Editing your life with Dr. Christine Koh

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Speaker 1: Hi. This is Laura Vandercamp. I'm a mother of five, an author, journalist, and speaker. And this is Sarah hart Unger. I'm a mother of three, a practicing physician and blogger. On the side, we are two working parents who love our careers and our families. Welcome to best of both worlds. Here we talk about how real women manage work, family, and time for fun, from figuring out childcare to mapping out long term career goals. We want you to get the most out of life. Welcome to best of both worlds. This is episode one hundred and eighty eight, which is airing in early March of twenty twenty one. I will be interviewing doctor Christine Coe, who is the co host of the Edit Your Life podcast. She's also an author and a social media person and all around, you know, great person. I don't know how to describe. She has a lot of different roles and that's one of the things we talk about in this episode because she's definitely in to the concept of minimalism. She also has a very career and so we'll talk about how that plays in and how very busy people can organize all of those things without getting too crazy in any given one of them. But yeah, Sarah's been listening to the Edit Your Life podcast that Christine co hosts, and so we were thinking of some of our favorite podcast listening hacks. Is that what I'm supposed to transition into that? Sure podcast listening hacks? Well, and you could also mention that you're going to be on Edit your Life. I am, I am, I'm able to by the time. Well, I'm not sure quite how the order is going with all this, but yeah soon if not already, And we'll let you know if we when we see that come up as well, because that would be a fun mash up for those if you don't listen to Edit your Life to get an introduction. But yeah, like, okay, so will you shared my screenshot podcast hack I believe on Before Breakfast? I did. It's actually today's episode when we're recording this in February. But what are the chances of that? That's so cool? Yeah, so share what the hack is. Yeah, so my screenshot hack is like the dumbest thing ever. But I just realized, like, cause a lot of times I'll listen to a podcast while running and then I'll be like, and you know how especially when you're running you have endorphins, and you're like, that person knows the secret to the universe. I must capture this brilliant idea and so but you're like, but I'm running, like how am I gonna? And then I realize if I unlock my phone, I can actually screenshot and it will show my podcast player anyway where I was, which podcast was playing, and where it was in the podcast, so I can actually go back to that specific moment. Sometimes I maybe disappointed him find out that it was more like the running high that maybe, but I've done that a few times. Most recently, I've been doing it on my Sunday long run. I like to listen to No Stupid Questions, which is with Steph Dubner and Angela Duckworth, and I think it's I just love that podcast, like I like it. I love Freagonomics, but I like this even more. And I'm always like, that was a brilliant insight, and then I can screenshot it and go back to it, so I love it. Well. Screenshots are good in general. I mean, it's just anything that you aren't entirely sure you're going to use, but you wanted to capture it's a very quick way to take a note without you know, relying on some sort of note taking function on your phone or having a pen with you or something like that. I feel like Apple needs to get a little better so that you could google your your screenshots, Like if they could get to the point, you know, Google photos is excellent, Like if I have all my photos upload and I google like black Cat, it'll find like the three photos over ten years where there's a black Cat. I don't feel like that functionality is there on my iPhone yet. But Apple, if you are listening, we need to be able to see your next million stillion dollar idea from Sarah. Yes, exactly. We need to be able to search our screenshots, all right. What speed do you listen to? Generally one point five unless it's a music podcast. That's the one exception. My like All Songs Considered is like the one podcast where obviously I can't listen to that sped up. I'm at the point where if I try to listen to something at one point, oh, I'm like this is so boring, Like who could sit here through this? Yeah? So we differ on that, Oh do we differ? So my husband may listen to things at one point five or two speed or whatever when he's in the car. And so suddenly when he when we're all in the car and he like puts on his phone, it's will be listening to voices coming at one and a half speed, and I'm just like, ah, I can't take it. I cannot take it. And I don't necessarily think that I'm a highly sensitive person or whatever, but it just it makes my It's like fingernails grating on a chalkboard to me, So I will listen. You know, there are plenty people who talk fast enough. I mean, I've been told that my before breakfast speaking speed is not off what like somebody might talk at one point five, but it's I feel like there's a certain well I was saying that your voice is part of your instrument, and your pacing is part of that. And so if you're listening at a different speed than the content creator wanted you to be listening to, it's something like reading the cliff notes of your book. And so I understand it like that. You know, yes, if you are about to take a final exam on this and