Intentional Living This Fall: Resetting Your Routine [Podcast Transcript]

Title: Intentional Living This Fall: Resetting Your Routine

Podcast Date: August 25, 2025

Listen Here:

It’s September—the “January of Fall”! In this energizing and relatable episode, Heather Creekmore welcomes productivity and balance expert Leah Remillet to talk all about busyness, productivity traps, and how to refocus on what truly matters as routines pick up and our schedules start to fill.

Episode Highlights:

• September as a Fresh Start:
  Heather and Leah discuss why September often feels like a more realistic time for fresh starts than January, especially for women who manage families and homes.

• Busyness vs. Productivity:
  Leah shares what it really means to be productive, and why being “busy” doesn’t always correspond to truly living or achieving your goals.

• The "Why" Behind Your Hustle:
  Discover Leah’s favorite foundational exercise: asking yourself “why” five times to get to the heart of what you want most out of your time and activities. The deeper you go, the more clarity you’ll have for setting up a life you genuinely love.

• Distraction Cycles & Phone Habits:
  From endless scrolling to notifications, hear practical tips to reclaim your focus—starting with Leah’s real-life suggestions, like removing distracting apps or setting boundaries on tech use (even her 80-year-old dad is joining in!).

• The Power of Incremental Change:
  Both Heather and Leah reflect on how going “all-in” doesn’t last. Real, lasting change is about taking small, sustainable steps—embracing the wisdom of the tortoise, not the hare.

• Making White Space & Rest Guilt-Free:
  If sitting still makes you uncomfortable, you’re not alone! Hear about Leah’s journey towards valuing unstructured time, how she learned to let go of productivity guilt, and why we all need more “white space” on our calendars to really be present.

• The Default Settings of Our Lives:
  Leah encourages listeners to treat their routines like they would a new device—customize the default settings with intention! She and Heather provide practical ideas for planning, creating rest, and finding your own version of a “mini vacation” every day.

Resources & Links Mentioned:

• In His Image 2025 – Body Image Conference for Women and Girls (details also in show notes)

• Balancing Busy Podcast with Leah Remillet

• Leah’s Free Guide: 10 Favorite Time-Saving Hacks

If you struggle letting go of busyness, want to feel more present, or are tired of letting distractions run your life, this episode is your fall reset. Grab your notebook, get ready to dig deep on your “whys,” and get inspired to say yes to the right things (and more blank space!).

Loved the episode? Please leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify—Heather and the team love hearing from you!

For more Christian podcasts, check out lifeaudio.com.

Disclaimer: This transcript is AI-generated and has not been edited for accuracy or clarity.

Transcript

Heather Creekmore [00:00:02]:
Life Audio hey friend, it's almost September and I'm guessing you're thinking about all the things you're going to change, all the things you're going to do, the new routine you're going to start. It's September. It's like the January of the fall. And I today have invited a guest on to talk about productivity and what really helps us decide what to focus on. Now, Leah doesn't necessarily take a biblical perspective on these issues, although I think she's a believer. But I hope today you're going to get something out of her key points, the way she's trying to focus us in really being productive in a way that's helpful instead of hurtful. Because there is a way we can be so busy that we miss our actual lives. And that's my goal and the heart of today's episode.

Heather Creekmore [00:00:56]:
I think you're going to get a.

Leah Remily [00:00:57]:
Lot out of it.

Heather Creekmore [00:00:57]:
I'm glad you're here for it. Hey, I want to tell you about a super cool conference that some of my friends are putting on. It's called in his image 2025. It's a body image conference for women and girls. It's going to be held right outside of Dallas, Texas, in a suburb called Allen. And you can find out all about it at wonderfully madenutrition counseling.com or just look in the show notes. But it's happening this November, you guys. It's going to be super encouraging.

Heather Creekmore [00:01:21]:
Great time. If you are a woman who struggles with body image. Oh friend, you're going to want to be there. So check it out in the show notes. In his Image Conference 2025. I hope to see Leah Remily. Welcome to the Compare to podcast.

Leah Remily [00:01:41]:
Thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited to be here.

