Marie: Yeah. Yeah, yeah. I love it. Number two and this is so Kate Northrup, envelop yourself in an energetic bubble before seeing them. What the hell does that mean? Marie: Yeah and it’s about meaning too. I actually highlighted this from the book. You wrote, the whole purpose of doing less, is to have the experience of having more, not more stuff, but more meaning in our lives and I thought that really beautifully articulated what so many of us are craving. You and I obviously both remember a time when we were running our businesses and social media didn’t exist. We also remember a time…

In 2015 we decided to follow our true desires and that led us to moving cross country fro NY to Cali. I did almost nothing for most of 2015 and 2016. My motto became do more achieve less. In fact, there is a book with that title and the best advice I received was “slow down so the angles of good fortune can catch up to you” Marie: Great job. For anyone, if you don’t have it, please go get Do Less. You are going to love it. So many fun experiments to try, so that there is more joy and more love and more you to experience in the world. Thank you, Kate. Yoga Nidra is a fantastic way for busy women and mothers to get rest. It’s a deep meditation that gets your brain into a state of deep relaxation where you're not asleep but you're also not really conscious. 20 minutes of Yoga Nidra has the same restorative benefits of three hours of sleep. It's a guided meditation where you lie down for 15-30 minutes and somebody talks you through it. Both Northrup and I feel like Yoga Nidra is way more effective than a nap! The one-of-a-kind time management system that helps you organize your life, your work and the relationship you have with your body so you can truly have more of the life you want by doing less of what’s unnecessary. I inhaled this book because it illuminates a language about women and work that I've lived by without realizing it. I've never felt more validated or less alone in the way I do work as a woman in the world.

Marie: This is real, yeah. Let’s talk about scheduling your week because I know productivity is a big thing and it’s a topic we both love and many in our audience love, so I love these three questions that you ask yourself before anything goes on your list. You ready guys? Write this down. Don’t tell me. I know some people are like, can you write this down for me? No, write it down for yourself. You’re going to remember better. One, does this list need to be done? Excuse me, does this need to be done? Two, does this need to be done now? And three, does this need to be done by me? Those are some good questions, Kate. Did this book not have an editor who could have done a search and delete for words like very, really, super, etc? What is the highest and best use of my time? What are the 20% of activities that lead to 80% of my results? This book inspired me to learn more about cyclical living, and there is an entire science behind it called cycle synching! When we harmonize our natural cycles, hormones, work/rest habits, diet, and exercise, we can truly optimize our well-being. Alissa Vitti is a fantastic teacher to learn more about cycle syncing. Her TED Talk is a great place to start!

While I can’t tell you all of the details yet, I can tell you this: I’ve never felt more excited and on purpose to get something out into the world as I am about this. Yet among the dross of low-quality, dashed-off-blog-level prose, there was some good stuff. I connected with this: "Until I became a mother, I'd been able to overcome nearly every adversity I faced by working harder, using my intelligence, using my physical strength, or changing my perspective. But motherhood brought me to my knees with how little of it I was able to control. I'd never felt so out of control before, and, as a result, I was anxious and depressed for a good part of the first year." I have said repeatedly to myself, Mike, and others that I want to have more space next summer. I’m savoring all of the goodness of this summer and intending to be more discerning moving forward at the same time. I have to constantly strengthen my discernment muscles because I will always be a knee-jerk yes person. I love this about myself. And it’s also one of my biggest flaws. While an occasional Summer of More is super fun and I have no regrets about this summer, I don’t want every summer to be this full. Next summer I’m going for spaciousness. Part of my discernment is that I’ve already told our team that I’m going to take most of the summer off next year. So we have a year to prepare for that. And I have a group of people holding me accountable. If you’re also a knee-jerk yes person, who can you get on board to hold you accountable to being more discerning about what you put on your calendar?

I couldn’t be more grateful for you for being part of my community and continuing to share your heart and mind with me when I meet you in person and all around the interwebs. I’m so excited for this next chapter. It feels so good to finally know where I’m going so that I can take you with me! OVER TO YOU:

There's nothing particularly easy about being a working mother... But there are some key things we can do to make it easier." I thin Ask for help kindly. Asking for help early (before we are in crisis) and often (strengthening the muscle), allows us to ask with love and kindness. We can be more thoughtful in our words and expressing appreciation. Prior to my recent life changes, my relationship with time and energy had always been chaotic. A major realization I gained from this book is that no matter how chaotic or frantic I feel about time, it is going to pass by anyway. My mindset and inner dialogue affect me more than reality itself. The way I think and feel about the events in my day, perhaps rushing to a meeting, affects how I speak to myself; I am not kind, I make more mistakes, and I don’t put my best foot forward. The benefits of Doing Less:

Everything I’m doing now is with The Origin Company

Marie: Then the question becomes, what part, if any, am I playing in allowing this particular dynamic to continue? Have you ever found yourself in the murkiness of not quite knowing what was next for you? How did you deal with it? What came of it? I’d love to hear from you in the comments! Our culture has raised us to believe that the more we do, the more valuable we are, and I am still a product of that culture. I still want to get great results and I know your listeners do, I know most of the world does. And so that piece about, it’s not about doing… A lot of people hear do less and they automatically think, do nothing, and it’s like, nope. Just what I mean is, do less of the things that don’t matter, do less of the things that drain you, do less of the things that don’t get you results, so you can do more of the things that energize you, that light you up, that get you amazing results. That’s what it means. With these tools you can create more space in your life anytime, even when–and especially when–it all feels like too much. OVER TO YOU: