banana container so that your banana doesn't get bruised, that's a good purchase for you.
People look at objects like that and they're like, that's useless, that's pointless.
Just figure out something else.
Okay, sure, but also if there's a little invention for that that you're gonna use every single day, you should get it.
Sorry, sorry, that's my opinion.
Moving on to an organizational hack that took me a shocking amount of years to figure out because it seems like common sense, but I'm somebody who is actually pretty organized and it took even me many years to figure this out.
Listen, maybe I'm really late to this, like I'm actually self -conscious to mention this life hack because I feel like a lot of you are going to say, Emma, that is so obvious.
But I swear to me, it was not obvious for years, okay?
Well, let me begin by saying how I used to organize things.
Like my organizational philosophy used to be sort of empty.
It was basically just make everything look organized, put everything where it probably fits best. And yeah, just like make it look good, and give it a place.
That was kind of it, okay?
My philosophy was empty.
Then I realized I had it all wrong.
You have to think of what you use most, and you have to put that the most convenient location.
Okay, I can't tell you how many years I spent living inconveniently because I had organized things just based on where I felt like they fit best based on like where I feel like they maybe looked best and not based on like what I actually use the most. Okay, like for example, in my pantry, right, I put all of my like baking stuff like flour, sugar, all of that at eye level.
Why? I don't know, just because it kind of looked good there.
And then below that I put like protein powders and stuff like that.
And then below that I put like snacks and stuff.
You want to know what I consume the most of?
Snacks. That's actually what I consume the most of.
I don't bake that often.
Like almost never to be honest. I mean, if anything, I prefer cooking over baking.
baking happens pretty rarely these days.
I enjoy it. But it doesn't happen a lot, okay?
I ended up moving my pantry around completely, putting snacks towards the middle, and then like pasta and dry grains and stuff like that right above it, also at eye level.
And then I put baking stuff at like the very top because I rarely ever bake and it's no problem to like get out a little stool and take everything down the one or two times a year I bake these days.
You know what I'm saying?
Another example would be in my closet, right?
There was a period of time when I had all my workout clothes, the stuff that I would go on a hike in, not necessarily my workout clothes, like sports bras and shorts, but hiking stuff or going on a walk stuff, right?
I had that all like shoved into drawers for some reason.
That makes no sense.
I wear those clothes all the time.
Why aren't they out?
They should be out on my shelves so that I can grab them easily.
Do you see what I'm saying?
I had my hoodies downstairs, in a closet downstairs and not in my bedroom's closet.
That doesn't make any sense.
I wear a hoodie all the time.
Do you see what I'm saying?
There used to just be illogical choices made just based on like what I thought, oh well this closet like kind of feels like a hoodie closet.
Like I just, I was basing my organization on kind of nothing and now when I'm organizing, I am thinking in like what I do every day, my daily routine, and I'm really trying to focus on that so that like everything is placed in the most efficient place possible, and organizing based on that first, and sometimes it maybe doesn't look as aesthetically pleasing or whatever, but that is my number one priority.
And I'm also constantly reorganizing things as my routine changes.
If at a certain point I stop wearing the sort of workout clothes that I wear on my walks or my hikes or whatever, if I am not really walking or hiking as much anymore, and I'm not wearing those, okay, maybe those go in the drawer then.
And maybe take out my favorite pair of leggings, maybe I'm into leggings all of a sudden instead of like workout sweatpants and like ...
I don't know. Do you know what I'm saying?
If my routine changes, then we change things and constantly looking at the way that things are organized in a critical way.
This is sort of new for me, but it's such a life hack because it genuinely makes life easier.
Moving on, I don't always do this because sometimes I don't have time.
But whenever I do have time, I absolutely do this.
And it is so helpful.
Making your grocery list in order of the store layout, okay, or not in order of the store layout, necessarily, I actually do that sometimes.
But that's a little bit of overkill.
I think, more importantly, just making your grocery list instead of just one big jumbled list, breaking it down into sections of the store.
Okay? Like, produce, snacks, cheese.
Like, you see what I'm saying?
Like, breaking it down into the store sections.