you didn't have time to read it, there is a purpose for doing that. But if the point is entertainment and in general enjoyment, then the content creator had something that they were doing with their voice. And my argument is that my brain will just I don't know, I get what I do get what you're saying. Are podcasts that level of artistry? I mean, we're recording right now. I don't know if I can elevate my pauses to quite well. That is why I would never listen to a music podcast. I mean that would be crossing the line, like that would be terrible because that is art and you would mess it up and it would be so But that's that is a very interesting take and does not like sped up podcasts either, So we have that like maybe it's an introversion thing, right, because I know you're more maybe you're comfortable with more sort of vocal filling of space. I get frustrated when multiple children are talking at the same time, we're talking loudly, and so I think it has something to do with that. Oh, that's interesting. And then the fun thing is I'm not even like a fast reader, so I don't know why I feel like I need the information to come at me like a fire hose. Home listening to podcast and there are people that are faster than me. So I do one point five usually maybe one point seventy five and a slow talker. I recently pulled my Best Laid Plans listeners because I also feel like I talk pretty fast, and I partly attribute that to oh my god, I feel like my podcast model is listening at one point five speed. So does that train me to speak faster on my own podcasts? I don't know. And somebody wrote to me that they listened to all their podcasts at two x except for Best Laid Plans, which they listen at one point nine X, So I guess I'm not that. At one point, I didn't even know you could do that. I thought this was in discreete multiples of like zero point five. But I think it would depend on the player that you're uslaying. It's true. Okay, all right, well there we go. Shall we just don't? Okay, no, no, I have one more podcast you can. I think it's totally okay to subscribe to way more podcasts than you're going to listen to, and it actually helps the podcast creators to some extent because every download counts, and then you can always have a multiple topics to choose from. The only thing is then you need some sort of like deleting ritual, and you've either set your phone to auto delete things after they have, you know, a certain number of episodes, or I have this new thing like on Friday, I just go through and I get rid of like everything I know I'm not going to listen to, but I actually feel good, like, oh, I'm keeping that on my cue because I'm supporting this maybe smaller podcaster or with downloads. Maybe that's bad to admit that, because like I'm sure the advertisers want people to hear every word that is being sold. But whatever, there we go. All right, well let's go over to Christine and hear what she has to say. Well, Sarah and I are delighted to welcome Christine co to the program. So Christine, tell us all about your wonderful projects. Oh boy, Well, hi Laura, this is really exciting to be on the show. I guess, in a nutshell, the quickest way to describe me is I used to be a neuroscientist. I was a music and brain scientist for many years, got a PhD, dit a postdoc, and then decided to pivot, not surprisingly like once I had kids and all that, and I've since built a career that's involved a blog, a book, minimalist parenting, a couple podcasts like you. I'm a dual podcaster with at your Life and Hello Relationships, which I do with my therapist husband, and what else. I'm a creative director at a social media for social good agency called Women Online, and my husband and I weirdly also have a sort of advocacy apparel collection, such a weird assortment of things. It is such a mix. And is the apparel all in your basement? Is that? I mean, how does that fit into all this? I know, ye, at the very beginning it used to be. And now, thank goodness, we outsource our production, which makes life a lot easier, yes, yes, or at least gives you your basement space back, which, as listeners of the Edit Your Life podcast know, part of editing your life is editing your space, right, it sure is. Yeah. We've actually recently talked a lot. Actually, our top episode from twenty twenty was on pandemic home decluttering and styling, and I just think everybody's home a lot more. They're paying attention and really trying to optimize so that's definitely been important. And you have two children who are currently doing virtual learning right they are. One is hybrid at the moment. The other was hybrid but switch to remote, so you know they're on. Like your kids, everybody's schedule is kind of different and we are just kind of juggling and trying to make it all work. Yeah, exactly. You were one of the early Internet pioneers. So Boston Mama's I think has been around since what two thousand and six, two thousand and six, So what made you think back then like this is you know, we need hyperlocal blog type coverage. I know, especially since you're a neuroscientist, Like where where did this? You're like, I know what the world needs? Right? Well, you know, since I know that you and I are both very data oriented people, I will say that when I became a parent, people were constantly you know, I sort of went through that phase where a bunch of friends were also becoming parents. I'm sure that that's happened with you as well. And people would ask me because they know I would sort of research