Transforming into a Productive Season

Hello you guys and welcome to another episode of A Better You. I am your host, Fernanda Ramirez, and welcome back to another Wednesday's episode. I'm glad to have you here. In today's episode, we are talking all about exiting our lazy girl era and entering a new season of our lives, Q4 some may say. For me, this is my Pilates princess winter ballet peaceful era. And you may be asking, what does that mean, Fernanda? And I'm going to tell you, okay? I'm going to tell you in this episode what I mean by that, but it's a new time, okay? I have decided that, Fernanda, it is enough. It is enough with your procrastination, your literally just getting by, your, I don't even know how to say it, just laziness being honest, okay? Before we start the plan on how we're gonna glow up this next season before the new year hits I'm gonna give you guys a little bit of a backstory on why this topic even came to my mind this whole year like 2023 I have been focusing a lot on having experiences and having fun in my life and trying new things But lately I have been feeling like i'm just not doing enough like i'm just getting by and basically I've just been living life on fun mode. That is all fun and games that's great i'm glad that i'm having a good time i'm glad that i'm experiencing things but i've realized that i have let go of a lot of the really good habits that got me to where i am today if i'm being honest doing all this fun stuff isn't what got me to the place where i could make being a youtuber my job a place where i could move out on my own a place where i was financially free from my family or whatever what got me to that place was Having that self-belief being productive daily doing things that was going to help my future self working out very consistently doing yoga Very consistently being in my spiritual era doing a lot of meditation doing a lot of journaling I feel like when you reach your goal Sometimes it can be very easy to you know, get a little bit cocky even maybe say like oh I don't need to be doing that stuff anymore because like I got to where I want to be and Although there may be fun and games for a few months. It gets to a point where you're like, okay I need to check myself and I need to get my shit together You Because like why has my apartment been messy for weeks on end? Why have I just absolutely stopped doing yoga? Why have I absolutely stopped working out? Why have I absolutely fried my dopamine receptors? And whenever I try to do work, I am just distracted. I'm constantly looking for stimulation on my phone. I'm just waiting for the weekend. I'm just waiting to see friends. You know what I mean. Now you may be experiencing something similar. Midterms just happened if you're in school. Maybe. you feel relaxed that midterms are done so you wanna take a break, but this is actually the time to push and get ahead before your finals come along. Or maybe you're thinking back on your goals this year and you're like, oh, I totally just gave up on some of my goals, but we're just gonna wait until the new year. Or maybe it's just that we're going into the change of season and having the sun set at like freaking 5 p.m. is bringing you down and you feel like you're just getting into a mushy, cozy, eating hot soup at 6 p.m. work is done era. Era. I don't really know what i'm trying to say there But I mean, I just feel like there's a lot of reasons for why this time of year could be a time where things aren't Exactly going as you want them to go. And so in today's episode, we're going to talk about recognizing the faults We are currently having in our lives recognizing our bad habits And i'm going to give you guys the plan for what I am going to do in my real life to get my shit together To get back on track and to own these next two months before we go into 2024 Because I do not want to be going into the new year thinking Oh Let's look back on my year and then being like what did I do? Like I I I do not want to live with that I'm going to give you guys the plan on how I am going to get my life back on track And i'm also going to give you guys some tips on how you can make your morning routine better your night routine better Your day more productive just productivity tips. I asked you guys on instagram to give me your best tips And so i'm going to give you those I also looked up online at some Up Proven hacks that are actually going to help you guys be more productive for the next two months I'm really gonna have to put in my extra efforts to make these months count Especially when it is winter and y'all know the seasonal depression. It's that time So we have to take the preventative measures to feel excited and feel like we're not just gonna be swindled by the weather because how Pathetic is that I have my computer here beside me and we're gonna talk about what it says The first thing that I suggest you to do if you're feeling like this is to pull out a journal, okay? Maybe this is a piece of paper. Maybe this is your notes app or maybe this is google docs Okay, and what I wrote for myself is what's happening right now? And why is it happening what I have said for myself was that I am being lazy. I am being unproductive I have been going to sleep late. I have been waking up late. I've not been working out that much I have not been drinking that much water. I have not been reading. I have not been spiritual and honestly after saying that out loud you might be thinking fernanda then what have you been doing Honestly good question. I have been planning birthdays and traveling It's crickets out here. Okay. Anyways, then the next page you're gonna write Why is this happening? Like really be vulnerable with yourself be honest with yourself and hold yourself accountable and say what is the reason for this? I think the first step to taking control over your life is just realizing from what you're starting on It is taking a detailed honest look at your life as how it is right now because I don't know about you guys but it's hard for me to actually make change or to actually feel inspired to take on new habits when I don't realize the reason for what I'm doing it for, if that makes sense. So when I look at my life and I say, oh my god, this is actually bad, like I haven't been doing my good habits and like it can seep into other parts of my life, then that makes me be like, oh my gosh, I actually need to make change here. So if this is you, you're going to make that list of everything that's going on for you in all the areas of your life. Your job, your friends, your romantic relationships, your family members, your classes, your hobbies, maybe if you do volunteer work, etc. You're going to look at all those aspects of your life and say what isn't working for you or what you want to change. Now after I have my list on what's happening right now, as I said, I wrote a list on why is this happening. I had wrote down that I have been having too many plans and traveling. So really I had no routine I have not been practicing saying no when people ask me to do things I have been a yes girl, which is very fun when you know, you want to stir the pot a little bit You want some excitement in your life? You want some new experiences? That's fun. But sometimes Sometimes you got to reel it back in a little bit My second reason for why this is happening is because I have been a phone gremlin. I literally wrote that down I have been a phone gremlin By that I mean I have just been on my phone way too much recently. I think my screen time has gone up I don't even want to tell you how long but like by a significant amount And so obviously when you're on your phone a lot you're scrolling. You're not even creating content. You're just scrolling You just have an influx of information that like are you really going to use and also? I feel like it's just really easy to get comfortable and see other people live their lives, but we have to turn that off put it away and live it for ourselves. So that's my second reason for why this is happening. And my third one was that the weather is changing. And of course, also just because I have been procrastinating it. I mean, that's the whole topic of this episode, but you know, I have just been too comfortable in my procrastination era, pushing things off, thinking that there's no consequences, when in reality, the biggest consequence of all is that I'm just not living up to my highest potential, which is shameful. Also, one note that I want to put in there is that I used to make a lot of content on how to be that girl. And I literally was that girl. Let me, this is just a side little tip here. But if you want to become that girl, you literally have to pretend that you're filming a little YouTube video. And you can write down a little list and say, what would that girl do? And then do all the things that that girl does. And do those weekly, daily. And then soon enough, you become that girl. Because you're doing all the habits of that girl. Now that is... I feel like who I was for a very long time. And that's what my content was about. And I feel like recently, especially since starting the podcast, I have been talking more about like reflection and life experiences and confidence, being social and making friends. And so I feel like I've switched out of that era to one that is more social, talking to people, having experiences, traveling. Like that has been what my content has been. I think a little bit for the past few months. That is why I'm saying I've definitely become that confident, social, extroverted person, as I always was, but I feel like there has been an emphasis on that and I've lost that sense of that girl that was once me. So I just wanna regain that. So once you realize your bad habits, you realize your faults, you realize what you don't want in your life, I think before we start making way for new goals and start expanding and thinking about what's next, what's new, the thing that I need to do Just clean up my space because I feel like I can't even think straight So what I wrote down for myself for me to do and I'm actually gonna do this today is to one Clean my whole apartment deep clean I know we all do a little spring cleaning, but there probably is another one called fall cleaning But I need to get into that fall cleaning mentality Okay by this I mean getting rid of all the junk that I do not need extra makeup extra products extra clothes maybe you can put your summer clothes away and make room for your winter clothes maybe get rid of shoes that you don't need anymore maybe just clean up all the debris around your room or around your apartment really just have a deep clean because i've said this before but i don't i'm not diagnosed with adhd but i feel like i have a lot of adhd tendencies and one of them is that i leave piles of things everywhere and it's so messy you But if someone asks me where something is I know exactly where in that mess it is And a really bad habit of mine is that even if it's messy in my head I don't think it's messy because I know where everything is and I need to get out of that habit I just need to get into that clean girl mentality. We're like no Your clothes doesn't need to be in your kitchen floor So I want to get into my clean girl era where I'm intentional about where I put my things after I use them and to Stop leaving them out after I do so I'm going to clean my whole apartment And I'm gonna get back into lighting candles and incense because I used to do that all the time And it really set the tone a fresh start a fresh beginning a new day I used to use a lot of diffusers and it would make my apartment smell so good You have to be a little bit careful with that because I don't think that perfumes and fragrance are actually that like great for your body or probably your hormones but it did make me happy and it felt like whenever i would light a candle at the end of cleaning my room it was like okay we're ready we're ready to think we're ready to make room and people always say your environment really dictates how productive you are how your mental health is and just how much you can get done in a day because whenever things around me are super messy and super cluttered i feel like i can't even walk straight so that is the first thing for me One more note that I want to put in here is that now that it's winter, I feel like we have to be extra intentional with turning on the warm lighting