The reason why this is good, is because you can arrive into a section, and now you only have like three or four items to get instead of, like, jumbled -ly trying to look at this long list, and being like, wait, did I miss something?
And, like, having to reread the entire list of like 20 items, every single time you're trying to figure out if there's something you need in that section, it's just inefficient and you end up forgetting stuff.
Which is never fun.
So it prevents missing something, not seeing it on the list. And it also can help when making the list because I find that I'm like, mentally going through the aisles of the store when I am making a list in this way.
And it ensures that I'm paying proper attention to every single section and not like forgetting any section because I'm not just making a random list. Like, I might have forgotten that I wanted to buy frozen blueberries, but because I wrote down frozen and started making a list of all the frozen items that I needed it made me realize, oh wait, I do need frozen blueberries, because I'm going through that aisle in my head in a much more conscious way.
I just think it's good to make a list this way.
I don't know. It's good.
It's really good. Okay, next.
This is an iced coffee making hack, okay.
You want to know what my biggest pet peeve is, when I go to a cafe, this is not me shitting on anybody, any other cafe, okay.
No cafe is perfect and nobody's perfect, okay, however, this is my pet peeve and I'm allowed to have those.
When I get an iced latte or an iced Americano or whatever and I get the drink and all the ice is melted, okay, all the ice is melted and now I just have this watery lukewarm Americano or latte, iced latte.
Here's how you prevent this, okay?
Because you want, if you're ordering an ice drink, you want there to be a lot of ice in it, right?
Here's how I personally, when I make drinks at home, here's how I personally avoid this, okay?
You got to put the ice in the cup first and you got to fill it to the top almost. I mean maybe not all the way to the top but I personally am filling it like 75 to 90 % full, okay?
pretty much all the way to the top, right?
Then you pour the hot espresso or the hot matcha over the ice and now what you want to do is you want to mix, okay?
You want to mix and you want to mix and you want to mix and you want to mix.
Take your straw, take a little spoon, take whatever and mix.
Get the espresso or the matcha very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very cold and melt as much of the ice as you possibly can with that hot liquid, right?
Now you know how much ice you have left, do you see what I'm saying?
Now you can see like, oh, okay, I actually do need to add a little bit more ice.
Or, oh, that was perfect.
Or maybe I'll even scoop a little bit out.
But now you can add the cold milk on top and everything's going to be cold, you know what I'm saying?
And there's not going to be more melting of the ice within the next two to five minutes.
It's all cold now, you know, because the milk is already cold.
So to me, this is the only way.
Like, I Listen, some like some people might disagree with this.
I don't know. Like, a lot of cafes, put the ice in the milk first. But like, listen, I'm not professionally trained.
And this is the way that I have figured out that I like, okay.
Anyway, next, anytime you think your outfit looks boring, and you're like, God, I just like, it doesn't, it's not a vibe yet.
Like it's just not a vibe yet.
Like what's wrong with it?
Why is it not a vibe yet?
Add glasses, okay? If it's nighttime, add reading glasses.
Have a cool pair of reading glasses that you can add or like, go to a random thrift store and buy like random optical frames that hopefully don't have, I guess not optical frames because then they'd have like a random prescription and that is not healthy for your eyes or brain I don't think.
But like they don't even need to be reading glasses.
They can just be any sort of optical frame non -prescription or prescription, if you need prescription.
You get the fucking idea, okay.
I'm not necessarily always talking about sunglasses.
Any kind of glasses.
I kind of wondered at first when like the reading glass, the optical frame came into style if it was going to be trendy, because it became very trendy, right?
Last year everybody was obsessed with sort of the, as it was called on the internet, office siren aesthetic.
Which was like, kind of being like, I don't know what, a sexy employee?
Like being a hot employee, wearing cute corporate wear, which sounds crazy to say out loud, but you know what I mean?
Like wearing like 90's minimal little reading glasses with like a cute pleated brown skirt and like a button up white top office siren.
That was really trendy and the sort of reading glass became trendy, and I remember thinking, is this gonna last?
And then I got so into it myself that I was like, this is absolutely gonna last. And even if it doesn't, it's gonna last for me, because any time I'm feeling like an outfit is not complete, it's because I'm not wearing glasses.