things at nauseum, and at one point I was like, Wow, it would just be nice if I had like a central place to just drop all this information so I didn't have to keep emailing it to people. And one of my tech friends was like, you need a blog, and I'm like, what is that? But I, you know, I would say, despite the fact that there are all these different projects that I do, I think the real thread that runs through all of them is that I've always been somebody who looks for sort of a whole, you know, that a need that exists and I want to So at that time, you know, Boston had calendar sites. I didn't want to do that. I didn't want to like work on managing event listings, but it needed sort of like a lifestyle portal of some kind, and so I set about to fill it and it kind of like took off. I didn't even expect that really to happen, but it did, which is wonderful and and still exists, right, still exists, still try So you do so many things in your life, but with the Edit your Life podcast, one of the things you talk about is editing the unnecessary and what does it mean to edit the unnecessary from your life? You know, it's it's really all about figuring out what matters to you. I know, we're aligned in this, you know, figuring out your values and what you really want to do with your time. And I feel like the baseline thing and we Ausha and I Ausha Dornfest is my co host at the Edit Your Life podcast and also you know our book Minimalist Parenting, And one of the things that we talk about in the book is that editing really starts with like what we call a more less list. So it could be really like on the back of an envelope, it could be in a pretty bullet journal, it could be in a Google doc, but just like quickly jotting down like what do you want more of and what do you want less of? And it can just help you. That's simple action. I'm talking like brainstorre for like twenty seconds or something. You know, it just helps you prioritize and really have a visual on you know, what you would like to make more space for in your life and then what you can like work on getting rid of really intentionally. And I think the thing that I like about that list is that you can apply to anything, whether it's home, time, work, whatever. And one of the things that's interesting to me with this is a lot of the talk of minimalism. I mean, there are people who are saying things like, we don't want to do any things this weekend, right, like we did things during the week, there's no things to be done on the weekend, or you know, I want to do nothing with my time, and you do so many different things. So how do how does minimalism work when you have i mean a dozen different professional hats? Yeah? Well, I think that the probably unsatisfying public answer is that, you know, it's not a one size fits all solution. You know, everybody's going to have every family. I feel like even we'll have a different baseline for how busy they like to be, you know, in a given week. Some families have a pretty low threshold for how many things they want to commit to in a week. Others really really like to be busy. And that's fine. But I think the key is figuring out like kind of I sort of joke about the book is all about like figuring out where your baseline of crazy is and then just like figuring out a few degrees of freedom that you can insert a few things that you can get rid of the stuff that you really don't want to do anyway, just to give yourself a little more breathing room. And what sorts of things have you managed to edit that are unnecessary out of your life lately? Oh? Wow, Well, you know, it's it's so interesting. The irony of the pandemic is that you know, life has been edited for you so massively for us. But I think that I am really picky about my time. My schedule during the week is really quite full of meetings, and so I routinely go through and look at the calendar and try to figure out, okay, is this really if the calendar is super full, for example, on a given week, and I know I'm personally somebody somebody who really needs some like runways of time and chunks of time, you know, ideally two or three hour blocks of time where I can just kind of focus on work. Then I'll move stuff around, I'll edit meetings, I'll see if I can move it to a different week, that kind of thing. You know, social is not happening as much, But I am really picky about you know, that time, and have prioritized in knowing how good it is for my mental health, you know, seeing at least having at least one friend connection every weekend. You know, whether it's zoom, whether it's you know, just a a walk around the neighborhood something. You know. The things that we need to add in because they nurture us and they fill us up, are really just as important as the stuff we need to shed. Excellent advice. Well, we're going to take a quick break and we will be back in just a few minutes. Hey, listeners, here at best of both worlds. We love sleep. We want you to get the best sleep possible. A big part of that is sleeping on the right mattress. Helix has several different mattress models to choose from. They have soft, medium, and firm mattresses. They even have mattresses that are great for cooling you down if you sleep hoot I took the Helix quiz and I was matched with the Dusk mattress model because I sleep on my stomach. The mattress is awesome and delivery and set up are fast and easy. Just go to helixsleep dot com slash best of take their two minutes sleep quiz and they'll match you to a customized mattress that