Heather Creekmore [00:01:44]:
Hey, I am so glad you're here too. I had a lot of fun when I was on your show a little bit ago and today I thought since, okay, we're getting into fall and I mean I know they talk about Maysember, but to me I feel like September is like the January. I don't know if there's a good.

Leah Remily [00:02:01]:
Way to say men. It is Septuary.

Heather Creekmore [00:02:04]:
Is that the word?

Leah Remily [00:02:06]:
I don't know what it is, but for so many of us I feel like I am more gung ho. I'm more motivated, I'm more ready in September than I ever am in January. So yes, I'm with you. Right.

Heather Creekmore [00:02:20]:
And so there's good about that, right? I mean it feels good, especially like if Summer is completely lacking routine. It feels really good to like, okay, I'm going to get some structure. I'm going to get my life back. I'm going to figure some things out, right?

Leah Remily [00:02:36]:
Yes.

Heather Creekmore [00:02:37]:
But what I think often happens is September just starts to get a little busier and a little busier, and it's just we start adding all these things, maybe even like, with a good goal of, like, I'm going to do this and I'm going to do this and I'm going to, you know, like, oh, all this, all these plans. And then our busyness kind of steals our real life. And that's where I want to go today. Like, you are a busyness. Or shall I say, what do you call yourself? Leah? Like, you're not a business expert. That's not the right word.

Leah Remily [00:03:11]:
Yeah, yeah. So I am your balance bestie, and I am all about doing less but better. So, yes, I love productivity. I love efficiency. But. But the reality is, is that. Okay, so let's back up for a second. What is productivity? Productivity is the act of accomplishing more in a faster timeframe.

Leah Remily [00:03:34]:
Right. Like we're reducing the amount of time something takes. We're able to do it more efficiently, effectively. That's productivity. Now that sounds great. Except for that sometimes there's a lot of us who we get more productive. So then we just fill it with more to do, more goals, more checklists, more whatever. And so if we get, if we take a step back and we say, well, why did I want to be more productive? If we really dig in often, it's because we actually wanted more white space.

Leah Remily [00:04:08]:
We wanted more time to be able to be with the people we love the most, to be able to be more all in and present. And we just didn't want to feel like we were behind all the time. Right. Like, that's usually where productivity. This, like, I need to become more productive. It comes from, gosh, I feel behind all the time. I am constantly going and never catching up. I am never making it.

Leah Remily [00:04:34]:
So we work to become more productive, which is great. I love teaching productivity. I love. I spent. I mean, I've spent the last 17 years studying productivity specifically for women, because what works for men does not always work for women. We are just, we are different. We are different because we carry the emotional responsibility along with the home responsibility, along with the social responsibilities of our families. So there's just so much more that we sit with.

Leah Remily [00:05:08]:
Right. So. So coming back to your question, okay, what am I? I am your balanced bestie who loves to help you do less, but better. But not to just fill it with more stuff, but rather the right things where we get to feel just really good at the end of the day.

Heather Creekmore [00:05:28]:
Yeah, I love that. It's funny. So I'm going to take this to a place that you're not expecting me to go at all. So I'm just going to. Spoiler alert. But it's like. So I have a line in one of my books where I basically say, like, the reason we all diet or enjoy diets, and diet's not a very popular word anymore, but to go on a plan. Let's put it like that.

Heather Creekmore [00:05:48]:
The reason we want to go on a plan is not to be on a plan for the rest of our lives. We go on a plan because we believe at the end of the plan will be rest. Right. And I think it's the same way with all these, like, productivity goals. And again, like, right. I have a lot going on, so if I'm not productive, I'm in trouble. Like, I. I have to have systems in place to get things done.

Heather Creekmore [00:06:11]:
There's nothing wrong with that. That's good. And yet if I make my. The systems become my life, I'm missing out, because that rest will never come. There's always going to be something else that's going to come and be like, hey, now, now. Try me now. Try me now. Do this now.

Heather Creekmore [00:06:33]:
So where do we start in terms of, like, I don't know, even deciding what. What's most valuable for us to, I don't know, incorporate or pursue or whatever words you would use there.

