Think of how much time we'd save if we trusted our intuition, rather than agonized over decisions. In this episode, brought to you by Wordle (kidding!), Janine and Shannon discuss how trusting yourself can benefit you in living your life, as well as playing games.

Discussion topics include:

• The spontaneous nature of our podcast

• What sparked this topic: Wordle

• Shannon's explanation of Wordle (for the uninitiated)

• How we're learning to trust our intuition while playing Wordle

• How your first instinct is often right, or at least good enough

• Trusting yourself: a productivity hack

• Muscle testing to tap into your unconscious knowledge to make decisions

• How it's so much easier to let something come to mind than to try to force it

• Shannon's observation that the more reasons you try to give yourself that something is a good decision, the less likely the decision will work best for you

• How we know more than we often give ourselves credit for

• The reality of perfectionism paralysis

• Thinking of trusting yourself as a practice

• Approaching trusting yourself from a place of curiosity rather than trying to be right or wrong

• Remember, you can always choose again until you land on what you want

Genealogists in the U.S. are excited about the release of the 1950 U.S. census, which happens at midnight tomorrow. Janine is eagerly awaiting it (it's been on her calendar for months!). This week Shannon and Janine discuss the value of planning ahead -- and enjoying the anticipation.

Discussion topics include:

• The upcoming release of the results of the 1950 U.S. census

• How technology advances have made it easier to search on the 1950 census the day it is released

• Whether or not the 72-year rule for the delay in releasing censuses is based on lifespan and whether it will change with increased life span

• How the release of the 1940 census was the gateway drug that got Shannon into genealogy

• How Janine is preparing for the release of the census

• Janine's inability to be chill about this

• The joy of anticipating something

• Studies that show that you can get more benefit from anticipating an event than the event itself

• How any preparation Janine was able to do for the census is time well spent, even if she didn't do as much as she hoped

• Janine's biggest fear about what might happen the day the census is released

• Thinking through what might go wrong with a plan and having a back up plan

• How planning ahead is about creating the enjoyment of anticipation, not trying to create a perfect plan

We bring up little tips and tricks for getting past perfectionism all the time in this podcast. Do you remember them when you need them? We don't. This week Janine and Shannon discuss building an anti-perfectionist toolkit that you can turn to when you're stuck in perfectionism.

Discussion topics include:

• How the possible techniques we talk about on this podcast come in handy

• The inevitability that our go-to anti-perfectionist tools will stop working

• Embracing the idea that not everything is going to work forever

• Knowing that it's not a failure if something stops working for you

• Janine's enthusiasm for Shannon's insomnia-busting technique of naming cities alphabetically

• Her recognition that this will inevitably fail for her at some point

• Tweaking a tool that stops working or trying a new one

• Collecting your tools in one place so you have a handy toolkit when you need it

• Cultivating the habit of looking at your toolkit when you're not under stress

• Adding to your toolkit regularly

• Reviewing your list every time you add to it

• Using a worry flowchart

• How it's totally normal not to remember things you hear (so write it down!)

Shannon's crowded basement was bringing her down and perfectionism was getting in the way of her doing anything about it. In this "Good Enough in Practice" episode, Shannon and Janine discuss Shannon's basement challenges, her beliefs around what she needed to before she could start decluttering and organizing her basement and they talk it through to the point where she can't wait to get started!

Discussion topics include:

• Shannon's overwhelming basement and how it became The Basement of Doom

• The various roles Shannon's basement fulfills

• Janine's own basement woes and how having a water problem forced a solution to them

• The perfectionistic loop of trying to figure out the best way to tackle a big project

• What's important to Shannon about how she organizes her basement

• How Janine's organizing company handles overwhelming basements

• Shannon's need to have a plan in place before starting: "How do I know what I'm doing if I haven't pre-planned it?"

• Janine's faith in Shannon's ability to proceed without a detailed plan

• Using pre-planning as a way to come up with a starting place (rather than a finishing place)

• Janine's caution about having a plan you feel you have to stick to

• Shannon's historic difficulties working with a professional organizer

• Bix's meltdown, which we couldn't edit out

• Shannon's new plan to let go of the easy stuff so that she can put lids on bins and work through them one bin at a time

• How this framework of recognizing what's important to you, what's keeping you stuck, and brainstorming some different approaches until something feels right can be applied to many different challenges

• Shannon's excitement over the prospect of getting started on her basement!

This week we're rerunning an episode from September 2019, back when we recorded slightly longer episodes. This one's all about keeping focus when we're surrounded by distractions. Who can't relate to that?

Every day, we're bombarded by constant distraction and it can really get in the way of productivity. This week, Janine and Shannon talk about the challenges presented by distraction and some strategies for dealing with it.

Discussion topics include:

• The toll distractions take on our productivity

• Janine’s distracting quest for birthday-gift suggestions

• Fun subscription boxes

• Open loops and how they can be distracting

• How to close those open loops

• Stopping mid-sentence to prompt yourself to go back to writing

• How stopping mid-sentence backfired for Shannon when she was participating in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo)

• The prospect of writing a graphic novel or an illustrated novel during NaNoWriMo

• Janine’s #1 tool in avoiding distraction: A timer

• Shannon’s technique for dealing with distractions: writing down the bright shiny object and moving on

• Shannon’s three-pronged task management system (Todoist, Trello & Bullet Journal)

• The value of knowing which tasks are important—and why

• How a good task management system can help you avoid succumbing to distraction

• Some strategies for minimizing distractions

• The easiest way to deal with distraction: eliminate the opportunities to be distracted (we’re talking to you, iPhone on the nightstand)

• Creating awareness of the things that distract you

• How just knowing you can get a notification reduces your IQ

Holding someone (or yourself) accountability doesn't mean holding their feet to the fire. Accountability can be really effective. This week Shannon and Janine discuss ways to stay on track without beating yourself up.