I really think a little funky pair of glasses can take any outfit to the next level.
It's rare that I put on an outfit on and don't wear a glass anymore.
It's rare. And some of them are my reading glasses because I have reading glasses.
But some of them, because I don't need to wear prescription glasses all the time, some of them are not.
Some of them are just like random ones that I thrifted that don't have, you know, they have a clear lens, but no prescription.
And that's great too.
It's not helping my vision.
It's actually, well it is helping my vision, but not in my eyeballs, but rather for my outfit.
It's helping the vision for my outfit.
okay if your outfit is boring add some sort of glasses.
Trust me. My next life hack, throw it in the freezer, okay?
I used to get so stressed out about finishing my groceries on time like before they went bad and then I realized I can just put it in the freezer.
Like if you fruit that's about to go bad, chop it up throw it in the freezer.
If you got pizza and it's been in the fridge for days and you're like fuck, I'm about to go out of town, freeze it, I can almost guarantee one day you will eat it, like you'll find a way to eat it.
Within the next few months it'll make sense.
It'll be really late one night and you'll be like fuck it.
I'm going to put this pizza in the oven and reheat it.
It's never going to be as good as the day that you bought it, but it'll be pretty good.
One day you'll be making a fun cocktail with friends, a fun frozen cocktail with friends and you'll find the frozen peach that you froze three months ago and say, wow this would be delicious in there and you'll throw it in.
Just throw it in the freezer!
I literally received so many samples.
I still to this day, receive so many samples for the Chamberlain Coffee Cafe for desserts, okay?
I received so many samples, dessert samples.
Banana bread this, chocolate chip cookie that, okay?
I'm always trying pastry for the cafe survey, whether it's for a new location or it's for like an updated menu option or whatever.
And I always have leftovers.
And I remember the first time I had leftovers, I was so overwhelmed by them for like 15 minutes until I remembered that I could just freeze them.
And then I proceeded to eat the frozen desserts for weeks to follow.
And it brought me so much joy every time.
And then ever since then, I have not gotten stressed out when I get a bunch of pastry samples because I know that it's going to bring me joy from the freezer for weeks or months or days to follow.
Throw it in the freezer, people!
Okay, this next one is so controversial, like I'm gonna get canceled for it and I just, it's fine because I'm trying to train myself to not be afraid of getting canceled and to just be myself and do my best and if I do get canceled along the way, it's all good because I can apologize and learn from it, you know?
That's where I'm trying to be.
But this next one, I'm a little nervous.
Okay, so let me give a disclaimer before I give you this life hack.
This is for desperate measures only.
Okay? I'm not telling you to be using this life hack on a consistent basis.
This is for desperate measures.
This is a desperate measure.
Okay? If you're traveling and you didn't pack enough underwear.
Okay? It happens sometimes.
maybe you extended your trip, maybe you miscounted, okay.
Maybe you had an explosion in one pair prematurely and that sort of got the schedule off with the underwear.
It all happens, right?
It happens sometimes.
You can take a pair of underwear that's only kind of dirty, just a little bit, not disgusting, okay?
But just like you wore it one day already and they're not gross or anything.
They're not at a point where they're unwearable.
You probably wouldn't want to wear them again.
But they're not too bad.
And what you can do is you can turn them inside out and you can wear them.
Yeah. And I've done it.
I've done it. Yeah, I have. I've done that.
Can I be honest? It's great.
I really don't want to be disgusting here.
I don't want to gross you out, but I actually think it's totally fine.
I think it's totally fine.
In a pinch, I think it's totally fine.
Another thing that I've done on a trip when I've been on my last pair of underwear and had like three more days of the trip is I've put a pad on my underwear and replaced it every day or replaced it like twice a day, honestly.
But see, that's like number one.
It's wasteful of pads and it's also like, I don't even know if that's healthy.
Is that dangerous and bad for vaginal health?
Again, talk to your doctor about this shit if it's in regard to your vagina please or your penis.
Please don't take advice.
Definitely don't take advice from me about a penis.
I don't anything about those.
