Podcast 3: Time Saving Tricks

Welcome back to the hosted by Holly podcast. We are on episode three and stepping into a new month. So that today is going to be a little bit different. We're go and reflect on January. And we're going to talk about some of my monthly favorites and how it can help you in the future. Let's get into it.

I don't know about you, but January was a pretty jam packed month with new commitments and saying yes to new things. Be excited about new goals, new year, the list goes on and on. And while I was trying to think about what I could talk about for this podcast, I really struggled. I have a great lineup for us in February.

We've got my friend, Christine Fiorini from the Love of C. We've got Asia, which heart coming on board. We've got my best friend led coming to chat about, um, Friendships and the evolving dynamics of how you walk through seasons of life together. And it's really exciting to look at February's calendar, but somehow I missed February 1st and I don't didn't have a plan, but looking back at what came up for me, I was curating my monthly favorite bot blog post.

Um, if you've been around the block for a while, you know that I do a monthly. Roundup. And as I was curating, I noticed there was a theme and a lot of it was about protecting my time, how I use my time and what I'm spending time and money on. And that kind of brought me back on a roundabout way of the first episode, where I talked about boundaries and I want to try really hard this year and remove the word busy from my vocabulary.

And I think it's because we often use busy. Protective word people accept it and associate it with don't ask further questions. And if we say we're busy, it kind of stops the conversation. Whereas if we say it's not a priority, we run the risk of people getting offended. Um, if you want more kind of talk on boundaries, we can go listen to episode one, but today I want to share with you my monthly favorites and do a little bit of a twist, but I also want to share with you.

How it involves my time and how I'm protecting my time, or at least learning to protect my time and how that affects everything around me and my calendar. And it's okay to have a blank spot. I'm giving you full permission to just allow yourself to have a blank spot on your calendar and fill it with something you look forward to.

So, first things first as promised. Every hosted by Holly episode has a recipe. And this is no exception, even though it's just me talking, I do have something for you. And this is really special. This is from a cocktail club subscription box. This is not a promo. Unfortunately I have a promo code for you, but it is something that I've been trying for the past couple of months.

And I've been loving. I'm a bit of a cocktail fan and. This is a unique one. So I got permission to share this recipe with you. It's called new horizons and is a gin based drink, which if you know me, my two go-to cocktails or either Jen or bourbon based. And so this gen cocktail has time yuzu, lemon and club soda.

And the box is. Comes with all the things you need. You just add the liquor when it arrives. So it came with the lemon, the fresh time, the Cypress bitters, and the club soda ready for you to make it together. And if you were like me, I was doing 21 days of prayer and fasting. So I fasted alcohol and coffee.

And on day 23, I have no coffee. So say a prayer for me, cause man, I'm craving a coffee, but this drink is delicious without the alcohol as well. You just double your San Pellegrino and it's the right amount of sweet and bitter and tart and oh, it's so refreshing. So check out the new horizons recipe. And if you're looking for either a gift for yourself or a gift for someone else, check out.

Cocktail club. I will tag them in the show notes and in the blog post, of course now another subscription or which I do have a promo code for you is hello, fresh. Hello, fresh for me as a time saver and a money saver. And I've gone back and forth on trying to figure out if it actually does save me. Cause I know, um, food services can seem quite costly, but here is my reasoning for doing HelloFresh.

It not only saves me time going to the grocery store and trying to meal plan and think what I want to cook. But if you're like me, I'm a PC points guy. I love stocking at my points, but I also like detouring by the Joe fresh and getting some clothes and the homeware and all of a sudden, my $20 bill is 200 and I don't know how that happened.

Whereas with hello fresh, I'm always sure. Certain I'm going to get my three meals, two portions per meal, and I'm set to go. And as a single with my sort of appetite. I can sometimes stretch it to nine meals. I can do six dinners and three lunches. And so for me, this really sets me up for the week and I pick the 30 minute meals.

They're quick, they're easy. And I look forward to it. Now I do from time to time, skip over. The meals, because I don't get excited about what I'm, what they have to offer, which is what I love about it, because I've always said this I've been using HelloFresh since I was a flight attendant. And I'm, if I'm not excited about what I'm going to make, I'm not going to make it.

And it's going to end up being wasteful or I'm going to end up ordering something else, which is going to cost me even more money. So using the skip option as a group, Way to kind of test the hello fresh, see if you like it and then skip over it. But that's one way I protect my time is not going to the grocery store every week and getting food delivered.

Now I have a coupon code for you to get $90 off your first three boxes, but I'm sure if you know, someone's. That has had a hell of fresh. You can ask them for their referral code too, but that's just some thing I protect my time with lately has been ordering in HelloFresh rather than using skip door dash or eating peanut butter and toast for the fourth day in a row.

Now another way I've been protecting my time recently has been through the grow app. My friend introduced this to me on one of our morning walks. We go for a walk every Thursday morning. We've been doing it since about October, just as a mental check-in time from away from the screen. And. Getting some fresh air and exercise, as well as checking in with someone to see how you're really doing.

And it's just good for the heart soul and mind to be a way out of your environment and getting that fresh air. And even though it's freezing cold right now, but we were talking about screen time and how we feel like we could be a lot more efficient if we could just narrow in and focus and stop checking all sorts of different things.

Every time we pick up our phone. So she introduced me to the grow app. I've used it a couple of times and I really like it. And here's why I average about a hundred pickups a day. So I pick up my phone a hundred times a day and I have about seven to nine hours of screen time a day. Yes. Part of that is for work, but so most of it is just aimlessly, scrolling, Instagram, social media, whatever else I'm doing.

So the grow app is designed to be a timer for you. And as you set your time, right, a little seed, digital seed grows, and it turns into a tree as the time runs out. However, if you exit that screen within that timeframe, it will ask you if you want to stop the tree from growing. And if you hit, yes, it will let you know.

It will say. Holly killed this tree or whatever your name is killed this tree. And you feel kind of guilty. It's a digital tree, but you still kind of feel like, oh, I should have just kept it going. And so it's a good way as a good visual indicator to remind you and to stay on task, stay focused. Don't touch the screen.

The world is going to continue. And it also works if you're in a group setting and you're prone to checking your phone or social media, and you really want to be engaged with the group you're with, it's a great way to set that timer, put it aside and not have that distraction. Something else I've been thinking of lately is we always hear you vote with your dollar, but we also vote with our time and.

I am trying to be very strategic on how I spend my time, what I'm investing in. What am I listening to? How does that make me feel after a conversation or after I've listened to something after I've watched something? I think we get really caught up in, oh, well it only costs me X, but what was the effort?

What was the time? What was the pursuit behind that? And whether it's in a relationship or business structure, Or whatever it is take inventory of not just the money you've put behind it, but the time it takes you to Excel on something, just because it's your zone of genius or you are excellent at creating graphics or a storyline doesn't mean it's not as valuable.

You need to honor that space in that time you've put in and the gift that you have. And it's okay to say, this is my level of value for the time, just because it would take you four hours. And it only takes me an hour. Doesn't mean my hour is less thing or four hours. And that's something I've been working with.

I've been restructuring my own branding and my own, um, packages to really find out what people are needing and how I can best help them. While still valuing their time and money and my time and money and how we can all work together. I'm not great at this yet. I am working on it and that is exchanging my Netflix and my TV time for some book time.

But I will say. The one book. I mentioned this in a January email, but the one book I've been really loving lately is the, you've got this by Melissa Horvath, 90 devotions to equip and empower hardworking women. And I just think it's so good because the one the other day was time well spent. And at the end it says, I challenge you to put down your phone and start living and creating memories outside of this.

Take a walk outside, looked at the sunshine, grab a coffee with a friend let's reduce screen time and increase real FaceTime with others. We don't want to conform to the world, but look to the one above. And that is rooted in first, John two 15 to 17, and it just was a conviction. What am I spending my time on?

What am I absorbing? How am I learning? And. February. I'm really excited to bring in Christine from the love of C to talk about self love and self care. And I had a coaching call with her a couple of weeks ago, and we talked about how I'm not great at celebrating the, the moments. And I always look to the next thing and she challenged me to start writing little things in a jar each day.

Of my little wins and what can I do to treat myself and to honor myself each week and give myself that dose of love that we're so quick to move on to the next thing and give ourselves time to rest and rejuvenate. And we have Asia coming up. Later this month to talk about how we're going to protect our energy and how we can grow and expand without burning.

And I really look forward to this month with you and thank you for listening to the hosted by Holly podcast. We'll see you next week. And remember you have been divinely created.