June 18, 2025 • 20 mins
Are you the queen of procrastination who'd rather deep clean your entire house than finish that urgent report? This week on BIZ Inbox, Em Vernem and Sarah Davidson tackle the art of actually getting work done with practical strategies – including the game-changing "eat the frog" method that might just save your productivity.
Plus, we wade into the murky waters of workplace social media boundaries (spoiler: someone might get offended, and that's okay), and we share how to stand out as the new person at work.
Welcome to BIZ Inbox, your go-to workplace advice podcast where awkward career questions get real-world solutions. If you want your work life issue solved, send us a voice note or email us at podcast@mamamia.com.au. You can remain completely anonymous!
Here is Em's article about 'eat the frog’.
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HOSTS: Sarah Davidson and Em Vernem
SENIOR PRODUCER: Sophie Campbell
AUDIO PRODUCER: Leah Porges
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to Amma mea podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Hello, and welcome to biz Inbox. I'm m Vernon, bringing
you your weekly dos of unfiltered workplace wisdom. Well, I'm
going to try.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
I'm Sarah Davidson, also trying to help them dig into
some workplace truth today.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
And if you are new here, welcome, because biz Inbox
is where your professional dilemmas get sold. No names attached.
So whether you're navigating office dynamics, launching a side hustle,
or dealing with the manager from hell, We've got you
covered and your identity stays completely under wraps if you
choose to do so.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
Today we are diving into whether loud working is worth
the hype and that awkward moment when your entire workplace
discovers your Instagram handle, Oh my goodness, embarrassing.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
No, we'll help you out.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
You out.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
First, I want to dive into a question that I
feel like I could have submitted myself. It's from Lulu
and she says I am the Queen of procrastination, which
I'm going to say, no, Lulu, I am. Instead of
finishing tomorrow's urgent report, I just did a full house,
deep clean, scrolled TikTok for hours, and created a beautifully formatted,
(01:33):
color coded to do list, which I then ignored. I'll
literally do anything to avoid the actual work. Do you
have any tips at all? I need serious help, Sarah,
I'm sad to say that I also need serious help.
Speaker 3 (01:46):
Oh my gosh. Well that makes three of us.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
And the hilarious part of this is when I was
reading this question to think about, you know, have a
little think in advance about what I would suggest. I
found it a hard one, and because it was a
hard question, I ignored it. Did a full house, deep clean,
scrolled TikTok for hours, I made a beautifully formatted, color
coded to do so I wouldn't have to answer the
question because it's a hard one.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
But it's such a funny question because I feel like
we all do it. But Sarah, okay, out of all
of us here, I mean, I'm not sure what Lulu does.
I'm sure she's amazing, but you are the one who
has very successful businesses. So you're clearly doing something right
that I'm sure doesn't involve procrastinating.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
Well, I mean, we all have our moments. One of
the things that really helps me is, firstly, I try
and identify the reason, because sometimes your reaction is different
or the action should I say that you can take
is different depending on what it is. So for example,
if you're procrastinating because you're exhausted, I think sometimes the
temptation is just to push on keep going, especially if
(02:47):
you've been sitting there doing something for a couple of hours.
You're like, no, I just need to finish. And sometimes
it's counterintuitive, but maybe stop. Like sometimes it isn't pushed through.
Sometimes if it's tiredness, you're actually not going to get
any clearer or any more energized by just sitting there
staring at the same thing over and over again. So
one thing that's really helped me is if that's the reason,
if it's tiredness or brain fog, I actually stop for
(03:08):
a minute, get up, maybe go for a walk, get
a cup of tea, come back and try again later.
But sometimes it might be that you need to break
the circuit just because you're emotionally flat. So sometimes I'll
get up and like you might need to go and
do a workout. Like sometimes the procrastination and leaving the
task and coming back is a good thing. If it's
(03:28):
not one of those things if it's not something that
needs a bit of action before you can keep going.
The best thing that I ever do is to break
the big, scary, overwhelming task into mini tasks and then
give myself little awards after each one.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
Ooh, what's a reward like?
Speaker 1 (03:46):
If you do want to have a little scroll, I'm like, well,
I can't have a ten minute scroll until I've done
a thirty minute block of this hard task. Or you know,
I want my second coffee for the day the afternoon slump,
but actually I haven't earned that yet because I haven't
done thirty minutes of my work. So I kind of
build in little treat of things that I would want.
(04:06):
And I know it's probably not like the best advice
to use food as an incentivization, but sometimes it's a snack.
It's like I can't go and get a snack or
I can't go on my coffee break until I've done
this mini task. And I actually think breaking it into
smaller tasks, you don't even need to think about tasks
two to ten. All you need to think about is
number one, And suddenly your brain it frees up so
(04:28):
much space for you to just begin because you're not
trying to begin the entire thing. You're just beginning this
small thing. It's less overwhelming. The fear that you get
from the size of the task is often what creates procrastinations.