Leah Remily [00:06:50]:
That's a great question. And that has to be the foundation. So when you're building a house, the part that takes the longest is pouring the foundation. I mean, that is the part you just wait and wait and wait. And you're getting to that point because they have to do all this prep work where they get the ground ready and they set up. I don't know what you would call it, but, like, the molds, that's probably not technical, but. Right. They're gonna pour in the cement.

Leah Remily [00:07:15]:
And that whole process, it is so slow. And then once that happens, then it starts actually, like, going up. You're like, oh, my gosh, I see rooms and walls and. Right. All these things are happening. And that's what you're talking about right now. What you're talking about is we need to have the foundation in place. And it's not glamorous, it's not fun.

Leah Remily [00:07:35]:
It is not nearly as exciting as the Rest of it. But without that, you could end up building completely the wrong house. Right? And so isn't that what we're seeing? Because we don't have that foundation set? We're building the wrong life. And all of a sudden you look around and you say, this isn't what I wanted. This doesn't feel good. I don't feel good in my body or in my space or in these relationships. This isn't. This wasn't the plan.

Leah Remily [00:08:05]:
What the heck happened? And it's because of that foundation. So. So what do we start with? We start with needing to get really clear with our whys. And the best thing that I have found is to sit down and write or have a conversation with someone that you really trust. And essentially, what you need to do is you need to go at least five whys deep. So whatever you start with, okay, it's going to be like, well, why do you want to have more time? And you might say, because I want to have more time with my kids. And then I would say, why do you want to have more time with your kids? And then you'd say, well, because I want to feel like a good mom. And right now, I've been so busy.

Leah Remily [00:08:42]:
There's just been so much going on. And I'd say, and why will that make you feel like a good moment? And then you'll say the next thing. And I've done this so many times when I'm hosting Mastermind retreats or I'm coaching clients. And this. The honest truth is, once I get tears, I know we've made it right. Like, I like, okay, we found it.

Heather Creekmore [00:09:02]:
Yeah.

Leah Remily [00:09:02]:
Yeah, there it is. And so we get to that deep core need, that deep core reason. And once we can get to those core reasons of what are my real whys? And we don't judge them. We don't get mad at ourselves for them. We don't have to share them with anybody else. But we get to those core whys, and that's when we can start saying, okay, there's my framework. There's my foundation. Like, here's what really matters to me.

Leah Remily [00:09:27]:
So now that I know that I can start planning the construction of my life, let's just really run with this metaphor that I have going right now, and I can start building this. This, the design, and figuring out, okay, so what would I actually need? What happens to us so often is, well, two things. Number one, it is really easy to jump on someone else's dream and goal. We've all done that. You see, between Our social media feeds and friends and books and all kinds of things. You see other people's dream, other people's goals, other people's why. And it seems really fun over there. Like, it seems really great.

Leah Remily [00:10:12]:
They seem to feel really good. They seem to be happy, they seem to be confident. They seem to be. Fill in your word. And so we go over there and we say, okay, well, what are you doing? And they say, oh, I've been doing this. And you say, well, then surely I must need to do that too. And we start jumping on these bandwagons and jumping into things, and we never really asked ourselves, but is that actually what I want? Am I sure? Why do I think I want that? And, you know, getting that deeper level? So that's going to be one part of it. The second part is distraction.

Leah Remily [00:10:47]:
Okay? We. It is so easy to be distracted. And I think part of the. The frustration with distraction that nobody ever talks about is that we are living so busy. We live in this default busy setting, right? Just as a society, as women, we tend to wear busyness as a badge of honor. It makes us feel like we're important. It makes us feel like we're valuable. It makes us feel like if people need me, if I'm slammed, then surely I have value, right? So we wear this busyness as a badge of honor.

Leah Remily [00:11:27]:
And then you get to the end of your day and you are worn out, you are so tired, and all you want is to zone out. So we go to Netflix, we go to YouTube, we go to Instagram, we go to whatever. Whatever it is. And this can happen throughout the day of to. But distraction becomes our coping mechanism for the busyness. So then it's this cycle that we're in. So we're trying to get rid of distraction because we know that is not healthy and that is not good. And, you know, we're.

