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Do you feel overwhelmed with your todo list? Is "creating fulfilling happiness" missing from that list? Everyday Happiness with Katie Jefcoat is here to help you. In 2-minutes a day, over time, you’ll discover how to reduce overwhelm and create lasting happiness through Katie’s signature method of Intentional Margins, happiness science, and musings about life. Start your day with a positive mindset. Many of us can get deep in the feeling of overwhelm. The anxiety of our own ambition can weigh heavily on our thoughts and emotions. We lay down and close our eyes at night and our chest begins to feel heavy. More items on the to-do list than the day before. How will we ever going to get off the hamster wheel of to-dos? When are we going to start living life for more than the hustle? As a recovering lawyer and passion driven entrepreneur, Katie knew something had to change. What she found is that you can have harmony, be intentionally productive and create massive impact, all at the same time - without feeling guilty. So she asked herself a simple question: "How can I get off the hamster wheel and how can I show others how to do the same? She knew she'd had a system for herself, but she’d never put it into defining words. On August 15, 2019, she sat down at her dining room table with her friend Jenna (her business bestie). Post-It notes covering the table. This is where she first defined the concept of Intentional Margins. What are Intentional Margins? INTENTIONAL MARGINS™ (n): A buffer of space and time to create harmony between your to-do’s and your priorities. Now you can get the support you need to manage your overwhelm, one little tip at a time. Regardless of the industry, Everyday Happiness blends inspiration with a pragmatic approach to finding Harmony. You'll be encouraged to throw “balance” out the window for a more achievable approach called harmony. Through Intentional Margins™, you'll be encouraged to develop what harmony means to you, by identifying your priorities at work and at home. Every day, we'll end the podcast help you feel equipped to jump off the hamster wheel of overwhelm and go out there and crush your day. --About the Host-- Katie Jefcoat is a community curator, speaker, author and motivator who supports ambitious women (and a few good men) move from feeling hectic to harmonious. As a recovering trial lawyer, she knows first hand what it feels like to have a demanding job. As an entrepreneur with a passion that lights her hair on fire and a busy family she’s in the thick of it with you. Many people strive for balance and think overwhelm is just a part of life. Sadly, the hustle culture and our never-ending to-do list is creating a life where our priorities are getting the leftover scraps of time. Katie introduces people to what she calls - Intentional Margins™ - a kind of life in which they reduce randomness, create harmony between their to-dos and their priorities and intentionally enjoy the meaningful parts of life - without feeling guilty. Without exposure to a different way, we remain stuck on the hamster wheel of to-dos and never find the “balance” we yearn for. Katie works diligently to expose her community to different ways of doing things, because she fundamentally believes we deserve to make time for our priorities. We deserve to live a life of harmony. And it’s within our control to create it. Katie curates a smorgasbord of content related to managing your calendar, handling overwhelm, setting boundaries, reducing randomness, saying no, self-care, the power of your choices, and more in her Intentional Margins™ Membership Community -- which she calls the coziest virtual coffee shop (on Facebook). Connect and learn more at www.katiejefcoat.com.
Episodes
Tuesday Jun 15, 2021
Tuesday Jun 15, 2021
Margin Makers in our community have diverse ways they create INTENTIONAL MARGINS® for themselves, and I’m sharing some ideas with you today.
Transcript:
Welcome to Everyday Happiness where we create lasting happiness, in 2 minutes a day, through my signature method of Intentional Margins (creating harmony between your to-dos and your priorities), happiness science, and musings about life.
I'm your host Katie Jefcoat and today we’re talking about INTENTIONAL MARGINS.
INTENTIONAL MARGINS is finding the buffer of space and time to create harmony between our todos and our priorities.
Yesterday we talked about the “buffer of time” part of Intentional Margins.
The other part of INTENTIONAL MARGINS can be a priority, something that lights your fair on fire that you want to make sure you are making time for.
Margin Makers in our community have a ton of diverse ways they create INTENTIONAL MARGINS from:
- Coffee with a friend
- Meditating
- Baking
- Dreaming
- Knitting
- Family game night
- Writing a book
- Working on a side-hustle
- Reading
- Listening to a podcast.
Heck, THIS can be your first INTENTIONAL MARGIN. It’s just 2-ish minutes a day. You’ve got 2-minutes right?
