transcript

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[00:00] Hey, it's your friend Mel, and welcome to The Mel Robbins Podcast. I have been dying to talk to you. I'm so excited that you're here today because I have a hilarious story to tell you about what happened at work the other day. This is going to explain why your life, why my life, why it just feels harder than it should, and more importantly, what we're going to do about it. So first, the story. So we're all having lunch, and Cameron, one of our amazing producers here at 143 Studios, turns to us all and is like, so check this out you guys, my TV remote stopped working, and she was kind of laughing as she was telling the story, and she said, so I open up the back and the batteries, they're dead. But she went to look for AA batteries, and she couldn't find any. So what did she do? Well, she did what you and I do. Instead of buying new batteries, she took batteries out of her keyboard and put them into a remote control. Problem solved, right? Because now the remote works, but her keyboard doesn't. So now Cameron's laughing at herself as she's explaining that she basically walks around home with the only two AA working batteries in her pocket. She moves them from the remote to her flameless candles, to her bathroom scale, back to the keyboard. She's just popping them in and popping them out. And we're all laughing because we've all done this. I bet you have a story like this. We all do. We all have stories about needing to go to the DMV or calling your credit card company and being on hold for two hours or having an overdue appointment that never gets scheduled. Or you've got this pile of shame where you've got Amazon returns that have taken up permanent residence in a corner of your house. These are these tasks that are called life admin. This is what it feels like when the administrative aspects of your and my life gets out of control. Because we're not stopping to fix the problems, we're just moving them around. Like the batteries in Cameron's pocket. You're moving the stress from one room to another, from one day to another, from one year to another. This stuff just follows you everywhere. It's almost like you and I have an invisible backpack of stress because we never run the errand. We never make the call. Or worse, you try to make the call on your lunch break only to find that the doctor's office is closed during the lunch break. You're spending more time and energy staying behind than doing the actual thing that gets you ahead. And then what happens? The weekend comes and it doesn't even feel fun because half of your brain is still tracking all the things that you didn't get to do during the week. So here's what we're going to do today. First of all, I'm going to tell you this is normal. We are all struggling with life admin. We are buried alive under our bills and battery boxes and receipts and phone calls we need to make. And today, we're going to fix that. Today I'm going to show you how to take one weekday and finally deal with this. You are going to get on top of your life again. Because today on The Mel Robbins Podcast, you and I are doing the perfect life admin day. Did you know that you can buy your car completely online on AutoTrader? Really, just go to autotrader.com and get picky. Search through dealer listings for the make, model, color, all the features that matter. Then all you need to do is drop in your info and you'll only see cars that fit your budget. Really, once you find the one, do the whole deal online and either pick the car up at the dealership or have it delivered right to your driveway. AutoTrader, buy your car online. Really. Hey, you could be earning 2% daily cash back on that purchase. And that one. And even that one. That's because Apple Card users earn 2% daily cash back on every purchase, including everyday items you buy online or in store when using their Apple Card with Apple Pay. Not an Apple Card customer? You can apply in the Wallet app on iPhone. Subject to credit approval, Apple Card issued by Goldman Sachs Bank USA, Salt Lake City branch, terms and more at apple.co. The Mel Robbins Podcast is proudly sponsored by Amica Insurance, our exclusive insurance partner. You know when someone finishes your sentence because they already understood what you needed? That's what working with Amica feels like. They don't guess. They don't assume. They take the time to understand what you're trying to protect and why it matters. Most companies talk, talk, talk about putting customers first. Amica really does it. You feel it in the way they listen, the way they follow through, the way they treat you. As a customer-owned company, Amica puts your needs first. Visit amica.com and get a quote today. Hey, it's your friend Mel, and welcome to The Mel Robbins Podcast. I have been dying to talk to you. I am so excited that you're here. It's always an honor to be able to spend this time and to be together with you. And if you're a new listener, or you're here because somebody shared this with you, and I think this is gonna be one of these episodes that a lot of people get texted to them, I just wanna take a moment and personally welcome you to The Mel Robbins Podcast family. You have picked an incredible podcast to listen to or watch because today, you and I are gonna do the perfect life admin day together. I have thought about this, my team and I have unpacked this, we are gonna help you take all the invisible stuff that is quietly driving you crazy, that is making your life harder than it needs to be. I'm talking about the calls you haven't made, the appointments you keep putting off, the errands that live in the back of your mind and steal your energy, even when you're trying to relax, we all have the things that are piling up and driving us crazy that we can't get to. And so here at 143 Studios, we call those kinds of things life admin. And so here's what we're gonna do. I'm gonna show you how to trade one weekday, and you're gonna finally deal with all this because you're gonna have this stuff handled just one focused day. I call it a life admin day. And if you're sitting there going, okay, well, what exactly is a life admin day? It's exactly as it sounds. It's one day that you schedule, that you take for yourself, not seeing you go on vacation, not to just kind of relax on the couch, not to run errands for everybody else, not to clean the house, but one day that you are going to dedicate on purpose to getting absolutely everything that is piling up in the corners or riding around in the back of your car waiting to be dropped off somewhere or sitting on the countertops or nagging you in the back of your mind. One day to attack it all. And here are some examples of what I'm talking about. These are things that people on my team said, oh my gosh, this is what I would use the life admin day. That standing desk that's still in the box. I need to set it up. Broken boots that you think about every morning, but you haven't gotten them to the cobbler. A Wi-Fi router. You got one of those? That has moved apartments with you twice. Amazon returns or returns that you can no longer return because they've been sitting in the corner waiting to be returned that they're past the day to return. Picture frames that need pictures. Birthday cards that haven't been sent. For those of us in the US, the real ID, that ID that none of us have, 90% of people don't even have this thing and you need it to get on a plane. That's what this day is for. It's for appointments. It's for the phone calls you don't have time to make. And I promise you, if you can just commit one day of your life on purpose this entire year to plowing through all of these administrative tasks that drive you crazy and take up space in your mind and ruin your weekends because no one else is going to do it, holy cow, you are going to feel on top of the world. You're going to get your weekends back because you're not going to have to spend your weekends trying to fit all this stuff in. And in just a minute, I am going to teach you a very specific five-part framework that you will follow on this one intentional day that you're about to schedule for yourself. Here are some of the payoffs from just one day. You will schedule between six and twelve overdue appointment or tasks. And I'm going to teach you a simple trick so that you don't have to think about them again for the rest of the