will give you the best sleep of your life. They have a ten year warranty and you get to try it out for one hundred nights risk free. They'll even pick it up for you if you don't love it, but you will. Helix is offering up to two hundred dollars off all mattress orders and two free pillows for our listeners at helixsleep dot com slash best of. That's Helixsleep dot com slash best Of. So I am here with Christine Coe, who has all sorts of hats that she wears, but many of our listeners know her from the Edit Your Life podcast, and so we're talking a little bit about how we can edit our lives to be more awesome. And one of the reasons you say we edit the unnecessary is because it leaves space for awesomeness. Is that right? Mm hmmm hm. And what sort of awesomeness have you seen come into life like when people leave more open space. Well, I think that it the word hobby or the word like, you know, the phrase like things that you bring you joy. I know that they're a little like trite and overused, but I think they matter so much. You know, one thing I hear from our listeners and just you know, so many people on social media that the simplest things like books, like plants and giving love to plants, like taking time to like make a batch of cookies with your kids. All these like super simple things are things that really matter to people. And I think that, you know, when you kind of cut out some of the stuff that's, you know, giving you anxiety or really making you unhappy, and you have the room to insert that stuff like, that's where the gold is. And I actually kind of love that it's those simple little things oftentimes that people really need in their life to feel a little bit Yeah and interesting, many of those things are kind of in our homes right now. You're talking about the plants, the baking, all pandemic friendly. But I think a lot of folks are finding their physical spaces a little bit harder to edit of late, as everyone is on top of each other. So what let's talk some tips for home organization and editing that have been useful especially now. Yeah. Yeah, I have two sort of key things that are top of mind that I think will be a common experience that a lot of people are struggling with. You know. One is personally, I have become sort of command center now instead of working in my office, working on the at the dining room table. And you know, the reality is there's just so much more clutter creep now that everybody is home twenty four seven. And for somebody, I mean for some people, that doesn't bother them. For somebody like me, it kind of bothers me. It makes it harder for me to focus. So if that is you, I recommend carving out some little space, you know, whether it's your home office, whether it's even just a corner of a room over which you can sort of organize it and make it yours. And I think you just have to like be okay with the rest of it. You know, if you live in a home with other people like it's going to be very difficult and kind of a losing battle to control exactly what everybody else does. I feel. So I think having sort of a little sacred space of your own, even if it's really small, is so crucial. And then the other thing I would recommend is perhaps even embracing an imperfect space if it fills you up in a different way. So we got a pandemic dog, which has everyone I think everybody, which you know, has changed a lot of things. But one of the things that I have been just unwilling to give up because the pandemic dog would really ideally love to sleep in our room with us. But we have this sort of weird space. It's a really weirdly shaped bedroom, but there's this weird space that tends to become a repository for or laundry clean laundry that just gets stumped on the floor before it moves on to like where it needs to go. And I for a while I tried to battle the laundry, but now I just roll out my yoga mat amidst the laundry, and I it's imperfect, but it's where I do my thing, and that's really important. So I think sometimes we get a little stuck on making, you know, wanting to make something really perfect, and it really doesn't need to as long as it can help you get to the goal of like doing the thing that you actually want to do. Sounds like good advice, But if there was one sort of thing you could do to make, you know, the place feel a little bit less cluttered, there are any any strategies, you know, let's say, families who are doing virtual learning, there's just all the added paper principles that comes with that Yeah, well, I will say that I think that doing like even just like setting a timer and doing a ten minute family cleanup, like if we don't have four people in our house, but if you've actually set a timer and just go through the sort of main high traffic area in your house and do simple stuff like toss all the random papers into the recycling, put the shoes into the bins or whatever the shoe shelves that you have, put the jackets in the closet. These are like super lightning fast things that can make a difference in just a matter of minutes. So I would definitely recommend, instead of getting resentful about doing it on your own, have a ten minute family cleanup time. I mean, my family always sort of like rolls their eyes when I'm like, okay, family teat clean up time. But they do it and it's quick and it's painless, and you know, if you put on music, actually can be kind of fun. Yeah. How about with your children? Have you asked them to do more around the house since they've been around more? Oh? Yes, Well, I'm a big