00:00:00
Speaker 1: The thing is, I think why we feel so overwhelmed in everyday life at the moment is because there's just so many micro decisions and things that we constantly need to remember.
00:00:09
Speaker 2: It's not just you go working nine to five, you come home.
00:00:12
Speaker 1: Now there's email, and then there's also the kids, and then you've also got to run a household like.
00:00:16
Speaker 2: It's a lot. Hello, guys, welcome back to Stepping Up.
00:00:20
Speaker 1: I'm so excited we finally have a brand new episode for you guys today, and I just wanted to say thank you for being patient with me.
00:00:27
Speaker 2: We just wrapped up.
00:00:27
Speaker 1: The twenty twenty seven Planner shoot and honestly there's like twenty four planners now, which is crazy to think it all came from one planner I started back in twenty nineteen.
00:00:38
Speaker 2: So that's all wrapped up. We have so much fun on the shoots and stuff. I'd just be a complete idiot.
00:00:43
Speaker 1: I actually feel sorry for my team sometimes, like I'm literally a child half the time.
00:00:47
Speaker 2: But it was just so much fun. But that's done now.
00:00:51
Speaker 1: And when we spent like we spent all weekend, it was very much like I've turned into like this sport mum. Recently, the girls both play netball now and I love this because, like, I've never done ball sports as a kid, and it's something I always wanted to do, so now I like, it's just it's so like, I don't know, I'm just so proud watching them, you know, become more confident every week and they're just so good. And we had the Gala day on Sunday and it was a full day of netball, and then Saturday we had netball.
00:01:17
Speaker 2: Too, So it's just a like a little sporty family now, which is so nice. Except for Willow's Garla Day, which was a few weeks ago.
00:01:25
Speaker 1: The coach asked me to track data and I was like, dude, I can't even catch a ball, Like I kid you not. I was more nervous tracking this the eight year old girl's netball game than when I got on live television. But you know what, guys, I got through and I did a pretty decent drop, So I'm proud. And I didn't like undercut any of the girls. So today's episode, I felt like it is very needed and it's something that I'm actually very passionate about. If you guys have listened to my other episodes, I've talked about how I just love like home automation, smart home AI all that stuff, and I don't like AI to replace anything. And this episode isn't particularly about AI. I will do a proper AI episode in a couple of weeks, but today I'm talking just about really quick, easy ways to automate your life. And you don't need to understand AI for this is is just for everyday people. Some of these are really simple and some of these are just like a bit left field that have really helped me because I think about you know, I used to think about how being organized meant, like I thought it meant I had to be more disciplined, but I realized it came down to having systems, which I know isn't a very sexy word, but once you start kind of breaking down everyday tasks into seeing it as like a process, and then you want to try and figure out how can I make this automated where I can. So I've got so many hacks and things that have honestly stopped me from running out of things like toilet paper and toothpaste all the time. And the thing is, I think why we feel so overwhelmed in everyday life at the moment is because there's just so many micro decisions and things that we constantly need to remember.
00:03:08
Speaker 2: Like now it's not just you know, you.
00:03:10
Speaker 1: Go working nine to five, you come home and then you can't be contacted. Now there's email. Now there's this slack, and then there's also the kids, and the kids have more things on, and then there's social media. There's all these ways of communication, and then you've also got to run a household.
00:03:23
Speaker 2: Like it's a lot. It's a lot.
00:03:25
Speaker 1: So let's like utilize technology while we have it, and now that we can use it, and is it for our advantage, and we can like free up that space in our brain for the important things like tracking a kids netball game. And when I realized the more I could automate and remove the tiny simple decisions and things I needed to action out of my life, the freer and lighter I felt with.
00:03:50
Speaker 2: The mental load.
00:03:52
Speaker 1: So today's episode is basically all about systems and little shortcuts you can make in your life so you never run out of toilet paper again.
00:04:00
Speaker 2: Basically, well, this is going to stop featuring you from having to think. I don't know if you guys realize this, but your brain.
00:04:07
Speaker 1: Actually burns the same amount of energy every single day for those tiny little decisions. And it's not like as simple as you know, like again I'm just going to use the toilet paper example, It's not as simple as like ducking down the shop and buying toilet paper. It's like on those days you're thinking, do we need food, have we paid that bill?
00:04:26
Speaker 2: Do I need to get deodor and have the kids got their lunches?
00:04:29
Speaker 1: Like there's these constant different variables in our life that we have to upkeep so many things at once. So like the goal isn't to become more productive, it's to remove the unnecessary thinking and the time needed to do the things, which brings me to hack number one on how to automate your life, which is subscribe to everything.
