chapter 2

OWN YOUR DAY, CLEAN UP YOUR ROUTINE

As a little girl, I used to always love playing in my parents’ eighties-style bathroom. It was a gigantic room with a huge bathtub, ginormous shower, his and her sinks, and since it was the eighties, completely covered in baby pink bite-sized tiles. Every night, I’d beg to take a bath in their bathtub where I’d pretend to be a television host and narrate my entire nightly routine. First, I’d go into the bathtub and relax for a few minutes. Next, I’d start my hair routine of shampoo and cream rinse (which we now call conditioner). I’d use buckets of the Bath and Body Works Sun-Ripened Raspberry shower gel and scrub myself clean with my hot pink loofa next. Then I’d move to my mother’s vanity, where I’d play with her makeup products and explain why and how I was using each one to my fake viewers. I can only imagine how I was using the eye liner and mascara!

Fast-forward 20-something years, and here I am, still obsessed with routines and people’s schedules and, of course, eager to share my current daily routine with all of you.

For me, a big part of getting it together has been refining my daily routine. Our routines should reflect the lifestyles that we want to live, not the ones that we’ve lived to this point. Remember, every single morning we can rewrite our stories and update our daily routines. Let’s start today.

Before we dig in, I want to say (again) that I know we’re probably not experiencing the exact same life and work styles, but we do have at least one thing in common: we are trying to be the best versions of ourselves that we can possibly be. I’ll bet you want to wake up productive and go to bed happy. You want to feel confident instead of anxious. You may even want to make more time for yourself so you can do more of the things you love.

No matter where you are in your career or life, we’re all trying to be our authentic selves (whatever that means to you), and while we may not admit it, we’re all just trying to figure it out—day by day.

In my interview with Josh Notes, I asked him about his daily routine, and he explained that really nailing down his daily routine was key in finding overall success. He said, “If you win the day, you can win the week. If you can win the week, you can win the month. And, before you know it, you will be winning at life.” This statement really got me thinking about my routine and how I use it to win my day, because if you can do that, you will be off to a great start for your life.

• • •

Now, for me to explain how far I’ve come in creating a schedule that makes me productive, happy, and healthy, I’ll have to contrast my new schedule with my former schedule. Before I dive into the “new and improved Lauren,” I’ll give you a glimpse of what my schedule used to look like when I didn’t feel in control of my life or my routine. So, let’s rewind the clock a few years and brace yourself for Lauren—the messy days!

LAUREN: THE MESSY DAYS

My first job after college was super strict and monitored (think asking for permission to go to the bathroom), so when I started my own company, I had no idea how to spend my time. I was used to someone caring about where I was and what I did at all times, so the fact that no one was watching my every move was both liberating and terrifying.

When I met my husband (who is also an entrepreneur), I was in my mid-twenties and had zero employees, so I was my only issue. When we started dating, I remember getting fed up with him when he didn’t want to stay out late and would say to him, “What do you mean you have to get up early and go to work tomorrow? You run your own business—you can do anything you want.” He was confused. “What do you mean? Of course, I need to go to work. If I want to continue to run my business, I need to do the job—and do it well—every single day,” he would say, baffled by my complaint.

“But . . . you make the rules! You can work when you want. Why would you choose to conform?” I would ask because I genuinely didn’t understand the need to have a routine to run a productive and effective business.

Needless to say, I learned a ton from him and how he handled his workday. The first thing I learned was that one of my biggest challenges was waking up early. Without having to be somewhere at a specific time or meet someone at a specific place, I found it incredibly challenging to wake up at a decent hour. In addition to that, I worked at my desk that happened to be right next to my bed. During these times, getting up before 10 a.m. seemed impossible.

I also had difficulty managing my priorities and commitments. I didn’t keep a calendar. I had the classic “I can remember everything!” mentality, which resulted in me making plans and totally forgetting about half of them. I also thought I could do anything from anywhere, so I’d plan important business calls for times when I knew I’d be on the road or traveling. The outcome? I remember being on the phone with someone from Coach (the handbag company) and driving through the middle of nowhere California on my way to a speaking event. The executive got so frustrated with my poor phone service that he finally just said, “This is unprofessional. We can’t do business together.”

At the time, I didn’t realize how my lack of organization and routine was hurting my professional relationships.