year. I'm talking about your hair appointments, your nails, your dentist, your doctor, the veterinarian, all those appointments for the next year. You will check off between ten to twenty open items. I'm talking returns, repairs, things that need to get mailed, stuff that needs to get fixed. You will eliminate, like bye-bye, between two and five things that just annoy you every day. You know the missing light bulb, the batteries, the second set of keys that need to be made? You know what I'm talking about. You think about it once a day. You're going to handle three to five things that you've avoided for months. Whether that's a DMV appointment, it's paying for a bill, it's calling the doctor's office, it's talking to your health insurance, and you're going to free up future weekends and evenings. And most importantly, by simply taking this one intentional day and following the five step framework that I'm about to teach you, you're going to feel capable. You're going to feel back on top of your life again. You're going to get so much brain space and peace back, so let's get into the specifics. Okay, the first step of the life admin day process is just pick a day. And the day that I recommend that you dedicate to doing life admin, if you can, is Monday. So I do want you to open up the calendar. If you're driving, don't do that right now, but maybe think ahead. You can come back and listen to this when you have your calendar open. Open up a calendar, look at the next couple of weeks, pick a day. Pick a day on purpose that you're going to designate as your life admin day. I mean, Valentine's has a day, St. Patrick's has a day, Groundhog has a day. You get to have a life admin day. And so I want you to pick it. And so I know you may be thinking, well, hold on, Mel, you're saying I got to take a day? Yes, you have to take a day. And you may be thinking to yourself, I don't have time to take a day. And so let me just address this notion that you don't have time to take a day. To address things that are piling up and making you feel like you're behind in life and stressed out. I mean, you might be struggling financially right now, and you're working a bunch of different jobs and you say, well, I can't afford to take a day. Or you're constantly spending your time caregiving or you're mourning, or you're going through a setback or diagnosis. And so you already feel beaten down. And life admin just feels like another mountain that you don't even have the energy to climb. And so let me speak directly to you, if this is you. Avoiding all of this because it feels hard and overwhelming just makes it worse. It really does. You can handle this because simply saying, I'm going to block off my calendar. I'm going to remove the distractions and I'm going to dig in. I'm going to open up these bills even though I'm scared to. I'm going to make the phone calls even though I'm confronted by it. I'm going to find the time to get to the DMV or to get my new license or whatever it may be. Simply doing that signals to you, to your brain, to your life, hey, there's a lot going on, but I'm still in charge. Before I walk you through how you are going to move through your life admin day to get the most stuff done and to feel the best by the end of it, I got to cover some ground rules because the ground rules also expose the mistakes that I've made in the past when I've tried to take a day to get on top of stuff. These are ground rules that are mandatory, okay? So ground rule number one, your designated life admin day is not a decluttering day. You are not allowed to organize closets or sort through doors or do a spring cleaning. Decluttering distracts you because decluttering is this thing that feels really productive as you're moving stuff around and you're making the drawer really pretty. But it's a trap because even if the drawer is pretty, you still don't have any batteries, you still have bills to pay, you still don't have an appointment for your hair or your kid's wellness appointment, you still have cable boxes to return, you still have a bag of clothing that needs to be dropped off that's been in the back of your car for five months. And so it's stealing your energy, and this is energy that you need in order to finish all the life admin stuff you've been putting off. So rule number one, no decluttering. Don't even think about it. Ground rule number two, try to get your house or apartment as quiet and as empty as you can. If it's possible for you to be alone, I mean, what a luxury, I get it. But if you can be alone, no people, no pets, no nobody that needs your time right now. The day works for life admin if you can stay focused and uninterrupted. I just want you to make space to be able to do the five steps. Ground rule number three, this is your life admin day. And so your life admin day is about you. And the way that I'm going to walk you through these five steps, you need to think about yourself first. Then you're going to think about other people. Because you already try to handle everybody else's administrative stuff first. And that's why you run out of energy before you can get to your own. The reason why the life admin day in these five steps that I'm going to walk you through is going to work. Because we're going to focus on you. And the final ground rule, there's absolutely no shame, no moral judgment. When it comes to when you take the life admin day, how you take the life admin day, what you're going to be digging into during your life admin day, a life admin day is for you. And so by making the time, even though it may feel overwhelming, you are saying to yourself, I feel capable. I am capable of handling this. And you will feel better simply by scheduling the day. All right, are you ready? You're ready to walk through how exactly we do the life admin day now that you've got your day scheduled. First of all, you're going to do a brain dump the day or the night before the perfect life admin day. It's as simple as it sounds. You're going to take everything that is on your mind and you are going to dump it onto a piece of paper. Everything that's unfinished, everything that's bothering you, everything that is piled up somewhere in your house, every errand that you keep meaning to run, everything you keep meaning to return. In fact, as we were preparing this episode, I was laughing with our senior producer Amy and I'm like, Amy, when you come over to tape this thing tomorrow, I want you to look to the right. When you walk in our front door and you are going to see a clear trash bag that is full of summer clothes that have not fit me in a decade. They are sitting there and by the way, they are on the floor under where the long coats are hung because I'm kind of hiding them. It's been there for four months. You know what I did yesterday because I was embarrassed once I told her, I actually moved it to the garage. Now, that's not life admin. That is moving my problems around and not actually fixing anything. Every time I walk past that clear plastic bag, you know what I say? Then I also see the purple, I've got this like sundress in there that's like a light lavender with a dark purple stripe and it reminds me of the summer that I was really thin 10 years ago, before menopause and then I'm like, and then I think about how much money I spent on that stupid thing and then I feel like I only wore it three times and then I feel conflicted and then I keep walking and then donate summer clothes, goes back up into my mind but not when you do a brain dump. Because if it lives in the paper, it actually can die in your head. There's some really interesting research that explains why this works. If you're watching on YouTube, I am holding up the research from Baylor University. This is such a fascinating study. Let me tell you about it because I love this study. We've talked about it before. So this is right here from the director of the study. He's talking about, this is Michael K. Scullin, who's got a PhD. He's the director of Baylor Sleep Neuroscience and Cognitive Laboratory. And he says, we live in a 24-7 culture in which our to-do lists seem to be constantly growing and causing us to worry about unfinished tasks at bedtime. And most people just cycle through their to-do lists in their heads, so they wanted to explore in this study whether the act of writing down all the unfinished things that were on your to-do list before you go to bed, if it