So yeah, I feel like dividing it into a list
makes things more manageable. And then the other thing that
I do is I actually just create obstacles for myself,
(04:50):
Like I know that my biggest destruction is social media.
For other people, it might be other things, it might
be TV, it might be whatever it is, but I
know that. You know, my problem is I want to
scroll and then I say I'm going to scroll for
five minutes, and I get on a tangent and then
like eight hours, I'm still sitting there.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
You're just in the dark with your light on your face. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
Literally, I'm that mean. And so I make it hard
for myself. I put my phone like physically elsewhere, so
there's an obstacle. I'll turn it off and like it
takes a little while for your phone to boot up.
And then when you pick up a phone that's off,
you can't say all your notifications or you turn your
notifications off. Like building in obstacles to the things that
allow you to procrastinate further. It's like hacking your own temptation.
(05:35):
You just remove the temptation. And it sounds really basic,
but sometimes I think humans are pretty basic. If there's
a distraction, remove it and then it's less distracting.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
So true, especially with this phone scrolling thing, because I
do turn my phone off a lot of the time,
and I think when you do that, you also become
so hyper aware of exactly how much you pick up
your phone without even realizing you're doing it, like subconsciously,
and it's quite confronting. I pick up my phone so
many times without realizing I'm doing it. I have two
(06:06):
tips as well, because I am such a big procrastinator
that these two things basically saved so much of my
time just from actually doing my work and not procrastinating.
I'm sure my mum, mea managers are gonna love hearing
this episode from me. But basically what I do is
I first they figured out my energy levels throughout the day,
because everyone has different jumps and energy and you just
(06:27):
have to be just aware of your energy, figure out
like where you feel most productive. And I realize I'm
not a morning person, but I've had to become a
morning person, because that's where all my energy goes. It's
like in the morning, if I do things, it has
to be done before eleven am, because then I go
into a bit of a slump between like eleven and three,
(06:47):
and then I get another burst of energy after three pm.
And I know we're recording this at three pm. So
that's why I look a bit dull, right, well, so proud.
And the funny thing is is that I'm so lucky
to be a creative here because it was actually my
producers who noticed my energy levels. And I realize that
a lot of my recordings end up being in the mornings,
because I like, you sound like shit after three pm,
(07:09):
Like you just.
Speaker 3 (07:09):
Some constructive criticism here, literally just.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
Like after you've had lunch, like you can't get anything
good out of you. And I'm like, okay, that makes sense.
And because I am a big procrastinator as well, So
once I feed out my energy levels, I realized that
the method of choice for me to get work done
was eating the frog. I have to do the hardest
thing first, and then once I've done that thing, I
just end up doing everything else because you've got the
(07:34):
hard thing out of the way. So if you're like me,
and you have a lot of energy in the morning
and you want to do everything in the morning. Try
to eat the frog the method, because once you get
the hardest part of your workday out of the way,
if you're able to do so, everything else just seems
so much easier and you're less likely to procrastinate. It
is like the best thing I've ever tried. I also
wrote a piece about it, which will link in the
(07:56):
show notes, because I tell everyone to eat the frog.
It's so good.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
Oh my god, that's so clever, because I do think
you can end up. You think you've sat down to
start the task you being procrastinating about, but really you've
just been doing the busy work. It's like I did
the formatting. I literally chose the font, and it's like,
is that really did you really start or are you
just choosing the font?
Speaker 2 (08:16):
Did you really start or are you just playing with
your color palette? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (08:18):
Literally.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
But then one of the ones that actually I forgot
to mention at the start that is so so basic
and it's almost laughable that this is a tip, but
it actually really really helps me sometimes as well, is
just count down from five, Like when you get to zero,
you just start like that's so good is just sitting
there Like you're just sitting there going, oh, I can't.
(08:42):
Then you get up and you're walking around and you
get a cup of tea and then you're like, oh,
I probably need a Wii. You go where you come
back like pacing around. Sometimes it's like just count have
from five and don't give yourself the option. When I
get to zero, I'm starting like there's no choice. And
suddenly you kind of can't procrastinate anymore because the countdown's
counted down. You know, we're at zero. It's team out
a zero. You got to do it.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
Oh my god, I'm going to try that next time
because that sounds right up my alley. So whoever's procrastinating
their work and listening to this episode right now, if
you're going to stop, you're going to do one task
and then you're going to come back and listen to
the rest of the episode right now. Okay. Our second
question comes from Carly in Newcastle, and she says, I've
(09:23):
just started a new job and I'm desperate not to
be the forgettable new person. Beyond bringing treats and smiling,
what's one unexpected thing I can do to actually stand
out and make genuine connections. The office already has a
fun shirt guy and a sour dough lady. Help me
find my workplace identity without trying too hard or being weird.
