Episode 47: SUMMER REWIND - Do you have trouble switching off?

00:43 Welcome to Unfrazzle, the podcast to help you ditch overwhelm and find focus and flow. I'm your host Louise Miller, productivity mentor and founder of Make It Happen Club, and one of the ways in which iIm creating space to enjoy my summer is by having a break from recording new episodes for a while instead iIm doing an Unfrazzle Summer Rewind sharing some of my favorite episodes from the last nine months So I've selected episodes that feel relevant for this time of year. If you're hearing them for the first time, I hope you find them helpful and if you've heard them before perhaps you'll take something different from them the second time around! Have an amazing summer and i'll be back in your ears with new episodes soon Are you finding it hard to switch off at the end of the day? When you run your own business and you're working from home it's really easy to find yourself checking emails responding to LinkedIn connections mindlessly scrolling your feeds

01:37 I'm going to start with a quick one. Or maybe that kind of screen time in the evenings is making it hard for you to sleep at night. I have a suggestion that might help... And that is to create an end of day ritual or a rhythm to consciously signal to yourself that it's the end of the working day and its time to wind down. So many of us think about our morning rhythm, how we ease ourselves into the day but its just as important to consider what you do at the end of your day if you want to relax and enjoy your evenings without fretting about all the things you haven't done

02:33 Because as I am always saying, if you are waiting until you get to the end of your To-Do List before you allow yourself to switch off... ...you're going to be waiting a very long time. So it's really important that we do allow ourselves to switch off and get some rest. Allow ourselves to recharge! Preferably before you go to bed so that you can sleep soundly and get up the following day feeling refreshed. And sometimes that's difficult if you're allowing your work to creep into your evenings, So there is no right or wrong way to create your evening ritual which makes this a really lovely opportunity for you to get curious and creative What would feel good as a way of switching off? Of signalling to your brain it's time to stop work and enjoy your evening

03:19 So in case it helps, here are some ideas to get you started. You might like to close all of your open tabs on your computer and put away any of the papers that you've been working on during the day. Tidy your desk after you've shut down your computer and depending on your personality type tidying your desk can actually be a form of self-care because it's about intentionally clearing the decks getting rid of the clutter Creating a calmer space so that you can walk away from your desk feeling free from that niggling sense that there's more to be done. So, that's one thought... You know close open tabs put away any papers tidy your desk shut down your computer Actually, that's about four tips in one now isn't it? But you get the idea! Another idea for you is to write a To-Do List at the end of the day. A To Do list is just where you write down the things you have accomplished during the day

04:15 And that's kind of the antidote to what happens to a lot us where we get to the end of day and all we can think about is what we haven't done. Writing a To-Do List is a way if you intentionally acknowledging and celebrating what you have done so that you can see you have spent your day well, so that you know that what you've done is enough and you can step away from your desk free from guilt which quite often follow us into our evening So big recommendation to do a To Do List if it isn't something you already do And you might also want to just write a three-thing to do list for the following day. So when you get to the end of the working day, as part of your evening ritual, you might just want to get clear on your main focus for tomorrow and not only will that allow you to get this sense that you've rounded off the day that's coming to an end it will also mean that you can start the next day knowing exactly what you're going to be focusing on

05:06 Another little neat trick doesn't work so well in the summer, but in the darker months changing the lighting in your space can be really really powerful when it comes to changing your mood, changing your energy switching things up a bit. So switching on lamps rather than using bright overhead lights is a really great sign that it's time to wind down. That could be something you do at the end of your working day just go around the house and change up the lighting so that things feel calmer and restful And then another great one, this one I saw happening quite a lot during the pandemic. So when people were working from home, I saw quite a lot of people would do this at the start and the end of every day so they create their own commute

05:47 So in the morning, they'd get up get dressed have their breakfast everything else that they need to do in the morning. Then they would go out of the house walk around the block and then come back in again and just start their working day And then at the end of the day They'll do the same thing in reverse so they're finishing off their work closing their computer Go out the front door Walk round the block and come back in when they come back through that door there in evening mode I thought that was really inspired so create a little mini commute for yourself if you feel like that would be helpful And another, you know really obvious thing but you know really powerful. If you're fortunate enough to have an office with a door on it at the end of the day close the door and that is a really great visual signal that work is done for the day and it's time to relax

07:16 Alright, I hope you found this helpful. Hope you enjoy creating an evening ritual for yourself and i'm looking forward to being in your ears again soon! Thank you for listening to Unfrazzle. Sharing is caring, so if you loved this episode please share it on your socials or head over to Spotify iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts and leave me a review not only will I be hugely grateful Your ratings and reviews will help others to find this podcast So that even more people can make their ideas happen Thanks so much and see you next time