Do you ever feel like you’ve run a marathon before the day has even begun? If you’ve been wishing you had more time, this episode may change the way you think about your day. The truth is, most of us don’t actually need more hours—we need to feel less rushed and more intentional with the time we already have. In this episode of Living Midlife Well, I share the simple morning intention-setting practice I use every day to reduce overwhelm, clarify my priorities and create a calmer, more meaningful day. You’ll discover: • Why feeling rushed isn’t really about time• A simple mindset shift from “spending” time to “investing” time• Why traditional planning doesn’t work for everyone• The benefits of sequence planning instead of rigid time schedules• The four morning questions that help me feel calmer, more focused and more in control The Four Morning Questions * How do I want to feel today and what do I want to embody? * How am I going to nourish myself today? * What am I going to do for fun or enjoyment today? * What is most important to me today? This week’s Just One Thing is simple: Before you look at your phone tomorrow morning, ask yourself: “How do I want to feel today and what do I want to embody?” I’d love to hear how this practice works for you, so please leave a comment below. If you enjoyed this episode, please Like, Subscribe and Share. Your support helps more people discover Living Midlife Well and encourages me to keep creating practical tools to help you slow down, feel better and enjoy life more. Thank you so much for listening. Discover more about my book The Great Life Planner Aroha nui, much love, Janine Living Midlife WellHelping you slow down, feel better and enjoy life more—one simple step at a time. Living Midlife Well is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Transcript Have you ever felt like you’ve run a marathon before you’ve even got to work in the morning? I used to, almost every day I often felt like I was juggling multiple things and doing everything in a hurry just to get out the door in the morning. And when you start the day that way, you tend to carry on that way for the rest of it... until you finally collapse into bed at night with a brain that’s still whirring. I would often find myself thinking, “I wish I had more time.” Or perhaps, “I wish I had less to do.” Or ideally... both. I longed to get off the running wheel of life that I constantly found myself spinning on. But here’s what I’ve realised. What we really mean when we say, “I wish I had more time,” is usually one of two things. We want to feel less rushed. Or we want more opportunity to do the things we genuinely want to do. Today I’d like to share a simple morning intention-setting practice that addresses both of those desires because they’re actually closely linked. It’s a practice that can reduce overwhelm, clarify your priorities, and help create a calmer and more meaningful day. Kia ora and hello, welcome to the Living Midlife Well podcast. I’m Janine Lattimore, a wellbeing coach here to help people in midlife get off the treadmill of stress and exhaustion, rediscover their joy, and create a life that is aligned with who they really are and what they really want. Today we’re talking about how to feel like you have more time and feel less rushed Now time itself is a fixed commodity. None of us gets more than twenty-four hours in a day. What we can control is how we perceive and use the time we have. We can prioritise and manage our time in ways that help us feel like we have more time for ourselves, for the people we care about, and for the things that matter most. One idea that’s really helped me is to think of time as a valuable currency, in a similar way to how we think about money. We already talk about spending time. But what if we started thinking about investing time instead? It’s only a small change in language, but I think it creates a really positive shift in how we value our time and the choices we make with it. So today, I’d like to give you a planning tool. Now, I know what some of you might be thinking. “Planning just takes more time.” And when your head is swirling with that invisible load of everything that needs doing, it’s tempting to skip the planning and jump straight into action. The trouble is, when we do that, we’re stepping straight out of bed and onto the fast-moving treadmill of life, spending the day in constant reacting mode. I’ve found that planning actually gives you energy as well as organising your time. It can reduce decision fatigue and stop you giving your energy to tasks that aren’t really important or satisfying. It can give you a map. A plan for living your day in a way that feels purposeful, flowing and satisfying. That feeling of being rushed is usually created by overwhelm. It’s that awareness of all the things we need to do, without any real clarity about how we’re going to do all of them. Planning helps create that clarity. Now, perhaps you’re listening and thinking, “I’ve tried planning tools before, and they didn’t work for me.” Maybe they simply organised your overwhelm instead of reducing it. Or perhaps they actually added to it. The planning process I use is quite unique compared to most others because it starts from a very different premise. The complete framework and planning templates are in my book, The Great Life Planner. But what I’m sharing with you today is the simplified version that I currently use every day. It’s enough to get you started, and if you enjoy it and want to explore the framework more deeply, the book goes into much greater detail. There are two main differences in the way I plan my days. The first is the questions I ask myself. The second is that I don’t plan using a rigid timetable. Instead, I use what I call a sequence schedule. I decide the order I’ll do things in rather than exactly what time I’ll do them. Now, I’m not saying this is the right approach for everyone. It’s simply what works best for me but I am giving it to you as an idea you may like to try. Whenever I tried scheduling every task into a specific time slot, I usually found it hard to stick to Life would happen, things would change, and I’d end up feeling stressed and dissatisfied. Planning by sequence feels much freer to me. I simply focus on doing the most important things first. Then I know that if I accomplish those priorities, everything else I achieve during the day is almost a bonus. Working this way helps me move through the day with a much greater sense of flow. And at the end of the day, instead of focusing on everything I didn’t get done, I feel satisfied because the things that mattered most have already been taken care of. As I said, the second difference is the questions I ask myself. There are 4 key ones that I reflect on every morning: The first question is: How do I want to feel today, and what do I want to embody? How you feel is the energy you bring into your day. Most people don’t think about their emotional state as something they can intentionally create. Instead, feelings become reactions to whatever happens throughout the day. But taking a moment each morning to decide what emotional energy you want to bring, and who or what you want to embody, sets the tone for your entire day. It puts you into an intentional, proactive state instead of a reactive one. And the energy you’re in influences both how you interact with the world and, I believe, what you draw back from it. The second question is: How am I going to nourish myself today? This question prompts you to consciously plan some self-care into your day. It might simply be your usual healthy habits. Or it might be recognising that today you need something extra. As you answer this question, I encourage you to pause and quietly ask yourself, “What do I need today?” Regular self-care habits are wonderful. But it’s equally important to recognise when life is asking something different of you. The third question is: What am I going to do for fun or enjoyment today? This is one that people often overlook. Yet enjoyment and fun are every bit as important as self-care. That feeling of not having enough time is often connected with not having enough play, Send me a message About Living Midlife Well Hi, I'm Janine Lattimore, a wellbeing coach helping people in midlife get off the treadmill of stress and exhaustion, rediscover their joy, and create a life that is aligned with who they really are and what they really want. Living Midlife Well — helping you slow down, feel better and enjoy life more, one simple step at a time. Reclaim your time Restore your energy Build meaningful relationships Rediscover yourself Janine Lattimore | Living Midlife Well | janinelattimore.com