(09:47):
Oh my god, this is really foye.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
I mean, Carly, I feel like you're doing so well
even by caring about this, Like I love that you
want to be memorable.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
I think also, like beyond bringing treats and smiling, like
I'd love to be known as the girl who smiles,
like the smiling girl, Like that's so sweet and I
love joice everyone.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
Yeah, look, I think my best advice on this one
is make it something you can sustain. Like I think
it is easy to want to be like the fun
shirt guy or the sour dough lady or find your thing,
but don't force it if it's something that you're not,
because then once you're the sourdough lady, you've got to
bring sourdough for the rest of your time at that workplace.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
And that's expensive, right, Like you're also funding that, like
it's a side hustle that you're getting nothing out of it.
Speaker 1 (10:39):
Like if you don't like making sourdo don't become the
sourdough lady because everyone is going to expect it from you.
You'll be memorable for the wrong reason if one day
you start trying to charge them for the sowdough that
you've been making this whole entire time. So main point
number one is, don't become the sourdough lady unless you're
really ready to commit. But point number two if you
(11:00):
don't want to be the person who brings treats and
kind of does something that you know it's kind of generic,
but you want to be memorable to make connections. One
thing that I always did, which I actually loved doing
because it was really rewarding for me as well to
learn interesting things about my colleagues that I otherwise wouldn't
is to make notes or don't even need to write
(11:22):
it down. But whenever someone mentions like, oh, I did
that at golf on the weekend, or oh I did
that with my dog because I love you know, I
breed dogs, or my mom's a dog breeder, or I
have a dog grooming business on the side, everyone will
drop a little fun fact about themselves at some point,
and instead of just bringing a random treat that's generated
to everyone, Why don't you create some kind of thing
(11:43):
that you do with that person, whether it's bring them
a gift or send them a link to their email.
When you see that there's like if they have Golden Retrievers,
for example, you see an ad for the Golden Retriever
meet up boy, Like I think there was one in
Melbourne recently that was like the most Golden Retrievers ever
in one spot and they said a Guinness World Record, Like, oh.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
My actual dream, Like that is what heaven looks.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
Like to me, legit, but like if someone says that
to you, if you said that to me at work,
then for me to send you back that link one
day and say I saw this when I was like
scrolling and it made me think of you. That's how
I feel like you can create a really genuine connection
that's so cute, or bring them in like a cute
dog treat that's for their Golden Retriever, or you know,
(12:23):
if it's a golfer, like next time there's a tournament
coming out, just say oh I saw that there were
tickets or whatever it is. I feel like there are
ways that you can connect with someone and they will
remember you like you don't have to be remembered by
everyone is the same title. You don't want to be
the entire officer's funshirt guy. You can just be the
thoughtful person who remembered that I like, go on retrievers.
I feel like that's a really cute way to do it.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
That's so nice. That's actually so good. And also like
what people will love about you, Like I think even
outside of the workplace, anyone that like has showed that
they paid attention to what you said and listened and
considered it and then thought of you when they saw
this thing. It's just so so nice. It's such a
good quality to have as a person in general. And
(13:05):
I also want to say that, like people could just
know you for just being kri like just being a
really nice, good coworker. Like you don't have to have
a stick or you don't have to have a thing,
because I think like people should just know you as
who you are as a person. Then they should know
your name and just don't think too much into it
because it would just come naturally.
Speaker 3 (13:25):
That's so true.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
Reminds me of oh my gosh, my terrible memory. Guys,
if you've listened to a couple of episodes you'll not.
I have a really bad memory, and I can never
think of the powerful example that I'm going to remember it,
like Midnight Tonight. But there's a TV show where someone's
trying to manufacture their own nickname, and it's like, you
can't give yourself the nickname, like you have to wait
for it to come from what other people think of you.
(13:47):
So I also think, don't try and manufacture the thing
you remembered for, Like you said, just be who you
are and let everyone decide the thing that they love
about you. Like it's kind of nice to think that
if other people around you were asked what's the most
memorable thing about Carli, that they would have a different
answer to what you might think, Like that's lovely about relationships.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
Our next question comes from Drew and she says this
is all about how to navigate social media when you've
joined a workforce. So she said, I'm being flooded with
social media requests from older colleagues at my new job.
I'm quite active on my personal account and prefer keeping
work and personal life separate to complicate matters. I don't
(14:34):
want to accept some colleagues requests while declining others they
would know by now I've seen their requests. Help. What's
the most professional way to maintain my social media boundaries
without offending anyone? I actually have no answer for this.
I love how it's older colleagues.