00:04:51
Speaker 2: Now.
00:04:51
Speaker 1: I don't mean subscriptions to apps and Netflix and things like that. I'm talking about whatever item like householders send sure thing that you need, even down to yourself, as even skin care that you know you need every couple of months. You want to subscribe to this now. The way I do this is through Amazon. So on Amazon you can look at certain items and you can actually if you go underneath the button that says to buy it. It will literally say subscribe and save. Now, I do this for as much as I can. Now. Amazon doesn't offer this for all the items unfortunately, like a lot of the skincare stuff it doesn't, which, like I kind of it can be good to not subscribe to all skin care because sometimes we'll cycle through certain products more quickly depending on the season. So say, if it's winter, you might be using more moisturizer and stuff like that. But in terms of like bin bags, toilet paper, paper towels, I do it for our I take this collagen.
00:05:47
Speaker 2: I do it for that.
00:05:48
Speaker 1: Like anything I literally know I'm going to need and how often I'm going to need it, I will buy it. And for me, it's kind of I'm not really good at estimating how often I'm going to need something.
00:06:00
Speaker 2: So I literally just looked at the data.
00:06:01
Speaker 1: I went into Amazon, and I looked at, Okay, how often am I buying this thing?
00:06:05
Speaker 2: And I said it to that.
00:06:06
Speaker 1: It can let you, like Amazon will let you customize it down to like every two months, every three months, you can skip it. So if you know, for example, like you've forgotten to take your collagen and for a while, I can go into Amazon and skip the next cycle.
00:06:19
Speaker 2: So things like that. Even I get our toothpaste delivered. I used to get lilies, like dog food, all that stuff.
00:06:25
Speaker 1: So just go into Amazon and look at anything that you know you're going to need and actually just subscribe to that and then you don't have to think about it. We've been doing this for toilet paper for ages. Except for toilet paper, we get it from.
00:06:38
Speaker 2: What's it called.
00:06:40
Speaker 1: Oh, it's got the word crap in it. Not my brain, anyway, we get it from his company. It's got crap in it. I can't remember the name of it, but anyway, we've been getting that from them because I was so sick of runn out of toilet paper. We couldn't have done this when it was COVID, but we can do it now now with this subscription thing. Like I know sometimes like we want to make sure we have money an account, and we want to make sure like we're on top of it in case we don't need the same things, because we don't want to be wasting money. So the little hack is you could set an alarm on your phone or a reminder two weeks before every subscription is ready to come out, so you can go through your list on Amazon and check if you actually need those things. And also bundle your subscriptions into one day of the month, so don't have like multiple things coming on different days from Amazon, because then you can.
00:07:22
Speaker 2: At least just batch it and you know, okay, this is what's coming.
00:07:25
Speaker 1: If you do need to separate it for like financially, then that's fine as well.
00:07:29
Speaker 2: All right.
00:07:30
Speaker 1: Hack number two is auto transferring money in your bank account.
00:07:34
Speaker 2: So the best way ever.
00:07:35
Speaker 1: And honestly, my best friend asked, she was the one that taught me all about budgeting many years ago, and how she had different accounts of different things. So she'd have an account for spending, she'd have an account for like saving. People would have it for like your family emergency funds, which we have. Will have like play money, so we save it for holidays. You have it for Christmas, you can have it for tax investing, whatever you want. You can open up a few bank accounts, check which one are the best. You don't have like crazy bank fees. But once you set this up, guys, it's just going to run your life. It's going to help you budget. It's a game changer. So go through your bank account. I know this is not very sexy, but just trust me. And also just like suss out your bills, so once you know, okay, these are the bills that come out on this time every month, auto transfer your pay to go into a bill's account where the bills will automatically be drawn out of that account.
00:08:24
Speaker 2: So it's set up. You don't even have to see it, you don't think about it, it's done.