in our apartments or our rooms or houses, putting on those fairy lights, you know, getting a lot of sunlight. Like, we have to use our resources to make the vibe right because unless you have sun pouring into your apartment or room or whatever every single day, over here where I live, it will be gray outside. And it's really depressing when you don't embrace that. Gloomy weather and make it all warm and cozy and you just have like zero lights turned on and it's literally just straight gloom Pouring into your apartment. It's not a vibe and it really does rub off on your vibrations I think so be cautious of that Maybe if you want to go buy some warm lighting or maybe some reading lights or i'm probably going to make an episode on Seasonal depression, but like one of those happy lights that are like super bright I don't know how effective they are But I would use that last year all the time to literally do my makeup and it was very helpful Okay, so now we have our apartment. We have our room. We have our house. We have our brains cleared off We have no more debris. We have no more fogginess. We have no more distraction The next thing we're going to do is to gather inspiration and excitement for this new era Something that I've talked about a few times is the fact that last winter I really got into the mindset of like trying to be the Pilates princess. And if you're a little bit lost on what this means, it's basically just this random like aesthetic I guess that's pretty viral right now. It's a little bit different than that girl because that girl I feel like was the green juice, going on runs, being in nature. I feel like it's a very summer era. But the winter princess Pilates is like being super cozy, layering up different little activewear pieces. The Pilates princess prioritizes self. care she's doing face masks she's taking baths she's reading she loves ballet she loves pilates she just wears a lot of white and pink i feel like getting into the mentality of that aesthetic made me really excited last year during this time because i was like okay i'm gonna get all my pink active wear i'm going to walk in the snow and rather than hating it and being like oh this is so annoying i was embracing it because i felt like it matched the aesthetic and i know that is so stupid Maybe for somebody that's like doesn't, I don't know, has never thought about it that way. I feel like it sounds silly, but I just want you to try it because really it does make you romanticize the season and be excited and like want to be the best version of yourself when you have like an ideal version in your mind. Now having that said, it doesn't have to be the Pilates princess that gets you excited. You can literally make out a little drawing of yourself and write down, what does my highest version of myself do? What does this person do daily? What does she eat? What does she listen to? What time does she go to bed at? What time does she wake up at? Etc. You're creating your ultimate version of yourself and when you have that goal in mind, it will be so easy to follow your good habits or to want to be better because you have something in mind that you want to be like or that you want to replicate. So in order to gather inspiration and excitement, if I were you, I would go on Pinterest and start pinning a bunch of photos that remind you of who you want to be. Maybe this is like photos of fridges with all fully stacked food maybe this is like some girls doing self-care or some girls reading whatever it is just gather excitement for the new season i think we forget that our hormones and our bodies and just us as humans operate differently during different seasons of the year i'm a different person going into the spring versus going into the winter like i just am ready for cozy season so we have to put special attention to readjust our routines and readjust our mindsets for this time One thing that I highly recommend is if in your journal you start setting some goals for the next two months. You can define specific achievable daily goals that align with your long-term objectives. So for example, if your goal is to finish your final semester with a certain percentage in that grade, or you want to get certain marks on your final exams, rather than having in your goals page, I want to get this mark by the end of the year. Maybe you can switch that goal to I want to study for one hour every single day leading up to that date Say you want to lose a certain on a weight by January 1st, instead of having your goal be that end weight goal, maybe you can say to yourself, I'm going to work out four times a week with like four times cardio. Hopefully that makes sense, but I think writing down those specific achievable daily goals will help you get to that long-term goal. And also, if I'm being honest, the times where I achieve the most goals is usually when I write them down. And I know you may be thinking, oh, well, I have all my goals in my head. No. Writing them down actually makes all the difference because if you write down your goal and you write a little circle beside it or a Little square you are actually able to go in and check it off when that goal is achieved Which gives you a little incentive and gets you excited to fill out that page with all your check marks back when I was Just starting my youtube channel. I had a page where I would scribble off these little boxes every time I would hit 500 more subscribers and I just feel like the numbers would amount so much faster when I had that goal in mind It felt like such an accomplishment and it was fun to do The other thing I want to say about goals is that I truly understand what people mean by whatever you place your attention on Grows when in my mind I am posting youtube videos and all i'm thinking about is youtube I can feel the rewards coming in. I have views coming in. I am inspired. I have new video ideas I have opportunities coming my way versus when I focused on my podcast and I was reaping the rewards so quickly. The same way that when I'm traveling and I'm focusing on networking and opportunities, I can just feel opportunities coming my way. So whatever you place your attention on grows. You just have to be intentional with what that is. Usually when I goal set I pick out only a few goals for each month for example sometimes what I'll do especially as a content creator and I want to grow my Socials is I'll look at the last month and say like how much I grew in the last 30 days and say it was 10k I will say okay for this month. I want to grow 11k that way it is actually realistic and then I'll plan like okay I'm gonna post twice a day for this many days in order to gain this amount of subscribers or followers or whatever. So that's how I, so that's how I plan my goals in terms of followers and content creation. If you need some goal ideas for the next 69 days or 68 days, I think that's how many days there are until 2024, which is psychotic. Some of my goals are to one, read one book. So I think an actionable step for that would be like reading a few chapters every night. Realistically, I feel like you could definitely read more than one book in that time, but yeah. You know, we're being real here since I haven't read in so long Another goal of mine would be to drink one stanley cup of water every day Another one is to get back into yoga and meditation So maybe I can be a little bit more specific saying I want to do a 10 minute meditation Five times a week and yoga five times a week as well My other one was to get back into working out which is super vague So maybe a more specific one could be weight training three times a week and doing cardio three times a week My next one is to go to bed early. I want to make it a habit to be in bed by 11 p.m. and then waking up early, maybe around 8 a.m. I feel like especially in the wintertime when the sun goes down at like 5 p.m., you really want to wake up when that sun comes out so that you make the most out of the day and you don't get left wondering where the day just went. Another one for me, which maybe doesn't apply to everyone, but I feel like I've been having a lot of birthdays and celebrations and traveling. And so I don't want to really go out or party or drink unless it's for... a birthday so like after halloween which is this weekend we are done doing that for a while and the last goal that i want to tell you guys about which i'm actually really excited about but because i'm talking about going into my pilates princess era i really want to sign up for ballet which is a little bit of a crazy goal here but i saw last year this girl that lives in vancouver she's a little bit older than i am and she signed up for like adult ballet classes and at first i was like oh i wonder how that would be but then i was like you know what i want to actually try that that seems really fun and cool and sometimes I feel like as a youtuber as a content creator or anybody that is in the similar position that I am you might join a hobby or do something because you think that it'd be really great for content and you want to even look good doing it but I feel like if I was to join ballet I wouldn't even want to film it that much at first or like do anything with content creation it would just be something that is fun for me and something that is new and something that I can get better at so I really want to make it a goal for myself and maybe I'll sign up sometime this week to sign up for adult ballet classes and do that until the end of the year. I feel like that's super fun, especially with the whole nutcracker season. Like I want to buy all the cute little leg warmers and the little ballet slippers and the little shawls. I think that's what they're called or the wrap-ups. Anyways, I feel like that could be fun and something that can get me super excited and motivated for this season and will make me romanticize the winter and the fall. I feel like oftentimes we forget to place an emphasis on hobbies and hobbies are so important because It's something that you're not obligated to do, but it's something that you find joy in, and it kind of reignites that spark inside of your inner child. And I feel like when you get caught up in working or studying, you just forget about hobbies. But even if it's only one hour a week, it could be such a small amount of time that you're spending on something that truly brings you joy and it can make the rest of your work week so exciting and you kind of re-get inspired. When you're really busy, you may be thinking to yourself, oh I can't even waste one hour, I can't even waste two hours, but instead you waste so many hours trying to do work while you feel uninspired and longing to do something else. So you might as well allocate those times. and those hours to doing the fun things so that your work feels seamless and that you can just get into a flow state a lot faster. If you guys wanna sign up for a new hobby or just try out a new skill or something that you can actually improve on this season, then we can do that together and we can update each other on how it's going. I hope that someone else joins ballet. Like, I feel like it would be so fun. And I actually did ballet when I was younger until I was like five years old. So I feel like it could be fun. Who knows? I might be so bad at it and hate it, but we won't know until we try. So anyways, be specific, be ambitious. I think ambitious is such an attractive quality. It is a great quality to have. And sometimes we forget about ambition. I don't know if that's kind of stupid. Maybe you don't forget about it. But whenever I have that word in my mind, I'm like, oh yeah, ambitious. I want to be more ambitious. So I'm sparking it in your brain. Make that the word of the month, the word of the week, and everything that you do. Think of yourself as an ambitious person and not even like I'm doing something ambitious. Rewire it into your brain as I am an ambitious person. Make that an affirmation that you say to yourself every morning. And on that note actually, affirmations are so helpful and I saw someone say this on a podcast or something yesterday where when you wake up in the morning... and you don't check your phone and the first thing you do is you go to the bathroom and you stare at yourself in the mirror, your brain is still like mushy, maybe your subconscious is still awake. And so if you say things to yourself in the morning like, I am loved, I love