On top of this, I didn’t have an office when I started my business, so my getting ready routine didn’t exist. I remember worrying to myself, “If I have kids one day, will I ever get dressed? Will I always be the lady in the sweats?” I got so used to putting on a pair of oversized Abercrombie sweatpants, throwing on a big T-shirt from a family vacation that read Sedona, bundling up in my dad-like gray hoodie (yes, the same one from the gym), and clipping my hair on top of my head that a friend finally said, “Lauren! You look terrible. Go brush your hair, wash your face, and get it together. You look like a house rat!” And, she was right. (Got to love good friends!) It wasn’t until a few years later that I finally started getting dressed regardless of whether I had to leave the house that day.

In addition to being clueless about how to conduct my workday, I was similarly bad at managing a team. Once I started hiring employees, we’d have meetings that would run for hours on end. I remember one of my first employees getting upset because her day was spent having long-winded conversations instead of accomplishing tasks. There was no organization, no systems, and no best practices established. I was basically making everything up as I went.

The changes to my daily routine and breaking my bad habits didn’t happen overnight. I’d love to say that I drank some sort of magic potion that suddenly transformed me into the ideal professional, but that wasn’t the case. The truth is I worked like that for years. When I think back and ask myself, “What changed?” I don’t have a quick answer. I was spending so much time with my now-husband, I slowly began copying his routine. He and his business partner would wake up early, start blasting Stan Getz’s “The Girl from Ipanema,” get dressed, and start their day hosting conference calls with their teams. And from there, it was off to the races. They’d take a quick break for lunch and then get right back to it.

I’d never really seen entrepreneurs at work in such an up-close way before, so I was fascinated by how they ran their business. Their dedication, motivation, and organization inspired me. I started to wake up when they did, work when they did, take lunch when they did, and finish the workday when they did.

As I started to add structure to my days, I felt my productivity increase. I was landing more calls and more opportunities, and producing content more consistently. And, thanks to their example (shout out to Max Durovic and Mike Kenny of Aarrow Advertising, yes, the now world-famous sign spinners), my work style completely transformed.

• • •

Today, I’m ironically and frequently asked about my routine, my hustle, and generally how I get things done. I’m asked questions including, “How do you balance your family and work so well?” or “How do you run your work meetings, and what kinds of meetings are you in all day?” The other day my husband’s grandmother said, “Lauren, how do you have time to pick out your clothes? You always look so put together, but you are always traveling and never home to shop.” These questions secretly thrill me because people don’t know how long it took me to get it together—and I’m really proud of where I am today.

A LOOK INTO MY DAY NOW

Now it’s time to take you through my new daily routine. I’ve been following this for about a year and constantly changing, evaluating, and updating it.

Bonus Tip

Welcome to a day in the life of the new Lauren.

My day technically starts the evening before. Every night, I pick out my clothes for the next day. Sometimes, I pick out my outfits for the entire week over the weekend, so all I have do is lay them out each night. Next, I make sure my gym bag is packed and ready to go (this is also prepped and ready to go before the start of each week). Finally, I get myself mentally prepared for the next day by setting my to-do list (which I challenge myself to keep to less than five items) and referencing my tools (this includes my Outlook Calendar, inbox, notebook, and project management system—all of which we will talk about in depth in Chapter 5).

Now that we know what I do the night before, let’s look at the start of my day. Today I was up by 6:15. I plopped onto the couch, plugged in my laptop, turned on Morning Joe, made coffee, and started working by 6:30 a.m. I try not to have any calls before 8:30 a.m. when we technically “open for business” so I can own my morning time. Remember, time is one of the guiding principles of this journey. Throughout this book you’ll hear this mantra over and over—you need to own your time so that it doesn’t own you—and starting your day off by setting your own schedule puts this into practice.

Bonus Tip

I typically start each morning with, a “me project,” which is something I want to do and doesn’t require a response from someone else. For example, today, I wanted to finish writing a blog for my website, so I started with that and crossed it off my list 20 minutes later.

Next, I review my calendar to make sure it’s accurate and includes everything I need to do for that day. Yes, I did look at it the night before, but when I look the night before, I’m typically only looking to see what time my day really starts and when my first morning call or meeting takes place. Now, I’m reviewing to make sure that my day makes sense and my time is being spent in the right ways. I personally e-mail anyone that I have a call or meeting with that day to triple-check that we’re confirmed. I find that when you reach out to confirm, people are less likely to cancel. And if they do cancel, you’ll avoid sitting on a call waiting for someone who isn’t going to show up and wasting your time moving calls around to make a new time fit with your schedule. If there’s anything specific I want to send someone before our conversation (such as a meeting agenda or case study), I attach that to the e-mail.

