Catch up on some related episodes:

How to figure out what's a priority (when everything feels like a priority)

Today’s talking points:

Let me share with you all of my juiciest tips, from morning routines to your daily tasks, so that you can run your day like an embodied boss.

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Welcome to the final part of the How To Run Your Business Like a Boss series!

Let me ask you this: are your mornings the craziest time of the day?

We are getting up trying to deal with getting the dog outside, putting the kettle on, taking care of your kids, and trying to get yourself ready and focused so that you can get into work…

But you end up ultimately feeling frazzled by the time you sit down at your desk?

Or maybe the end of your day, you're just collapsing into bed just flat-out exhausted?

Well, Embodied Bosses know that they need to manage their day well. They need to conserve their brain space and energy for what really matters so that they can get the results they're looking for in their life, health, relationships, and yes, in their business.

We're going to round out this series by talking about how you can run your day like an embodied boss.

We’re going to cover:

Why a great day truly starts the night before and how to maximise that
How to personalise your morning routine to suit what works for you
How to choose your Top 3 Tasks every day
What to do if you start feeling resistance

This is a little bit of a different episode compared to the others in this series and I hope you love it!

Why a great day truly starts the night before and how to maximise that

A great day truly starts the night before. And this has become more and more important for me to pay attention to now I have a three-year-old and an almost five-month-old.

So, it's safe to say I'm not getting as much sleep as I should. So I'm tired. But there are still things that you can do to help with this. If you don't feel rested when you wake up. If you're not waking up with that energy and ready to go after the day. It's so hard to counteract that with anything else.

So for me, a great day starts the night before. And I want to walk you through some of the things that have really helped me to tackle this.

Wind-Down time

The first thing I realised was that I needed more wind-down time. So, this has become a huge part of my evening routine making sure I have that wind-down time and making sure I'm doing some things that really trigger my body and trigger my brain to realise, "Oh, it's time to pull away the tasks for the day." It's time to start shutting down so you can rest. Our brains need some sort of trigger to get into that mode because for me going from mum mode first thing to business mode to mum mode, it's a lot. And sometimes at the end of the day, I can feel really overstimulated.

Nighttime Routine

If you do have young children, the nighttime routine is so important for them. Otherwise, it can just be really hard to get them in bed. But again, if you're going through the same steps with your kids every night where it's like we have dinner, we clean up after dinner, we go have a bath, we put on our pyjamas, we brush our teeth, we read our story, we have a hug and a kiss, we talk about our day, we lie down, that indicates to them and helps prepare them that it's time to go to sleep. It's this whole process, and the hour or two hours before you're getting ready to go to sleep, you have to think about what you need to help prepare you to have a great night of sleep.

Early Bedtime

Now, my kids go to sleep early. I am a huge fan of kids having an early bedtime. So I get that wind downtime in the evening. Then that, for me is the beginning of my personal wind downtime. You know, once the kids are taken care of and asleep, I give myself a little bit of time to spend with my husband, when we might watch something on TV. That usually happens more at the weekend. But a few things that I started to do that really helped me, and maybe it'll help you as well.

Journaling

One of the first things that I do is do some journaling. I am a huge journaler, I can write pages and pages in my journal. And one thing that helps me more than anything at the end of the day is to just brain dump things that are still lingering in my head, still floating around still nagging at me, and I just throw them down on a list. Sometimes it's what I need to get done tomorrow. It could be a shopping list, it could be some things that I need to say to a client or just some content ideas, I just want to get it out of my head and onto paper. And somehow that helps me to go to sleep without having that anxiety, that anxious thought in the back of my head that I'm going to forget something. So I always sit down with my journal, and I put anything that's hanging over my head in there, I get it out on paper so that I'm just not worried about it anymore.

Bedtime Ritual

Then I go through my own getting ready-for-bed routine. And I think as a mum, especially it's really easy to just be on autopilot and go through the motions of your routines. But for me, it's become really important to make an experience out of them and romanticise them, and it really helps me to have this ritual. So I always put on some nice pyjamas, I take time with my skincare at night and go through my full routine. That, to me, is one of my favourite personal self-care rituals and it's become such a part of my evening routine; it really gets me ready for going to bed, my body knows if we're doing all the facial massage and all of the things, it's time we're getting ready for wind down.

Reading and Breathing

I'll usually read on my Kindle while I do the dream feed with Evelyn and I usually try and read 10 pages of a book per day. When I get into bed, I do some breathing exercises or meditation from bed. This is what works for me in my current season, it might not be the same for you. We underestimate how powerful deep breathing is to help us work on managing our nervous systems. These breathing exercises, if I do five or 10 minutes of breathing before I go to sleep, it help my body relax so much. Those are all the things that I do to go to sleep.

How to personalise your morning routine to suit what works for you

So, after your evening routine, what comes next? You guessed it – your morning routine. There's always so much chatter about morning routines. Some people have these elaborate, detailed morning rituals. It's all about personal preference. You have to know yourself. And honestly, it's a bit of trial and error to figure out what feels right for you.

