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Welcome back to working from home with Shanna.
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And this is the place to be if you've ever felt like your home is slowly turning into your office or your office into your home.
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And I want you to know that you're not alone.
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I'm Shanna and I've spent years designing spaces that help people live and work better.
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And that is what this podcast is all about finding that balance under one roof.
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Today's episode is about the things that are sometimes so easy, but we need to put a little bit more effort in.
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So in this one, I'm talking about the pajama question.
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Okay, so working from home makes it easy to skip certain things like getting dressed, and so easy to roll straight out of bed into work mode with no real starting point.
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And today I'm gonna share what happened when someone in my program asked if this could be part of their commute, and why I never even thought to put it on a on the commute list, and why I get dressed every day.
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And we're gonna talk a little bit about the research about the commute as its mental transition into your work role and also the enclosed cognition studies on how what we wear shapes what we think, which is really fascinating.
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We're also gonna get into a little bit of what Jane clears, what he talks about, and his idea about that every action is a vote for who you are becoming.
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Okay, there's also a little spoiler, we're gonna be talking about a big tattooed muscular biker in his pajamas.
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You'll see all about that.
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Okay, so let's get straight into it.
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What we're talking about today is the concept of it's so easy, right?
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It's so easy not to get dressed for work and show up in your pajamas.
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It's so easy not to make a clear starting point to your day and just roll into work mode.
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A lot of us do it.
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It's just it's easy, and that's the problem here.
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Okay, so all these easy things, they're not doing you any favors.
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The choices we make end up defining our day.
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So today we're talking about getting dressed.
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And yes, I want you to stick with me because the it seems like it's a super simple thing to talk about.
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Obviously, get dressed, but it's even more than that.
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It's about how are you getting dressed?
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What are you trying to say?
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So recently in my online program, I was explaining about this new commute to work and how it's all about clearing a path to work, and it can be cleaning up, clearing out a space, and just using it as your day-to-day thing.
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And so one of the women asked if it could also be like getting dressed, and I was like, what are you talking about?
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And she said she pretty much shows up in her pajamas and only really gets dressed later when she has to leave the house, pick up her kids.
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That was a little shocking, but it also really made me stop and think because of course I didn't think about adding it to the goal of the commute for two reasons.
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Reason number one is I always get dressed.
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And number two, I don't ever want to take a perk of working from home away.
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I know that people love working from home because of the perks.
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So people always say they want the work perks of working from home.
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And I want it to be appealing.
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Working from home can be a huge benefit, but it's how we work from home.
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So in his book uh atomic habits, James Clear talks about making habits attractive and making them easy.
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And his point is that we don't just stick with habits because we should, we stick with the ones that pull us in and don't fight us.
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So if getting dress means stiff trousers and shoes that pinch, you're gonna have to, you're gonna want to quit by Wednesday.
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So it can't feel like a punishment.
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It has to be something you actually want to do.
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Which reminded me of a reel I made on my Instagram page that I thought was silly and cute and fun.
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I got dressed and flashed a fancy outfit, but my feet were in slippers.
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So it was professional.
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I looked really professional, but I was comfy.
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So I was like, yay, I'm doing both, and you can do both, and you're not losing the perk of being comfortable but still getting dressed.
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And reason number two, I never thought to add it to the commute, as I said before, is I always get dressed because I have always found that, like from early on working from home, that when I get dressed, it sends a message to my brain.
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It sends a message of you are working today, you are a professional.
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Whether or not anyone else will see you, I get dressed for my best self because I know that it affects me and I know that that I show up differently.
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Okay, so it turns out that actually
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research has been reach have been poking at exactly this.
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In 2012, there was a study in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, and they gave the idea a great name.
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They called it enclosed cognition.
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So they had people do attention tasks while wearing a white lab coat.
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Now, when people were told this was a doctor's coat, they did better than people that were wearing exactly the same coat, but it was called a painter's coat.
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Okay, so this is crazy.
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So just seeing that doctor's coat sitting on the desk didn't do it.
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Their conclusion was that it takes two things together.
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The clothes have to mean something to you, and you have to actually be wearing them.