00:08:27
Speaker 1: And also having one for kids, like when our kids were born, we set them up a bank account. Each and every week we just have a certain amount transferred into their account and we I don't even know how much they've got in there now, but at least we know when they're older they're going to have a good amount of savings. So if you never see the money, you're never going to miss it. And the thing is too guys like I deliberately also go in and actually name the account. So in your bank app, actually name it, because sometimes when you see all these numbers and stuff, you're like, what is this even for? So if you actually have like being like future me fund kids, like actually naming them, it's going to remind you why you're doing it in the first place. Another way to automate your life. And I did this many years ago. I found this box of greeting cards and had like a whole bunch and I'm not meant to share this, but I really want to make one of these. But anyway, it's in the one day list, but it's basically a box of greeting cards, and there's heaps in there. There'll be like birthdays, there'll be like a bunch of maybe like anniversaries. Because the worst thing is when it hits like Friday night and you realize you have a kid's birthday party the next day and you've got no birthday cards. You know, I always if I go out and I see some like cheaper presents, like present type things that are like twenty dollars, I'll grab a couple and I keep it in a drawer, and same with like wrapping paper and things. So now I always have stuff for birthday parties, so I'm never caught off guard, even like boxes of chocolates. So once you have this box of greeting cards, you literally set for like the whole year for everything that you would need. We also sell really cute greeting cards at SPP and we bundle them up too, so if you want to discrab some really pretty ones and aren't dodgy ones, you can jump on the website as well.
00:10:02
Speaker 2: That was just a little.
00:10:03
Speaker 1: Shameless plug and like leaning on from that again, you know, whenever you do see things on sale at Woolworth's or at the shops, just grab things for like secret standers for one of presents, or if you're like you know, even just like cheap bottles of wine. If you ever invited to it, like a dinner party at someone's house, you always have a bottle of wine to bring and you don't feel awkward. Now moving on to one of my favorite hacks. This is using the shortcuts app.
00:10:29
Speaker 2: In your iPhone.
00:10:30
Speaker 1: So if you guys aren't aware, in your iPhone, there is a shortcuts app which you can set automations on your phone. So a really simple example of this that actually saves me every single day is I go into my shortcuts and I set this automation so whenever my phone battery goes below eighty percent, it automatically turns on power saver, because if it doesn't, my phone will be dead by lunchtime every day. So something as simple as that is just a game changer. So that is one automation. Another automation I love is whenever my phone connects to my AirPods, it automatically pops up Spotify.
00:11:06
Speaker 2: Things like that. Like it's just the simple little things where you can just make it work for you.
00:11:12
Speaker 1: Another one that happens for me is when I arrive home, so it can also like obviously detect where you are location wise, so when you arrive to work, your phone can turn into work focus mode, which also hides maybe your social media apps. For me, when I arrive home, I have a smart home app that controls like my house and that opens for me, and it's just so so helpful, even down to you know, like if you need a if you are going out to stock up on light bulbs, by the smart light bulbs, I love them because you can turn them on a red light at nighttime. Because if you guys don't realize this, having like blue lights and overhead lights on after six pm is really messing with your circadian rhythm, which is literally your brain knowing when it's bedtime and when it's time to sleep. So obviously, like our phone when it's on the blue light, we're so awake. Our brain is literally like this is daytime, but it's not so having things like light bulbs that are smart light bulbs that are connected to an app and you set it up so it automatically turns on at like five point thirty, which is what I've got set up. I've got it set up in the kids rooms and we don't have to touch it, and that kids also know now when their lights go out at like eight thirty, it means it's time to go to sleep, like it's like lights out, okay, it's bedtime. And it's just also like helping automate the kids' routines as well. So another example with this, you could put that hand in hand with your bedtime routine, so your lamp goes out at a certain time, and when it hits that time, you could have maybe your sleep music app open up.
00:12:40
Speaker 2: On your phone.
00:12:40
Speaker 1: It goes on do not disturb, and it also prompts you to set an alarm like that's like the key. Like that's just automating life on steroids. And it's super easy to set up. I should do probably like a YouTube video or like a reel on this on Instagram to show you.
00:12:55
Speaker 2: But it is very very simple to set up.
00:12:58
Speaker 1: So yeah, again just hoping your Apple Shortcuts app and you'll be set to go. Now, the next way to automate your I guess your home cleaning, which is very very simple, is having a robot vacuum.
00:13:08
Speaker 2: Now.
00:13:08
Speaker 1: I got ours on sale ages ago on I think it was Amazon. It's roboocks and I love it. Not sponsored, I brought it myself. And honestly, he used to be called Dustin Bieber, but now his name is Chris Baxworth and he's on a schedule. Because he's not on a schedule, you bet I'm going to forget to turn him on and I'll end up getting the old vacuum out with my house's gross. So having things like a robot vacuum that's on a schedule, so for us, it doesn't after dinner like vacuum. And I love it because it's in like the kitchen and the pantry and the dining room areas, and we don't really have things on the floor there because my thing is too Like I used to have it set up for like bedroom and all that on certain days, but then we'd forget, and we'd forget to pick up things off the floor, and then.
00:13:49
Speaker 2: It gets stuck and it would shit me.