myself, I am ambitious, I am smart, I am proactive, I don't procrastinate, I achieve all my goals with ease, I am abundant. And you say all those affirmations to yourself first thing in the morning. It can really get programmed into your brain to the point where you don't have to say it to yourself But it becomes second nature that you identify with those traits back to the original sentence be specific be ambitious and decide exactly What the life you want looks like because we are going to have that by the time the year starts Now something that I wrote down for myself But i'm going to say it to you guys because you know You might be able to take this with you is that after I have all my goals set out like my space is clean I have my goals planned out. The next thing I need to do is Give myself some time to be situated for me. This means that after halloween this weekend, i'm gonna have no plans No plans at all. I'm gonna take a day to myself to re-center maybe do a face mask to take a bath I'm, even gonna cut my hair because i've had extensions in right now And I just feel like they're getting in the way of my productivity That sounds so stupid, but it's actually really time consuming to do my hair and it just feels like it's weighing down on me So I think i'm gonna cut my hair go into this season a little bit fresh and feeling re-inspired do my journaling do all this on a day like do a day where you really take time for yourself so that you can say okay now that i'm re-centered let's move forward i went ahead and wrote down my perfect ideal morning routine night routine and workday routine So i'm going to talk to you guys quickly and just kind of skim over it and tell you guys what i'm going to Start implementing so that I can have more productive days if you guys want to see me vlog this as well I think once we get into november I'm, definitely going to film a winter morning routine a winter night routine and like a work with me study with me video Okay, so my perfect morning routine starts off by having no phone for the first like hour of the day Okay, that's going to be my goal. I'm going to wake up around 7 a.m. 8 a.m And I'm going to put my phone on the other side of the room because I want to have to actually get up And go reach my phone because the times when I do that I actually wake up way faster than when it's right by my ear and I just silently snooze it a tip for this is to wake Up consistently every single day because it becomes so much easier to wake up at that time And also I saw somebody say that when you're making a morning routine make the first hour of it fun Make it something that you want to get up for because sometimes I have work planned out the minute I open my eyes like i'll open my eyes and run to my desk because I forgot to hand something in and that doesn't make you very motivated. In fact that makes me want to stay in bed and never get up. So if you make the first bit of your day something fun like getting your coffee or going on a walk then you'll actually be more inclined to waking up. I'm going to wake up and then I'm going to pull out my journal. I'm going to write the things that I'm grateful for that morning. I'm going to revisit my to-do list that I wrote the night before and I'm going to write out some affirmations. Then I'm going to play music I enjoy. I know that overstimulation isn't ideal. and that we should be okay with being in silence but when i'm just trying to get out of my procrastination slump we're gonna try to do every little thing that i know is gonna make me more excited and happy okay so if that means playing some spanish music or playing some loud electronic music or playing some pop sounds or playing some indie rock like whatever it is first thing in the Morning as my soundtrack for the rest of my morning routine, that's what I'm gonna do So I'm gonna play some music then I'm gonna go to the bathroom. This is what I do every morning I always wash my face do my skincare. I just feel so much more prepared for the day I make sure to add my SPF and then I'm gonna go to the kitchen drink my water a big glass I'm gonna have my vitamins because those make me feel better and being taken care of on the inside will make everything better on the outside. And also side note with that, if you're trying to revamp yourself and get productive, I would highly recommend getting your blood taken, just going to the doctors in general, because for all you know, you may be like iron deficient or just have deficiencies in general, which will overall make an impact on how productive you are and your day-to-day life, because you might not even be feeling your best and it might not even be your fault. It might be that you just don't even have enough iron in you, for example. The next thing I love to do is to ice my face so that I start to de-puff and I also make myself some green tea Which is great for waking yourself up because it's caffeinated but not too intensely You can also make yourself a coffee or a matcha just a morning drink The next thing is to open the window and look in the sun and actually get some sunlight I think that is one of the biggest tips that like, uh, what's his name? Huberman like all the health and wellness podcasts tell you to do Sun is so important for yourself and especially in the winter time. I mean I will definitely be taking some vitamin D this season, but I know that when those days have some sun I better get my face in there and get some sunlight because that is proven to make you happier It is proven to regulate your circadian rhythm and to say hello It's morning time to do work The other thing I want to talk about is the fact that if you are a little dopamine gremlin sometimes and you're searching for quick ways to get dopamine like scrolling or eating junk food or having sugar or just doing things that require instant gratification, we need to rewire our brains into doing things that produce dopamine naturally. So this is like achieving those tasks. So I saw someone say online that if you wake up in the morning and you do those dopamine-inducing tasks, first thing that don't involve your phone, it kind of sets the tone for the day. So for me, this may be cleaning up my kitchen a little bit or doing my bed. Just do one little task. It doesn't even have to be longer than 10 minutes, just something to say, hey, I'm gonna do this. Oh my gosh, I already did something and it's only 30 minutes after I woke up Then the last two things that I want to do in my morning routine is to get dressed Maybe put some active wear on and do a little 10-minute meditation a while ago probably last year this time I got really into meditation and I was getting good at it too. Like I was not even doing a guided meditation I was doing meditation with frequency music and I was starting to like I think I was levitating like low-key My fingers were starting to get tingly like I was looking into my my pineal gland, which like if you're spiritual or like you know about the brain, you know what I mean? Like I was starting to see color with my eyes closed. So I need to get back into that. Now after all that, that is all my no phone activities. I'm going to get my phone, okay? This is maybe at like 9 a.m. when the workday starts. And I'm going to answer any texts, any emails, or anything that I need to hand in regarding work. This shouldn't take too long then right after that i'm going to work out. Okay. I've already gotten dressed I've already done my morning routine. It's time to get those morning endorphins I don't know about you guys But I need to work out in the day because otherwise if it doesn't happen like first thing it's just not happening If this for you means that you want to go to pilates and be a pink pilates princess If it means you're going weightlifting or walking or whatever it is do the workout that makes you feel excited and you feel productive Also doing exercise literally is proven to make you more productive because you already like release serotonin and you just have the ball rolling So if we're talking about productivity, we have to talk about working out And then after that I can just check my to-do list and go on with my day Usually I eat my breakfast at around 12 But definitely having a nutritious breakfast and lunch and dinner is going to also help you be more productive And also if you have time like on a sunday to do some meal prep for the rest of the week you'll be so much more likely to actually eat healthy and stay on top of it during the week because you already have food made. Now, this is the morning routine that I have as someone who is like a podcaster, YouTuber, self-employed, whatever. If you have a nine to five, you can adjust this however you want. You can maybe wake up at seven, wake up at eight, and maybe only do three of these things. You know, everyone's routine is going to look a little bit different. And sometimes I see people make a long-winded morning routine and the comments are gonna be like uh this isn't realistic for anybody like I wake up 10 minutes before I start I wake up four minutes before I start it's not a competition for how little someone does or how much someone does just do whatever is going to make you more productive and you can't lie to yourself if you say that someone's hour morning routine is unrealistic but you wake up 10 minutes before your morning you must know deep down that that's probably not the most productive you can have or the most that you can do with who you are. I think we all have a little bit more in us and more discipline than we think we do. And one last tip I have is that when you eat your breakfast, try to avoid carbs because they make you feel tired. Now, I don't mean avoid. Carbs in general or even for lunch or for dinner or before a big run or something But this is just what i've heard When you are trying to be more productive having carbs first thing in the morning or a sugary breakfast is just gonna make you feel tired We don't wanna I think it's called like spike or insulin This could be so wrong, but like having sugar first thing in the morning speaking of the middle of the day This is the work chunk This could be you working your nine to five. This could be you going to school This could be you having a study day at a cafe or this could be me I do a lot of like admin work or editing. These are work tips to help you be more productive These are also ones that really help me so the first one is going to coffee shops and doing the tasks with someone else or Body doubling as I said earlier. I'm not like diagnosed with adhd or by any means but I feel like I have so many tendencies of somebody with ADHD that I almost might have it. And one of the things that is a tip for people with ADHD is to do body doubling, which it says here online, body doubling is a tool some adults use to help them start and complete projects, sometimes referred to as an accountability partner. It is a technique for better productivity. A body double is a friend or partner who works simultaneously either in the same room or virtually through video chat platforms. Whether you have adhd or you don't I feel like this is a helpful tip for whoever especially if you get distracted easily And you know now looking back I never realized that this is actually something that I grew up doing with my dad Which is maybe why I crave to do it But like when I was younger in middle school in elementary school literally high school for every single year Whenever I would do my homework I would sit beside my dad because he works from home and we would do our work beside each other and It made me so much more productive because I felt like somebody was watching me And I couldn't just slack off and be on my phone because he would keep me accountable and say fernando What the heck hell are you doing so if you have a friend to do this with it is so helpful but even if you don't have a friend and you just go to a coffee shop and there's other people there working sometimes i like you know okay this might be like a little main character syndrome but i'm like oh my god everyone's looking at me like i can't be just on my phone i can't be slacking off i gotta make sure people know that i'm doing my work so like that genuinely helps me also working at coffee shops in general just gets you out of your home environment which i feel like can sometimes have a lot of distractions for me sometimes i get up from my desk i go