Well, I do know things about those.
But like, I don't know.
Clearly not enough.
Like how to take care of it.
I don't know what to do with that thing.
You get what I'm saying.
All right. Another disgusting life hack that I'm like scared to share but I figured I figured it out recently on accident.
And then I was like, holy shit, this is incredible.
Okay? There's always a fear when pooping in public of you're safe leaving a little skid mark in the toilet.
No one wants to leave a skid mark.
You know what a skid mark is?
It's a little poop mark in the toilet.
If somebody is going to go into the stall after you, it's not fun to leave a skid mark.
And we've all had those moments where we've been like, fuck, what do we do?
And we've looked around for a toilet brush and there's no toilet brush, and we're like, what are we going to do?
And then you either have to bunch up a huge piece of toilet paper and try to, oh God, it's horrible.
You what I'm talking about, okay?
Don't pretend like, don't be like, I was so gross, she's talking about poop.
It's like, you're welcome for what I'm about to tell you, okay?
You want to never, ever leave a skid mark again, take a thin little piece of toilet paper, maybe two pieces.
Cover the surface of the water.
Let it float on top.
Put the toilet paper on the surface of the water.
Poop on it. It's going to be like a canopy for your poop, and you will not leave a skidmark.
You are welcome. You can be disgusted all you want, but you're fucking welcome because the next time you're on a date and then you go back to this hot person's house and then suddenly you have to poop because you had dairy for dinner and you're a little bit lactose intolerant and you're like, oh my God, what do I do?
Yeah, put down the toilet paper and poop on it.
But wait, you're not even pooping on it.
Do you get what I'm saying?
You're literally just laying it on the surface so that it can Just hold your poop and then when you flush, no poop ever touches the bowl.
You see what I'm saying?
Listen, it's disgusting.
I don't want to talk about it either.
I don't want to talk about it either, but I'm trying to help you.
I figured this out the other day on accident because I went to the bathroom on top of toilet paper that was already there because somebody in my house didn't flush and it probably was me actually.
But let's pretend it was somebody else and I watched what had happened because I flushed and got up and then I guess I didn't look at the bowl.
This is getting worse.
I need to stop talking.
let's move on, let's move on, let's move on.
For the love of God.
Okay. Oh, another gross one I'm realizing because I'm looking at my list of life hacks and this one's also a little bit gross, but it's less gross.
It's about menstruation.
I don't like wearing tampons.
Okay. Number one, I'm irrationally afraid of toxic shock syndrome, which is basically when your body has an adverse reaction to having a tampon in you due to bacteria in the vagina.
It's very ... I don't want to even begin to explain it, but I'm very frightened of it and the use of tampons can sometimes increase your risk of getting toxic shock and toxic shock is very serious and can kill you.
Don't be afraid, okay?
Don't let me scare you, like I've been afraid by other people telling me stories because if you wear tampons responsibly and again, talk to your doctor and do all these things, you're probably fine.
But I just have so much health anxiety that I was like, I don't even want to wear a tampon anymore.
I'd rather do something else.
So you want to know what I'm doing?
No, it's not a diva cup.
It's period underwear, preferably like a period boy short.
So period underwear meaning underwear with a built in pad.
Yes, they exist. You probably know about them, but if you don't, yes, they exist, with a liner inside.
Okay? panty liner, I hate the word panty, so gross.
But panty liner that's the only word I know.
The thin sort of pad inside of the period underwear.
So now you have double protection, okay.
You have a liner which is going to absorb a good amount.
But once the liner fills up, you know, the underwear starts absorbing.
I can go for so long and I have a pretty decent flow.
Like I'm not light.
I used to be very heavy, so heavy that this actually wouldn't have worked for me, but also tampons didn't even work for me.
That's how heavy my period was.
I was bleeding through like the largest tampon, the most absorbent tampon in like 20 minutes.
It was very abnormal.
But now my flow is more normal, and I'm wearing period underwear with a pad inside.
This is for like long -term wear.
If I'm like walking around the house, I'm not putting the pad in the period underwear, I'm just going to wear the period underwear, but if I want backup support, we're wearing the liner in the period underwear and it's miraculous how effective it is.