Leah Remily [00:11:55]:
We're better than that, right? But we don't look at this root cause, that part of it is the busyness that we're living in that then makes us need that ability to zone out, to, you know, just go binge Netflix or whatever it might be. So there's this. There's this cycle here that we have to look deeper at so that we can make changes.

Heather Creekmore [00:12:18]:
I'm just thinking, like, physiologically, right? I mean, I guess, I don't know. Would you say, like, our busyness sends us into, like, fight or flight, Right?

Leah Remily [00:12:28]:
Absolutely.

Heather Creekmore [00:12:29]:
And, like, the distraction, the scrolling, the Netflix, that's the only way we can calm ourselves down. And as you're talking. I'm just thinking, like, yeah. And then we really miss life, right? Because life is either busyness, distraction, busyness, distraction, like if that becomes your cycle every day. And oh, goodness, no shame, condemnation, or blame in acknowledging that. But it's like, wow, friends, like, that is what a lot of us do. I've been there, I've done it.

Leah Remily [00:13:01]:
Yeah.

Heather Creekmore [00:13:01]:
And that's not healthy.

Leah Remily [00:13:02]:
We all have. And you pause and you go, I don't want that.

Heather Creekmore [00:13:06]:
Right.

Leah Remily [00:13:06]:
I want something different. But then that can feel very overwhelming, right? Because you're like, I want something different. But how much discipline is it going to take? How much, right? We start. We start getting in our head about, like, oh, man, yeah, I really want to be present. That's a word that we throw around all the time, right? Oh, being more present. But truly, I do want to be present. I want to be the kind of person where, when I'm with someone, I'm with them. I don't know why that always stands out in interviews to me.

Leah Remily [00:13:37]:
But whenever I hear interviews about, you know, like, the great people of the past or whatever, and whenever that line comes up where they say, oh, they had this ability to make you feel like you were the only person in the room, that just gets me every time. And I'm like, I want to be that kind of person. And the honest truth is that is becoming more and more rare, and that will become more and more profound and special when you have the ability to make someone feel like that. So then that's where, you know, I start geeking out. And I'm like, well, how do we reverse engineer this? How am I going to build it? And a system so that these things can happen? And that's. That's what I love doing, and that's what I work towards.

Heather Creekmore [00:14:16]:
Yeah, I love that. Well, and I'm just thinking so, you know, a lot of times in the body image space, I kind of talk about. The reality is that we all worry that people are thinking about us too much, right? Like, what do you think about me? And most of us are not. We're, like, thinking about ourselves. And so if you can go into a room and find people and actually care, actually love them like God tells us to, right? Go in and be like, Leah, like, how are you? You're in that interaction. You are not going to be. As I ask you that question, you're not going to be like, oh, Heather's hair looks weird today. Like, I wonder, has she gained a couple of pounds? Like, you're not going to be thinking that, right? I can take the pressure off me and actually, like, give you a gift of a listening ear or a caring heart or just my time.

Heather Creekmore [00:15:08]:
And boy, doesn't that take the pressure off of everyone to feel like we have to look better, do better, perform better, have a better image in order to impress each other. So anyway, like, I just, I love. I love that whole concept of being present. And I mean, oh, goodness, Leah, I've done podcast interviews where, like, there's two hosts and one of them's on. Like, they alternate being on. And I'm like, oh, my word, what's going on here? Like, too much trouble for you to stay here for a second. Like, what's going on? But so anyway, that's so. That's so good.

Heather Creekmore [00:15:46]:
Okay, so we got to build a foundation. We want to be present. Like, like what. What else is missing here? We've identified distraction and that cycle. What else?

Leah Remily [00:15:57]:
Okay, so we're now to the point where we're like, yes, I do want this. I want to feel less busy, I want to feel more present. I want to be productive, but I don't want to accidentally just keep stacking more productivity and more tasks on top of each other. My personality, my default is extreme. Okay? I am the one who is like, we're going all in. Burn the boats, people. This is happening. And.