fan of chores and kids. I actually just I refer to them as life skills. I mean, these are the things that kids need to learn how to be functioning, you know in the world. They're really a good thing. I would say the thing that they've really leveled up on is making their own lunch and helping themselves to snack and all those transitions that I think that's been very chaotic for a lot a lot of parents with remote school is when your kids are on different schedules, especially, and they're eating at different times, and you know, instead of you having to get up all the time, it's you know, them taking on that stuff. And then I think also I would say, you know, with kids, you have to kind of remind them. So you know, one thing, at one point I sort of got my knickers in a bunch about I said, okay, when the dishwasher is clearly empty, like or there's room in it, instead of putting the dish on the counter above the dishwasher, open the door and put it in. It's such a simple thing. It's such a simple thing. But it needed a few reminders. And then my nine year old was like, got it, okay, but it did take it. You know, you have to remind kids because it's not it is just not going to be top of mind for them. But remind do a couple of reminders, and I think after a week or so, like they will, you know, start to get in a rhythm with it. Yeah. Now that point from our mutual friend kJ who has been a guest on this podcast as well. But her point that it's two separate things of like doing chores and doing chores without being reminded, And if you let go of the second part, you can definitely get the chores done. But you know, so don't hold out that as like what you need to make happen, right that everyone does chores without being reminded, because it may never happen, and then you're just never getting the chores done. So you know, it's okay, you'll get mind people. Yeah, it's developmentally appropriate that they're going to just need reminders. So just remember that it's not like something's wrong with them. It's not like they're trying to frustrate you. It's just their kids. We had a fun little life skills moment the other day of everyone's sheets and covers were washed and I was like, I do not want to put these back on anyone's bed. I do not feel like doing it. And so everyone was charged with doing it themselves, and it took people you know, an interesting amount time to figure out how to put a top sheet on, how to put a top sheet on, or how to stuff a you know, douvet type thing back to cover. Oh, we have that same experience with the Yeah, it is a little confusing, I mean, which is why I don't like doing it. But I feel like I shouldn't be the only person who Absolutely, I'm so glad you did that. That, like, I think will help them develop a good appreciation of what goes into actually doing the sheets in the laundry. It is my least favorite, I will admit. Yeah, yeah, exactly so Christine. When this is all over, I mean, I'm not quite sure I did an erridate on this, but you know, eventually life is going to return something to normal. What are you most looking forward to doing? Oh my gosh, I mean I think that in a really simple way, I would just say, like, you know, hugging people I care about, like my mother. I do. You know. It's interesting I thought a lot because I I before pandemic, I traveled all the time for work, and sometimes it would be you know, more extended trips. Sometimes it would be like the day, the day trip in and out of DC, And this has made me rethink, like is that really necessary, like the day trip when we could otherwise kind of conference call in, Like wouldn't that be sort of better for the planet and our schedules and our fatigue and everything. So it is making me rethink some of that stuff. But I do you know, miss travel in general, and you know, seeing people and collaborating in person. That is definitely you know, one thing that I miss a lot. Yeah, me too. So let's just do a quick run through of a day in the life of Christine. So you know, most of us aren't really going anywhere these so there's there's sort of less back and forth, but you're you're doing your yoga amid amid the laundry and what happens after that? Uh? Yeah, Well, so I usually get up around I'm actually, you know, Christy, I'm fairly regimented, but I usually get up around six thirty. I need to have my coffee. I just have one cup in the morning, but I really need to have it. My life is happier if I set it up the night before. Yeah, I get up usually at seven am. I start work. My husband sort of transitions in and you know, gets the kid settled and helps with the dog and all this. I do my yoga at seven thirty, and I'm talking about like sometimes it's ten minutes, sometimes it's twenty minutes. It doesn't have to be. It's you know, whatever the practice is that day. But it's never like an hour. Is it a program or like you do it a specific I use yoga with Adrian, which kJ introduced me to, and I'm just following along with a sort of playlist for you know, the month that she put together. So it's kind of like, I guess my point is, I think a lot of times people get in their mind that in order to take care of themselves they need to have an hour, and it's not always the case. It could be some ten minutes is better than no minutes. And then I'm basically round robbining with different client projects all morning. Morning is my sort of best time up to lunch to really really dig in with things. Also because pandemic dog is usually napping, take him out for lunch, walk and then