had any impact on your ability to go to sleep. Now, here's what they found. This is super fascinating and it shows you the power of writing down everything in your mind that you're currently holding on to. They found that writing a to-do list offloads all of those thoughts that are up in your mind and it reduces worry. And they found in this study that when people would write down their to-do list, they would fall asleep faster. And they tested this against a control group that was writing down all the things they did. So you write down all the things you did do right, blah, blah, blah, blah, all the things that you got done. And then the other group wrote down, they did a brain dump. What are all the things that I'm still worried about? What are all the things that I have left to do? It was the group that wrote down their to-do list that wasn't finished that fell asleep faster. Why? Because putting it on paper allows it to live on the paper and it erases the worry in your mind because you have it on the paper. And so that's what we're gonna do in phase one. You're just going to write down all of the things that are bothering you. And feel free to walk around your house. Walk around your house, look in the garage if you have one, look in your car, what are all the things that you need to do that are bothering you, the bills that are stacked up, the returns that you don't have time for. Just keep writing them down. You can do this throughout the day before because things are going to keep coming up. Let me give you some examples of things that our team currently have on their brain dump. They have to attack on their life admin day. You ready for these? Okay. Ben has an air fryer that he's ordered but he's too tired to put it together. So for a couple months he just keeps looking at it and ordering takeout. Jesse has a car registration that's two years late. I guess this is her version of gambling every time she drives because you could, Jesse, you could get a ticket, an expensive one for crying out loud. Here's another one. Tracy has a LabCorp bill from two years ago that she needs to do something with but she can't figure out the LabCorp login. When you really stop and think about it, what is this going to take? Ten minutes and we've been carrying this stuff around for months and years. A doctor who needs a copy of a scan that you got and you've been putting it off for a year, there's a picture that you need to hang in your bathroom that's framed. Good job you got it framed but it's still sitting. Actually, I just thought of another thing. I bought the cutest little hook thing for keys. It's brass, it goes with everything, it's in the entry. Do you know where it is? It has been sitting on top of my grandmother's cabinet, three inches from where it needs to go with the screws, with my keys on top of it for probably, what, three months you guys have seen it laying there? As if some magical fairy is going to come and put it up for me? Oh my God, a walking pad. Another person on our team ordered a walking pad four months ago. Guess where it is? In the box, in the closet. Oh, another person takes holiday cards and then puts a three-hole punch in them and then puts, I guess, a ring on them and then stores them. That's a cute idea, but now it's haunting her because that was three months ago. For me, the dog, our dog, Homie, has gotten quite large and I realize I'm probably overfeeding him. And I'm the one that's making him quite tubby. And I need to do a little bit of research, probably take him to the vet, find out what he weighs, and what I should actually be feeding him. I've been thinking about this for six months. Again, what was one of the ground rules, everybody? Life admin, no judgment. And now here's what I want you to do. Now you're going to choose your top five to 10 priorities, okay? And I want you to take a highlighter. These are the priorities that are going to be top of the list for life admin when you wake up tomorrow morning. Now, how do you choose these? You're going to highlight the things that bother you the most. They're the things that you've avoided for months. They're things that cost you money or time by not doing it. They're things that create daily friction. For example, TSA pre-check or getting that real ID. There's something called a real ID that's been here in the United States for I guess for like 10 years, they've been warning us it's coming. 90% of us in my company either don't know what it is or we don't have it, which means we don't have it because we don't know what it is. We are still traveling with our passports. I have no idea if I have that thing or not. Doctor's appointments, car service, the broken doorknob, underwear, I'm going to say it. How long have you pulled on underwear that is stretched out, stained, disgusting, and you're like, I need to buy underwear. And they're like, oh god, okay, well, I'll get to the underwear. Instead, I gotta read this headline. Okay, that's the kind of thing that can be on your brain dump. Sky's the limit. You're gonna find that there's lots of things that make the list. You can keep adding to it. I want you to highlight the top five to 10 things that you're gonna commit to tomorrow. And here's the thing, just making the brain dump is going to shift something inside of you. Because you're shifting the mental load from managing it upstairs to putting it on a piece of paper. And so don't be surprised if after doing the brain dump and highlighting what you're gonna do, you feel a little excited. You feel a little motivated. And if you feel that way, you can grab a few wins tonight. There's no problem doing some laundry or starting to kind of get yourself organized. Like if you start to feel like, wow, feels really good to get this down on paper. Wow, I'm really proud of myself that I'm taking tomorrow to just plow through all of these things that drive me absolutely bananas. I'm getting excited that I'm getting on top of my life instead of life constantly knocking me down. And now you have set yourself up to hit the ground running to have the perfect life admin day. I'm so excited to explain this to you. You know what else I'm excited about? Our sponsors. So take a minute and listen to a few words from our sponsors. And I also want you to take a minute and either text this episode or email this episode to the people in your life who you feel like you're always doing their life admin. You know, your adult kids, your sister, your parents. I know you love them, but you're doing an awful lot that they could be doing for themselves. Take a minute and send this episode to them because they need the formula for the perfect life admin day. Because if I can get them doing their life admin, I'm freeing up time for you to do yours. All right. And don't go anywhere because we're jumping right into the five timeblocks of the perfect life admin day when we return to Stay With Me. Did you know that your skin is your body's largest organ? 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Today, you and I are talking about the life-changing power of scheduling and doing the perfect life admin day. We've already talked about why this matters. We've talked about setting yourself up the night before. You've done your brain dump, you've highlighted the things that are really bothering you that you kinda wanna prioritize. Now you are ready to jump into your perfect life admin day. Now we have thought and researched extensively about how to structure this. We've looked at research related to productivity, to what's called cognitive load, which is the kind of mental heaviness that you get. We've looked at decision-making fatigue. We've looked at research on the best time of day to do things. And what I'm about to walk you through is the structure of the perfect life admin day. And we are going to do our life admin day in five specific time blocks. And the first time block of your life admin day is what we call the call block. And it goes from nine o'clock in the morning till 11 o'clock in the morning. You're going to spend two hours making phone calls and scheduling appointments to set the future you up for success. I want you to sit yourself where you're going to be the most productive. And for me, for me, I cannot do this at my desk. The reason why I can't do this at my desk is because I'm more productive at the kitchen table. I'm less distracted. My computer isn't there. And