Leah Remily [00:16:23]:
And we've all experienced how much that is not sustainable.

Heather Creekmore [00:16:25]:
Right?

Leah Remily [00:16:26]:
So I have had to really work over the last 10 years to retrain myself to realize that incremental progress is so much more powerful than my all in, gung ho attitude. That only lasts a week. And then I default all the way back. Right?

Heather Creekmore [00:16:48]:
So the tortoise really does win the race.

Leah Remily [00:16:53]:
Can I just admit that that story used to, like, actually make me mad?

Heather Creekmore [00:16:56]:
Oh, me too. Absolutely. I was. That's ridiculous.

Leah Remily [00:17:00]:
Aggravated me, like, all the hair had to do was not get distracted. Right? Like, right. Oh, it used to make me so mad, but now it's like, no, that really is true. And that actually brings comfort to me now because now I'm like, I can have peace, I can have space, and I can win the race. That is really exciting. So, okay, we're going to need to start by getting to that why? Which we already talked about how we would do that once we've got that. Why now we can say, what would my life look like? What do I want it to be? And then we're going to have to do a very honest self audit of what distracts us. Okay, what are our things that distract us and that when we get done, if we're being completely honest, don't really make us feel very good.

Leah Remily [00:17:47]:
We don't walk away feeling uplifted, feeling motivated, feeling inspired, and we're just going to call it for what it is. I think a whole lot of people are going to have to admit that things on their phone, and I'll let them pick what it is, but things on their phone are going to be a huge part of this. So then we have to make decisions on, well, how am I going to set some simple little systems in place to protect me and to protect my. My goals and the person that I truly know I can be? Now, there are all kinds of different things that we could do. One of my things is that I do not have notifications on my phone. There is nothing that gets to notify me on a daily basis. So that's one way I can protect my time. I don't have games on my phone.

Leah Remily [00:18:36]:
I don't. I don't. That's just not something that I want to spend my time doing. But we can look at that and say, is there apps that we need to take off of our phone? I was having a conversation with my. My cute dad a month or so ago. He's almost 80, and we were talking, and he was telling me how he. He really needs to stop spending so much time on his phone. He figured out how to check how much time he was spending on his phone.

Heather Creekmore [00:19:05]:
Okay, so that number scared him.

Leah Remily [00:19:07]:
Yeah. He was like, I don't like that. And. And he also was talking about how my dad loves the news. Okay?

Heather Creekmore [00:19:13]:
He.

Leah Remily [00:19:13]:
He loves the news. He is always watching the news and watching these snippets. And he was saying how he notices it doesn't make him feel very good. And he's like, but I'm always getting on YouTube and watching these little clips. And he's like, I don't know what I should do about it. And I said, why don't you delete YouTube? And he was like, oh, my gosh, yes, that's a great idea. It was so cute. He, like, was like, you know, like, he thought I'd come up with this amazing idea.

Leah Remily [00:19:41]:
Like, oh, honey, you're so brilliant. But the honest truth is, sometimes we just do need someone to say, right, hey, why don't you delete the app? Remember, it's not permanent. You can put it back on if you want. You. You know the password. Like, or you can reset it if you don't. There's a whole lot of Us who are like, I actually don't, but we can reset it. So, you know, we might need to look and say, what can I do now? Some of it, we might be thinking, oh, I want to do this with my family.

Leah Remily [00:20:09]:
And I really get that. And I get, you know, like, that that feels really good. Sometimes our families are up for it and they're excited, but most of the time they're not. Okay, let's just call it for what it is. Most time they're not because they're, they didn't just get the dose of motivation and inspiration that we got and we're trying to drag them along and then we're upset that they're not like jumping on with us. And we're like, no, aren't you excited? And they're like, no. So often I'm going to say, let's start with ourselves. Let's set the example.

