[00:00:00] I thought it could be really fun to share just some of my current favorite things that are helping me feel like I’m balancing the busy, and this is the summer edition. Me saying that implies that I believe there’s gonna be a fall or a winter edition. I don’t know, maybe we will, maybe we won’t. But here is my current favorites for helping me. Feel like I’m balancing the busy, and that’s one thing that I think is so important.

[00:00:27] So often what we’re really trying to capture, it’s a feeling. It’s not something that is clearly measured based on some metrics. It’s how we feel. Do we feel balanced or do we feel chaotic? And I want more of the balanced. I want to trade out that chaos for more calm. So these are some of the things that.

[00:00:48] I am currently loving right now in the middle of summer. Number one, simplified summer dinner menu. I was laughing as I was making up this list cuz I was thinking, I bet this list in some version shows up in every edition if I do these more. But right now I am really letting Costco do a lot of helping.

[00:01:11] So I actually made this notes in my phone and it says, our summer dinner menu easy and there’s clearly a theme. Costco Euro Pack, the Costco pre-made spinach salad and rotisserie chicken. That’s the second dinner. The Costco Carnita tacos, the Costco cauliflower pizza and regular pizza. You can see a theme.

[00:01:38] Basically, I’m going to Costco. I’m looking across at all those things that are pre-made or pre-packed, close to packed, and I’m like one of those, one of those, one of those, one of those, boom dinner is for the week, so really trying to keep dinner Super simple. I can make it in. Very, very, very little time.

[00:01:58] Even 30 minutes feels like too much right now. So I’m going for a very simplified summer dinner menu, and I’m loving it. Honestly, I sometimes I’m like, why didn’t I do this sooner? Why don’t I do this more often? Why do I constantly try to complicate things for myself? That always makes me think of the book.

[00:02:16] Subtract by Lighty Klaus, and he was on the podcast episode 17. Why is our inclination to add instead of to think, what could I take away to make this better? So that’s definitely number one is the simplified summer dinner menu.

[00:02:33] Number two is that I’m giving myself a lot of white space, just a lot of downtime, a lot of room to be able to. Make impromptu plans, do whatever I want, and that has felt really, really good. In fact, one of the things that’s come out of that is that I’m reading a bunch of novels, which isn’t something that I do very often.

[00:02:56] It actually almost is kind of like a summer thing, or it’s definitely a downtime thing. I’m always reading business books, personal development books, those kind of things. But I don’t always make time for novels, especially because I. When it comes to business and personal development, I love to listen to ’em.

[00:03:14] I just put ’em in my ears and you know, I can listen on a walk or on the treadmill, or I’m not on a treadmill, I’m on an elliptical. Let’s just, let’s just clear that up right now. But it just can be really easy to listen to those. But with novels, I really like to actually flip the pages. It’s. Really the only books I ever do that.

[00:03:34] And so creating white space gives me room to be able to read those books. I just finished Flight Girls and I really enjoyed it and I already have another one queued up that I’m ready for. I think I’m on my third or fourth novel already. It’s just been really fun. There’s been white space to just sit around and talk, play more games, read books, go on walks in the middle of the day, in fact.

[00:03:58] After I finish this episode, this will be the fourth episode that I am recording, cuz I’m batching. That’s gonna be my last thing. I’m gonna suggest and say that I’m really loving. I’m gonna go walk and I’m looking forward to that. The sun is shining. It’s beautiful. It’s gonna feel good. Okay, number three, creating time to unplug.

[00:04:20] I’ve been really thinking about the power of. Unplugging 100% and how much we truly need that. I’m gonna create a podcast in the future, all about the power of taking a break from fake or from social media.

[00:04:37] Years ago, I did it, and then I did a challenge and recorded all of this data and it was mind blowing, truly mind blowing. But this summer we had a trip to Lake Powell and. There was no service. None. I mean, my phone, all of our phones, they showed SOS for an entire week and it was incredible. I mean, it was just amazing.

[00:05:05] We even talked about how, um, lake Powell has no service, but you can get starlink, you can get some of these things so that you can have. Wifi, and Taylor and I were talking about how we don’t want it. We literally wanna be like, no, please, we don’t want that. Because it felt so good to have everybody unplugged.

[00:05:27] Everybody comes together and no one’s staring down at their phone because nothing on their phone works. So instead they’re like, Hey, we should play a game, or having real conversations. There’s just so much power in unplugging. If we wanna balance the busy, if things feel too chaotic, too frantic, one of the things we can do is to give ourself some room to just be in our own thoughts and not have everybody else’s thoughts flooding us all the time through the scroll.