I, for whatever reason, just tend to move, move, move, move, move through things. And so wherever you're going to be the most productive, to be able to just put your head down and move through the call block, that's where I want you to be. We're going to give you two hours to make phone calls. And here's how I want you to think about this. Now, for me personally, I don't like working with a computer calendar. And the reason why I don't like working with a computer calendar when I'm going through a life admin day is it's way too easy for me, I'm highly distractible, to jump into Slack, to jump into texts, to all of a sudden be looking at emails. That's not what you're doing. The way that you're going to be the most effective is if you've got everything that you need when nine o'clock strikes in the morning. You can print out your calendar for the next couple months. That way you don't have to open up your laptop and look. Because you open up your laptop, you're going to get a text, you're going to look at social media, you're going to start responding to emails. That is a death trap. So print out your calendar, so you kind of have a sense of what days you can book appointments for, have your brain dumped next to you, and then start making your calls. And we're going to start with the appointments that are related to you personally. And by personally, I mean your physical, mental, emotional maintenance of you. And here's the pro tip. We're going to start at your head, and then we're going to move down. So what's on top of your head? Well, if you have hair, haircuts. We're going to move to your eyes. I know this sounds so dumb, but we got to get everything for you, right? Do you need to get an eye exam? Do you need to get your glasses fixed? Your nose, your heart, your gut, your legs, your knees. Oh, I forgot your teeth, your dentist. I want you to really think about yourself top to bottom. And here's another incredible tip. You ready? When you call to make your hair appointment, or you call to make your eye exam, or you call the dentist, you call for your manicure, nails at the end of your hands. Make the appointments for all year. Don't just make it for the next time you're going. Make sure you make the next one too. Put it on repeat. If it's a monthly maintenance, go ahead and schedule it all year. If it's an annual appointment, do this year and next year. This is why I'm always frustrated, because if I haven't done a life admin day and I'm calling it the last minute, all the freaking appointments are taken by people like you who are organized. And so I want you to use that tip. You're not just making one appointment. Hey, well, I got you on the phone. Let's just schedule it out for the rest of the year. So I get my hair cut every six weeks. Let's go out six weeks. What week is that? Okay, let me flip to my calendar. We're going to start with you physically, then we're going to move to your stuff. We're going to talk about insurance. Do you need to book your car to be serviced? Do you need to call the pharmacy or your doctor's office to refill prescriptions? Can you order everyday essentials in bulk like toilet paper, detergent? Can you set up a subscription that you actually use? Once you figure out the kind of maintenance and upkeep of you, now you're allowed to move on to other things and other people, like the vet, like appointments for your kids that are driving you crazy, appointments for your mother. Then we're going to move on to any place that you've been avoiding calling, any appointment you need to reschedule, anything that you've been saying, I'll do it later. No, from 9 to 11, you're going to do it now. And if you're somebody who has trouble sitting and just focusing, here's what I want you to do. It's going to sound ridiculous, but I saw it on Instagram, which means it works. You ready? You're going to get a leash or a rope or a belt, and you are going to tie yourself to your chair. I know it sounds ridiculous, but if you leash yourself to the chair, you will catch yourself every time you go to get up, because you're going to want to get up because this is very boring. But the payoff is so incredible to know that this is done, that you have bulked these bookings so you've taken care of it for a year. You got your dog grooming for a year. You got your dentist appointment this year and next year. You got your well visits for your kids way before our sports season, so you get your physicals. You are on top of this. You know how fantastic you're going to feel by 11 o'clock? Holy cow. Now, why does this work and why are we doing calls first thing in the morning? Because decision fatigue, which is you're just exhausted by the decisions that you need to make, it's the lowest in the morning. And these calls create the biggest mental relief because you can bang them out. And if we push them later to the day, a lot of these places are closed during lunch. A lot of people start having hold times later in the day. And so you doing it first thing in the morning creates momentum. You are leveraging your brains like firepower first thing in the morning and avoiding this. A lot of these calls you've probably been avoiding or forgetting to do for six months. And that's created weight. The second you just pick up the phone and dial and you schedule it, it's like, boom, that's done. Cross it off the list. Boom, something that you've been avoiding for six months takes under six minutes. You're not going to fix anything. You're not running errands. You're only scheduling. You're only culling. You're only putting things in the calendar for the future. One task at a time. When it's done, big check mark. That's a great win. And you move on. If it requires tools, a car, any emotion, it does not belong in the 9 to 11 block. And now I know you're probably thinking, okay, Mel, if I'm doing calls, oftentimes you end up on hold. Like if you have to call your cell phone carrier, you're not like, oh my God, you're on hold for so long, or you're on hold with the health insurance company while they forward you or cancer, or you're on hold to change tickets for the airline and you're on hold, what are you gonna do? Well, you can have some things that are here with you that you can be doing while you're still in the chair, because I don't want you to leave the chair, because if I tell you to go do laundry, you're now gonna get distracted. If I tell you to unload the dishwasher while you're on hold, you're now going to be unloading the dishwasher and then you're gonna be making lunch and then you're gonna be doing something else. I need you in the chair to get these calls done. But here are some suggestions for what you can do while you're sitting on hold. Number one, you can keep putting other things on the brain dump. Number two, you can continue to look forward through your calendar and highlight days that are open for appointments. The other thing that you can do, you can take your kid's school calendar and make sure that it is laid out into your calendar while you're on hold so you have key dates for what your kids have coming up in the next year in the calendar so that as you're making appointments, you have the key dates there. If you have a purse or a backpack from work, have it right next to you. If you've got a 30-minute hold, pull that sucker out because you've been trying, you've been dying to clean it out and get it organized and throw things out. Another pro tip, you can have your laundry basket next to you. You can be folding laundry while you're doing it, matching socks, anything that you can do in the chair while you're waiting on hold, awesome. You know how incredible it's going to feel to look up and it's 11 AM and you've made 20 phone calls, and you've booked all these appointments, and you've taken care of yourself, and you're on top of it? I mean, that alone would be worth the day. Now, once you've done all that, once you've got it in the calendar, once you've got the year mapped out, oh my God. Give yourself a round of applause. Doesn't it feel good? Of course, it feels good. Of course. I'm so excited for you. It feels so good, and we're just getting started. We've got four more blocks to do, and the one that we're going to do next is awesome because I'm going to get you out of the house. But don't go anywhere. I want to take a moment so we can hear a word from our amazing sponsors. I also want you to take a moment and share this link. Get this out of your feed and send it to everybody that you know that is feeling run over by life, and that's everybody. This conversation, this formula for the perfect life admin day, it truly is a gift that you can give to somebody else. And I really appreciate you taking the time to do that. And don't go anywhere. I can't wait to explain what the second time block is on your perfect life admin day when we return. Stay with me. Creating a better life doesn't happen all at once. It happens with small decisions that save you time and even money. Walmart Plus helps you get more savings every day without extra hassle. Anything that's gonna save me time, because you can tell I'm sick, right? And still allow me to live my life and get the things that I need done is gonna be something I really want right now. And with Walmart Plus, you can get groceries and more delivered from your local Walmart for free. How cool is that? I don't even have to leave the house feeling and looking like I do right now. Plus, you can enjoy free next day and two day shipping on items from walmart.com with no order minimum. 