it's like just more juggling through the end of the day. But I will say that in the evening it's super important to me to not be working in the evening actually, which is kind of the opposite of what a lot of entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs do so I can connect with my husband, who I really like, and my kid. You know, we prioritize reading time and sort of cuddling time, and then I am like in bed with a book by like nine point thirty. I just I love sleeping. I'm like an ideally, could I have nine hours of sleep? Please? A night person sounds really nice and I'm glad to hear that. You like your husband. Yeah, it's ten eleven months into a pandemic sheltering and race. Yeah, I know that is I have thought about that. That is a real gift. You know, our family, like we've been hanging in okay, Like it's not easy all the time. I was sort of the biggest disaster in the fall, just like trying to get used to the new schedule. But you know, I think people are figuring it out and it's it's not been easy, but I think we can do hard things. As they say we can do hard things. Well, we always end with a love of the week. So this is something that is really cool for you right now. Could be a book, album, podcast, you know, object tool productivity thing. So what's what's exciting for you right now? Christine? Oh boy, well, I have two things, but one's pretty hippish, so I'll share. I'll share a little more accessible one, but it is I have a paper newspaper subscription, like delivered to the door, which was a sort of gift from a good friend of mine because my friend Kasey and I had been joking online about newspapers and actually, like your fitted sheet or you're making the bed example, I had been joking about how funny it was the first time I tried to the first time I watched my kids try to fold a newspaper back together, and so of like literally thirty seconds later, I got an email saying, You've just received a subscription to the Boston Globe. And so it turns out my friend, as a lovely gift, had given a subscription to the Globe. And I will say, which is, you know, the local city paper. I will say that having a print newspaper has been so fascinating and everybody in the family interacts with it, and we talk about the newspaper and we like play games in the newspaper. So if you're looking to shake things up a little bit. It's been a really delightful old school way to sort of connect and you know, also stay tuned into things that are happening in your neighborhood. Yeah, I could say my love of the week maybe the Wall Street Journal. Then we subscribe to that, and it's it's it's fun just to see something that you didn't click on right like you weren't. There's a bit more serendipity to it than all the algorithms online. It's exactly what you want to see and then know you're going to want to see. But then you're reading the newspaper and it's like, here's a story about Neanderthals, which I joke about because that set me off on like a six month reading spree of like stories of ancient humanity. But that's what happened from an article. So you know, there's just that serendipitous element that's that's really cool. Yeah, and every now and then, sorry, my last comment on that is just that every now and then it might create a connection to another relationship. Like I was just reading the paper this week. I saw a friend's food company featured in the food section of the paper and I you know, shared it on Instagram stories and tag them and they were so excited. And I'm going to mail the paper clipping. Oh, I mean, how can you mail a paper clipping? Yes, that's awesome. So there's somethings just so lovely in old school. I mean, we are in like old fashioned times right now. So let's do it. Let's do it. Let's all right, everyone subscribe to a paper clip articles, mail them to each other. Yeah, you'll probably feel happier. That's our happiness and productivity for today. All right. Well, Christine, thank you so much for joining us. Tell our listeners where they can find you. Well, if you want to learn more about all the different projects, I think the easiest place to go is christineco dot com. I'm doctor Christine Coe on the socials. And of course if you're in your podcast app already Edit your Life is the podcast I do that is probably very synergetic with or is synergetic with what you guys do. And then hello Relationships my podcast with my therapist husband. We're coming up on a new season soon, so that's also a fun listen. Excellent. Well, I'm sure we'll I'll check you out. Thanks for coming on, Christine, thanks so much. All right, well that was our episode, our interview with Christine co But we have a question from potentially a budding podcaster. What do you think, Sarah? I do I don't know, but that was my hypop six. So I'm like, well, why else would they want to know what to do? But this came from Instagram. It's from somebody named Camille, so I don't know what her podcast might be, but she wrote how far in advance do you plan your episodes? Well, the answer has changed a little bit. We've gotten a bit more into batch recording, especially as we decided to divvy up the interviews a bit more that it turns out it just makes more sense I think to do a one on one interview. It's easier to manage the conversation, to direct the flow of questions, and then it's easier for scheduling because we don't have to try to strong arm guests to come on during the time where both of us are available. So it just opens up the possibilities a bit more in terms