00:13:51
Speaker 1: So now I just have an alarm on my phone for certain days to be like, okay, sort about the robot vacuum for this room, but for everything else in terms of like your kitchen and that. Just have it set up on a schedule and it will just run. Ours runs at eight because I know we're well and truly getting the kids to bed by then and we're not out in that area, so it just runs and it cleans up. Now, the next way to automate things like the very mundane tasks is having pre set grocery lists. Now the wool Worst website and Cole's has it too.
00:14:19
Speaker 2: They have lists. So with these lists, you.
00:14:21
Speaker 1: Can actually add items that you buy weekly and call that your weekly list. Now I have a weekly list, I have a cleaning list, I have a fortnightly list, and I also have one for holidays. So we used to actually have a van, like at a caravan park. So I had that and every time we would go to the van, I would literally click on my list and certain items would populate into my cart and I would check out. I didn't even have to think. So now when you have a list for your weekly groceries, you don't even have to think about it because we eat the same dinners every week. Like, let's not reinvent the wheel here, So I'll click on that, get what I need and it's done. And then I have a fortnightly list for obviously food items or like household items that run out every fortnight that I can't subscribe to, and I click on that every fortnight. And there's also a Christmas list I have so I always make the same kind of snacks and stuff every Christmas, and just normal Christmas stuff that we need. I'll click on that and it's done. So having pre built like ten plates and lists, even if you need to do a spreadsheet with your family, like just do that or save it. Just a notes app that you guys always look at when you're going to the shop, like to the supermarket. And you can even one up this again using your iPhone shortcuts app. When you arrive at like say wool worse, your notes app with that particular shopping list can pop up like this is this Look, we got to work.
00:15:39
Speaker 2: Smarter, not hard Now.
00:15:41
Speaker 1: He's like a little I guess, like saving's budget kind of hack. So if you guys have an everyday rewards card, you would know. You get a certain amount of money, like you get ten dollars with every certain amount of points, so you save all your points up, which is saving all those ten dollars that you get up throughout the year, and it's just spending it on like your groceries and just aiming ten dollars here or there. You save it up and you use that money to buy all your Christmas food at the end of the year. Like I remember, my follower told me this hack and I just loved it so much, so now we do the same thing. There's also an app if you guys remember, it's called shot Back, and I love it again.
00:16:17
Speaker 2: This is not sponsored. I use shot Back. So basically it's an app.
00:16:20
Speaker 1: And whenever I place a grocery order or Uber Eats or Amazon or there's so many stores on there, if you're already gonna buy something online, all you have to do is go into shot Back and then you click on that store and it will just track it and open the app for you, and then you check out and you get a certain amount of cash back for everything, so it could be.
00:16:38
Speaker 2: Flights, whatever.
00:16:40
Speaker 1: And even like over the last few months for me using this, I've gotten like six hundred bucks back, which is crazy, and you can just like leave it in there again, leave it in there for Christmas presents, leave it in there for a holiday, or you can use it to also buy vouchers and stuff on there. So sometimes they'll do like Amazon vouchers and you get like three percent cash back.
00:16:57
Speaker 2: So this is how I stack it.
00:16:59
Speaker 1: So I'll buy a vouch shop so I get the three percent cash back, and then I'll also use the app to then buy what I'm buying on Amazon, so it's like another three percent as well. So I know that sounds a bit technical, but it's very very easy, and I'm not a maths person, but these hacks just are so so good and I don't know how people aren't on them all.
00:17:18
Speaker 2: Even in there, I think.
00:17:18
Speaker 1: You can even make money playing games, but I'm not even going to go there because I'll ge addicted. Now we know, AI in general is just turning this on its head, Like I can't even begin to tell you the insane stuff I've built with AI. I've made my own AI assistant called Dobby. He messages me telegram. He's like a triage for all my Slack and my emails, and he drafts my emails for me and then I just choose what I want to send. Things like that, but even down to like like I'm going to do a full AI episode, so I won't go into it too much right now, but down to like you can literally take a photo of what's in your fridge, send it to Claude or chetch YOUBT and say this is what I've got left, like like what I make for dinner. That's super easy, and it will create you a recipe, like even in like my thermo Mix, Like I'll see a really cool recipe on the internet and I'm like, I want you to turn this into a thermoix version of it, so it's still the same recipe, but it's like the instructions for my Thermomix, Like it's so easy and I just love it, even like ways for me to up protein and stuff like that. So if you have any certain AI things you want me to focus on for that episode, please do comment and let me know, and of course please subscribe to the show. It really helps us get out there more. It helps us support the show as well, And if you haven't left a review, please do that as well and I will be back in your Ears next Monday.