And it's nice because again, I just, I really don't like wearing tampons and I don't really like putting things inside.
I'd prefer to keep it all exterior, if possible.
The only thing that's weird about that, especially if you're somebody who's never just used pads.
If you're somebody who's used a tampon your entire period life, it feels so weird to just be sort of free bleeding into your period underwear with a pad in it.
You'll think, oh my God, there's no way that I'm not leaking because you can feel it.
It's weird. But you're not leaking probably.
If you have a pad and period underwear on you're probably not leaking you're probably fine.
I'm like obsessed with this method.
I'm about to have my period soon.
Let's look at my period app.
Today according to my period app is a possible period day I could get it today.
But it's projected to start in two days.
I don't know why I share that with you.
Okay, let's move on.
Another life hack. Before you buy piece of furniture or home decor, Photoshop it into your space.
Now you don't need to be a Photoshop professional to do this okay let me tell you how I do it and I'm not being sponsored by this website.
Canva is a website that has all of these super user -friendly tools that would take like eight years to learn how to do on Photoshop like Adobe Photoshop not that listen Photoshop is incredible okay I'm not shitting on that at all but I am saying that for most of us, it's unusable on day one, right?
So like, Canva is great because it has all these different tools.
Again, they are not sponsoring me.
If they want to, they can, I'm here, but I just love Canva.
It's an incredible website.
And basically what I'll do, it like, this is especially helpful if I'm making like a larger decision, like I'm, you know, gonna spend a chunk of money on a lamp or on, you know, new nightstands or whatever, or something that's a significant decision, I will take a photo of my room, and then I'll take a photo or screenshot a photo of the new furniture piece that I want.
And I'll do my best, listen, again, it's never gonna be perfectly accurate.
That's not what this is for.
You're just trying to get the gist of it, right?
I will import the image of my room or the space that I want this piece to go in.
and then I will take the photo or screenshot of the item that I'm considering purchasing and then I will use the background removal tool.
So basically it's just then the object right with a transparent background and then I'll basically insert it into the image of my home.
And there are even some home decor websites that actually do this for you.
I don't often use them which I should because I'm literally talking about doing it myself, but I kind of like doing it on my own, because I can move things around the way I want.
I don't know, maybe I need to experiment more with websites, tools like that, but they don't always work very well.
I don't know. I recently did this with my nightstand lights.
I have like, you know, little lamps on my nightstands, they broke, and I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to fix them.
Spoiler alert, I was able to fix them, but I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to.
So in the meantime, I started looking for lamps because I use the lamp on my nightstand every single day and I was kind of freaking out.
I was like, it's going to be dark in my room at night.
What am I going to do?
I don't want to turn my overhead light on.
What's happening? Anyway, and it was funny.
I Photoshopped, I'm not kidding, probably 10 lamps into the space and I didn't like any of them.
And then I was like, I really need to get my current ones fixed because I hate every single other lamp in the space.
Not to be dramatic.
I'm being dramatic, but I'm not trying to be.
But yeah, anyway I got them fixed so it's totally fine.
But I'm glad that I did that because I might have bought lamps that didn't work in the space.
I think you could also do that with clothes too.
But I don't know with clothes it's a harder thing to Photoshop.
But you could and then you could see if like the colors look nice on you or whatever.
It's not a bad idea, but that's something that I do now because it was so helpful for me that one time.
Next, this is so simple, but write everything down immediately.
I know this kind of isn't a life hack because it sort of seems like common sense in a way.
Anytime I forget to write something down immediately that needs to be written down, for example, a scheduling thing or an appointment or a reminder to do something, I forget.
Without fail, I forget.
If you need to write something down, if you need to remember something, do it immediately and have a designated space to do so.
I put a lot of stuff on my Google calendar.
That's usually where I'll write things down, but I also have a document on my Notion app, which is like, I don't know, like a software that you can use to like make documents, basically, in a very organized sort of way.