If I’m going to a meeting that day, I make sure that I’m completely aware of how far it is and what time I need to leave. I try to allow 15 to 30 minutes of cushion to avoid stress (and I’m famous for getting lost). I add this travel time to the calendar and make note of things like “LB needs to leave” (LB being me—Lauren Berger). I also try to remove any unnecessary gaps in the day. Most of my tasks can’t be done in 20 minutes, so I like to have either large gaps of time that do allow me to do something or no gaps of time.

On an ideal morning, I also take 10 minutes or so to make sure I’m ready for my calls for the day. This makes me feel confident that I’m prepared, whether it be for a business I’m pitching, people I’m speaking with, or any prep work I need to do. I’ll also take this time to connect with the people or person I’m meeting on LinkedIn. I find this reminds them that I’m a real person and keeps us connected far past the call itself too. I then check out their company Instagram page and their company website to see what they are featuring and promoting. If I’m responsible for creating an agenda, I also confirm that this is handled and saved inside of the calendar invite (and e-mailed to whoever needs access).

Next, I take out the to-do list that I created the night before and immediately compare it to my calendar. I then look at my day with this in mind: “When am I going to do all of the things on my to-do list?”

A problem I frequently encounter is that I have a to-do list that is completely different from the activities on my calendar. If I’m booked on 30-minute calls all day long, I’ll never accomplish the items on my to-do list. So, I go into my calendar and block out time for items on my to-do list. Here’s an example. Let’s say I must put together a proposal for a client (a task that could take about 25 minutes). This may be a top priority on my to-do list, but if I’m booked all day long, when would I possibly have the time to sit down and do this? Also, proposals aren’t exactly easy to create, so I also need to make sure I have the time and space to really focus.

My first step is to look at my calendar to see where I can fit this particular project into my day. If I have the time, I schedule it in right away. If don’t, I evaluate other items already on my calendar. I ask myself, “Can any of these be pushed to another time since this proposal is time sensitive?” If the answer is yes, I’ll reschedule accordingly. If the answer is no, then I’ll need to look at my personal time. How can I fit this into my day without taking away from my other personal activities (exercising, eating dinner, relaxing)? Usually, I can find at least 25 minutes to move around within my day. If I absolutely cannot fit it in, I’ll set it as a “Me” task for the following morning. I’ll manage the clients’ expectations and let them know that I’ll be able to send them a proposal by early tomorrow afternoon, as I always want to have some wiggle room.

Sure, things will change and shift each day, but going into work with a serious plan is crucial. If you don’t make the most of your day, who will?

Once my day is locked, I scroll through my e-mails from that morning and the evening before to make sure I didn’t miss anything pressing. I address urgent e-mails and leave any other e-mails in my inbox for the time being. Remember, I’m working with the mentality that I should be focusing on my priorities, not other people’s. Lauryn Hock, influencer and founder of lauryncakes.com, says that she flags her most important e-mails in the morning so they sit on the top of her inbox. This allows her to clearly see her priorities for the day.

Usually by 7:45 a.m., I’ve wrapped up any urgent situations and I’m ready to execute the daily plan I’ve created for myself. I’m also minutes away from running late, so I need to get the heck out the door!

First, I put together my workbag, as I don’t want that to hold me up as I’m trying to get out of the house. Most of it is already organized, but since I’ve been working on my computer and with my notebook throughout the morning, I have to wrap up my chargers and put everything back in the bag. (I try to clean the bag out once a week so I avoid the overflowing disaster that it can easily become.)

Then, I head upstairs to get dressed for the day. My goal is to get ready in 15 minutes, 20 if I have a speaking engagement or appearance that day. Because I shower and do my hair the evening before, I don’t have to deal with the blow-dryer in the morning. I try to get ready in three to four 5-minute blocks of time, and I must have music playing while I get ready. This sounds crazy, but the music really keeps me on pace while I get ready. If I don’t have the music to keep me on track, I end up daydreaming as I put on mascara and completely losing track of the time.