Speaking from personal experience, I'm an introvert. I cherish quiet moments. Ideally, I love waking up before anyone else in my house. However, in reality, that quiet "me time" is a rare gem because my kids seem to possess a secret sixth sense. The moment I'm awake, they're awake. It's uncanny. But when I do manage to sneak in that quiet time, it's my favourite part of the day.

I don't have a strict morning routine with set activities at set times because, let's face it, there's never a day when the kids wake up at the same time. However, I do have key activities that I weave into my morning.

Morning Rituals

I journal, review my plan for the day, and jot down things I'm grateful for – these practices are invaluable. But the star of my morning routine in this season of life is being with Jacob and Evelyn. Sure, it might evolve when they start school, and I may squeeze in some extra reading or a workout. But for now, this is the rhythm. A slower, quieter start to the morning is my preference.

I never jump out of bed to check my phone. No emails, no chores—just my time to wake up, care for myself, and nurture my mind and body. I delay work until I'm at my desk. I enjoy prepping for work, not in a three-piece suit, but in specific clothes. In the morning, I ensure I'm ready in 20-30 minutes, tending to my skin, hair, and makeup. It's a simple routine that lets me care for myself and spend time with my kids.

It's all about tailoring your morning routine to align with your unique needs and style. Embrace what works for you, experiment, and find that sweet spot that sets the tone for a fantastic day.

How to choose your Top 3 Tasks every day

Now, the final thing I want to talk to you about in terms of running your day like a boss is your top three tasks.

If you've been following along, you know we pick these tasks to focus our prime time and energy daily, helping us ditch the never-ending to-do list and finish each day feeling like an empowered boss.

Your top three tasks are the non-negotiables on your daily to-do list—the three things deserving of your best time and energy. Unlike overwhelming never-ending lists, I prefer having a catch-all task list to track essential tasks and a dashboard outlining quarterly goals and corresponding action steps. This approach, which you'll learn to create in the Body Boss Collective, ensures alignment between your 90-day plan, monthly goals, weekly tasks, and daily top three tasks.

Before this system, I had a more chaotic routine. I used to have a long-running daily to-do list with everything that needed to get done for life and work. I would stare at it feeling so stressed out the day before because I wouldn't know where to start. I would end the day feeling like I'd been busy all day but had nothing to show for it. Because I was picking away at tedious unimportant tasks with a false sense of productivity, I'd move all of the tasks over to the following day's to-do list. And then I'd go to bed feeling defeated yet again by my never-ending to-do list. I would repeat that cycle.

Now, using my top three tasks system, I set monthly goals aligned with my big vision. During weekly prep meetings, I prioritise weekly tasks, ensuring a clear plan for each day. This strategic approach eliminates daily stress, allowing me to focus on execution rather than figuring out what needs to be done. I end each day knowing I devoted my best time and energy to tasks propelling me closer to my goals.

Tips for Choosing Your Top Three Tasks

Select Needle-Moving Tasks:
- Identify tasks that move the needle toward your goals.
- Ask yourself: What's time-sensitive? What's essential for a productive day? What aligns with my goals?
Avoid Habits and Routines:
- Reserve top three tasks for non-automatic actions.
- Exclude tasks that are part of your daily routine, focusing on actions that require intentional effort.
Align with Your Energy:
- Schedule top three tasks based on your energy levels.
- Tackle high-energy tasks early in the day to align with your natural rhythm (if this works for you!)
- Imagine your daily energy as a hike—start with the big one first, then handle smaller tasks with energy to spare.

Try it out and discover the approach that fits your rhythm for a more accomplished and fulfilled day.

What to do if you start feeling resistance

Honestly, way back in the day, this is the type of stuff that I was really resistant to, for some reason, like nighttime routines, and morning routines, I think because I'm just such a go-go-go mindset type of person, believing I should be working incessantly.

Taking time to enjoy a peaceful moment, like sipping lemon water every morning, seemed like a luxury I couldn't afford. Looking back, I realise how ridiculous that mindset was. If I didn't make time for things I wanted, needed, or enjoyed, what was the point of it all? I hope this will get you thinking a little bit differently.

I do have to say as well that the last 12 months have been really tough. In fact, the 12 months before that were pretty challenging as well. I realised that the biggest thing that would make the biggest difference for me and my business wasn't the strategy, or the planning or how I was showing up and doing things in the business, because that stuff was working. I realised the only thing not working was my energy, my mindset and how fatigued I was because I wasn't really protecting myself there. I would find myself at the end of the week or the month just feeling so tired. My boundaries had become fuzzy, I wasn't protecting myself, my time, or my energy.

Self-care is what helped me recover from that. It allowed me to expand my capacity as a leader and my ability to take on the side of the business that I want to take on, like leading the team and taking on the level of visibility that I want. The only way I can manage that is if I manage my capacity, my energy and my mindset. I used to struggle with that, I thought it was not important for me and it turns out, it was probably the most important thing that I could do for myself.

P.S. Here is last weeks episode, part four of the ‘How To Run Your Business Like a BOSS’ series, in case you missed it - 5 top strategies to run your week like a boss