00:18:37
Speaker 2: Bye,
Speaker 1: The thing is, I think why we feel so overwhelmed in everyday life at the moment is because there's just so many micro decisions and things that we constantly need to remember.
00:00:09
Speaker 2: It's not just you go working nine to five, you come home.
00:00:12
Speaker 1: Now there's email, and then there's also the kids, and then you've also got to run a household like.
00:00:16
Speaker 2: It's a lot. Hello, guys, welcome back to Stepping Up.
00:00:20
Speaker 1: I'm so excited we finally have a brand new episode for you guys today, and I just wanted to say thank you for being patient with me.
00:00:27
Speaker 2: We just wrapped up.
00:00:27
Speaker 1: The twenty twenty seven Planner shoot and honestly there's like twenty four planners now, which is crazy to think it all came from one planner I started back in twenty nineteen.
00:00:38
Speaker 2: So that's all wrapped up. We have so much fun on the shoots and stuff. I'd just be a complete idiot.
00:00:43
Speaker 1: I actually feel sorry for my team sometimes, like I'm literally a child half the time.
00:00:47
Speaker 2: But it was just so much fun. But that's done now.
00:00:51
Speaker 1: And when we spent like we spent all weekend, it was very much like I've turned into like this sport mum. Recently, the girls both play netball now and I love this because, like, I've never done ball sports as a kid, and it's something I always wanted to do, so now I like, it's just it's so like, I don't know, I'm just so proud watching them, you know, become more confident every week and they're just so good. And we had the Gala day on Sunday and it was a full day of netball, and then Saturday we had netball.
00:01:17
Speaker 2: Too, So it's just a like a little sporty family now, which is so nice. Except for Willow's Garla Day, which was a few weeks ago.
00:01:25
Speaker 1: The coach asked me to track data and I was like, dude, I can't even catch a ball, Like I kid you not. I was more nervous tracking this the eight year old girl's netball game than when I got on live television. But you know what, guys, I got through and I did a pretty decent drop, So I'm proud. And I didn't like undercut any of the girls. So today's episode, I felt like it is very needed and it's something that I'm actually very passionate about. If you guys have listened to my other episodes, I've talked about how I just love like home automation, smart home AI all that stuff, and I don't like AI to replace anything. And this episode isn't particularly about AI. I will do a proper AI episode in a couple of weeks, but today I'm talking just about really quick, easy ways to automate your life. And you don't need to understand AI for this is is just for everyday people. Some of these are really simple and some of these are just like a bit left field that have really helped me because I think about you know, I used to think about how being organized meant, like I thought it meant I had to be more disciplined, but I realized it came down to having systems, which I know isn't a very sexy word, but once you start kind of breaking down everyday tasks into seeing it as like a process, and then you want to try and figure out how can I make this automated where I can. So I've got so many hacks and things that have honestly stopped me from running out of things like toilet paper and toothpaste all the time. And the thing is, I think why we feel so overwhelmed in everyday life at the moment is because there's just so many micro decisions and things that we constantly need to remember.
00:03:08
Speaker 2: Like now it's not just you know, you.
00:03:10
Speaker 1: Go working nine to five, you come home and then you can't be contacted. Now there's email. Now there's this slack, and then there's also the kids, and the kids have more things on, and then there's social media. There's all these ways of communication, and then you've also got to run a household.
00:03:23
Speaker 2: Like it's a lot. It's a lot.
00:03:25
Speaker 1: So let's like utilize technology while we have it, and now that we can use it, and is it for our advantage, and we can like free up that space in our brain for the important things like tracking a kids netball game. And when I realized the more I could automate and remove the tiny simple decisions and things I needed to action out of my life, the freer and lighter I felt with.
00:03:50
Speaker 2: The mental load.
00:03:52
Speaker 1: So today's episode is basically all about systems and little shortcuts you can make in your life so you never run out of toilet paper again.
00:04:00
Speaker 2: Basically, well, this is going to stop featuring you from having to think. I don't know if you guys realize this, but your brain.
00:04:07
Speaker 1: Actually burns the same amount of energy every single day for those tiny little decisions. And it's not like as simple as you know, like again I'm just going to use the toilet paper example, It's not as simple as like ducking down the shop and buying toilet paper. It's like on those days you're thinking, do we need food, have we paid that bill?
00:04:26
Speaker 2: Do I need to get deodor and have the kids got their lunches?
00:04:29
Speaker 1: Like there's these constant different variables in our life that we have to upkeep so many things at once. So like the goal isn't to become more productive, it's to remove the unnecessary thinking and the time needed to do the things, which brings me to hack number one on how to automate your life, which is subscribe to everything.