I mainly use Notion and Google calendar for organization of my schedule and ideas and all these different things and then I sometimes will use physical notebooks and stuff but usually digital is the most useful for me and so I have a document where I literally just have one document where I'll write down stuff that I need to remember to do or need to remember to buy or whatever And there's a bunch of, or like random creative ideas that I came up with that I want to write down that I have nowhere else to put, I'll put it in this document.
It's really important to have a place to write these things down or to just put it in your calendar immediately.
I'm telling you, it's a game changer.
That actually reminds me of another life hack that again, it sounds obvious.
It sounds sort of like common sense, but I don't consider a task completed until I've cleaned up afterwards.
And I know so many people who do not live their lives this way, okay?
So like an example would be, let's say you received a package in the mail of something that you bought.
To me, I have trained myself to not consider the task completed until I've opened the box, taken the object out, un -packaged it, opened it up, cleaned up all of the trash that came with the thing that I bought, So that would be the box, the packaging.
I must collapse all of that, put it in the trash, okay?
And then set up the item, wherever it needs to be set up, let's say it's like in appliance, okay?
Plug it in, do whatever I need to do with it, clean it or whatever, and then that's when that task is completed.
Or like if I cook, for example.
I might not necessarily like do all of the dishes, okay?
Sometimes I wait a little bit, I mean, I'll put everything in the dishwasher that can be dishwashed and then sometimes there's a few things that need to be hand washed that will stay in the sink, sometimes for a day or two.
But to me, a cooking experience is not done until everything is put away.
The countertops are wiped.
Sometimes I slack on that, but everything is put away.
Everything's either in the sink or in the dishwasher.
It's all clean. There's not one little piece of plastic on the counter.
Everything is thrown away.
Everything is put away.
Nothing's left out.
Again, it sounds obvious, but training yourself to clean up after yourself as you go to complete tasks before you move on to the next one, it's so helpful.
It's so helpful, especially if you're somebody who has a lot you want to do, or maybe you have kind of a scattered attention, it's so helpful to just train yourself to not move to the next thing until you're done.
I have people in my life who come over to my house, and again, this is not me shitting on them.
I love them. But let's say they'll eat a protein bar.
They'll go into my pantry and grab a protein bar.
And they'll sit and they'll eat it.
And then they'll put the wrapper down on the table.
And then they'll forget that they left it there and then they'll go do something else and then they'll go and get a can from my drink fridge and drink a drink and then forget that they had it and leave it somewhere.
They don't complete the task.
By like throwing the trash away, for example, you know?
Or even like when I'm in my closet, I I will really make an effort to like, at least once a day, clean up my closet, right?
I really make an effort to try to like, put clothes away, like if I try something on and I'm like, Ooh, I don't really like it.
I try to put it away immediately.
It's not always realistic.
But if not that, at least put the clothes away once a day.
you know. Next hack, no entertainment during the day.
During the workday, nine to five, my life hack is no entertainment at all, even on your lunch break okay.
Now listen you might be like Emma shut the fuck up I'm gonna watch my goddamn youtube video on my lunch break.
Listen I get it okay I get it, but I have a reasoning so let me share.
There's something that happens, in my experience, in the brain when you start consuming content midday.
Like, during the workday, you need to be focused.
And you also need to tap into a different side of the brain like more of an autopilot...
I guess the mindset during the workday should be more slow and simple in a way.
Or not slow and simple, but like, I don't know most people's Those workdays are, they're doing tedious work for the most part, right?
And when you watch a video or you scroll on TikTok or you even listen to a podcast, you're giving yourself very stimulating entertainment.
And then when you go back to the tediousness of your work, it seems even worse and it's even harder to focus.
This is something that I've experienced and I do not have that tedious of a job and even And I have experienced this where if I, during my lunch break, will watch a YouTube video, when I go back to work on podcast outlines, or respond to emails, or work on a project or something, I'm like, I don't even want to do it.
I just want to be done and I just want to go back and watch more.
You just want to go back to the entertainment because it was more stimulating and everything else seems so boring.
So what I've started to do is during the day, all I do is listen to music.
music. That's all I allow myself to do, just music.
And not only has it made me more productive, but it's also made the work day more enjoyable.
And I mean, I'm fortunate to have an incredibly fun, and I'm in a very fortunate position with my job but everything is relative.