Leah Remily [00:20:38]:
And that can be a little bit hard sometimes. I have gotten frustrated because I don't go to my phone. I, and I don't want to say that in a, like, oh, aren't I awesome, you guys? I've worked hard to build these habits. They're just habits. So just like, we get the habit of being distracted and turning to our phones. We can break that habit. And so I have worked very, very hard to not allow those habits to be part of my life. But sometimes I feel a little bit frustrated when I'm sitting at a table and everyone else is looking at a phone or I'm like wanting to talk to everybody and everybody else is distracted and I'm like, this is boring.

Leah Remily [00:21:15]:
I'm, you know, I just want to look at my phone. So I want to just say that because I want to say like, yeah, it, it's not going to just become magical and everybody is inspired and watches you, but if we start with us. And one of the things that I did the very first time, I think it was in 2015 maybe, that I decided to take a break from social media. I was like, you know what, I'm gonna just take a break. I'm very fascinated. I want to see what happens. I'm going to take a, a 10 day break and just kind of pay attention. And so I deleted all the apps.

Leah Remily [00:21:47]:
I, you know, removed everything so that I couldn't, I couldn't be distracted. And I, I did this and I could not believe how great I felt. I mean, I was shocked because I, I don't see myself as someone who even has problems with social media. So I could not believe I felt more creative, more confident. My body image was. I mean, everything improved that. That I was. I was expecting more productivity.

Leah Remily [00:22:10]:
I was not expecting everything else. Well, one of the things that I did for myself before I started, though, is I made this list of, like, what could I do instead?

Heather Creekmore [00:22:19]:
Okay.

Leah Remily [00:22:19]:
Literally was, like, writing down all these ideas of, you know, things I've been wanting to get to, things that I thought might be fun. I made sure I had some books that, like, I like, you know, paper books I was ready to open and read. I mean, just tried to think of, well, what can I have? So I want to encourage that. If, you know, you're in this season of life where it is. It is really full, it is very busy. And so the end of the day, you're like, I don't want to do anything but just veg and zone out. What could you replace it with? And maybe kind of trying to start out by brainstorming and thinking, like, well, what. What would still feel good and be enjoyable so that, you know, if.

Leah Remily [00:23:01]:
If we can't find a better alternative, we're going to resort back. I. I think of this every time where I personally, I try to eat very clean and. And I really love, like, the way I feel when I do that, right up until I'm really, really hungry and I don't have a plan, and then it's all out the window, and I just want whatever is fast and simple. Right. And I think that the same thing is. Is prevalent in so many areas of our life. If we don't have a plan, we default.

Heather Creekmore [00:23:34]:
Right? Right. Absolutely. And I'm just thinking about so kind of maybe even to go back to, like, our, like, main thesis of the day when I spend a lot of time scrolling and, like, I don't know what happened, but, like, when reels took over, it was just very subtle. Like, I never intended to get. I'm not a YouTube person. So it's like the Instagram reels and the Facebook reels somehow, like, you know, it's the same as being on TikTok, right? I'm just watching video after video, and what I realized was I'm like, all of a sudden I'm like, rubbing behind my knees because the video I just watched said that that's where there could be stored trauma. And then I'm like, rubbing on my collarbone because the other video I just watched said my lymphatic system might not be draining from there. And then I'm like, you know, doing some weird exercise with my legs up the wall.

Heather Creekmore [00:24:31]:
Because this other. And I'm like, busy with all these little ideas that I've just been given, not to mention all of the outfits I need to buy because I just saw someone try it on, and then, like, the recipes I need to try because I just saw someone make it, right? And it's like, oh, my word. My full time. Like, it's. It's like my distraction then, like, feeds this whole other realm.

Leah Remily [00:24:58]:
It becomes a to do list. That's the thing. The distraction becomes a to do list. Right. It becomes one of two things. Either it's. Now put ideas into my head of things I need to be worrying about or thinking about that I did not even know before I jumped on my phone. I needed to be thinking about, right? Like, where you're all of a sudden, like, rubbing behind your face because you're like, I stored trauma.

Leah Remily [00:25:17]:
Right?

Heather Creekmore [00:25:17]:
Get it out.