lay down I go get some food. I go, I don't know, play VR. That's literally what I did yesterday. Versus when I'm at a coffee shop, I'm like, girl, I am sat. There's nowhere for me to go. So going to coffee shops can be very helpful. Or maybe study, study groups. Or like maybe your school has a little workroom or a library, wherever it is. Also, please do not knock this until you try it. My mom does some like work from home sometimes. And she... She... was saying how it was super distracting to be at home and I told her I'm like mom go to a cafe and she's like you know what I think I am gonna start doing this because it's really distracting being at home so even if you're older than me just try it it's actually so helpful and you get to have a little treat which is my next little tip and it is to have positive reinforcement sometimes when I go to coffee shops I tell myself okay I got here I opened my book I'm not gonna order a drink until it's been two hours of me working so then I work really hard for those two hours because I'm so excited for my drink Another way to do this is using leisure activities such as social media and entertainment as a reward after completing your tasks. So maybe you do work for an hour and then you get to scroll on your phone for like 10-15 minutes. Another productivity tip for working is to prioritize your tasks. A lot of times I have a tendency of doing all my easiest tasks first because I think that that's more fun. But I think that there is an actual habit. It's called like bite the frog or something. I could be saying that wrong or eat the frog. And it means to do your hardest work first. Identify the most important tasks and prioritize those. I saw a method online It's called the Eisenhower matrix and I'm gonna explain to you what that is This is gonna be so confusing but you categorize tasks into urgent important not urgent important urgent Not important and not urgent not important. I hope that made sense I'm definitely gonna do that task the next time I do my work The other thing you can do is make a to-do list which I always do when I first sit down at my desk Then that way you can keep track of everything that needs to get done and break tasks into manageable steps Another tip for being more productive when you're actually working is to work in a clean environment And to also get rid and eliminate distractions If you know what hinders you when you do your work Like maybe it's all the pens that you have on your desk or maybe it's your phone or you're in a very loud environment if you can identify those things that put you behind, try to eliminate those at first before you even start doing your work and just staying in a clutter-free environment so that you can stay focused and actually get your work done. Another two tips that are obvious but I feel like they're important to know when we talk about productivity. The first one is to take breaks to prevent burnout. For me, sometimes I'll go on my computer and I'll search up like a one hour timer or something or 25 minute timer and I just get so much more work done when I'm under pressure like that. And then when that timer goes up, I'll have a little break, maybe to eat some snacks or to, I don't know, maybe draw a little bit. It makes me work for so much longer. And especially when I'm at a cafe and I'm with a friend, usually these breaks will be like... Little socializing talking breaks which really gets me excited to stay working and it makes me work for so much longer Another tip that I found online here is to use the two-minute rule if a task takes less than two minutes to complete Do it immediately this prevents small tasks from piling up I feel like this is especially good for people that tend to procrastinate because sometimes things that are really easy I can build a wall up in my head and think that it's the hardest task ever like literally replying to a text And I will avoid it and avoid it and avoid it and avoid it until I feel like it's just unmanageable when realistically it would probably take less than two minutes and I should probably just get it done. Another tip that revolves around your workspace is to create a positive workspace. This is one that has warm lighting. Maybe you have water surrounding you, like you have all your drinks around you. You're comfortable. Just make it a place that you can actually romanticize. Maybe even play some background music. I love playing like frequency or focus music. I feel like that really gets me in the zone. And another tip regarding minimizing distractions is to physically block off apps from your phone if that's what you need to do to stop scrolling and stop just wasting time. And also turning your phone onto sleep mode or work mode. Then nobody can text you and also just turning off your notifications I honestly don't have like any notifications on my phone and I feel like that really Makes me feel less distracted and the last tip that I have regarding work is to create deadlines for yourself Now obviously obviously obviously this is a given, you know, your teachers your work people your boss may give you deadlines But sometimes it's even helpful to make deadlines for yourself to keep yourself accountable For example when I started my podcast, I remember it being like march 1st and I made a deadline to myself I am going to post my podcast on March 20th and I even posted it online for all my followers to see so that they would have to keep me accountable if I didn't post on March 20th. And if I hadn't done that, I probably wouldn't have even gotten my podcast out on time, let alone gotten it up. So I feel like that was really helpful for me. Those were all my tips for actually getting my work and being more productive while I do that. And then the last thing I want to talk about is my perfect night routine for productivity. After I do all my work in the day, hopefully I'm done with that. And that doesn't just mean lay on your couch and you know Do nothing for the rest of the night until you have to roll into bed and your bed's not made like that's not the vibe Either my perfect night routine is going to be one where I stop eating around 9 p.m You know no more little late night snacking. I maybe take some magnesium which helps you relax and go to bed faster I put my pjs on I do all my bathroom stuff like taking out my contacts washing my face doing my skincare And then I make a to-do list before bed for the following day I used to do this all the time and it was honestly so helpful for me so I really need to get back into it because Whenever I go into a day not knowing what i'm doing that day I feel like I waste so much time and i'm really my least productive version of myself Like I don't even know what i'm doing. I'm walking around like a zombie. I Turn into that adhd paralysis mode where you don't know what to do So you do nothing and you just waste like hours on end in order to avoid that I am going to make my to-do list before I go to bed And then maybe do some last little journaling and then just going to bed at like 11 p.m Put in some frequency music closing my eyes and saying good night world. I'm waking up in eight hours So yeah, that's my perfect night routine. The last two things that I wanted to speak on were recommendations for my followers So I want to just say those quickly for productivity The first tip is to hang out with people that have a similar mindset or similar goals as you This way you guys can inspire each other and it's actually so easy to get what you want to do done You guys will want to do the same things do the same hobbies You guys will talk about the same things. Maybe you'll be reading the same things, listening to the same podcasts, et cetera. This really helped me this year, making a friend that lived really close to me because we would go to the gym and we would work together all the time. The other tip that so many of my viewers gave to me, which is an obvious one, but I don't even wanna say, I don't even wanna accept it, but it's just to say no to more plans. It is so important to practice saying no to plans that don't align with your goals and values, and you just need to be able to politely decline additional commitments that might overload your schedule. As said, I have a habit of saying yes to everything. I love being social. I love going out. I love partying and seeing my friends, but it all has a time. And there are some times where you have to lock in and be productive and just get your shit done. I remember a friend of mine always posting on his socials that he was going into monk mode. And this is giving entrepreneur people that are like so intense about work. Probably a little bit different than like a youtuber girly pop that's like posting here and there her whole life on social media But he was saying that like he would go for periods where he was social he was partying He was going out staying up late being fun making those memories and then switching off and going into monk mode Which for him was like a mode where he's working for 10 hours a day. He is not drinking alcohol. He's not partying He's not seeing friends and he just grinds for like a month and that one month sets him forward like five months and then all the rest of the months after that he can just have fun be with his friends do whatever but you have to sit down for that month and just really grind and i feel like i know that this is true in the sense that when i started my youtube channel for that first year that I started, it was during the pandemic, that could have been considered my grind mode. Like all I was doing was editing, posting videos, filming, editing, posting videos, and then I got to reap the rewards of that the following year when COVID stopped, and I got to travel, and I got to do all this fun stuff, and I think I've been taking advantage of that fun time and continuously doing that and just having way too much fun when it's like, let's go back to monk mode, okay? So... take that as you will another way that I like to say this is going into my uh mini cut seasons which if you know people that do bodybuilding they'll go into like a cut season they like intensely diet intensely work out intensely do cardio that is unrealistic for me nine months out of the year ten months out of the year but two weeks before I go on a trip I might go into a mini cut season and I'll start eating really healthy I'll work out I'll do my cardio, I'll prioritize my health, and then I feel great when I'm on vacation. If right now is a working period for you guys, that is okay. It is important. We need these times to enjoy and reap the rewards. So I'm telling you this now, guys. If you wanna start the 75 hard, if you don't know what that is, that's like a little challenge where you do all these healthy habits, and it takes 75 days. You can search it up online. I've honestly never done it, so I don't know it to its fullest extent. But if you start the 75 hard now, you'll be done by like January. Third or something whatever fifth. I don't even know let's all together I'm saying this me and you because I gotta get my shit together, too Let's go into monk mode for november Okay, and then we can reap the rewards when christmas time comes around or maybe when your finals are done Or when you go on season break, let's just do our hardest to work hard now really set ourselves up for success and to stop coast riding on laziness. Like that's truly what it is and we do not want to become complacent. We do not want to get comfortable being the version of ourselves that just is getting by. We do not want to be the version of ourselves that is missing deadlines, is missing the goals that they wanted to get done just because they didn't take themselves seriously. Like honestly, that is embarrassing and I'm giving you guys the tough love because I need the tough love. I am telling myself, Fernanda, enough is enough. We are turning a new leaf. And if I don't get my goals done by the end of the year, I will be so disappointed in myself Hopefully we're on the same page. Let's go into our super aesthetic pilates princess ballet core girly pop productive monk mode That's so funny girly pop meets monk mode. That's what i'm calling this season Anyways, I love you guys. That is the end of today's episode i'm speaking so fast because I need to leave right now for a Cycling class that I booked myself an hour ago. Um, I love you guys. I'll talk to you guys later

For me, this is my Pilates princess winter ballet peaceful era. And you may be asking, what does that mean, Fernanda? And I'm going to tell you, okay? I'm going to tell you in this episode what I mean by that, but it's a new time, okay? I have decided that, Fernanda, it is enough.

It is enough with your procrastination, your literally just getting by, your, I don't even know how to say it, just laziness being honest, okay? Before we start the plan on how we're gonna glow up this next season before the new year hits I'm gonna give you guys a little bit of a backstory on why this topic even came to my mind this whole year like 2023 I have been focusing a lot on having experiences and having fun in my life and trying new things But lately I have been feeling like i'm just not doing enough like i'm just getting by and basically I've just been living life on fun mode. That is all fun and games that's great i'm glad that i'm having a good time i'm glad that i'm experiencing things but i've realized that i have let go of a lot of the really good habits that got me to where i am today if i'm being honest doing all this fun stuff isn't what got me to the place where i could make being a youtuber my job a place where i could move out on my own a place where i was financially free from my family or whatever what got me to that place was Having that self-belief being productive daily doing things that was going to help my future self working out very consistently doing yoga Very consistently being in my spiritual era doing a lot of meditation doing a lot of journaling I feel like when you reach your goal Sometimes it can be very easy to you know, get a little bit cocky even maybe say like oh I don't need to be doing that stuff anymore because like I got to where I want to be and Although there may be fun and games for a few months.

It gets to a point where you're like, okay I need to check myself and I need to get my shit together You Because like why has my apartment been messy for weeks on end? Why have I just absolutely stopped doing yoga? Why have I absolutely stopped working out? Why have I absolutely fried my dopamine receptors? And whenever I try to do work, I am just distracted.

I'm constantly looking for stimulation on my phone. I'm just waiting for the weekend. I'm just waiting to see friends. You know what I mean.

Now you may be experiencing something similar. Midterms just happened if you're in school. Maybe. you feel relaxed that midterms are done so you wanna take a break, but this is actually the time to push and get ahead before your finals come along. Or maybe you're thinking back on your goals this year and you're like, oh, I totally just gave up on some of my goals, but we're just gonna wait until the new year.

Or maybe it's just that we're going into the change of season and having the sun set at like freaking 5 p.m. is bringing you down and you feel like you're just getting into a mushy, cozy, eating hot soup at 6 p.m. work is done era. Era.

I don't really know what i'm trying to say there But I mean, I just feel like there's a lot of reasons for why this time of year could be a time where things aren't Exactly going as you want them to go. And so in today's episode, we're going to talk about recognizing the faults We are currently having in our lives recognizing our bad habits And i'm going to give you guys the plan for what I am going to do in my real life to get my shit together To get back on track and to own these next two months before we go into 2024 Because I do not want to be going into the new year thinking Oh Let's look back on my year and then being like what did I do? Like I I I do not want to live with that I'm going to give you guys the plan on how I am going to get my life back on track And i'm also going to give you guys some tips on how you can make your morning routine better your night routine better Your day more productive just productivity tips.

I asked you guys on instagram to give me your best tips And so i'm going to give you those I also looked up online at some Up Proven hacks that are actually going to help you guys be more productive for the next two months I'm really gonna have to put in my extra efforts to make these months count Especially when it is winter and y'all know the seasonal depression. It's that time So we have to take the preventative measures to feel excited and feel like we're not just gonna be swindled by the weather because how Pathetic is that I have my computer here beside me and we're gonna talk about what it says The first thing that I suggest you to do if you're feeling like this is to pull out a journal, okay? Maybe this is a piece of paper.

Maybe this is your notes app or maybe this is google docs Okay, and what I wrote for myself is what's happening right now? And why is it happening what I have said for myself was that I am being lazy. I am being unproductive I have been going to sleep late. I have been waking up late.

I've not been working out that much I have not been drinking that much water. I have not been reading. I have not been spiritual and honestly after saying that out loud you might be thinking fernanda then what have you been doing Honestly good question. I have been planning birthdays and traveling It's crickets out here. Okay.

Anyways, then the next page you're gonna write Why is this happening? Like really be vulnerable with yourself be honest with yourself and hold yourself accountable and say what is the reason for this? I think the first step to taking control over your life is just realizing from what you're starting on It is taking a detailed honest look at your life as how it is right now because I don't know about you guys but it's hard for me to actually make change or to actually feel inspired to take on new habits when I don't realize the reason for what I'm doing it for, if that makes sense.

So when I look at my life and I say, oh my god, this is actually bad, like I haven't been doing my good habits and like it can seep into other parts of my life, then that makes me be like, oh my gosh, I actually need to make change here. So if this is you, you're going to make that list of everything that's going on for you in all the areas of your life. Your job, your friends, your romantic relationships, your family members, your classes, your hobbies, maybe if you do volunteer work, etc. You're going to look at all those aspects of your life and say what isn't working for you or what you want to change. Now after I have my list on what's happening right now, as I said, I wrote a list on why is this happening.

I had wrote down that I have been having too many plans and traveling. So really I had no routine I have not been practicing saying no when people ask me to do things I have been a yes girl, which is very fun when you know, you want to stir the pot a little bit You want some excitement in your life? You want some new experiences? That's fun.

But sometimes Sometimes you got to reel it back in a little bit My second reason for why this is happening is because I have been a phone gremlin. I literally wrote that down I have been a phone gremlin By that I mean I have just been on my phone way too much recently. I think my screen time has gone up I don't even want to tell you how long but like by a significant amount And so obviously when you're on your phone a lot you're scrolling.

You're not even creating content. You're just scrolling You just have an influx of information that like are you really going to use and also? I feel like it's just really easy to get comfortable and see other people live their lives, but we have to turn that off put it away and live it for ourselves.

So that's my second reason for why this is happening. And my third one was that the weather is changing. And of course, also just because I have been procrastinating it. I mean, that's the whole topic of this episode, but you know, I have just been too comfortable in my procrastination era, pushing things off, thinking that there's no consequences, when in reality, the biggest consequence of all is that I'm just not living up to my highest potential, which is shameful.

Also, one note that I want to put in there is that I used to make a lot of content on how to be that girl. And I literally was that girl. Let me, this is just a side little tip here. But if you want to become that girl, you literally have to pretend that you're filming a little YouTube video.

And you can write down a little list and say, what would that girl do? And then do all the things that that girl does. And do those weekly, daily. And then soon enough, you become that girl.

Because you're doing all the habits of that girl. Now that is... I feel like who I was for a very long time.

And that's what my content was about. And I feel like recently, especially since starting the podcast, I have been talking more about like reflection and life experiences and confidence, being social and making friends. And so I feel like I've switched out of that era to one that is more social, talking to people, having experiences, traveling.

Like that has been what my content has been. I think a little bit for the past few months. That is why I'm saying I've definitely become that confident, social, extroverted person, as I always was, but I feel like there has been an emphasis on that and I've lost that sense of that girl that was once me. So I just wanna regain that. So once you realize your bad habits, you realize your faults, you realize what you don't want in your life, I think before we start making way for new goals and start expanding and thinking about what's next, what's new, the thing that I need to do Just clean up my space because I feel like I can't even think straight So what I wrote down for myself for me to do and I'm actually gonna do this today is to one Clean my whole apartment deep clean I know we all do a little spring cleaning, but there probably is another one called fall cleaning But I need to get into that fall cleaning mentality Okay by this I mean getting rid of all the junk that I do not need extra makeup extra products extra clothes maybe you can put your summer clothes away and make room for your winter clothes maybe get rid of shoes that you don't need anymore maybe just clean up all the debris around your room or around your apartment really just have a deep clean because i've said this before but i don't i'm not diagnosed with adhd but i feel like i have a lot of adhd tendencies and one of them is that i leave piles of things everywhere and it's so messy you But if someone asks me where something is I know exactly where in that mess it is And a really bad habit of mine is that even if it's messy in my head I don't think it's messy because I know where everything is and I need to get out of that habit I just need to get into that clean girl mentality.

We're like no Your clothes doesn't need to be in your kitchen floor So I want to get into my clean girl era where I'm intentional about where I put my things after I use them and to Stop leaving them out after I do so I'm going to clean my whole apartment And I'm gonna get back into lighting candles and incense because I used to do that all the time And it really set the tone a fresh start a fresh beginning a new day I used to use a lot of diffusers and it would make my apartment smell so good You have to be a little bit careful with that because I don't think that perfumes and fragrance are actually that like great for your body or probably your hormones but it did make me happy and it felt like whenever i would light a candle at the end of cleaning my room it was like okay we're ready we're ready to think we're ready to make room and people always say your environment really dictates how productive you are how your mental health is and just how much you can get done in a day because whenever things around me are super messy and super cluttered i feel like i can't even walk straight so that is the first thing for me One more note that I want to put in here is that now that it's winter, I feel like we have to be extra intentional with turning on the warm lighting in our apartments or our rooms or houses, putting on those fairy lights, you know, getting a lot of sunlight. Like, we have to use our resources to make the vibe right because unless you have sun pouring into your apartment or room or whatever every single day, over here where I live, it will be gray outside. And it's really depressing when you don't embrace that. Gloomy weather and make it all warm and cozy and you just have like zero lights turned on and it's literally just straight gloom Pouring into your apartment.

