My Favourite Tip: Ada Nicodemou - Switching off is serious work

Ada Nicodemou has just wrapped filming for the day on Home & Away, and she’s feeling anything but relaxed as she gets in the car to drive home. After crying her eyes out in front of her colleagues over and over and over again, her nerves are fried, and her emotions are all over the place. 

That’s the day-to-day business of being an actor, but Ada’s learned that it doesn’t mesh well with her home life. Whether she needs to re-focus in order to get everyone fed and out the door for soccer practice, or she’s just having a quiet night on the couch with her family, whatever state she was in when the camera was rolling isn’t going to work at home. 

Ada uses the drive home to slowly, methodically process the day that’s been, and when she gets home, the equally methodical process of removing makeup and hair products serves as another way to ritualise the feeling of ‘switching off’ after an intense day at work.

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You can find the full interview here: Home & Away star Ada Nicodemou gives you a sneak peek into the life of a working actor

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CREDITS

Produced by Inventium

Host: Amantha Imber

Sound Engineer: Martin Imber

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ada Nicodemu Ha's just wrapped filming for the day on
Home and Away, and she is feeling anything but relaxed
as she gets in the car to drive home after
crying her eyes out in front of her colleagues over
and over again. Her nerves are fried and her emotions
are all over the place. But that's the day to

(00:23):
day business of being an actor. But Ada's learned that
it doesn't measure well with her home life.

Speaker 2 (00:31):
Whether she needs to.

Speaker 1 (00:32):
Refocus in order to get everyone fed and out the
door for soccer practice, or she's just having a quiet
night on the couch with her family. Whatever state she
was in when the camera was rolling isn't going to
work at home. So what strategy does Ada use to
switch off from her emotionally intense workdays. My name is

(00:59):
Doctor and the Invert. I'm an organizational psychologist and the
founder of behavioral science consultancy Inventium, and this is how
I work, a show about how to help you do
your best work. On today is my Favorite Tip episode,
we go back to an interview from the past and
I pick out my favorite tip from the interview. In
today's show, I speak with Ada Nicodemu and she starts

(01:23):
by sharing how she transitions into her work day. So
I find that my drive to work prepares me for
the day.

Speaker 3 (01:37):
And because I'm just by myself, and then I find
the drive coming home helps me unwind, so because I
feel like, you know, because you're talking all day and on, like,
I just think that drive home really helps me. But
then when I come home, you know, say hi to
the family, I have to go wash my face, wash

(02:00):
the lashes, draw it, pull my hair back like it
is now, and then I'm ready because I do I
feel like I do need to wash that, or I'll
have a shower just so I can just wash the
day off before I'll start dinner or whatever it is
that I need to do, because especially if you're on
set all day, there's a lot of powder that goes
on your face, and I feel like it just gets.

Speaker 2 (02:22):
Really heavy by the end of the day. So I just, yeah,
I just need to sort of wash it all off.

Speaker 1 (02:27):
On your drive home. Is there anything else that you're
doing to transition out of work mode.

Speaker 3 (02:35):
Yeah, Like, sometimes I'm thinking about the day and breaking
it all down and getting rid of it, you know,
because I don't like to bring that energy.

Speaker 2 (02:46):
Home because sometimes you know, I mean, you might be
doing a.

Speaker 3 (02:48):
Day where there's a lot of emotional scenes, and as
much as you don't want to take that on, of
course you have to take that on because you have
to get to a point and be able to cry
or whatever it is. So yeah, I'll think about the
day and unwind and shake it off and you know,
maybe play a bit of music or maybe listen to

(03:09):
a podcast where I can laugh, or whatever it is.
But I don't like to bring my scenes into my
home life.

Speaker 2 (03:18):
So yeah, I'll do that and what I have found
as well.

Speaker 3 (03:23):
But because we all like, if I've got say twelve
fifteen scenes in a day, you're not always going to
feel like you've done a good job with all of them.
But if I did one and it was terrible, go
I let it affect my other scenes where I find now,
I don't let it do that. I go, right, Okay,
that was one bad scene. I didn't you know, I

(03:43):
felt like I didn't sort of achieve what I wanted
to achieve.