Leah Remily [00:25:18]:
So there's that. And. And yes, I want to be educated, but sometimes I will admit, I stop and I go, did I actually need this? Is this helping? Right? And then the second part is, yes. We're seeing all these things that are giving us these ideas, right? Whether it's shopping or recipes or a makeup tutorial I should try. I like. And it's so funny because the algorithm, I mean, it's.

Heather Creekmore [00:25:41]:
It's brilliant.

Leah Remily [00:25:41]:
Okay. We're just gonna call it for what it is. It knows. It knows what to send me. It knows what loops, like, are gonna hook me and pull me down. And also, it is on an infinity loop there, we never get to the bottom.

Heather Creekmore [00:25:55]:
It's.

Leah Remily [00:25:56]:
It's infinity. And so you get on and you just keep going, usually until something pulls you out where you're like, oh, my gosh, I can't believe I just let myself. So now we walked away feeling bad about ourselves on top of it because the infinity loop pulled us in, which is the very point of the product.

Heather Creekmore [00:26:19]:
Right, right, right. Oh, it's. It's interesting. It's interesting how, you know, man the trap, we all fall in. Right?

Leah Remily [00:26:31]:
Yeah.

Heather Creekmore [00:26:31]:
So we're gonna get to our. Why it's September, essentially, like, how. How can we relax as we, you know, set some goals and. And become more productive?

Leah Remily [00:26:51]:
I love that. Okay. I would love for us to think about when you get a new phone or a new computer or new laptop, any kind of device, or your new Roomba vacuum. I don't care what it is. There are the default settings, right? There's these default settings, and then we have to go in and we have to adjust the settings to Optimize them to be the best thing for us. That's what we want to look at, and that's what we want to think about doing. We're coming into fall. This is a time where we can make changes, where we're actually.

Leah Remily [00:27:25]:
Things start to feel slow down, right? The busyness of summer, the play, play, play. We're so excited to get the kids off to school and to just have a minute. But that minute is only going to come if we are intentional and we grab it. Otherwise, the days will just fill. I mean, how many times have you heard someone or felt yourself, oh, things are going to get so much, so much better. I'm going to have so much more time next year because all the kids are going to be in school, and then they all go in school, and then you're having this conversation where you're like, I have no idea what happened. I'm still busy, right? Oh, it's going to get so much better once the, once they have their license, they're going to start driving themselves around. I don't know what happened.

Leah Remily [00:28:04]:
I'm still just as busy. Oh, it's going to get so much better. And you keep filling these things in. So we're going to, to have to be very proactive in claiming that space that we want and not feeling guilty about it. So that was one of the hardest things for me personally, was training myself to allow for white space with no guilt. Because I love productivity. Okay, I, I would go so far as to say that I probably value productivity more than almost anything, which is not, I'm not saying that's healthy, but I, I, and I can look back, I can look at my childhood, I can look at a whole lot of things, and I can be like, oh, I know where this is coming from. But productivity is my love language.

Leah Remily [00:28:53]:
And so I'm that person who says, we get to rest when the work is done, but I'm also the person who says, let's get more productive and then we can get more done. And oh my gosh, let's now get this done. And so then rest would never, ever come. So to, to untrain that I had to start allowing myself to sit in the discomfort of being still. And there's going to be a lot of people where maybe that makes no sense to them, but it truly was uncomfortable for me. And the more that I did it, though, the more it became comfortable to where now I love my white space. I have no I. Maybe, maybe.

Leah Remily [00:29:33]:
Okay, I've actually gone a little too far on the white space. I'm just like, no one, no one take my time, freedom. But just really thinking about we're coming into school, starting back up into fall, which is going to inevitably lead into the holidays. All these different things. Just take some time and say, what do I want this to feel like? Yeah, and, and really sit with that. And sometimes I'll, I'll let myself kind of visualize what would, what does the perfect day feel like to me? What does the perfect week feel like? The very first time I ever did that exercise was in my height of busy, productive, high performing. I hit the pillow at night and I crash because I have not stopped for the whole day, right? And I decided to sit down, do this exercise. And the thing that stood out to me so much is that in my perfect day I imagined taking enough time to have lunch.