It's not a vibe and it really does rub off on your vibrations I think so be cautious of that Maybe if you want to go buy some warm lighting or maybe some reading lights or i'm probably going to make an episode on Seasonal depression, but like one of those happy lights that are like super bright I don't know how effective they are But I would use that last year all the time to literally do my makeup and it was very helpful Okay, so now we have our apartment. We have our room. We have our house. We have our brains cleared off We have no more debris. We have no more fogginess.

We have no more distraction The next thing we're going to do is to gather inspiration and excitement for this new era Something that I've talked about a few times is the fact that last winter I really got into the mindset of like trying to be the Pilates princess. And if you're a little bit lost on what this means, it's basically just this random like aesthetic I guess that's pretty viral right now. It's a little bit different than that girl because that girl I feel like was the green juice, going on runs, being in nature.

I feel like it's a very summer era. But the winter princess Pilates is like being super cozy, layering up different little activewear pieces. The Pilates princess prioritizes self.

care she's doing face masks she's taking baths she's reading she loves ballet she loves pilates she just wears a lot of white and pink i feel like getting into the mentality of that aesthetic made me really excited last year during this time because i was like okay i'm gonna get all my pink active wear i'm going to walk in the snow and rather than hating it and being like oh this is so annoying i was embracing it because i felt like it matched the aesthetic and i know that is so stupid Maybe for somebody that's like doesn't, I don't know, has never thought about it that way. I feel like it sounds silly, but I just want you to try it because really it does make you romanticize the season and be excited and like want to be the best version of yourself when you have like an ideal version in your mind. Now having that said, it doesn't have to be the Pilates princess that gets you excited. You can literally make out a little drawing of yourself and write down, what does my highest version of myself do?

What does this person do daily? What does she eat? What does she listen to? What time does she go to bed at?

What time does she wake up at? Etc. You're creating your ultimate version of yourself and when you have that goal in mind, it will be so easy to follow your good habits or to want to be better because you have something in mind that you want to be like or that you want to replicate. So in order to gather inspiration and excitement, if I were you, I would go on Pinterest and start pinning a bunch of photos that remind you of who you want to be. Maybe this is like photos of fridges with all fully stacked food maybe this is like some girls doing self-care or some girls reading whatever it is just gather excitement for the new season i think we forget that our hormones and our bodies and just us as humans operate differently during different seasons of the year i'm a different person going into the spring versus going into the winter like i just am ready for cozy season so we have to put special attention to readjust our routines and readjust our mindsets for this time One thing that I highly recommend is if in your journal you start setting some goals for the next two months.

You can define specific achievable daily goals that align with your long-term objectives. So for example, if your goal is to finish your final semester with a certain percentage in that grade, or you want to get certain marks on your final exams, rather than having in your goals page, I want to get this mark by the end of the year. Maybe you can switch that goal to I want to study for one hour every single day leading up to that date Say you want to lose a certain on a weight by January 1st, instead of having your goal be that end weight goal, maybe you can say to yourself, I'm going to work out four times a week with like four times cardio.

Hopefully that makes sense, but I think writing down those specific achievable daily goals will help you get to that long-term goal. And also, if I'm being honest, the times where I achieve the most goals is usually when I write them down. And I know you may be thinking, oh, well, I have all my goals in my head.

No. Writing them down actually makes all the difference because if you write down your goal and you write a little circle beside it or a Little square you are actually able to go in and check it off when that goal is achieved Which gives you a little incentive and gets you excited to fill out that page with all your check marks back when I was Just starting my youtube channel. I had a page where I would scribble off these little boxes every time I would hit 500 more subscribers and I just feel like the numbers would amount so much faster when I had that goal in mind It felt like such an accomplishment and it was fun to do The other thing I want to say about goals is that I truly understand what people mean by whatever you place your attention on Grows when in my mind I am posting youtube videos and all i'm thinking about is youtube I can feel the rewards coming in. I have views coming in. I am inspired.

I have new video ideas I have opportunities coming my way versus when I focused on my podcast and I was reaping the rewards so quickly. The same way that when I'm traveling and I'm focusing on networking and opportunities, I can just feel opportunities coming my way. So whatever you place your attention on grows.

You just have to be intentional with what that is. Usually when I goal set I pick out only a few goals for each month for example sometimes what I'll do especially as a content creator and I want to grow my Socials is I'll look at the last month and say like how much I grew in the last 30 days and say it was 10k I will say okay for this month. I want to grow 11k that way it is actually realistic and then I'll plan like okay I'm gonna post twice a day for this many days in order to gain this amount of subscribers or followers or whatever. So that's how I, so that's how I plan my goals in terms of followers and content creation.

If you need some goal ideas for the next 69 days or 68 days, I think that's how many days there are until 2024, which is psychotic. Some of my goals are to one, read one book. So I think an actionable step for that would be like reading a few chapters every night.

Realistically, I feel like you could definitely read more than one book in that time, but yeah. You know, we're being real here since I haven't read in so long Another goal of mine would be to drink one stanley cup of water every day Another one is to get back into yoga and meditation So maybe I can be a little bit more specific saying I want to do a 10 minute meditation Five times a week and yoga five times a week as well My other one was to get back into working out which is super vague So maybe a more specific one could be weight training three times a week and doing cardio three times a week My next one is to go to bed early. I want to make it a habit to be in bed by 11 p.m. and then waking up early, maybe around 8 a.m. I feel like especially in the wintertime when the sun goes down at like 5 p.m., you really want to wake up when that sun comes out so that you make the most out of the day and you don't get left wondering where the day just went.

Another one for me, which maybe doesn't apply to everyone, but I feel like I've been having a lot of birthdays and celebrations and traveling. And so I don't want to really go out or party or drink unless it's for... a birthday so like after halloween which is this weekend we are done doing that for a while and the last goal that i want to tell you guys about which i'm actually really excited about but because i'm talking about going into my pilates princess era i really want to sign up for ballet which is a little bit of a crazy goal here but i saw last year this girl that lives in vancouver she's a little bit older than i am and she signed up for like adult ballet classes and at first i was like oh i wonder how that would be but then i was like you know what i want to actually try that that seems really fun and cool and sometimes I feel like as a youtuber as a content creator or anybody that is in the similar position that I am you might join a hobby or do something because you think that it'd be really great for content and you want to even look good doing it but I feel like if I was to join ballet I wouldn't even want to film it that much at first or like do anything with content creation it would just be something that is fun for me and something that is new and something that I can get better at so I really want to make it a goal for myself and maybe I'll sign up sometime this week to sign up for adult ballet classes and do that until the end of the year. I feel like that's super fun, especially with the whole nutcracker season. Like I want to buy all the cute little leg warmers and the little ballet slippers and the little shawls.

I think that's what they're called or the wrap-ups. Anyways, I feel like that could be fun and something that can get me super excited and motivated for this season and will make me romanticize the winter and the fall. I feel like oftentimes we forget to place an emphasis on hobbies and hobbies are so important because It's something that you're not obligated to do, but it's something that you find joy in, and it kind of reignites that spark inside of your inner child.

And I feel like when you get caught up in working or studying, you just forget about hobbies. But even if it's only one hour a week, it could be such a small amount of time that you're spending on something that truly brings you joy and it can make the rest of your work week so exciting and you kind of re-get inspired. When you're really busy, you may be thinking to yourself, oh I can't even waste one hour, I can't even waste two hours, but instead you waste so many hours trying to do work while you feel uninspired and longing to do something else. So you might as well allocate those times.

and those hours to doing the fun things so that your work feels seamless and that you can just get into a flow state a lot faster. If you guys wanna sign up for a new hobby or just try out a new skill or something that you can actually improve on this season, then we can do that together and we can update each other on how it's going. I hope that someone else joins ballet. Like, I feel like it would be so fun.

And I actually did ballet when I was younger until I was like five years old. So I feel like it could be fun. Who knows? I might be so bad at it and hate it, but we won't know until we try.

So anyways, be specific, be ambitious. I think ambitious is such an attractive quality. It is a great quality to have.

And sometimes we forget about ambition. I don't know if that's kind of stupid. Maybe you don't forget about it.

But whenever I have that word in my mind, I'm like, oh yeah, ambitious. I want to be more ambitious. So I'm sparking it in your brain. Make that the word of the month, the word of the week, and everything that you do. Think of yourself as an ambitious person and not even like I'm doing something ambitious.

Rewire it into your brain as I am an ambitious person. Make that an affirmation that you say to yourself every morning. And on that note actually, affirmations are so helpful and I saw someone say this on a podcast or something yesterday where when you wake up in the morning... and you don't check your phone and the first thing you do is you go to the bathroom and you stare at yourself in the mirror, your brain is still like mushy, maybe your subconscious is still awake.

And so if you say things to yourself in the morning like, I am loved, I love myself, I am ambitious, I am smart, I am proactive, I don't procrastinate, I achieve all my goals with ease, I am abundant. And you say all those affirmations to yourself first thing in the morning. It can really get programmed into your brain to the point where you don't have to say it to yourself But it becomes second nature that you identify with those traits back to the original sentence be specific be ambitious and decide exactly What the life you want looks like because we are going to have that by the time the year starts Now something that I wrote down for myself But i'm going to say it to you guys because you know You might be able to take this with you is that after I have all my goals set out like my space is clean I have my goals planned out.

The next thing I need to do is Give myself some time to be situated for me. This means that after halloween this weekend, i'm gonna have no plans No plans at all. I'm gonna take a day to myself to re-center maybe do a face mask to take a bath I'm, even gonna cut my hair because i've had extensions in right now And I just feel like they're getting in the way of my productivity That sounds so stupid, but it's actually really time consuming to do my hair and it just feels like it's weighing down on me So I think i'm gonna cut my hair go into this season a little bit fresh and feeling re-inspired do my journaling do all this on a day like do a day where you really take time for yourself so that you can say okay now that i'm re-centered let's move forward i went ahead and wrote down my perfect ideal morning routine night routine and workday routine So i'm going to talk to you guys quickly and just kind of skim over it and tell you guys what i'm going to Start implementing so that I can have more productive days if you guys want to see me vlog this as well I think once we get into november I'm, definitely going to film a winter morning routine a winter night routine and like a work with me study with me video Okay, so my perfect morning routine starts off by having no phone for the first like hour of the day Okay, that's going to be my goal.

I'm going to wake up around 7 a.m. 8 a.m And I'm going to put my phone on the other side of the room because I want to have to actually get up And go reach my phone because the times when I do that I actually wake up way faster than when it's right by my ear and I just silently snooze it a tip for this is to wake Up consistently every single day because it becomes so much easier to wake up at that time And also I saw somebody say that when you're making a morning routine make the first hour of it fun Make it something that you want to get up for because sometimes I have work planned out the minute I open my eyes like i'll open my eyes and run to my desk because I forgot to hand something in and that doesn't make you very motivated. In fact that makes me want to stay in bed and never get up. So if you make the first bit of your day something fun like getting your coffee or going on a walk then you'll actually be more inclined to waking up. I'm going to wake up and then I'm going to pull out my journal.

I'm going to write the things that I'm grateful for that morning. I'm going to revisit my to-do list that I wrote the night before and I'm going to write out some affirmations. Then I'm going to play music I enjoy. I know that overstimulation isn't ideal. and that we should be okay with being in silence but when i'm just trying to get out of my procrastination slump we're gonna try to do every little thing that i know is gonna make me more excited and happy okay so if that means playing some spanish music or playing some loud electronic music or playing some pop sounds or playing some indie rock like whatever it is first thing in the Morning as my soundtrack for the rest of my morning routine, that's what I'm gonna do So I'm gonna play some music then I'm gonna go to the bathroom.

This is what I do every morning I always wash my face do my skincare. I just feel so much more prepared for the day I make sure to add my SPF and then I'm gonna go to the kitchen drink my water a big glass I'm gonna have my vitamins because those make me feel better and being taken care of on the inside will make everything better on the outside. And also side note with that, if you're trying to revamp yourself and get productive, I would highly recommend getting your blood taken, just going to the doctors in general, because for all you know, you may be like iron deficient or just have deficiencies in general, which will overall make an impact on how productive you are and your day-to-day life, because you might not even be feeling your best and it might not even be your fault. It might be that you just don't even have enough iron in you, for example.

The next thing I love to do is to ice my face so that I start to de-puff and I also make myself some green tea Which is great for waking yourself up because it's caffeinated but not too intensely You can also make yourself a coffee or a matcha just a morning drink The next thing is to open the window and look in the sun and actually get some sunlight I think that is one of the biggest tips that like, uh, what's his name? Huberman like all the health and wellness podcasts tell you to do Sun is so important for yourself and especially in the winter time. I mean I will definitely be taking some vitamin D this season, but I know that when those days have some sun I better get my face in there and get some sunlight because that is proven to make you happier It is proven to regulate your circadian rhythm and to say hello It's morning time to do work The other thing I want to talk about is the fact that if you are a little dopamine gremlin sometimes and you're searching for quick ways to get dopamine like scrolling or eating junk food or having sugar or just doing things that require instant gratification, we need to rewire our brains into doing things that produce dopamine naturally.

So this is like achieving those tasks. So I saw someone say online that if you wake up in the morning and you do those dopamine-inducing tasks, first thing that don't involve your phone, it kind of sets the tone for the day. So for me, this may be cleaning up my kitchen a little bit or doing my bed.

Just do one little task. It doesn't even have to be longer than 10 minutes, just something to say, hey, I'm gonna do this. Oh my gosh, I already did something and it's only 30 minutes after I woke up Then the last two things that I want to do in my morning routine is to get dressed Maybe put some active wear on and do a little 10-minute meditation a while ago probably last year this time I got really into meditation and I was getting good at it too. Like I was not even doing a guided meditation I was doing meditation with frequency music and I was starting to like I think I was levitating like low-key My fingers were starting to get tingly like I was looking into my my pineal gland, which like if you're spiritual or like you know about the brain, you know what I mean?

Like I was starting to see color with my eyes closed. So I need to get back into that. Now after all that, that is all my no phone activities. I'm going to get my phone, okay?

This is maybe at like 9 a.m. when the workday starts. And I'm going to answer any texts, any emails, or anything that I need to hand in regarding work.

This shouldn't take too long then right after that i'm going to work out. Okay. I've already gotten dressed I've already done my morning routine. It's time to get those morning endorphins I don't know about you guys But I need to work out in the day because otherwise if it doesn't happen like first thing it's just not happening If this for you means that you want to go to pilates and be a pink pilates princess If it means you're going weightlifting or walking or whatever it is do the workout that makes you feel excited and you feel productive Also doing exercise literally is proven to make you more productive because you already like release serotonin and you just have the ball rolling So if we're talking about productivity, we have to talk about working out And then after that I can just check my to-do list and go on with my day Usually I eat my breakfast at around 12 But definitely having a nutritious breakfast and lunch and dinner is going to also help you be more productive And also if you have time like on a sunday to do some meal prep for the rest of the week you'll be so much more likely to actually eat healthy and stay on top of it during the week because you already have food made. Now, this is the morning routine that I have as someone who is like a podcaster, YouTuber, self-employed, whatever.

If you have a nine to five, you can adjust this however you want. You can maybe wake up at seven, wake up at eight, and maybe only do three of these things. You know, everyone's routine is going to look a little bit different.

And sometimes I see people make a long-winded morning routine and the comments are gonna be like uh this isn't realistic for anybody like I wake up 10 minutes before I start I wake up four minutes before I start it's not a competition for how little someone does or how much someone does just do whatever is going to make you more productive and you can't lie to yourself if you say that someone's hour morning routine is unrealistic but you wake up 10 minutes before your morning you must know deep down that that's probably not the most productive you can have or the most that you can do with who you are. I think we all have a little bit more in us and more discipline than we think we do. And one last tip I have is that when you eat your breakfast, try to avoid carbs because they make you feel tired.

Now, I don't mean avoid. Carbs in general or even for lunch or for dinner or before a big run or something But this is just what i've heard When you are trying to be more productive having carbs first thing in the morning or a sugary breakfast is just gonna make you feel tired We don't wanna I think it's called like spike or insulin This could be so wrong, but like having sugar first thing in the morning speaking of the middle of the day This is the work chunk This could be you working your nine to five. This could be you going to school This could be you having a study day at a cafe or this could be me I do a lot of like admin work or editing. These are work tips to help you be more productive These are also ones that really help me so the first one is going to coffee shops and doing the tasks with someone else or Body doubling as I said earlier. I'm not like diagnosed with adhd or by any means but I feel like I have so many tendencies of somebody with ADHD that I almost might have it.

And one of the things that is a tip for people with ADHD is to do body doubling, which it says here online, body doubling is a tool some adults use to help them start and complete projects, sometimes referred to as an accountability partner. It is a technique for better productivity. A body double is a friend or partner who works simultaneously either in the same room or virtually through video chat platforms. Whether you have adhd or you don't I feel like this is a helpful tip for whoever especially if you get distracted easily And you know now looking back I never realized that this is actually something that I grew up doing with my dad Which is maybe why I crave to do it But like when I was younger in middle school in elementary school literally high school for every single year Whenever I would do my homework I would sit beside my dad because he works from home and we would do our work beside each other and It made me so much more productive because I felt like somebody was watching me And I couldn't just slack off and be on my phone because he would keep me accountable and say fernando What the heck hell are you doing so if you have a friend to do this with it is so helpful but even if you don't have a friend and you just go to a coffee shop and there's other people there working sometimes i like you know okay this might be like a little main character syndrome but i'm like oh my god everyone's looking at me like i can't be just on my phone i can't be slacking off i gotta make sure people know that i'm doing my work so like that genuinely helps me also working at coffee shops in general just gets you out of your home environment which i feel like can sometimes have a lot of distractions for me sometimes i get up from my desk i go lay down I go get some food. I go, I don't know, play VR.

That's literally what I did yesterday. Versus when I'm at a coffee shop, I'm like, girl, I am sat. There's nowhere for me to go. So going to coffee shops can be very helpful. Or maybe study, study groups.