of when we can get various guests and offering time to them. But then you know, we try to do maybe two guests a month and two US episodes a month, and we can record the US episodes at the same time. Yeah, and we try not to get too far ahead because we know that there's something about podcasting where you want the content to be fresh and kind of of the moment. But it's your saying you kind of have to balance that because if you try to be too fresh, then you're going to really get into some stress in terms of like the production timeline. And we do always have to be ready with our Tuesday episode by around the Thursday of the week before, so there's always at least a little bit of blag time, yeah, just so our production people can can get it sounding better and you know, uploaded to the appropriate places with the ads in it and so forth. I have a rhythm with Before Breakfast, which is my other podcast, where I send in a lineup to my producer on Monday for the following Monday to Friday week. So if Monday of the week we were recording, this was February fifteenth, so on the fifteenth I sent in the lineup for February twenty second to twenty six, which means that I have generally recorded the twenty second to twenty sixth, then by the twelfth, because I would have done it the previous week, So it's about ten to fourteen days ahead of time at least, and then depending on when the week I recorded, it might be more like, you know, fourteen to sixteen days ahead of time. And the reason to do this I've found, I mean, partly it's just with the daily podcast. If I was trying to do it every day, I mean, I would you know, there's no efficiencies to be gained there if you're not batching. But it would also just be you know, maddening if stuff went wrong in my life but I couldn't get to doing it. But I think that that's it's enough ahead of time that it's set and I can think about it and you know, not have to come up with something right in the moment because I'm pressed for time. But on the other hand, it's not so far ahead that it's like, Okay, well, I've recorded September and February, and who knows if what the world will be like then Sarah and I had to wind up shelving was it like one or two episodes that we recorded last year in February around this time, because then you know, we're like getting out the door in the morning. How do we get out the door in the morning, And then nobody was getting out the door in the morning. Yeah, you can't. There are certain things, and you know there are probably maybe someday, if something terrible happens, I'd rather skip a week than air something completely ridiculous. So hopefully nothing will happen with that magnitude, But we shall say. I mean, life comes at you fast. But you know, we then did a few bonus COVID episodes too as we were adjusting to it, so I guess it all comes out in the wash. But yeah, I think it's almost always better to be somewhat ahead, because the upsides of not scrambling are more than the downsides of occasionally having to re record when the world does get away from you. So that's my advice. There, a little bit ahead, not too far ahead. You do best like plans in batches, though, right, sometimes I try to do it at least a week ahead. The episodes are shorter so it doesn't feel as high pressure. I'm like, if I can think of some review and topic to talk about, like sometimes I'll just do one at a time. So actually, yeah, I think I do less batching for that, maybe because it's just one person so it feels more low key if I'm just jumping on. I have batched my interviews, though I did like two back to back interviews last week. It was like, yeah, all right, well all right, love of a week. I didn't put mine. I didn't put myne on, but I did write one down. Do you have one, I'll come up with something, go for it. Okay, awesome. Well maybe you did one with Christine. I don't know. But mine is Google Drive because it is a really really lovely way to share like spreadsheets and stuff. And we have like a very functioning one right now for this podcast, which only took us like a couple of years to do. But it's working really nice. Sarah has been in the spreadsheet a bit more than I have. It's good, but it's good to have a podcast host who's very organized. But you know what, it's great to have something shared where you know that the other person can look at any time if needed. So it's true better than emailing Excel back and forth too. I use Google Docs for some things. I've done that for a couple of bigger projects now and I need to have multiple people viewing something. I mean a lot of this I write. It's just me really until I turn it in, so it's I never write stuff in Google Docs. I do it in whatever the default Apple Pages is on my laptop, and then I just cut and paste over to Google Docs. If I need to have a sharing system with multiple people, we'll see how that evolves over time. But that's just you know what it works for me right now? All right, Well, this has been best of both worlds. I've been interviewing doctor Christine co in their interview section. We've been talking a lot about podcasting and the rest of the episode. We will be back next week with more on making work in life fit together. Thanks for listening. You can find me Sarah at the shoebox dot com or at the Underscore Shoebox on Instagram, and you can find me Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. This has been the best of both worlds podcasts. Please join us next time for more on making work and life work together. Yes,