00:04:51
Speaker 2: Now.
00:04:51
Speaker 1: I don't mean subscriptions to apps and Netflix and things like that. I'm talking about whatever item like householders send sure thing that you need, even down to yourself, as even skin care that you know you need every couple of months. You want to subscribe to this now. The way I do this is through Amazon. So on Amazon you can look at certain items and you can actually if you go underneath the button that says to buy it. It will literally say subscribe and save. Now, I do this for as much as I can. Now. Amazon doesn't offer this for all the items unfortunately, like a lot of the skincare stuff it doesn't, which, like I kind of it can be good to not subscribe to all skin care because sometimes we'll cycle through certain products more quickly depending on the season. So say, if it's winter, you might be using more moisturizer and stuff like that. But in terms of like bin bags, toilet paper, paper towels, I do it for our I take this collagen.
00:05:47
Speaker 2: I do it for that.
00:05:48
Speaker 1: Like anything I literally know I'm going to need and how often I'm going to need it, I will buy it. And for me, it's kind of I'm not really good at estimating how often I'm going to need something.
00:06:00
Speaker 2: So I literally just looked at the data.
00:06:01
Speaker 1: I went into Amazon, and I looked at, Okay, how often am I buying this thing?
00:06:05
Speaker 2: And I said it to that.
00:06:06
Speaker 1: It can let you, like Amazon will let you customize it down to like every two months, every three months, you can skip it. So if you know, for example, like you've forgotten to take your collagen and for a while, I can go into Amazon and skip the next cycle.
00:06:19
Speaker 2: So things like that. Even I get our toothpaste delivered. I used to get lilies, like dog food, all that stuff.
00:06:25
Speaker 1: So just go into Amazon and look at anything that you know you're going to need and actually just subscribe to that and then you don't have to think about it. We've been doing this for toilet paper for ages. Except for toilet paper, we get it from.
00:06:38
Speaker 2: What's it called.
00:06:40
Speaker 1: Oh, it's got the word crap in it. Not my brain, anyway, we get it from his company. It's got crap in it. I can't remember the name of it, but anyway, we've been getting that from them because I was so sick of runn out of toilet paper. We couldn't have done this when it was COVID, but we can do it now now with this subscription thing. Like I know sometimes like we want to make sure we have money an account, and we want to make sure like we're on top of it in case we don't need the same things, because we don't want to be wasting money. So the little hack is you could set an alarm on your phone or a reminder two weeks before every subscription is ready to come out, so you can go through your list on Amazon and check if you actually need those things. And also bundle your subscriptions into one day of the month, so don't have like multiple things coming on different days from Amazon, because then you can.
00:07:22
Speaker 2: At least just batch it and you know, okay, this is what's coming.
00:07:25
Speaker 1: If you do need to separate it for like financially, then that's fine as well.
00:07:29
Speaker 2: All right.
00:07:30
Speaker 1: Hack number two is auto transferring money in your bank account.
00:07:34
Speaker 2: So the best way ever.
00:07:35
Speaker 1: And honestly, my best friend asked, she was the one that taught me all about budgeting many years ago, and how she had different accounts of different things. So she'd have an account for spending, she'd have an account for like saving. People would have it for like your family emergency funds, which we have. Will have like play money, so we save it for holidays. You have it for Christmas, you can have it for tax investing, whatever you want. You can open up a few bank accounts, check which one are the best. You don't have like crazy bank fees. But once you set this up, guys, it's just going to run your life. It's going to help you budget. It's a game changer. So go through your bank account. I know this is not very sexy, but just trust me. And also just like suss out your bills, so once you know, okay, these are the bills that come out on this time every month, auto transfer your pay to go into a bill's account where the bills will automatically be drawn out of that account.
00:08:24
Speaker 2: So it's set up. You don't even have to see it, you don't think about it, it's done.
00:08:27
Speaker 1: And also having one for kids, like when our kids were born, we set them up a bank account. Each and every week we just have a certain amount transferred into their account and we I don't even know how much they've got in there now, but at least we know when they're older they're going to have a good amount of savings. So if you never see the money, you're never going to miss it. And the thing is too guys like I deliberately also go in and actually name the account. So in your bank app, actually name it, because sometimes when you see all these numbers and stuff, you're like, what is this even for? So if you actually have like being like future me fund kids, like actually naming them, it's going to remind you why you're doing it in the first place. Another way to automate your life. And I did this many years ago. I found this box of greeting cards and had like a whole bunch and I'm not meant to share this, but I really want to make one of these. But anyway, it's in the one day list, but it's basically a box of greeting cards, and there's heaps in there. There'll be like birthdays, there'll be like a bunch of maybe like anniversaries. Because the worst thing is when it hits like Friday night and you realize you have a kid's birthday party the next day and you've got no birthday cards. You know, I always if I go out and I see some like cheaper presents, like present type things that are like twenty dollars, I'll grab a couple and I keep it in a drawer, and same with like wrapping paper and things. So now I always have stuff for birthday parties, so I'm never caught off guard, even like boxes of chocolates. So once you have this box of greeting cards, you literally set for like the whole year for everything that you would need. We also sell really cute greeting cards at SPP and we bundle them up too, so if you want to discrab some really pretty ones and aren't dodgy ones, you can jump on the website as well.