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Visit ixl.com/mel to get the most effective learning program out there at the best price. What if I told you, you could get 23 grams of complete protein in a three-ounce shot that fits in your pocket. It tastes delicious. It has no artificial dyes, no artificial sweeteners or flavors, and it's only 100 calories. 92% of those calories come from protein. You can have it on the go in your purse, in your pocket. Well, it's not a fantasy, it's reality. It's called Pure Genius Protein Shots. I co-founded Pure Genius Protein because I'm trying to get more protein in my life. And after listening to all of the experts on this podcast, has it been hard? So I worked with some of those same world-renowned experts to co-found Pure Genius and create our first product, a 23-gram, 100-calorie protein shot. It's solved so many problems in my life and has helped me meet my personal nutritional goals. And I think if you try it, you're going to be shocked at how delicious, convenient, and amazing it is. This week, save 20% on your first order at puregeniusprotein.com when you use Code Mel. Plus, there's a 30-day money-back guarantee. Here's to your health. Welcome back at your friend Mel Robbins. Today, you and I are talking about how to create the perfect life admin day. We've already talked about the first time block of the five time blocks. It is the call block. You did that from nine till 11. Good job. Now you can get up out of your chair because we're gonna move on to time block number two, which is all about errands. And I love this block, but I wanna talk about what type of errands I want you to be running on Life Admin Day because errand block is not doing the errands that you do every week. If you can get to the grocery store every week, we're not gonna grocery shop from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. today. Today I want you to take the two hours and I want you to do all those things that you can't seem to get off your list. And I'm gonna give you a bunch of examples of this, okay? We're gonna be doing things like dropping off the clothes that have been in the back of your car for the last five months. This is showing up and getting that interview done for the TSA pre-check here in the United States. In fact, Charlotte on her team was telling us a story that she rescheduled this exact appointment eight times because she kept telling herself she did not have time to do it. And then finally, she just made the five-minute appointment work. That's all it took. When she was done, she was euphoric. She's like, why did I reschedule this eight times? Do you know how much time it took to think about it, to reschedule? No, this is the kind of errand we're running today. You're going to get the oil change because it's been overdue for six months. You're going to go to the DMV and you're going to get your driver's license renewed or your car registration done. You're going to show up at the bank and close that account that you've been meaning to close because it only has $13 in it and it's just time to do it. You're going to get your voter registration done. You're flu shot. You're going to stop by the hardware store and pick up that part that you need or that battery that fits in your dog fence collar and you can't seem to find the right one online. You're going to find that one screw size that you need in order to fix something and you can't get it online because you're not quite sure what it is. You need to bring the screw. It's been in your car for four months in the cup holder. You remember it every time you put your thermos down and it wobbles. There's that thing I need to do. We're doing that today. You're going to drop off the two laptops that have been collecting dust since your kids were in middle school at that local nonprofit. You're going to stop at the Hospice Regional Center and you're going to sign up for the training and get more information. You're going to drop off all the books that you checked out from the local library. You're going to sign up and take a tour at the gym that you've been meaning to join for six months. And while you're there, you're going to set up a free training with someone who works there, so you can get a tour and be walked through and understand all the equipment this weekend. You're going to actually mail the Wi-Fi router from your move two months ago. And here's a pro tip for your errand block. I highly recommend that whatever errands you are choosing to run today in this two-hour block, you write it on a post-it note. Why? Because I know you. And the second you get in your car, you're not going to feel like getting your oil changed. You're going to feel like going to your favorite store that's on the same road and wandering the aisles. I want you to keep yourself honest. And if you put a post-it note on your dashboard in your car, or you keep it on your phone as you're riding the subway or walking around the city, you now have your marching orders. And you are not allowed to take a detour while I'm in the neighborhood. And this will keep you focused because you only got two hours and you got a lot of stuff to get done. As soon as this block is done, the errand block, it's going to be one o'clock, it's time for lunch. And you are going to feel so amazing, oh my God, because at least three to five things that have been haunting you are now done. And if you stopped right here at block number two, this day would have already been worth it. Holy cow, because block one was calls, boom, we got that done, we got your life scheduled out. Now block two, boom, we got all those errands done that you don't normally fit into your week. Now we are cooking. And that brings me to the time block number three. And we call this the money block. Now, don't get all freaked out, because I know facing money can be a little confronting. I remember when my husband and I were struggling, the last thing I wanted to do was do a money block. But here's what you're going to love about the money block. Because remember our ground rules, there's no judgment, there's no moral implications. We are just going to use this time block in a way that reduces stress for you and that helps you get on top of something that's probably really bothering you subconsciously. Okay? And all we're going to do, I love this because the money block isn't about anything other than creating boundaries and power around money in just two hours. And here's what we're going to do. We're going to follow the advice of the world renowned financial experts that have been on The Mel Robbins Podcast. We're going to link to all of their incredible episodes so that you can watch them if you want to and really focus in on the specific tactics and advice. I'm talking about world renowned experts like David Bach, Morgan Housel and Tiffany Aliche. And Tiffany Aliche in particular is very specific about what she wants you to do. But all of them say the same thing. Are you ready? And this is what the money block is for. You can't get control of your money unless you first know where it's going. And that's all we're doing with the money block. That's it. From one to three, we're going to figure out where's your money going. And then you know what I know what I are going to do? We are