For me, connection is one of my core values, so connection online or in person is something that I get energy from, it - as I say - “lights my hair on fire” - so I want to be sure when I am looking at my weekly calendar, there are INTENTIONAL times for connection, in the MARGINS of my week around my todos and responsibilities.
Speaking of the community, we open it a couple times a year, get on the waitlist over at www.katiejefcoat.com/community
Monday Jun 14, 2021
Monday Jun 14, 2021
My experience at the bus stop picking up my kids and how creating a 5-minute Intentional Margin® forever changed the way I am with my kids.
Transcript:
Welcome to Everyday Happiness where we create lasting happiness, in 2 minutes a day, through my signature method of Intentional Margins® (creating harmony between your to-dos and your priorities), happiness science, and musings about life.
I'm your host Katie Jefcoat and today we’re going to talk about one way to think about INTENTIONAL MARGINS®.
INTENTIONAL MARGINS® is finding the buffer of space and time to create harmony between our todos and our priorities.
INTENTIONAL MARGINS® can be a buffer of time. It’s the 5 minutes before a big meeting.
For me, about 2 years ago when my little guy was riding a bus to school and we were not in a global pandemic, I realized how important the moments when he stepped off the bus were to him and to me.
Before this time, I would always be finishing one last thing as the bus rolled up. Either a text, an email, or I would be on the phone, hushing my little kids as they gleefully bounced off the bus, waving to the bus driver as my phone was tucked between my shoulder and my ear.
And then, I realized, I was missing the best parts of life and what kind of message was a sending my kids? It’s a gut punch. They were always so excited to see me and tell me about their day and for me to inevitably grab the backpack or art they had brought home.
So, I decided to commit to my Intentional Margins. I put my phone away 2 minutes before I expected the bus to roll up. I gathered my thoughts. I set a quick intention for how I wanted to show up for them. And when they got the stop, I was waiting. My phone was tucked into my pocket. I was looking at them, their smiles, watching them bounce off the bus and more than anything, I was present for them in those initial moments. The message it sent to my kids was that I am here, I value you and I want to be here, in this moment - with you.
My creating this Intentional Margin®, It forever changed the way I am with my kids. And it was less than 5 minutes of my day.
This does not happen overnight. We’ve built an entire community around practicing this.
Speaking of the community, we open it a couple times a year, get on the waitlist over at www.katiejefcoat.com/community
Sunday Jun 13, 2021
Sunday Jun 13, 2021
Exploring the INTENTIONAL MARGINS® I-M-P-A-C-T method for finding and creating your own Intentional Margin®.
Transcript:
Welcome to Everyday Happiness where we create lasting happiness, in 2 minutes a day, through my signature method of Intentional Margins® (creating harmony between your to-dos and your priorities), happiness science, and musings about life.
I'm your host Katie Jefcoat and today we are talking about my concept INTENTIONAL MARGINS®.
INTENTIONAL MARGINS® is finding the buffer of space and time to create harmony between our todos and our priorities.
The INTENTIONAL MARGINS® method is called I-M-P-A-C-T.
I-M is the words INTENTIONAL MARGINS
P - Priorities (what and why)
A - Action Items (how)
C - Calendar (what gets calendared gets done)
T - Timely Evaluation of the PAC (are your action items completed and reaching your intended priority goal)
Example:
I want to spend time with my husband.
Why: because I want a healthy marriage that is seperate from raising kids
How: coffee chat in the morning.
-- quarterly getaway, date night. There are a million ways to do anything, you get to decide what works for you.
Calendar: time blocked on my calendar so calls don’t get scheduled.
Timely: review monthly and see if this is still both working for us.
Look, this stuff takes practice, we’re always tweaking for ourselves. If you want to dig in more with like minded women, we open it a couple times a year, get on the waitlist over at www.katiejefcoat.com/community
Saturday Jun 12, 2021
Saturday Jun 12, 2021
INTENTIONAL MARGINS® is a filter to identify what matters most, your priorities, and figure out how to make time for them. So that, you can look back at the week, and have a win, recognizing that you did live in your priorities and you are in fact creating a fulfilling life.
Transcript:
Welcome to Everyday Happiness where we create lasting happiness, in 2 minutes a day, through my signature method of Intentional Margins® (creating harmony between your to-dos and your priorities), happiness science, and musings about life.
I'm your host Katie Jefcoat and today we are talking about my concept INTENTIONAL MARGINS®.
Yesterday, you looked at your calendar and wrote down all the have-tos. The commute, the meetings, the kids activities, the dentist, all the things you have to do.