Speaker 3 (14:51):
If I left my job.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
Yeah, that's a really interesting one, and I think it's
increasingly common because I don't know, a couple of years ago,
even this wasn't an issue because you didn't really have
social media. You didn't have to worry about that, and
if there were connections, it was more professional anyway.
Speaker 3 (15:08):
It was like LinkedIn.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
So I think, as someone whose entire life is social media,
including my career, like I'm probably not the most qualified
to talk about the delineation of the two and keeping
them separate. But when I was in corporate and I
did want to keep my career and even my side
hustle very separate, I didn't want anyone to know that
we had started the business when we did, so I
didn't tell anyone. You have two options. You can either
(15:32):
create two and some people don't mind managing their work
page and their personal page. But that's more if you
have a business, and if you don't. If you're at
a workplace, it's kind of a lot of effort to
just create a separate personal It's like two life of
ones with your work criens, and one isn't yeah, it's
like yeah, literally, it's like a fin stu.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
I love this business so much, having a great day
at work.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
Here's love extra learning, here's a financial review that I'm
reading with my green juice. I think that's probably a
bit much unless it's the case of having a business
page in a personal page.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
And they've already had friend or requests from their personal
page as well, so they, like the colleagues, have already
established they found the personal page.
Speaker 1 (16:16):
And then I think in that situation, if you do
come to a position with some of your work friends
where you want them to be you're not your real friends,
and you want to accept them, but you don't want
to accept everyone, I think you are going to have
to just accept that. You will probably offend some people,
like if they are going to know that you haven't
accepted their request but you still don't want them to
(16:36):
be your friend. There's really no way around it. My
big thing is just make clear rules for you on
who's going to become a real life friend versus a
work friend, and when you let people cross that boundary,
people might get offended, but at least you know where
you stand. It's like, well, but we're not friends, we
don't hang out, Like is the rule that we've got
to hang out outside of work? Is the rule that
(16:57):
we do other activities? Could you justify it to them
if they actually confronted you, like if they said, why
didn't you accept my request? Could you actually say, well,
because I have coffee with that person, I don't have
coffee with you. Like, if you could justify it, then
you shouldn't feel bad about it, even if they are offended.
If you can't justify it, and it's simply because like
I don't know, I don't like your fashion or something,
(17:18):
then that's where it gets a little bit harder.
Speaker 3 (17:19):
But it's your page.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
You don't owe them anything, So in the end you
probably just have to get comfortable with the fact that
you might offend some people. But that's the same with
everything in life. It's your page. You don't owe it
to anybody.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
It's so true. But I could personally never I'd be like,
I'll accept you right now, here's some money, take everything.
Speaker 1 (17:37):
No same. I mean, my other thing is I'm so
curious that your colleagues would know that you'd accepted some
people and not others, Like how would they know that?
That's really interesting the level of forensic.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
If it was on Instagram and they went back Injury's profile,
they would see followed by and then mutuals Oh yeah, okay.
You probably could be confronted.
Speaker 3 (18:00):
You got to be brutal. Would someone actually ask you that.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
I don't think anyone would actually say, hey, you haven't
accepted my friend request. But also I don't know who
like these people, Like they could be like boomers who
are just like think that it's all free for all.
Like my mom is someone who would definitely be like, hey,
you haven't accepted my friend request.
Speaker 1 (18:18):
Yeah, but my mom also thinks that like people's pages,
like the newsfeed, she gets confused about what's public. Like
sometimes she'd be like, oh, yeah, I thought that there
was an update on the news or something. I'm like, no,
that was a comment on someone else's wat Like, yeah,
it's a messy. It's messy out there, guys.
Speaker 2 (18:33):
It's a messy. So be prepared to have the conversation.
But also, if I just started a new job and
all my colleagues suddenly wanted to be friends with me
on social media. I'd be really excited about that.
Speaker 3 (18:44):
It's a compliment, for sure, it's so good.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
But that's just me and how I think about myself.
That's a whole other thing to unpack.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
I also think, think about what you like posting, Like
what do you use your social media for? And do
you want to have to think every time you post
my work friends are on here?
Speaker 2 (19:04):
Oh that's such a good point. That's probably what Drew's
dealing with.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
Like, what's worse than not accepting someone and then knowing
about it is you accepting them and then defriending them.
Speaker 3 (19:13):
That's way worse.
Speaker 2 (19:16):
Or constantly having to like upload and then realize and
then delete and then add close friends and then it's
this whole thing. It's gonna be like management. It's going
to be too much admin. Oh, good luck, Drew, too
much ADM. Like, that's just so much we're gonna have
to think about.
Speaker 3 (19:30):
But we were pretty useless on that question.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
We made this question way deeper than it needed to be.