going to block access that people have to your money that they shouldn't have access to. Because you don't realize how many people are sucking money from you. So how about we use the money block to just put up some boundaries, to just see where our money is going? So you can be like, I don't think so. I think I can do better than this. And so here's the first thing you're going to do in the money block from one to three. You're going to print out your monthly bank statement. You get bonus points if you print out two monthly bank statements. And you are also going to print out all of your credit card statements. I'm talking the charge cards, I'm talking store charge cards, whatever they are, I want you to print all that out and take a deep breath. Nobody's going to make you wrong. I'm telling you to do this because this is what every single financial expert recommends that you and I do. If you do nothing else, but print out your monthly bank statement and your credit card statements, and by the way, it might take you two hours because you may not know all your logins. You may not know which credit card you have. Just taking two hours to get on top of that, you win, you're amazing. And the reason why this is so important and why I want you to print it out, okay, is because then you're going to take a look at what is going in my bank account and what is coming out. What are the charges on my credit card? And here's what I want you to do. We're going to take that highlighter, right? And we're going to highlight where your money's coming out. Because I think you're going to be really surprised by how many little amounts of money and big amounts of money are seeping out of your bank account every single month. Charges and fees, you didn't realize somebody's sucking from you. If you see charges that you don't want to pay anymore, or you're like, what the hell is this? Or why am I paying for that? Or what is this for? Highlight that sucker, okay? Because if you have leftover time at the end of this money block, which is from one to three, you get extra points for canceling those things that are coming out on a reoccurring basis. I guarantee you, there are things coming out of your bank account and being charged to your credit card that you don't even realize you're paying for. You may even have a credit card that you have not used in two years. In fact, I overheard my father on the phone when I was visiting him last weekend, and he was on the phone with a credit card company, a really big one, he was like, hi there, yes, I'm calling because I received two new credit cards in the mail with different account numbers, both of which charged me a credit card fee for opening up the credit card. And I believe that that happened because I spoke to two different representatives, who I would imagine each opened up a different account so they got credit for it. And I want to cancel the one with the higher interest rate, and I want to make sure the records show that it was canceled at the card holder's request so this doesn't ding my credit. And I was standing in the hallway like, damn, go dad. And then I thought to myself, do I have credit cards that I don't know of? Like, is this... I once had a credit card that I didn't realize had renewed. I had canceled it. And somehow in the cancellation of the credit card, the renewal came like within 48 hours, because this is the other thing you're going to find. When you print all this stuff out, especially credit cards, you're going to be like, oh, wait a minute, this is about to renew, which means they're about to hit me with the annual fee. I don't even use this thing. I need to cancel it at my request now, or I need to just like do, I need to figure out what to do instead of just letting this stuff run me over. Every single person on our team at 143 Studios, every single one of them said there is a streaming service on my bank account or my credit card that I meant to cancel. I bet you have that too. You know, you sign up for something to watch the Olympics or to stream that big event or to watch that movie that just came out, and you're like, okay, well, I'm just going to sign up for this streaming service once and I'm going to do the trial offer and then I'm going to cancel. And then you forget to cancel. And then next thing you know, you're getting billed $49 a month every month. This is how you're going to use this time block, because this issue is going to come up over and over and over again. That free trial you signed up for, that thing that you returned that you didn't get credit for, the stuff that's coming out. And here's the thing, if 3 o'clock rolls around, and this third block, the money block, is now over, just get a folder and put these highlighted things. Make sure you Sharpie out any account numbers. You don't want that rolling around on a printout. But put all these in a folder, and now you can stick that in your purse or your backpack. And when you have a lunch break, when you're sitting in traffic, now these are the calls you can make. Do you see how this one life admin day now sets you up to use pockets of time effectively to set yourself up for success in the long term? And that is our third buck. Don't you love that? I didn't make you do any budgeting. I didn't make you do anything complicated. All I asked you to do in your life admin day is print out your bank statements for a month or two, print out every credit card statement that you can find so you can see the interest that you're paying, you can see when this thing renews, you can compare it all. And then I just want you to look and ask yourself, where's my money going? And where are the holes and the leaks? I'm going to plug right now. And simply highlighting it now empowers you to be able to do that at any moment you got five to 10 minutes to make the call and cancel whatever it is that you're paying for that you don't want. And there's also so many services that it can help you do this that are free, so you don't have to do this alone. I just love this block. And now that we're on a roll, because you're like, oh yeah, oh yeah, get out of my bank account. I'm taking my money back, man. I know where my money is going. Now we're going to move on to block number four. Block number four is just like the money block, only we're going to do it with email. I love this. We are going to unsubscribe from all the emails and all the apps you don't use. I mean, just think about that for a minute. You're going to take an hour from three to 4 p.m., the email block. Delete, delete, delete, delete. I want you to unsubscribe from emails and apps that you don't use. I want you to unsubscribe, and I want you to cancel apps that you don't want to pay for, and I want you to clear out the clutter, the junk, the reoccurring garbage that's in your inbox. Because every time something hits your inbox that is meaningless, it takes your attention away from something important. And there's, even if you're the kind of person that can just, I can just ignore it, you know, whatever, it still drains you. And there's something crazy, just empowering when you're like, unsubscribe, you don't get access to me. Unsubscribe, you don't get access to me. I'm tired of receiving this email, and I felt bad about unsubscribing because it was the mom of my daughter's middle school friend that has started a sub stack, and somehow I've ended up on this email list that I don't want to be on, and I don't want her to see that I've unsubscribed. Unsubscribe. Let her. Let her be disappointed you do not want to read her thesis on sourdough that she's sending you every week. Let her be disappointed you are taking your life, your inbox and your power back. And as we were talking about this as a team, our executive producer Tracy who is like the poster child, it's turning out for Needing a Life Admin Day. Sorry to throw you under the bus, Tracy, but all the stuff that you're not taking care of is making me feel like I'm a little bit more on top of my life. Not a competition. Wait, I just broke a ground rule. I said there was no shame and no moral judgment. And I know you can take it, Trace, and you've been laughing along. But I just want to share something because it's been so awesome to talk about and to create this episode with our team because everybody has so many stories about the clutter that is blocking your life and your brain. And as we were talking about the