And even I still am like, oh my God, I'm fucking bored or like, I don't want to do this right now.
Like there's, you know, this is tedious.
I don't want to do this.
I don't want to write this outline about this thing or I don't want to like sit in this meeting about like, chamberlain coffee cogs for like two hours and this is boring, you know what I mean?
Like, I don't know like even though I'm so fortunate, I still.
So my point is, I do think saving entertainment for the end of the day can just be so helpful.
And it also gives you something to look forward to.
Then at the end of the day, you can truly just unwind and watch YouTube, scroll on fucking TikTok, do whatever you want.
Go on Instagram, do whatever you want.
But during the work day, being a bit more responsible with your attention span is good.
Listen to music, read a book, but don't scroll, don't watch video.
Anything that's too stimulating, I think, is not good during the work day, and it makes the work day actually harder.
Another life hack that relates to the internet except this one I've talked about a billion times so those of you who listen to this podcast be like Emma shut the fuck up we know, but I'm going to say it anyway, if you are too addicted to an app instagram tik -tok youtube hey you know what maybe facebook like whatever if you're too addicted to an app you got to delete it off of your main phone, okay?
Your main phone, meaning the phone that's in your pocket or next to your bed.
Basically the phone that's within a one foot radius of you, 95 % of the time, that phone, that phone is dangerous, okay?
If you're addicted to an app, you need to delete the app off of your main phone, okay?
Can you like still have it on your computer if you only go on your computer for a few hours at the end of the day every day?
Sure, you know, if you don't work on your computer, for example, yeah, it's no problem.
You can have Instagram bookmarked on your computer.
That's totally fine because it's not something that's in your pocket all the time.
If you maybe only have TikTok on your iPad, something that, again, you only have access to at the end of the day, if you even want to get a second phone, which I think it's necessary if you utilize social media for your job, which a lot of people do, I think it could be a smart investment to invest in like a work phone.
People might disagree with me and be like, that's excessive.
You don't need two devices.
It has saved my life.
I am not kidding. I have had two phones now for a while, like probably six months, maybe even more.
And one phone, you know, has only stuff that is healthy for my brain and the other phone has all the unhealthy stuff for my brain.
Social media, you know, all that.
it, and I only use my other phone when I'm posting on social media and I'll let myself scroll around for a little bit and check in on friends.
And you know, I will like spam my friends with likes and see what they've been doing.
And maybe I'll scroll around on the explore page or stalk a few people, but majority of the time I don't have Instagram in my pocket.
I don't have TikTok in my pocket.
I don't have YouTube in my pocket.
You know, like if I want to go on YouTube, I have to pull it up on my computer or on my TV at the of the day because it's not downloaded on my phone anymore because that's how addicted I was.
Delete it off your main phone.
Okay, moving on. This is so fucking random.
I don't even know. I just thought about this while I was making this list and I was like, I have to include it.
If you're buying broccoli or cauliflower in particular by the pound, okay, be wary of the stump, okay, the base of the broccoli or the cauliflower because you're paying for that.
And normally we throw that part away.
Are you picking up what I'm putting down here?
Or if you can break the bottom off, break the bottom stem off of the broccoli or the cauliflower because there's a good chance you're not even eating it.
For me, I'm sorry, I don't like the base of broccoli or cauliflower.
I really only like the top.
And so I'm cutting it down.
I'm cutting every single inch of stem off, right?
If I'm buying broccoli by the pound, and it has this massive thick big like stalk.
I'm paying for that and I'm just throwing it away.
Are you going to save more than $5, no, but it's just it's an epiphany I had recently and I was like, oh my God.
It is kind of funny though, because I haven't bought broccoli in a while because I have sort of a food aversion to broccoli, which also has sort of led to a food aversion to cauliflower a little bit because they're very similar vegetable.
I've talked about this before, but I had a traumatic incident with broccoli where I found a snail inside of pre -cut pre -washed broccoli.
I thought I was safe, I wasn't.
And it grossed me out so bad that I've really struggled to eat broccoli and cauliflower since.
Weirdly enough, I can eat it.