Please don't smile. Well, thank you so much for helping
us clear the biz inbox. If you have a work question,
send it our way. You will find a link to
submit your questions in the show notes. You can tell
us your name if you want, or you can remain
completely anonymous.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
It is your choice. You absolutely can remain anonymous. I
mean half of these questions could have been submitted by me,
who knows. They all felt very much like they could
have been. And if you missed any of our episodes,
just grow back in your feed.
Speaker 3 (20:04):
We'll be back in the biz inbox next week.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
Bye see ya. Mamma Mia acknowledges the traditional owners of
land and waters that this podcast is recorded on
You're listening to Amma mea podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Hello, and welcome to biz Inbox. I'm m Vernon, bringing
you your weekly dos of unfiltered workplace wisdom. Well, I'm
going to try.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
I'm Sarah Davidson, also trying to help them dig into
some workplace truth today.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
And if you are new here, welcome, because biz Inbox
is where your professional dilemmas get sold. No names attached.
So whether you're navigating office dynamics, launching a side hustle,
or dealing with the manager from hell, We've got you
covered and your identity stays completely under wraps if you
choose to do so.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
Today we are diving into whether loud working is worth
the hype and that awkward moment when your entire workplace
discovers your Instagram handle, Oh my goodness, embarrassing.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
No, we'll help you out.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
You out.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
First, I want to dive into a question that I
feel like I could have submitted myself. It's from Lulu
and she says I am the Queen of procrastination, which
I'm going to say, no, Lulu, I am. Instead of
finishing tomorrow's urgent report, I just did a full house,
deep clean, scrolled TikTok for hours, and created a beautifully formatted,
(01:33):
color coded to do list, which I then ignored. I'll
literally do anything to avoid the actual work. Do you
have any tips at all? I need serious help, Sarah,
I'm sad to say that I also need serious help.
Speaker 3 (01:46):
Oh my gosh. Well that makes three of us.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
And the hilarious part of this is when I was
reading this question to think about, you know, have a
little think in advance about what I would suggest. I
found it a hard one, and because it was a
hard question, I ignored it. Did a full house, deep clean,
scrolled TikTok for hours, I made a beautifully formatted, color
coded to do so I wouldn't have to answer the
question because it's a hard one.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
But it's such a funny question because I feel like
we all do it. But Sarah, okay, out of all
of us here, I mean, I'm not sure what Lulu does.
I'm sure she's amazing, but you are the one who
has very successful businesses. So you're clearly doing something right
that I'm sure doesn't involve procrastinating.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
Well, I mean, we all have our moments. One of
the things that really helps me is, firstly, I try
and identify the reason, because sometimes your reaction is different
or the action should I say that you can take
is different depending on what it is. So for example,
if you're procrastinating because you're exhausted, I think sometimes the
temptation is just to push on keep going, especially if
(02:47):
you've been sitting there doing something for a couple of hours.
You're like, no, I just need to finish. And sometimes
it's counterintuitive, but maybe stop. Like sometimes it isn't pushed through.
Sometimes if it's tiredness, you're actually not going to get
any clearer or any more energized by just sitting there
staring at the same thing over and over again. So
one thing that's really helped me is if that's the reason,
if it's tiredness or brain fog, I actually stop for
(03:08):
a minute, get up, maybe go for a walk, get
a cup of tea, come back and try again later.
But sometimes it might be that you need to break
the circuit just because you're emotionally flat. So sometimes I'll
get up and like you might need to go and
do a workout. Like sometimes the procrastination and leaving the
task and coming back is a good thing. If it's
(03:28):
not one of those things if it's not something that
needs a bit of action before you can keep going.
The best thing that I ever do is to break
the big, scary, overwhelming task into mini tasks and then
give myself little awards after each one.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
Ooh, what's a reward like?
Speaker 1 (03:46):
If you do want to have a little scroll, I'm like, well,
I can't have a ten minute scroll until I've done
a thirty minute block of this hard task. Or you know,
I want my second coffee for the day the afternoon slump,
but actually I haven't earned that yet because I haven't
done thirty minutes of my work. So I kind of
build in little treat of things that I would want.
(04:06):
And I know it's probably not like the best advice
to use food as an incentivization, but sometimes it's a snack.
It's like I can't go and get a snack or
I can't go on my coffee break until I've done
this mini task. And I actually think breaking it into
smaller tasks, you don't even need to think about tasks
two to ten. All you need to think about is
number one, And suddenly your brain it frees up so
(04:28):
much space for you to just begin because you're not
trying to begin the entire thing. You're just beginning this
small thing. It's less overwhelming. The fear that you get
from the size of the task is often what creates procrastinations.
So yeah, I feel like dividing it into a list
makes things more manageable. And then the other thing that
I do is I actually just create obstacles for myself,
(04:50):
Like I know that my biggest destruction is social media.