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And there's a lot of back and forth about this study, but I really care about research that holds up.
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So here's the honest part about that study.
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In 2019, another team tried to repeat that original lab code attention result with a much more rigorous design and they couldn't find the effect.
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But later, a big review pulled together around 40 studies on the enclosed cognition, and it found that early studies are shaky, but the studies that were done after 2015, when the research standard in psychology got a lot stricter, do support the core idea that what we wear influences how we think, feel, and act.
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So, one thing worth knowing that the original researchers were part of that review team.
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So the lab coat magic trick, let's call it, probably oversold.
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But the bigger idea still stands.
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What you put on is not neutral, it's a message, and your brain is the first one reading it.
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I love James Clear's book about atomic habit, and but he has a line for it too.
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He says, every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become.
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So getting dressed is a vote.
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It's a small one, but you get to cast it every single morning.
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So the concept of it being part of this person's commute who brought it up for me, it was it was really amazing because the commute is a mindset transition.
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So it got me thinking about the morning commute not only being as a physical transition, but also as a mindset transition.
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So we start our day with the intention to, excuse my language, get shit done, all right, be badass at our job.
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But there's research behind it because in 2020 guy, John Jackie Mowitz, I'm probably saying it wrong, and his colleagues published a study in organizational science looking at the commute as a role transition, that in-between space, where you stop being home and you start being at work, and they found that people who use their commute to think ahead about their work role, what they wanted to get done, what who they wanted to be that day were less worn down by these long commutes and drives, and the researchers called it role clarifying perspection.
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And I call it getting your head in the game.
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So here's the thing for us, right?
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When you work from home, that in-between space kind of disappears.
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You go from duvet to desk in maybe 11 steps, if you're lucky.
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So the transition doesn't happen unless you make it happen.
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And getting dressed is one of the simplest ways to do it because it's physical, it's visible, and it happens every single day.
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So let me tell you what I wanted to say about the biker.
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Even though we know it could be easy, I want you to picture this in your mind: a big, hairy, possibly muscular, tattooed biker in his pajamas on his Harley.
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It wouldn't give you the right kind of vibe or feeling.
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We could all, and probably would honestly be a little bit worried about that poor guy who couldn't be bothered to put on his leather jacket and bandana.
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And it would be bad rep for bikers everywhere.
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Because that leather jacket isn't just a jacket.
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It's how he tells himself and everyone on the road, I'm a rider, I'm part of something, and your clothes can do that for you.
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So, what I want us to take from this for today, let's just make it easy, let's make it attractive.
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Okay, that's how the habit's gonna stick.
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So if you're someone who is a slow morning person, maybe try and pick the outfit the night before, or the morning shouldn't be complex and you don't shouldn't have to make those choices.
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So make the decision once you're calm and then just put it on.
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And I want you to know that you can choose comfortable, but on purpose purpose.
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So, like soft pro trousers or an easy dress or a top you feel good in, and keep the slipper slippers on if you want them, okay?
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Because comfort was never the enemy.
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We get to choose how we show up.
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And just to add one finishing touch that says, you know, earrings, a watch, maybe some people even need to do a little bit of lipstick, spritz of your favorite perfume.
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It's a small cue, but it's a big message because at the end of the day, it's really important how we show up.
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And then maybe towards the end of your day to, you know, have your commute back home could be getting undressed and dressed more in your gym clothes or something more comfortable.
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Because the the idea of the reverse commute can also work, using the trip home to step out of your work roll.
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So you can swap into evening clothes and home clothes and let work stay at work.
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So basically, next time you're feeling that you can just roll out of bed and into your desk, I want you to stop and think again.
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How would the best version of yourself still be able to be comfortable but show up to work respecting yourself, your craft, your biker gang?
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Okay, your loud slippers leather jacket is optional.
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And don't forget to enjoy the perks of working from home while being home and still making it a very good space that is empowering to the work that you do.
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So thanks for being here today.
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I just want to remind you that I see a brighter, lighter future for you, and it's just around the corner.
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Don't forget to subscribe or write in to any questions that you have.
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I'd love to hear from you.
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Have a great day.