[00:05:58] So unplugging feeling so good about that, it was so powerful having that week, and I’m literally craving more of it. Another thing is just getting outside That is really helping me balance the busyness throughout summertime because I’m making space and making room again. I need to have the white space in order to have the room to be able to go for a walk, but just spending more time outside in the sunshine.

[00:06:23] It feels so good and it makes me feel more balanced. The last two things I’m thinking about are a little more tactical. So the first one is impromptu date nights, because our weekends are filled with fun plans with friends and things for the kids. Taylor and I are fitting in impromptu date nights in the middle of the week, in the middle of the day.

[00:06:45] Hey, do you wanna go have dinner? Do you wanna go do something? Let’s have a date. And we’re just going. So we’re being more flexible during summer so that we make sure dates happen because otherwise, There’s so much going on in the weekends, it probably wouldn’t happen at all. 

[00:06:58] And then the last thing that I have to share that is helping me feel balanced. I’m obsessed with it during summer. I’m obsessed with it all the time, and that is batching. . I went into depth in this in episode 44, summer Break Success, expert tips for busy moms and happy kids, and talked about the power of batching early so that you have more time so that you have that white space, and you can still do that now.

[00:07:24] You still have however many weeks, maybe a month more before the kids go back to school. Take some time now and do some batching so that you can be freed up, so that you can have more of that white space. I am finishing recording the fourth episode for the podcast. All of these are getting batched right now.

[00:07:49] , you’re gonna hear it in July. It’s being recorded much sooner, . And it’s all helping so that I have the white space, I have the time to unplug, I have time to go get outside, to have the impromptu date night in the middle of the day.

[00:08:02] So I guess that’s date day. Batching is so powerful and it’s definitely something that I am obsessed with and loving when it comes to balancing the busyness during the summer. It’s so powerful to me to say, I am going to really hunker down and do the work for a couple of hours and be caught up for the next several weeks or month, or whatever it is, then to keep having to react in real time.

[00:08:30] I don’t like reacting in real time. I wanna be ahead of the game. 

[00:08:35] So there you go. There are some of my personal current favorites for balancing the busy Durin summer. To recap, My simplified summer dinner menu, which we all notice. There is a very strong Costco theme going on in our household right now, plus the fact that I can have it delivered through Instacart. I mean, let’s be real.

[00:08:56] How amazing is that? Literally, there’s an Instacart waiting on my doorstep right now, and it is a bunch of those meals. From Costco delivered to my door. It couldn’t get much simpler. I love it. I mean, outside of having a private chef, maybe that’s the next stage. I don’t know. Number two, lots of white space.

[00:09:14] Just planning, scheduling, making space for downtime, both for you, for your family, for your kids, that white space. Oh, it’s so powerful and I’m loving that. I’m using part of that white space for reading novels right now, and. Making appointments and lunch dates with friends. Also three, creating intentional time for unplugging.

[00:09:40] I even think like the idea of just going to the breaker box and flipping it off and being like, oh, the power’s out, and then just spending an evening together with flashlights and no wifi and just coming together. If my kids were littler, I would absolutely do that. I. I just think making time to really unplug and sometimes we gotta be really creative in how we’re gonna get there, but setting that time, us having an entire week with zero service, it was amazing for getting outside.

[00:10:12] It’s summertime. This is the time to be outside. And I will admit I have had summers where I made myself way too busy back in the day. You all know my old habits. And I wouldn’t even realize how hot it was. Like I could see how beautiful it was, but I was wearing a sweater because of air conditioning inside.

[00:10:29] And then I’d step outside and be like, oh my goodness, I’m actually getting outside and spending lots of time just soaking up that vitamin D and it feels so good. Impromptu date, nights slash date days, fitting those in and then batching to create. All of the white space, the time to unplug, being able to get outside, having the date, these are the things I’m doing.

[00:10:51] I’m loving them. What would you add? What are your current favorite things for balancing the busy during the summertime? I’d love to hear them, so shoot me a DM or reply to any email if you are a Leah ELA insider and share them with me. I wanna know, because we are all about doing less but better so that we can live a life that lights us up.

[00:11:12] I’m Leah Ley. This is Balancing Busy Podcast. Thank you so much for being a part of this podcast. It means the world. Okay, I’ll see you next time.