Speaker 2 (03:47):
But I've got to let it go.

Speaker 3 (03:47):
Hopefully someone just got up, made a cup of tea
at that point, didn't even see the scene because they're
so quick.

Speaker 2 (03:54):
So you know, I just don't let it affect.

Speaker 3 (03:56):
My whole day because we can't be perfect all the
time and we are never perfect.

Speaker 2 (04:03):
So yeah, I do just have to shake it off.

Speaker 1 (04:06):
How did you learn to do that?

Speaker 2 (04:09):
I think just.

Speaker 3 (04:09):
Survival, you know, because I was finding that I was
letting it really get me down because I am a perfectionist.
I think I am type a personality, so everything has
to be perfect, you know, like literally at home, like
my pillows have to be a certain way.

Speaker 2 (04:25):
All that sort of stuff.

Speaker 3 (04:27):
But I was just finding that it was making me
really unhappy and very unproductive.

Speaker 2 (04:33):
In my whole day. I was letting, you know, a
conversation that.

Speaker 3 (04:36):
I'd have with someone, or you know, a line read
that wasn't great or whatever it was. I was just
letting it affect my whole day and then a lot
of times affect my mood when I was coming home,
And yeah, I feel like that's just you can't do that,
and especially when you've got a child, Like I don't
want my child to you know, I want to be

(04:57):
really present when I'm with him because I do work
a lot, so it's very important for me to be
present for Jonas. So Yeah, I've had to learn just
to shake things off and also not like everything around
the house doesn't need.

Speaker 2 (05:09):
To be as perfect. It's never going to be perfect,
you know.

Speaker 3 (05:12):
There's always something to do, There's always another load of
washing to do, like all of that stuff, right, So
I have to constantly work on that though, I do
have to work on just letting things go.

Speaker 1 (05:24):
What strategies have you found have been effective for doing that?
Which is easier said than done, let's face it.

Speaker 3 (05:33):
Yeah, look, I've accepted this is who I am, and
I just had to talk myself. I when I find
myself getting really busy at home and cleaning for like
just constantly cleaning, Like.

Speaker 2 (05:50):
Okay, what's that about? What am I avoiding?

Speaker 1 (05:53):
Like?

Speaker 3 (05:53):
Is there something I need to be writing down and
thinking about? Do I need to go for a walk
and just shake it off again? Like there's a reason
why I think you need everything to be perfect all
the time. I'm trying to control something. So I'm just
trying to be more self aware and also just letting
things go. And you know, the minute you have a child,

(06:16):
you do learn you have to let med things go
because you can't control them, you know, you know, I
spent the morning with my little goddaughter this morning, who's
eighteen months. You're on her clock like it's whatever she
wants to do, so I think children really make you present.
If you enjoy this exit from my chat with Ada,
you might want to go to the show notes, where

(06:38):
you can click on a.

Speaker 1 (06:39):
Link to listen to the full episode. If you're looking
for more tips to improve the way that you work,
I write a short fortnightly newsletter that contains three cool
things that I've discovered that helped me work better, ranging
from software and gadgets that I'm loving three the interesting
research findings. You can sign up for that at Howiwork

(06:59):
dot com That's how I Work dot co. Thank you
for sharing part of your day with me by listening
to How I Work. If you're keen for more tips
on how to work better, connect with me via LinkedIn
or Instagram. I'm very easy to find. Just search for
Amantha Imba. How I Work was recorded on the traditional

(07:20):
land of the Warrangery people, part of the kool And Nation.
I am so grateful for being able to work and
live on this beautiful land, and I want to pay
my respects to elders past present and emerging. How I
Work is produced by Inventium with production support from Dead
Set Studios, and thank you to Martin Nimba who did
the audio mix and makes everything sound better than it

(07:42):
would have otherwise.