email block, as we were just talking about it, Tracy started unsubscribing. Check out the list of things. A florist shop in New Orleans that she ordered flowers for a friend from five years ago. She was on their newsletter list. The gym that she belonged to in high school. That was like 13 years ago. Still on the newsletter list. Don't even get me started when you do a really good thing and you donate to a nonprofit or a political cause, and then you somehow have your email distributed to some super PAC or the national version of the nonprofit. I realize you're doing good in the world, but dear God, do not give my name to everybody because now you're going to have 500 emails from a cause that you were once excited about. Now you're like, I want to die if you send me another email. What was the other one that you had, Trace? That was crazy. Oh, oh. She's basically like, here's another one. From a restaurant I ate at once two years ago, I don't even live in that town or that state, and I'm getting daily updates about the specials that they're offering tonight at this local grill. Unsubscribe, unsubscribe, you don't get access to me anymore. And taking this hour, I kid you not, you feel like you're taking a part of yourself back because you are. Not everyone and everything and every business and every cause deserves your attention. And we've gotten to a point in life where people can slide right into the DMs and the texts and the inbox, and this email block is where you say, enough. My inbox is already overwhelming based on work and my family and the things I'm actually interested in. I'm going to take the hour and I'm going to unsubscribe. And in doing so, I'm doubling down on the importance of my focus. I get to say, in a world that's trying to steal my attention, what is allowed in my inbox and what's not. Because you've heard me say before, if everything's important, nothing is. And if you have to scroll through 35 emails that you don't even remember signing up for, you can't find the unsubscribe because it's buried somewhere in the fine print. If you have to scroll through those things, they're still draining your focus. So let's just take an hour, delete, delete, delete, delete, delete, delete, delete, delete, delete, delete, delete, delete, delete. Oh, don't you feel better already? Of course you do. And one of the reasons why we left the email block to be from three to four is because, first of all, you're probably going to be tired because you've made two hours of calls with the call block. You've done two hours of errands that you never do in the errand block. You've also taken control of your money and seen where your money is going, and you've started to put up very important boundaries and set yourself up to be empowered there in the money block. The email block is the fourth block because, you know, we can kind of do this without any emotion and energy. You're going to start to feel, oh my god, so empowered. You're going to freaking love this, that it's going to start to become a habit. And I also didn't want you to do this earlier because once you're on your phone or your laptop, it is so easy to get distracted. But I don't want you to get distracted. Don't be responding to texts. Don't be responding to emails. This is just about cleaning up your email inbox. Those thousands of unread emails that you probably have. The lists that you got on to from the things that you bought years ago, or that your kids you bought for somebody for a present, and now you're getting all kinds of updates about snowboarding gear and you don't even snowboard. Just go through, hit unsubscribe, and you'll never be emailed again from that address. And now your inbox will be clean for the near future. Isn't that awesome? Oh my God, you've done so much. Holy cow. Are you ready for the final block? The final block of the perfect life admin day. Schedule your next one. That's it. That's it. It takes five minutes. Schedule your next one. And here's from one friend to another. Now that you've done life admin in the way that I've recommended it, and you've gone in the order of the blocks from calls to errands to money to email to now scheduling the next one, you see the power of it. You know the pitfalls. You know how much you can get done. You can schedule it for any day you want. I don't really care. Because you now know how to do one. You can schedule it on a Wednesday. You could schedule it on a Friday. You could schedule it on a Saturday if you want. If you have a half day where you're not going into your hourly job or your shift work until the afternoon, you could take a morning and do a call and an errand block. Boom! That's the power of the perfect life admin day. Now that you understand the framework and the five time blocks, it never changes. And you can insert one of these whenever you want. And the more often you do these, the faster you can move through them. Because every life admin day is helping you stay on top of the things that are important to you, and it's helping you clear out the clutter and the distraction and the money-wasting things that start to get attached to you. It's the same five blocks, done in the same order, every single time you do it. So end the life admin by scheduling your next one. And boom, you did it. What can you expect to change after you've done the perfect life admin day? You've done all five time blocks? Well, I'll tell you what, you're gonna have a great night because you don't have to do anything. You're gonna wake up tomorrow and feel lighter. Your weekends for the next couple months are gonna feel free because you don't have weird errands that you need to run that are haunting you. The small tasks that feel impossible stop feeling so scary. You're gonna feel capable again. You're gonna realize you're no longer behind. And more importantly, you're gonna have proven to yourself that no matter how busy and overwhelming life can get, all it takes is one day and you feel like yourself again. I'm so excited to see and to hear what happens when you take this episode and you follow these five time blocks. Here's what I would love to hear from you. What's the thing that's haunting you? What is in the corner of your room? What are you hauling around in the back of your car? What is that thing that you cannot seem to get to? And you know intellectually it would take you 10 minutes to get it done. But for whatever reason, you just keep putting it off and putting it off and putting it off. Because I want to normalize all of these things that drive us crazy and drop in the comments, drop in the reviews. Let us know what is the thing you're most excited to tackle or the dumbest thing you've been putting off that is causing you stress. I know if you share what you're going to tackle in your life admin day, you're going to make somebody else feel a little less alone and empowered to do the same thing. I also want to thank you for sharing this episode in your family group chat. If you're tired of yelling at your adult kids about doing this stuff, let your friend Mel Robbins yell at them and explain to them how to do the Perfect Life Admin Day. Then that way, you can focus on your stuff for your life admin, and they as young adults will know how to do their own life admin. One more thing, in case nobody else tells you, I wanted to be sure to tell you that as your friend, I love you and I believe in you, and I believe in your ability to create a better life. Taking one day and following this five-part framework to give yourself the Perfect Life Admin Day. Holy cow, that is going to lead to feeling so much better, you're going to have a better week, you're going to have a better weekend, you're going to have a better quarter, and by God, just that one change does create a better life. All righty, I'll see you in the very next episode. I will be there to welcome you in the moment you hit play. I'm at the same thing with towels. When is it like it's just time to spend the $11 and get a new towel? I have one right now that's a white washcloth. It's so full of makeup. I'm like, why am I keeping this thing? Okay, you ready? Okay, you ready? Here we go. Okay, here we go. So now her remote works, but her mouse doesn't work. So Cameron, hold on, let me start over one more time. Let's do one. We're going to go back to the top. Then Tracy goes, okay, let me start one more time because now I'm getting the story. Is it good?