Or like maybe your school has a little workroom or a library, wherever it is. Also, please do not knock this until you try it. My mom does some like work from home sometimes. And she...

She... was saying how it was super distracting to be at home and I told her I'm like mom go to a cafe and she's like you know what I think I am gonna start doing this because it's really distracting being at home so even if you're older than me just try it it's actually so helpful and you get to have a little treat which is my next little tip and it is to have positive reinforcement sometimes when I go to coffee shops I tell myself okay I got here I opened my book I'm not gonna order a drink until it's been two hours of me working so then I work really hard for those two hours because I'm so excited for my drink Another way to do this is using leisure activities such as social media and entertainment as a reward after completing your tasks. So maybe you do work for an hour and then you get to scroll on your phone for like 10-15 minutes. Another productivity tip for working is to prioritize your tasks. A lot of times I have a tendency of doing all my easiest tasks first because I think that that's more fun.

But I think that there is an actual habit. It's called like bite the frog or something. I could be saying that wrong or eat the frog.

And it means to do your hardest work first. Identify the most important tasks and prioritize those. I saw a method online It's called the Eisenhower matrix and I'm gonna explain to you what that is This is gonna be so confusing but you categorize tasks into urgent important not urgent important urgent Not important and not urgent not important. I hope that made sense I'm definitely gonna do that task the next time I do my work The other thing you can do is make a to-do list which I always do when I first sit down at my desk Then that way you can keep track of everything that needs to get done and break tasks into manageable steps Another tip for being more productive when you're actually working is to work in a clean environment And to also get rid and eliminate distractions If you know what hinders you when you do your work Like maybe it's all the pens that you have on your desk or maybe it's your phone or you're in a very loud environment if you can identify those things that put you behind, try to eliminate those at first before you even start doing your work and just staying in a clutter-free environment so that you can stay focused and actually get your work done.

Another two tips that are obvious but I feel like they're important to know when we talk about productivity. The first one is to take breaks to prevent burnout. For me, sometimes I'll go on my computer and I'll search up like a one hour timer or something or 25 minute timer and I just get so much more work done when I'm under pressure like that.

And then when that timer goes up, I'll have a little break, maybe to eat some snacks or to, I don't know, maybe draw a little bit. It makes me work for so much longer. And especially when I'm at a cafe and I'm with a friend, usually these breaks will be like... Little socializing talking breaks which really gets me excited to stay working and it makes me work for so much longer Another tip that I found online here is to use the two-minute rule if a task takes less than two minutes to complete Do it immediately this prevents small tasks from piling up I feel like this is especially good for people that tend to procrastinate because sometimes things that are really easy I can build a wall up in my head and think that it's the hardest task ever like literally replying to a text And I will avoid it and avoid it and avoid it and avoid it until I feel like it's just unmanageable when realistically it would probably take less than two minutes and I should probably just get it done.

Another tip that revolves around your workspace is to create a positive workspace. This is one that has warm lighting. Maybe you have water surrounding you, like you have all your drinks around you.

You're comfortable. Just make it a place that you can actually romanticize. Maybe even play some background music. I love playing like frequency or focus music. I feel like that really gets me in the zone.

And another tip regarding minimizing distractions is to physically block off apps from your phone if that's what you need to do to stop scrolling and stop just wasting time. And also turning your phone onto sleep mode or work mode. Then nobody can text you and also just turning off your notifications I honestly don't have like any notifications on my phone and I feel like that really Makes me feel less distracted and the last tip that I have regarding work is to create deadlines for yourself Now obviously obviously obviously this is a given, you know, your teachers your work people your boss may give you deadlines But sometimes it's even helpful to make deadlines for yourself to keep yourself accountable For example when I started my podcast, I remember it being like march 1st and I made a deadline to myself I am going to post my podcast on March 20th and I even posted it online for all my followers to see so that they would have to keep me accountable if I didn't post on March 20th.

And if I hadn't done that, I probably wouldn't have even gotten my podcast out on time, let alone gotten it up. So I feel like that was really helpful for me. Those were all my tips for actually getting my work and being more productive while I do that. And then the last thing I want to talk about is my perfect night routine for productivity. After I do all my work in the day, hopefully I'm done with that.

And that doesn't just mean lay on your couch and you know Do nothing for the rest of the night until you have to roll into bed and your bed's not made like that's not the vibe Either my perfect night routine is going to be one where I stop eating around 9 p.m You know no more little late night snacking. I maybe take some magnesium which helps you relax and go to bed faster I put my pjs on I do all my bathroom stuff like taking out my contacts washing my face doing my skincare And then I make a to-do list before bed for the following day I used to do this all the time and it was honestly so helpful for me so I really need to get back into it because Whenever I go into a day not knowing what i'm doing that day I feel like I waste so much time and i'm really my least productive version of myself Like I don't even know what i'm doing. I'm walking around like a zombie. I Turn into that adhd paralysis mode where you don't know what to do So you do nothing and you just waste like hours on end in order to avoid that I am going to make my to-do list before I go to bed And then maybe do some last little journaling and then just going to bed at like 11 p.m Put in some frequency music closing my eyes and saying good night world. I'm waking up in eight hours So yeah, that's my perfect night routine.

The last two things that I wanted to speak on were recommendations for my followers So I want to just say those quickly for productivity The first tip is to hang out with people that have a similar mindset or similar goals as you This way you guys can inspire each other and it's actually so easy to get what you want to do done You guys will want to do the same things do the same hobbies You guys will talk about the same things. Maybe you'll be reading the same things, listening to the same podcasts, et cetera. This really helped me this year, making a friend that lived really close to me because we would go to the gym and we would work together all the time.

The other tip that so many of my viewers gave to me, which is an obvious one, but I don't even wanna say, I don't even wanna accept it, but it's just to say no to more plans. It is so important to practice saying no to plans that don't align with your goals and values, and you just need to be able to politely decline additional commitments that might overload your schedule. As said, I have a habit of saying yes to everything.

I love being social. I love going out. I love partying and seeing my friends, but it all has a time. And there are some times where you have to lock in and be productive and just get your shit done.

I remember a friend of mine always posting on his socials that he was going into monk mode. And this is giving entrepreneur people that are like so intense about work. Probably a little bit different than like a youtuber girly pop that's like posting here and there her whole life on social media But he was saying that like he would go for periods where he was social he was partying He was going out staying up late being fun making those memories and then switching off and going into monk mode Which for him was like a mode where he's working for 10 hours a day. He is not drinking alcohol. He's not partying He's not seeing friends and he just grinds for like a month and that one month sets him forward like five months and then all the rest of the months after that he can just have fun be with his friends do whatever but you have to sit down for that month and just really grind and i feel like i know that this is true in the sense that when i started my youtube channel for that first year that I started, it was during the pandemic, that could have been considered my grind mode.

Like all I was doing was editing, posting videos, filming, editing, posting videos, and then I got to reap the rewards of that the following year when COVID stopped, and I got to travel, and I got to do all this fun stuff, and I think I've been taking advantage of that fun time and continuously doing that and just having way too much fun when it's like, let's go back to monk mode, okay? So... take that as you will another way that I like to say this is going into my uh mini cut seasons which if you know people that do bodybuilding they'll go into like a cut season they like intensely diet intensely work out intensely do cardio that is unrealistic for me nine months out of the year ten months out of the year but two weeks before I go on a trip I might go into a mini cut season and I'll start eating really healthy I'll work out I'll do my cardio, I'll prioritize my health, and then I feel great when I'm on vacation. If right now is a working period for you guys, that is okay. It is important.

We need these times to enjoy and reap the rewards. So I'm telling you this now, guys. If you wanna start the 75 hard, if you don't know what that is, that's like a little challenge where you do all these healthy habits, and it takes 75 days.

You can search it up online. I've honestly never done it, so I don't know it to its fullest extent. But if you start the 75 hard now, you'll be done by like January. Third or something whatever fifth.

I don't even know let's all together I'm saying this me and you because I gotta get my shit together, too Let's go into monk mode for november Okay, and then we can reap the rewards when christmas time comes around or maybe when your finals are done Or when you go on season break, let's just do our hardest to work hard now really set ourselves up for success and to stop coast riding on laziness. Like that's truly what it is and we do not want to become complacent. We do not want to get comfortable being the version of ourselves that just is getting by.

We do not want to be the version of ourselves that is missing deadlines, is missing the goals that they wanted to get done just because they didn't take themselves seriously. Like honestly, that is embarrassing and I'm giving you guys the tough love because I need the tough love. I am telling myself, Fernanda, enough is enough. We are turning a new leaf.

And if I don't get my goals done by the end of the year, I will be so disappointed in myself Hopefully we're on the same page. Let's go into our super aesthetic pilates princess ballet core girly pop productive monk mode That's so funny girly pop meets monk mode. That's what i'm calling this season Anyways, I love you guys. That is the end of today's episode i'm speaking so fast because I need to leave right now for a Cycling class that I booked myself an hour ago.

Um, I love you guys. I'll talk to you guys later

Transcript for:Transforming into a Productive Season

Transcript for:
Transforming into a Productive Season