For other people, it might be other things, it might
be TV, it might be whatever it is, but I
know that. You know, my problem is I want to
scroll and then I say I'm going to scroll for
five minutes, and I get on a tangent and then
like eight hours, I'm still sitting there.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
You're just in the dark with your light on your face. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
Literally, I'm that mean. And so I make it hard
for myself. I put my phone like physically elsewhere, so
there's an obstacle. I'll turn it off and like it
takes a little while for your phone to boot up.
And then when you pick up a phone that's off,
you can't say all your notifications or you turn your
notifications off. Like building in obstacles to the things that
allow you to procrastinate further. It's like hacking your own temptation.
(05:35):
You just remove the temptation. And it sounds really basic,
but sometimes I think humans are pretty basic. If there's
a distraction, remove it and then it's less distracting.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
So true, especially with this phone scrolling thing, because I
do turn my phone off a lot of the time,
and I think when you do that, you also become
so hyper aware of exactly how much you pick up
your phone without even realizing you're doing it, like subconsciously,
and it's quite confronting. I pick up my phone so
many times without realizing I'm doing it. I have two
(06:06):
tips as well, because I am such a big procrastinator
that these two things basically saved so much of my
time just from actually doing my work and not procrastinating.
I'm sure my mum, mea managers are gonna love hearing
this episode from me. But basically what I do is
I first they figured out my energy levels throughout the day,
because everyone has different jumps and energy and you just
(06:27):
have to be just aware of your energy, figure out
like where you feel most productive. And I realize I'm
not a morning person, but I've had to become a
morning person, because that's where all my energy goes. It's
like in the morning, if I do things, it has
to be done before eleven am, because then I go
into a bit of a slump between like eleven and three,
(06:47):
and then I get another burst of energy after three pm.
And I know we're recording this at three pm. So
that's why I look a bit dull, right, well, so proud.
And the funny thing is is that I'm so lucky
to be a creative here because it was actually my
producers who noticed my energy levels. And I realize that
a lot of my recordings end up being in the mornings,
because I like, you sound like shit after three pm,
(07:09):
Like you just.
Speaker 3 (07:09):
Some constructive criticism here, literally just.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
Like after you've had lunch, like you can't get anything
good out of you. And I'm like, okay, that makes sense.
And because I am a big procrastinator as well, So
once I feed out my energy levels, I realized that
the method of choice for me to get work done
was eating the frog. I have to do the hardest
thing first, and then once I've done that thing, I
just end up doing everything else because you've got the
(07:34):
hard thing out of the way. So if you're like me,
and you have a lot of energy in the morning
and you want to do everything in the morning. Try
to eat the frog the method, because once you get
the hardest part of your workday out of the way,
if you're able to do so, everything else just seems
so much easier and you're less likely to procrastinate. It
is like the best thing I've ever tried. I also
wrote a piece about it, which will link in the
(07:56):
show notes, because I tell everyone to eat the frog.
It's so good.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
Oh my god, that's so clever, because I do think
you can end up. You think you've sat down to
start the task you being procrastinating about, but really you've
just been doing the busy work. It's like I did
the formatting. I literally chose the font, and it's like,
is that really did you really start or are you
just choosing the font?
Speaker 2 (08:16):
Did you really start or are you just playing with
your color palette? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (08:18):
Literally.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
But then one of the ones that actually I forgot
to mention at the start that is so so basic
and it's almost laughable that this is a tip, but
it actually really really helps me sometimes as well, is
just count down from five, Like when you get to zero,
you just start like that's so good is just sitting
there Like you're just sitting there going, oh, I can't.
(08:42):
Then you get up and you're walking around and you
get a cup of tea and then you're like, oh,
I probably need a Wii. You go where you come
back like pacing around. Sometimes it's like just count have
from five and don't give yourself the option. When I
get to zero, I'm starting like there's no choice. And
suddenly you kind of can't procrastinate anymore because the countdown's
counted down. You know, we're at zero. It's team out
a zero. You got to do it.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
Oh my god, I'm going to try that next time
because that sounds right up my alley. So whoever's procrastinating
their work and listening to this episode right now, if
you're going to stop, you're going to do one task
and then you're going to come back and listen to
the rest of the episode right now. Okay. Our second
question comes from Carly in Newcastle, and she says, I've
(09:23):
just started a new job and I'm desperate not to
be the forgettable new person. Beyond bringing treats and smiling,
what's one unexpected thing I can do to actually stand
out and make genuine connections. The office already has a
fun shirt guy and a sour dough lady. Help me
find my workplace identity without trying too hard or being weird.