Leah Remily [00:30:34]:
And that just sounded so indulgent. And I was like, okay, well, what would I have to do to do that? So I came up with this silly little plan. I would go to like, you know, kind of like it was, it's like a whole foods type grocery store that was by me and I'd pick out these really delicious pre done lunches. My favorite was like a lobster risotto. I'd have them in the fridge. I pull one out, I could warm it up, you know, really quickly in the microwave and I'd sit down and I'd let myself, I'd set a timer for 30 minutes and I'd let myself like read the articles that I always wanted to get to but never had time or whatever it might be, right? And I would just have this time to myself. Sometimes I would do nothing. I'd literally just kind of sit in silence.

Leah Remily [00:31:13]:
And it felt so good. And it was like, that was like my little gateway into, oh, wow, maybe I can do, do more things like that. So, you know, again, just coming back to our default settings have become distraction and busy and, and that's for all of our friends, it's for our family, it's for everyone around us. And so we feel like, well, if I'm not doing that, I, I'm not, I'm not being a good, a good neighbor, a good friend, a good whatever. But what if we collectively, every single person getting to listen to Heather and I and getting to hear this conversation said, I'm going to try doing something different and I'm going to share this, I'm going to share this episode and say, hey, do you want to do, want to do this with me? Like, can we kind of Be each other's partner. Can we talk about this together? And what if we tried to undo those default settings that have been put into us and started switching the settings up and making it actually work for us so that we can feel more empowered, more confident, more peace each day?

Heather Creekmore [00:32:22]:
Yeah, I love that. Because really, right. It is stress that's killing us. You know, it's stress is horrible for our health. It's horrible for digestion. Right. And so I was just like, you, like, I would just go grab something and eat it at my desk while I was working. Right.

Heather Creekmore [00:32:40]:
Because that would not be very productive to take a lunch break. Break. And then as I got into more intuitive eating, it was like, oh, no, actually tasting food, knowing what I'm eating, like, focusing on that is going to be so much more helpful to my body. And for me, I had a similar kind of aha, journey. But for me, it was recognizing that, like, at home, like, same routine, but if it was called vacation, like, there were certain things I could do and just kind of like just rest in those. And then I was like, wait a second, I work from home. I'm my own boss. Why can't I take a vacation for an hour every day? Like, what would that be like to just pretend I'm on vacation for an hour every day? And I started kind of incorporating that.

Heather Creekmore [00:33:30]:
And okay, granted, you know, like, I'm wired like you are. Some days it's not an hour, it's like 10 minute vacation. But it does make such a difference just in terms of stress levels, being able to breathe and relax and, you know, just not be dominated by being busy. So I love that. I love that. Well, Leah, thanks so much for being on the show today. Will you tell everyone where they can connect with you and listen to your show and all the things?

Leah Remily [00:34:01]:
Absolutely. So we already know that these are podcast listeners. So to my darling podcast listeners, if you want to balance bestie, my podcast is called Balancing Busy. So if you wanted to go find that follow, that would be a really great place to connect. And then if you want to learn some more time strategies, you can go to time balancing busy.com and I have my 10 favorite time saving hacks. Like, these are the 10 things as a busy mom that save me more time than anything else. So you can get [email protected] awesome.

Heather Creekmore [00:34:39]:
I can't wait to check those out. Well, Leah, thanks again so much for being on the show today.

Leah Remily [00:34:43]:
Oh, thank you for having me. So much fun.

Heather Creekmore [00:34:45]:
And thank you for watching or listening. I hope something today has helped you stop comparing and start living. Bye bye Compare to show us proud to be part of the Life Audio Podcast Network. For more great Christian podcasts go to lifeaudio.com hey, have you left a review yet? Oh man, nothing blesses us more then to see your reviews. It helps us know what kind of shows you want to hear more of and just encourages us. If you would consider going on Apple Podcasts or Spotify and leave a review, we'd greatly appreciate it. Thanks for considering.

Disclaimer: This transcript is AI-generated and has not been edited for accuracy or clarity.