After I’m ready, I grab a banana, yogurt, or oatmeal, or my husband makes egg whites with lots of Sriracha (he’s cute!). By this time, I usually mobile order a venti iced coffee to get me through my day. While I order, I eat my breakfast and chat with my husband about our schedules for that day. We like to try to get home around the same time as often as possible.

Next, I’m to the sunglasses bowl where we keep change, sunglasses, and keys. I stole this idea from my sister-in-law after spotting it in her house. It’s funny how when you are trying to be more organized with your life, things like sunglasses bowls make you excited! This is a great idea as these items never had a home before.

I’m in the car by exactly 8:23 a.m. (on a good day) with my workbag, gym bag, thermos filled with water, and my iced coffee (which I pick up from a store steps away from where I live). Because I’m always coming in and out of my car with so much stuff in my hands, I try to keep my car as clean as possible. I try to get a car wash once per month and have the “take everything inside at the end of the night” philosophy so I’m not having to perform the dreaded task of cleaning out my car each day.

Lucky for me, my commute is only three to five minutes. Call it a perk of running your own business! I’m big on talking to people while I’m driving (using Bluetooth, of course!), so I call my best friend, Meghan, who lives in Oklahoma. We talk so frequently that we can usually catch up and say hello pretty quickly. (You’ll get tons of tips for staying in touch with friends in Chapter 8.)

A few minutes before 8:30, I get to the office. Even though I’m the boss, I try to be on time, not only because I want to set a good example, but in all honesty, I’m truly excited to work with my team! On Mondays, we do our team meetings.

After that, I go right into weekly meetings with the sales and marketing teams to review goals for the coming week. The rest of the day is usually a mix of calls and meetings—these might be pitch calls, sales calls, client calls, internal meetings, press pitches, interviews, collaboration brainstorming calls, and so many other possibilities.

Bonus Tip

Here’s a breakdown of my day when I wrote this chapter:

Because our offices are located on the West Coast in Los Angeles, most of my calls are done in the mornings when the East Coast is still going. Usually by lunchtime (1 p.m. PST/4 p.m. EST), things are winding down for our East Coast clients. This makes lunchtime and the second part of my day great for getting through projects and getting some sales e-mails out.

During lunch, my team typically leaves the office and I stay behind. I like the quiet. I turn on music, set a timer, and get out as many sales e-mails as possible to be productive during this time. If there are any personal tasks that I need to get done, I save those for after work (4:30 p.m.) so that I can maximize my time when I’m in the office. Remember, a goal of mine is to get more work done during working hours so that I have less to take home.

Bonus Tip

After lunch, the team comes back, and I try to meet with them (casually) before the end of the day to review the status on different projects. Even though my company has been around for nine years, we are still a young business and an even younger team. With mostly new team members, I walk a thin line between micromanaging and letting them roam free. Let’s just say that I’m still very involved. These meetings used to start at 4 p.m., but we found that we would discover to dos that late in the day, and we ended up staying at the office several hours later than necessary. Now, we start status checks at around 3 p.m. so that if we run into any issues, we still have time to fix them. Our project management system has really helped streamline tasks and manage our deadlines (more on this in Chapter 5).

• • •

After my workday is over, I like to get the second part of my day moving as quickly as I can. I drive right to the gym, and I call my parents to tell them about the day. (I’ll go through my specific gym routine in Chapter 9, but I usually meet a trainer, go to a workout class, or just do some cardio and weight lifting on my own.)

Bonus Tip

In the car ride home after the gym, I try to drink as much water as possible and make as many of my friend and family phone calls as possible.

Once I’m home (about 7 p.m.), my favorite thing to do is take a walk with my husband around our neighborhood. I love to get his opinions and advice on my day, and I’m eager to hear about his, too. The best part about our walk is that I leave my phone at home! It’s our time to be with each other and no one else. As we finish our walk, we’ll talk about our plan for that night as it’s almost 8 p.m.: What’s for dinner? Do we need to work more? (The answer is usually yes.) Do we have free time? What shows are we excited to watch that night?

We make dinner together and usually watch TV while eating. This is our “relax and turn off our brains” time. Even though I try to talk to my friends earlier in the day, I always end up chatting with one or two of my closest friends from Los Angeles who work a little later than I do. We all respect one another’s work time and try not to create too much of a distraction for each other during the workday.