(09:47):
Oh my god, this is really foye.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
I mean, Carly, I feel like you're doing so well
even by caring about this, Like I love that you
want to be memorable.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
I think also, like beyond bringing treats and smiling, like
I'd love to be known as the girl who smiles,
like the smiling girl, Like that's so sweet and I
love joice everyone.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
Yeah, look, I think my best advice on this one
is make it something you can sustain. Like I think
it is easy to want to be like the fun
shirt guy or the sour dough lady or find your thing,
but don't force it if it's something that you're not,
because then once you're the sourdough lady, you've got to
bring sourdough for the rest of your time at that workplace.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
And that's expensive, right, Like you're also funding that, like
it's a side hustle that you're getting nothing out of it.
Speaker 1 (10:39):
Like if you don't like making sourdo don't become the
sourdough lady because everyone is going to expect it from you.
You'll be memorable for the wrong reason if one day
you start trying to charge them for the sowdough that
you've been making this whole entire time. So main point
number one is, don't become the sourdough lady unless you're
really ready to commit. But point number two if you
(11:00):
don't want to be the person who brings treats and
kind of does something that you know it's kind of generic,
but you want to be memorable to make connections. One
thing that I always did, which I actually loved doing
because it was really rewarding for me as well to
learn interesting things about my colleagues that I otherwise wouldn't
is to make notes or don't even need to write
(11:22):
it down. But whenever someone mentions like, oh, I did
that at golf on the weekend, or oh I did
that with my dog because I love you know, I
breed dogs, or my mom's a dog breeder, or I
have a dog grooming business on the side, everyone will
drop a little fun fact about themselves at some point,
and instead of just bringing a random treat that's generated
to everyone, Why don't you create some kind of thing
(11:43):
that you do with that person, whether it's bring them
a gift or send them a link to their email.
When you see that there's like if they have Golden Retrievers,
for example, you see an ad for the Golden Retriever
meet up boy, Like I think there was one in
Melbourne recently that was like the most Golden Retrievers ever
in one spot and they said a Guinness World Record, Like, oh.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
My actual dream, Like that is what heaven looks.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
Like to me, legit, but like if someone says that
to you, if you said that to me at work,
then for me to send you back that link one
day and say I saw this when I was like
scrolling and it made me think of you. That's how
I feel like you can create a really genuine connection
that's so cute, or bring them in like a cute
dog treat that's for their Golden Retriever, or you know,
(12:23):
if it's a golfer, like next time there's a tournament
coming out, just say oh I saw that there were
tickets or whatever it is. I feel like there are
ways that you can connect with someone and they will
remember you like you don't have to be remembered by
everyone is the same title. You don't want to be
the entire officer's funshirt guy. You can just be the
thoughtful person who remembered that I like, go on retrievers.
I feel like that's a really cute way to do it.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
That's so nice. That's actually so good. And also like
what people will love about you, Like I think even
outside of the workplace, anyone that like has showed that
they paid attention to what you said and listened and
considered it and then thought of you when they saw
this thing. It's just so so nice. It's such a
good quality to have as a person in general. And
(13:05):
I also want to say that, like people could just
know you for just being kri like just being a
really nice, good coworker. Like you don't have to have
a stick or you don't have to have a thing,
because I think like people should just know you as
who you are as a person. Then they should know
your name and just don't think too much into it
because it would just come naturally.
Speaker 3 (13:25):
That's so true.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
Reminds me of oh my gosh, my terrible memory. Guys,
if you've listened to a couple of episodes you'll not.
I have a really bad memory, and I can never
think of the powerful example that I'm going to remember it,
like Midnight Tonight. But there's a TV show where someone's
trying to manufacture their own nickname, and it's like, you
can't give yourself the nickname, like you have to wait
for it to come from what other people think of you.
(13:47):
So I also think, don't try and manufacture the thing
you remembered for, Like you said, just be who you
are and let everyone decide the thing that they love
about you. Like it's kind of nice to think that
if other people around you were asked what's the most
memorable thing about Carli, that they would have a different
answer to what you might think, Like that's lovely about relationships.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
Our next question comes from Drew and she says this
is all about how to navigate social media when you've
joined a workforce. So she said, I'm being flooded with
social media requests from older colleagues at my new job.
I'm quite active on my personal account and prefer keeping
work and personal life separate to complicate matters. I don't
(14:34):
want to accept some colleagues requests while declining others they
would know by now I've seen their requests. Help. What's
the most professional way to maintain my social media boundaries
without offending anyone? I actually have no answer for this.
I love how it's older colleagues.
Speaker 3 (14:51):
If I left my job.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
Yeah, that's a really interesting one, and I think it's
increasingly common because I don't know, a couple of years ago,
even this wasn't an issue because you didn't really have
social media. You didn't have to worry about that, and
if there were connections, it was more professional anyway.