00:10:02
Speaker 2: That was just a little.
00:10:03
Speaker 1: Shameless plug and like leaning on from that again, you know, whenever you do see things on sale at Woolworth's or at the shops, just grab things for like secret standers for one of presents, or if you're like you know, even just like cheap bottles of wine. If you ever invited to it, like a dinner party at someone's house, you always have a bottle of wine to bring and you don't feel awkward. Now moving on to one of my favorite hacks. This is using the shortcuts app.
00:10:29
Speaker 2: In your iPhone.
00:10:30
Speaker 1: So if you guys aren't aware, in your iPhone, there is a shortcuts app which you can set automations on your phone. So a really simple example of this that actually saves me every single day is I go into my shortcuts and I set this automation so whenever my phone battery goes below eighty percent, it automatically turns on power saver, because if it doesn't, my phone will be dead by lunchtime every day. So something as simple as that is just a game changer. So that is one automation. Another automation I love is whenever my phone connects to my AirPods, it automatically pops up Spotify.
00:11:06
Speaker 2: Things like that. Like it's just the simple little things where you can just make it work for you.
00:11:12
Speaker 1: Another one that happens for me is when I arrive home, so it can also like obviously detect where you are location wise, so when you arrive to work, your phone can turn into work focus mode, which also hides maybe your social media apps. For me, when I arrive home, I have a smart home app that controls like my house and that opens for me, and it's just so so helpful, even down to you know, like if you need a if you are going out to stock up on light bulbs, by the smart light bulbs, I love them because you can turn them on a red light at nighttime. Because if you guys don't realize this, having like blue lights and overhead lights on after six pm is really messing with your circadian rhythm, which is literally your brain knowing when it's bedtime and when it's time to sleep. So obviously, like our phone when it's on the blue light, we're so awake. Our brain is literally like this is daytime, but it's not so having things like light bulbs that are smart light bulbs that are connected to an app and you set it up so it automatically turns on at like five point thirty, which is what I've got set up. I've got it set up in the kids rooms and we don't have to touch it, and that kids also know now when their lights go out at like eight thirty, it means it's time to go to sleep, like it's like lights out, okay, it's bedtime. And it's just also like helping automate the kids' routines as well. So another example with this, you could put that hand in hand with your bedtime routine, so your lamp goes out at a certain time, and when it hits that time, you could have maybe your sleep music app open up.
00:12:40
Speaker 2: On your phone.
00:12:40
Speaker 1: It goes on do not disturb, and it also prompts you to set an alarm like that's like the key. Like that's just automating life on steroids. And it's super easy to set up. I should do probably like a YouTube video or like a reel on this on Instagram to show you.
00:12:55
Speaker 2: But it is very very simple to set up.
00:12:58
Speaker 1: So yeah, again just hoping your Apple Shortcuts app and you'll be set to go. Now, the next way to automate your I guess your home cleaning, which is very very simple, is having a robot vacuum.
00:13:08
Speaker 2: Now.
00:13:08
Speaker 1: I got ours on sale ages ago on I think it was Amazon. It's roboocks and I love it. Not sponsored, I brought it myself. And honestly, he used to be called Dustin Bieber, but now his name is Chris Baxworth and he's on a schedule. Because he's not on a schedule, you bet I'm going to forget to turn him on and I'll end up getting the old vacuum out with my house's gross. So having things like a robot vacuum that's on a schedule, so for us, it doesn't after dinner like vacuum. And I love it because it's in like the kitchen and the pantry and the dining room areas, and we don't really have things on the floor there because my thing is too Like I used to have it set up for like bedroom and all that on certain days, but then we'd forget, and we'd forget to pick up things off the floor, and then.
00:13:49
Speaker 2: It gets stuck and it would shit me.