Discussion topics include:

• Our love for the words gentle and kind

• How accountability doesn't have to be harsh or forceful

• The effectiveness of a carrot over a stick

• Fun accountability: To-Do List Bingo!

• Janine's powerful habit tracker in her Bullet Journal

• How gentle accountability doesn't prompt resistance

• Wanting to do something rather than making yourself do something

• How gentle accountability can be helpful in relationships

• The language Shannon uses at home to ask for or provide gentle accountability 

• How neither Shannon nor Janine likes to be told what to do

• Asking how you can be supportive versus nagging someone

• Follow up question: How will I know if you don't want to support?

• Starting a conversation off with a request for the right kind of support

• Making it easier for people to give you accountability

• How the type of accountability that works for you might have to change periodically

• The gentle accountability of Janine's 30 x 30 genealogy challenges

• The ways Janine and Shannon are holding themselves accountable with yoga

We can be our own worst critics. Being overly judgmental does not help us achieve happiness (or anything else). In this episode, Janine and Shannon discuss some strategies for letting go of judgment and living with more kindness and compassion.

Discussion topics include:

• How unhelpful self judgment can be

• How Shannon sometimes feels disappointed in herself

• Unrealistic expectations for what we can accomplish in a day

• How Janine and Shannon never judge our clients but often judge ourselves

• Shannon's expectations for her clients (spoiler alert: she doesn't have any!)

• Practicing treating ourselves with the same kindness and concern as we treat our clients

• Stopping the cycle of self judgment

• How people with perfectionistic tendencies might be particularly judgmental

• Using feelings of disappointment as a reminder to look on the situation with kindness

• Thinking about what you'd tell a friend in a given situation

• Making "good enough" a happy phrase

• How perfectionism is all about judgment--and how we often think we're being judged

• Letting go of concern for someone else's judgment in a situation

• How so much self judgment originated externally from us

• Examining the things you're feeling judgmental about and checking in to see if it's something you really feel

• Cultivating compassion and kindness for yourself

Staying focused on a single task is so beneficial--and so challenging. This week, Shannon and Janine discuss how our brains aren't wired to multitask and some strategies for doing one thing at a time.

Discussion topics include:

• The soothing and healing power of a cat's purr

• How hard it is to resist multitasking

• The impossibility of doing more than one thing at the same time

• How multitasking usually results in none of the things being attempted done well

• Situations where you can truly multitask (at least sometimes)

• Shannon's strategy: Placing a sticky note about the one thing she's trying to do on her computer monitor to keep her on task

• Another tip: Turn off notifications

• How focusing on doing one thing at a time seems more important these days than ever

• Acknowledging the temptation of other things and jotting the distraction down to come back to later

• The relationship between our poor memories and distractibility

• The limits of our working memory

• How we can (purportedly) hold only seven pieces of information (plus or minus two) in our memory at a time

• How multitasking is actually rapid switching between tasks--and it takes a lot of brainpower

• The benefit of staying focused on one thing until you complete it: The reward of completion!

This week, we're re-running an episode we originally recorded in January 2019. Despite all the changes that have happened since then, the message still rings true!

Feeling satisfied--even when something isn't perfect--allows you to embrace a good-enough mentality. This week, Janine and Shannon discuss the importance of finding (and recognizing) satisfaction. Feeling satisfied doesn't lead to complacency--in fact, it's life enhancing.

Discussion topics include:

• Janine’s shocking (to Shannon) inability to tell a joke

• How feeling satisfied is an important aspect of a good-enough mentality

• Looking for places to feel satisfied without perfection

• Paying attention to what you can do instead of what you can’t do (and feeling satisfied with that)

• Shannon’s post-concussion challenges and how she is trying to feel satisfied with what she is able to do

• Gratitude vs satisfaction

• Setting yourself up to feel satisfied by putting the brakes on perfectionism

• Applying this concept to your task list (hint: include tasks instead of projects on your list and keep the list short)

• How being satisfied with less than perfect doesn’t make you complacent

• The fact that feeling satisfied can actually enhance your productivity

• How you can feel satisfied with something while also looking to improve it (which Janine is proving with her new yoga practice)

• Cultivating the habit of finding satisfaction in where you are, rather than waiting for satisfaction to find you

When your mind is too clogged with thoughts for your comfort, there are some things you can do for relief. This week and Shannon and Janine discuss some techniques clearing your cluttered mind. 

Discussion topics include:

• Janine's cluttered mind

• One of the most obvious strategies for clearing your mind: Writing things down

• The tricky way our brains count thinking about something as doing something

• How writing things down lets you focus on other things + helps put things in your long-term memory

• Hand writing something vs typing it into a computer

• The more senses involved in something the easier it is to remember it

• The value of writing things in a  consistent place (like a Bullet Journal or Evernote)

• Practicing mindfulness techniques to focus on one thing and quiet your mind

• Paying attention to your breathing

• A strategy for clearing your mind to go to sleep: Coming up with a list that is enough to occupy your mind but not interesting enough to keep you awake

• Janine's enthusiasm for Fifty Nifty United States, the song she learned in grade school that has benefitted her so much

• Allowing thoughts to pass through your mind without paying attention to individual thoughts

• Letting go of worry by asking yourself whether there's anything you can do about it now