Speaker 3 (15:08):
It was like LinkedIn.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
So I think, as someone whose entire life is social media,
including my career, like I'm probably not the most qualified
to talk about the delineation of the two and keeping
them separate. But when I was in corporate and I
did want to keep my career and even my side
hustle very separate, I didn't want anyone to know that
we had started the business when we did, so I
didn't tell anyone. You have two options. You can either
(15:32):
create two and some people don't mind managing their work
page and their personal page. But that's more if you
have a business, and if you don't. If you're at
a workplace, it's kind of a lot of effort to
just create a separate personal It's like two life of
ones with your work criens, and one isn't yeah, it's
like yeah, literally, it's like a fin stu.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
I love this business so much, having a great day
at work.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
Here's love extra learning, here's a financial review that I'm
reading with my green juice. I think that's probably a
bit much unless it's the case of having a business
page in a personal page.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
And they've already had friend or requests from their personal
page as well, so they, like the colleagues, have already
established they found the personal page.
Speaker 1 (16:16):
And then I think in that situation, if you do
come to a position with some of your work friends
where you want them to be you're not your real friends,
and you want to accept them, but you don't want
to accept everyone, I think you are going to have
to just accept that. You will probably offend some people,
like if they are going to know that you haven't
accepted their request but you still don't want them to
(16:36):
be your friend. There's really no way around it. My
big thing is just make clear rules for you on
who's going to become a real life friend versus a
work friend, and when you let people cross that boundary,
people might get offended, but at least you know where
you stand. It's like, well, but we're not friends, we
don't hang out, Like is the rule that we've got
to hang out outside of work? Is the rule that
(16:57):
we do other activities? Could you justify it to them
if they actually confronted you, like if they said, why
didn't you accept my request? Could you actually say, well,
because I have coffee with that person, I don't have
coffee with you. Like, if you could justify it, then
you shouldn't feel bad about it, even if they are offended.
If you can't justify it, and it's simply because like
I don't know, I don't like your fashion or something,
(17:18):
then that's where it gets a little bit harder.
Speaker 3 (17:19):
But it's your page.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
You don't owe them anything, So in the end you
probably just have to get comfortable with the fact that
you might offend some people. But that's the same with
everything in life. It's your page. You don't owe it
to anybody.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
It's so true. But I could personally never I'd be like,
I'll accept you right now, here's some money, take everything.
Speaker 1 (17:37):
No same. I mean, my other thing is I'm so
curious that your colleagues would know that you'd accepted some
people and not others, Like how would they know that?
That's really interesting the level of forensic.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
If it was on Instagram and they went back Injury's profile,
they would see followed by and then mutuals Oh yeah, okay.
You probably could be confronted.
Speaker 3 (18:00):
You got to be brutal. Would someone actually ask you that.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
I don't think anyone would actually say, hey, you haven't
accepted my friend request. But also I don't know who
like these people, Like they could be like boomers who
are just like think that it's all free for all.
Like my mom is someone who would definitely be like, hey,
you haven't accepted my friend request.
Speaker 1 (18:18):
Yeah, but my mom also thinks that like people's pages,
like the newsfeed, she gets confused about what's public. Like
sometimes she'd be like, oh, yeah, I thought that there
was an update on the news or something. I'm like, no,
that was a comment on someone else's wat Like, yeah,
it's a messy. It's messy out there, guys.
Speaker 2 (18:33):
It's a messy. So be prepared to have the conversation.
But also, if I just started a new job and
all my colleagues suddenly wanted to be friends with me
on social media. I'd be really excited about that.
Speaker 3 (18:44):
It's a compliment, for sure, it's so good.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
But that's just me and how I think about myself.
That's a whole other thing to unpack.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
I also think, think about what you like posting, Like
what do you use your social media for? And do
you want to have to think every time you post
my work friends are on here?
Speaker 2 (19:04):
Oh that's such a good point. That's probably what Drew's
dealing with.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
Like, what's worse than not accepting someone and then knowing
about it is you accepting them and then defriending them.
Speaker 3 (19:13):
That's way worse.
Speaker 2 (19:16):
Or constantly having to like upload and then realize and
then delete and then add close friends and then it's
this whole thing. It's gonna be like management. It's going
to be too much admin. Oh, good luck, Drew, too
much ADM. Like, that's just so much we're gonna have
to think about.
Speaker 3 (19:30):
But we were pretty useless on that question.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
We made this question way deeper than it needed to be.
Please don't smile. Well, thank you so much for helping
us clear the biz inbox. If you have a work question,
send it our way. You will find a link to
submit your questions in the show notes. You can tell
us your name if you want, or you can remain
completely anonymous.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
It is your choice. You absolutely can remain anonymous. I
mean half of these questions could have been submitted by me,
who knows. They all felt very much like they could
have been. And if you missed any of our episodes,
just grow back in your feed.
Speaker 3 (20:04):
We'll be back in the biz inbox next week.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
Bye see ya. Mamma Mia acknowledges the traditional owners of
land and waters that this podcast is recorded on
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