00:13:51
Speaker 1: So now I just have an alarm on my phone for certain days to be like, okay, sort about the robot vacuum for this room, but for everything else in terms of like your kitchen and that. Just have it set up on a schedule and it will just run. Ours runs at eight because I know we're well and truly getting the kids to bed by then and we're not out in that area, so it just runs and it cleans up. Now, the next way to automate things like the very mundane tasks is having pre set grocery lists. Now the wool Worst website and Cole's has it too.
00:14:19
Speaker 2: They have lists. So with these lists, you.
00:14:21
Speaker 1: Can actually add items that you buy weekly and call that your weekly list. Now I have a weekly list, I have a cleaning list, I have a fortnightly list, and I also have one for holidays. So we used to actually have a van, like at a caravan park. So I had that and every time we would go to the van, I would literally click on my list and certain items would populate into my cart and I would check out. I didn't even have to think. So now when you have a list for your weekly groceries, you don't even have to think about it because we eat the same dinners every week. Like, let's not reinvent the wheel here, So I'll click on that, get what I need and it's done. And then I have a fortnightly list for obviously food items or like household items that run out every fortnight that I can't subscribe to, and I click on that every fortnight. And there's also a Christmas list I have so I always make the same kind of snacks and stuff every Christmas, and just normal Christmas stuff that we need. I'll click on that and it's done. So having pre built like ten plates and lists, even if you need to do a spreadsheet with your family, like just do that or save it. Just a notes app that you guys always look at when you're going to the shop, like to the supermarket. And you can even one up this again using your iPhone shortcuts app. When you arrive at like say wool worse, your notes app with that particular shopping list can pop up like this is this Look, we got to work.
00:15:39
Speaker 2: Smarter, not hard Now.
00:15:41
Speaker 1: He's like a little I guess, like saving's budget kind of hack. So if you guys have an everyday rewards card, you would know. You get a certain amount of money, like you get ten dollars with every certain amount of points, so you save all your points up, which is saving all those ten dollars that you get up throughout the year, and it's just spending it on like your groceries and just aiming ten dollars here or there. You save it up and you use that money to buy all your Christmas food at the end of the year. Like I remember, my follower told me this hack and I just loved it so much, so now we do the same thing. There's also an app if you guys remember, it's called shot Back, and I love it again.
00:16:17
Speaker 2: This is not sponsored. I use shot Back. So basically it's an app.
00:16:20
Speaker 1: And whenever I place a grocery order or Uber Eats or Amazon or there's so many stores on there, if you're already gonna buy something online, all you have to do is go into shot Back and then you click on that store and it will just track it and open the app for you, and then you check out and you get a certain amount of cash back for everything, so it could be.
00:16:38
Speaker 2: Flights, whatever.
00:16:40
Speaker 1: And even like over the last few months for me using this, I've gotten like six hundred bucks back, which is crazy, and you can just like leave it in there again, leave it in there for Christmas presents, leave it in there for a holiday, or you can use it to also buy vouchers and stuff on there. So sometimes they'll do like Amazon vouchers and you get like three percent cash back.
00:16:57
Speaker 2: So this is how I stack it.
00:16:59
Speaker 1: So I'll buy a vouch shop so I get the three percent cash back, and then I'll also use the app to then buy what I'm buying on Amazon, so it's like another three percent as well. So I know that sounds a bit technical, but it's very very easy, and I'm not a maths person, but these hacks just are so so good and I don't know how people aren't on them all.
00:17:18
Speaker 2: Even in there, I think.
00:17:18
Speaker 1: You can even make money playing games, but I'm not even going to go there because I'll ge addicted. Now we know, AI in general is just turning this on its head, Like I can't even begin to tell you the insane stuff I've built with AI. I've made my own AI assistant called Dobby. He messages me telegram. He's like a triage for all my Slack and my emails, and he drafts my emails for me and then I just choose what I want to send. Things like that, but even down to like like I'm going to do a full AI episode, so I won't go into it too much right now, but down to like you can literally take a photo of what's in your fridge, send it to Claude or chetch YOUBT and say this is what I've got left, like like what I make for dinner. That's super easy, and it will create you a recipe, like even in like my thermo Mix, Like I'll see a really cool recipe on the internet and I'm like, I want you to turn this into a thermoix version of it, so it's still the same recipe, but it's like the instructions for my Thermomix, Like it's so easy and I just love it, even like ways for me to up protein and stuff like that. So if you have any certain AI things you want me to focus on for that episode, please do comment and let me know, and of course please subscribe to the show. It really helps us get out there more. It helps us support the show as well, And if you haven't left a review, please do that as well and I will be back in your Ears next Monday.
00:18:37
Speaker 2: Bye,