Speaker 2:
[66:24] I loved it.

Speaker 1:
[66:26] Okay. Okay, great. Are we good? Okay, good. I did not. Okay. Okay. That's amazing. Okay. What else should I say? Oh, my God. That's great. That's great. That's great. That's great. Okay, great. Is that helpful? Did it get what you needed done? Great. Wonderful. Oh, perfect. Great job, guys. Great job. Oh, and one more thing. And no, this is not a blooper. This is the legal language. You know what the lawyers write and what I need to read to you. This podcast is presented solely for educational and entertainment purposes. I'm just your friend. I am not a licensed therapist. And this podcast is not intended as a substitute for the advice of a physician, professional coach, psychotherapist or other qualified professional. Got it? Good. I'll see you in the next episode.

Speaker 2:
[67:32] SiriusXM Podcasts.

Speaker 1:
[67:40] This segment is sponsored by Microsoft Copilot. Okay, I need to confess something. For years, and I mean years, I have been talking about creating a photo wall in my home on this blank wall upstairs. It feels like it's missing something. I've even described it here on the podcast several times. And yet every single time I walk by this empty wall upstairs in the hallway, I feel this surge of guilt. It's because the idea of doing it totally overwhelms me. Does any of this sound familiar? Maybe for you, it's not a photo wall. But there's something you've been wanting to start or to do, but it just seems like it's too overwhelming to get going or to organize it. Maybe it's updating your resume or figuring out the right workout routine based on your age, based on where you are right now, based on how much time you have. Maybe you want to learn a new language, but you're not quite sure how do you get started and fit it in every day for a couple of minutes. Isn't it funny how something that could make your life better is easy to overcomplicate? Sometimes the fastest way forward is to ask for a little bit of help, a nudge, a plan, someone to say, oh, here's where you can start. And when I realized that about this photo wall project, something shifted for me. I can either keep beating myself up again about it or I could just get help. And this time, I'm going to do it with help. And that's where Microsoft Copilot comes in. It is so helpful when you're feeling stuck or overwhelmed by something you need to do. It's not going to do the work for you. You still got to get the stuff done, but here's what it does. It gets you out of your own way. It helps you get organized, and that makes it easier to get into motion. I opened up Copilot and I just spoke to it. Copilot, I've been dreaming about creating a photo wall in my home. I feel completely overwhelmed. I don't know where to start. Can you help me break this into simple steps? Now, the first thing that Copilot did is it came back with a shocking, simple plan. First, it told me stop trying to make 100 decisions at once, and it said, check this out. Mel, let's pick a theme. A theme? I hadn't even thought about a theme for my photo wall. Copilot gave me four options based on the photos that I had described. Well, you could do family milestones, travel memories, all portraits, just candids. Suddenly, I wasn't drowning in ziplocks of photos. I had a direction and I had my first step. I can sort these into the theme that I want. Then I uploaded a few, and Copilot makes it super easy. You can literally just use the camera part of it to scan the photos. And I asked it, can you show me options of what's gonna look best together on the wall? Then Copilot helped me figure out the layout. I used the vision feature to show it the size of the wall. Copilot mocked up three different arrangements. And then, and this was the best part, it turned the entire project into a step-by-step checklist. Print these photos, hang them in this order, leave this much space in between them. I was so floored. Now in psychology, there is this concept called scaffolding. Scaffolding means you perform better, I know I do. When someone gives you temporary structure, just enough to support you in moving forward. I realized that's what happened with Copilot. I didn't need someone to hang the frames for me. I needed structure. Copilot helped me find the structure and the confidence to get organized and begin. And let me tell you what surprised me. I printed out the clean grid layout that Copilot made me. And as my husband Chris walked by, he pointed at one of the photos and said, Oh my gosh, remember that fishing trip. And suddenly we're telling stories about the memory. We are remembering how little the kids were when we went on that trip and what was happening in that period of our lives. Copilot is helping me create something that's going to bring me and my family joy every day. Because the things that matter in your life deserve your attention, your energy and your follow through too. So whatever your photo wall is, the project, the dream, the thing you've been avoiding, take it from me. You don't have to figure it out all at once. You just have to take the first step. If you need a little structure, a little clarity, a little nudge, Copilot will provide the scaffolding and is ready to help you. If you want to try it for yourself, visit microsoft.com/melrobbins to download the Copilot app. Get started with Copilot today for free and see how it can help you accomplish something that makes you feel so good. That's microsoft.com/melrobbins. If 2026 is the year you're going to put yourself first, how about you check out our sponsor Massage Envy? Massage Envy knows how important self-care is, which is why they've got a special membership offer going on right now. And you might not know this, but in addition to Massage, most Massage Envy franchise locations also offer amazing skincare services. This special membership offer gives you access to their wide array of services, which are designed to focus on helping you achieve your personal wellness goals so you can feel, move and look your best every day. Sign up for a Massage Envy membership today at massagenvy.com and make 2026 a happy you year.

Speaker 2:
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