Finally, by 9 or 10 p.m., I’m back to where we started this section—planning for the next workday, so I can go to bed feeling prepared and having an idea of what’s going on the next day at work

Clean Your Space

While cleaning up your routine is important, working in a clean space is important too. I interviewed Jen Robin, founder of Life in Jeneral, Inc., for her advice on how to get it together and organize yourself at home and at work.

Here are some of her top tips to get organized and clean up your space:

1.  Pull everything out and make categories to group like items together. The goal is to have one home for each category (to make everything easy to find and put back).

2.  Start with a space or section that will have the most impact on your daily life. Because you use this place every day, it will act as motivation to tackle other spaces.

3.  As you go through each space, have bins labeled “trash,” “donate,” and “toss.” Get rid of things that are no longer serving you.

4.  Once you have settled on what you are keeping, gather items in categories and create one home for items in a space that makes the most sense.

5.  Whether you go out and buy bins or reuse from around the house, keep categories contained to maintain spaces. Containment is key.

6.  If you think you need to purchase anything new for your home, wait. Don’t buy anything new until you see what you are missing and really understand what you need.

7.  Each day choose one drawer, activity, or even one item to tackle. For example, if there are pencils throughout your workspace, spend 15 minutes gathering all of them and find one location to store them all.

8.  Change your mindset from finding “quick fixes” to one that embodies living an organized lifestyle.

EVALUATE YOUR ROUTINE

When I follow the daily routine I laid out in this chapter, I go to bed feeling satisfied because I know I got so much accomplished and did my personal best. Once I started taking my daily routine seriously, I was able to design my perfect day slowly and carefully over time.

Now, I’d like you to take some time to think about your own daily routine. Answer the following questions and start your own process of discovering your ideal personal routine:

What’s the best part of your “getting ready” routine in the morning that leaves you feeling super productive?

What part of your “getting ready” routine do you want to fix before you finish reading this book? What frustrates you every single morning?

Once you get to work, what is one productive strategy you use to get things done in a timely manner?

Where are you struggling during your daily routine at work? What needs to be improved ASAP?

What specific time in your workday do you feel the most productive? How can you replicate that for other parts of your day?

What time in your day do you feel the least productive? Why do you think that is?

After work, what’s your favorite way to spend time?

How is this different from the way you actually spend your time after work?

• • •

Imagine a day when everything goes right from the minute you wake up to the minute you go to bed. Insert your ideal schedule below:

• • •

The following were commonalities that I found when I asked friends about their answers. I think the responses will benefit you.

•   “My day isn’t normal” or “my life isn’t like everyone else’s” were the first phrases that I heard from everyone. Everyone thinks her job is special and like none other (sorry, but it’s true!). I guess the answer is, your job may be different, but you’re experiencing what everyone else is experiencing. While it is true that every job and its requirements are unique, everyone is dealing with stress. Be conscious of this when you work with others. Don’t have a pity party for yourself or get stuck in a rut. Help yourself to make the most of your time and get your work done.

•   Everyone wants to start the day handling their own priorities and the most effective way to make that happen is to not start the day with e-mail. Start your day the way you intended, not responding to other people.

•   We all want to slow down and wake up earlier. No one likes waking up rushed and worried that they are running late. I hate that feeling! Wake up earlier and get it together.

•   People either thrive in the morning when they still feel in control of their day or late in the afternoon, once things get quiet and e-mails slow down. Figuring out where you excel will help you manage your days.

•   Everyone’s trying to find a balance between running their personal lives and their work lives. It’s a struggle, but one that gets better the more you experiment.

•   We all want to disconnect. Everyone that I spoke to mentioned wanting to unplug or spend more time on themselves, whether that be with friends, exercising, or just relaxing.

All of these are issues that we will touch on throughout this book. No matter what your concerns are with your schedule, I’m confident that we’ll talk through them by the end of this book.

• • •

Every day, is a new opportunity to live your best life.

Your schedule and daily routine is an opportunity to get it together. Just because you had a bad day today doesn’t mean you can’t change things tomorrow. Reconfiguring your routine is crucial to owning your success and spending your time the way you want. If you take the time to think about your daily routine, you’ll discover the ways you should be spending your time to further yourself and get closer to achieving your goals.

As you experiment with your routine, your work, your relationships, and more, you will inevitably experience failure. The next chapter is close to my heart because I share the strategies I use to deal with failure, rejection, and things not going my way. Life can be hard, but have no fear—the next chapter will give you actionable steps and strategies to overcome failure and even start to embrace it. Let’s continue!