There are certain times when it doesn't bother me.
And then there are certain times when it really bothers me and I can't stop thinking about it.
It's kind of illogical but that's what makes this sort of an ironic piece of advice because like I barely even want to buy broccoli or cauliflower right now because I've had a food aversion to it for months.
But anywho, next, work while you walk.
I am so into trying to figure out different ways to combine working and walking.
Okay? But walking is in my opinion one of the best forms of exercise and a lot of doctors will tell you that too, okay?
Walking is so good for you.
And I have been trying to figure out like how can I work and walk?
I will luckily for me, I do have a treadmill at my house.
It was worth every penny.
Because I will walk on my treadmill and bring my little iPad with my little keyboard connected to the iPad and I'll get work done while I'm walking, okay?
I put the iPad on the little platform on the front of my treadmill, and I'll type away on my little iPad because my laptop's too big and doesn't fit, but the iPad does fit.
I will take meetings and calls on the treadmill, I will go on a walk outside.
If I'm writing an outline for a podcast episode or coming up with ideas for things or something, because a lot of my job is that for some reason, I will go on a walk and voice note myself, or not voice note, but while I'm walking, I'll take notes using Siri.
Does that make sense?
So I'm not typing, because it's very challenging to walk and type unless you're on a treadmill, because it's consistent and you're not going to trip over anything or whatever.
But when I'm outside walking, I'll take notes using Siri.
I'll talk to her and have her type for me and take notes.
And then I clean them up when I get home, but it's so helpful.
I love the walking and working concept.
And so in any way I can do it, I will.
And in any way you can do it, you should.
If it just means if you work at an office and you want to take a walk around the office as you take a call, or if you have a gym membership completing tasks while on the treadmill at the gym, bring your iPad, it is a vibe.
And you don't have to walk fast either, it's just nice to be moving.
And I find that I think like I'm like thinking even sharper when I'm walking cause I'm not like sluggish and sitting.
Anyway, I love it. Another life hack, super random.
I have very short hair like pixie length, maybe, well when it grows out it's a little bit more shag -like but I like it to dry pretty flat and I found on accident that my hair dries beautifully, perfectly flat and like gorgeous if I just put on a hood while it's drying.
So after I shower, I either put my hood up or I put on like a ball of clava or something, anything just to have my hair flat to my head for like 10 minutes after I get it wet and it dries beautifully flat and then I can add product to it and build it up or keep it flat because sometimes that's cute, but it makes everything flat without having to use heat on it, okay?
I figured that out on an accident because every after a hot yoga I shower and then I put on a hoodie and sunglasses and get out of there as quickly as possible because I look absolutely hideous and beat red and because I was wearing the hoodie I would take the hoodie off when I get home and I would look in the mirror and be like my hair looks absolutely incredible and then I let my hair dry without the pressure of the hoodie on it one day I was like it's hideous my hair I should have blow -dried it and then I was like wait no, I should have put a hood on or a balaclava or something to hold it down.
Kind of awesome and really works and that's it.
Those are my life hacks.
Were they good? I don't know.
Were they obvious? Maybe to you.
But they weren't obvious to me at one point and then they became obvious to me later which is what makes them sort of a life hack, right?
Like there was a discovery process.
I discovered these things and they improved my life.
And, I inspire you to look at your own life and figure out how you can hack it.
I think that's all I have to say for today.
Yeah, that's it. Hey, well thank you all for hanging out and listening.
And if you enjoyed new episodes of Anything Goes, every Thursday and Sunday.
And you can find Anything Goes on social media.
At Anything Goes, you can find me as a person on social media, at Emma Chamberlain.
and you can find my coffee company at chamberlancoffee .com or at Chamberlain Coffee.
Anything goes is available on Spotify, YouTube, and anywhere else that you stream podcasts.
So if you want to keep up with me, now you know where to find me.
All right, that's it.
That's it. I love you all.
I deeply, deeply appreciate you all.
I'm going to go eat some lunch. I'm just absolutely hungry.
So I'm going to go eat some lunch and I'll talk to you later.
All right, I love you all.
Talk to you very, very soon.
Okay. Bye.