The rest, is your margin. And the big question is how do we make the absolute most of our time so that we create a fulfilling life in our Intentional Margins®. What I’ve found, is that when we aren’t intentional, we look back, over the day and wonder, what did I do that was in MY priorities. I felt so busy all day.
Days become weeks, weeks to months, months to years and pretty soon we’re checking the todo list, but we’re on auto-pilot.
INTENTIONAL MARGINS® is a filter to identify what matters most, your priorities, and figure out how to make time for them. So that, you can look back at the week, and have a win, recognizing that you did live in your priorities and you are in fact creating a fulfilling life.
For a lot of us, it’s just about awareness. When we, for a split second, turn off auto-pilot.
Now, if you think that’s not you - you don’t actually have a moment for your priorities, I invite you to think about how much margin you might have. Those pockets of time. And what are some priorities that you would like to focus on during that time? It could be 15 minutes here and there or an hour or two in the evening.
Tomorrow we’ll talk about creating Intentional Margins® using the IMPACT Method. In the meantime, let’s connect on social at @everydayhappinesswithkatie and join the community on the hashtags #IntentionalMargins and #everydayhappinesswithkatie on Instagram
Friday Jun 11, 2021
Friday Jun 11, 2021
Do you ever feel like you are running on that hamster wheel of todos and afraid to jump off for fear that everything will crumble? That’s why you need Intentional Margins®.
Transcript:
Welcome to Everyday Happiness where we create lasting happiness, in 2 minutes a day, through my signature method of Intentional Margins® (creating harmony between your to-dos and your priorities), happiness science, and musings about life.
I'm your host Katie Jefcoat and today we are talking about my concept INTENTIONAL MARGINS®.
INTENTIONAL MARGINS® is finding the buffer of space and time to create harmony between our todos and our priorities.
Do you ever feel like you are running on that hamster wheel of todos and afraid to jump off for fear that everything will crumble? You’re overwhelmed and can’t see the vision and all you want is some clarity. Yeah, me too! Or at least that was me, before I started getting super consistent with my Margins. The space and time in the day, that wasn’t a crisis or a “have to”.
Now, you might be thinking, I don’t have any margin, I go non-stop all day.
But let’s unpack this over the next few episodes. If you look at your calendar you might have some commute time to work or running kids to and from. You might have an appointment or an important conference call or meeting. Perhaps, you have a job, like my sister, who is a nurse, and she’s working 9-5ish and there is no break. She’s basically on, all day.
Whatever that looks like for you. I encourage you to take a traditional week and put all of that in your calendar. Then, put in the sleep. If you're an overachiever, put in the calendar the dinner making and cleaning up time too.
Tomorrow we’ll talk about what’s left on that calendar. In the meantime, let’s connect on social at @everydayhappinesswithkatie and join the community on the hashtags #IntentionalMargins and #everydayhappinesswithkatie on Instagram
Thursday Jun 10, 2021
Thursday Jun 10, 2021
In this final episode of the exercise series we recap and I share the only exercise that has ever worked to really clear my mind - spoiler alert, it’s not yoga.
Transcript:
Welcome to Everyday Happiness where we create lasting happiness, in 2 minutes a day, through my signature method of Intentional Margins (creating harmony between your to-dos and your priorities), happiness science, and musings about life.
I'm your host Katie Jefcoat and this is the 4th of 4 episodes on exercise.
My path to finding the joy in moving has been windy and bumpy. Super bumpy.
Yesterday I mentioned how tennis, for a while, was the activity where I could be present and mindful while engaging in that activity. I also mentioned that yoga could be good for this.
Years ago, when I played tennis, I was terrible, and I was only really a tennis lesson junkie, but when I was there I was present. Mostly because I was scared to death to look away and get a tennis ball to the face. So, there I was, following the ball, watching each bounce, without another thought in my mind.
What is the movement activity that you can get lost in?
So, to recap the last few days.
- Exercise is healthy! It’s good for our mental health and physical health.
- Exercise is being re-framed and called movement
- Movement (formerly known as exercise) for happiness can’t be about fixing something. We need to change our mindset between movement and that dark urge to change our body.
- being present and mindful in whatever movement you choose and gratitude for our body, exactly as it is, is the first step to rewiring our mindset
Tennis is my story, I invite you to find what works for you. And let me know, I’m so curious what’s working for people.
And until tomorrow, let’s connect on social at @everydayhappinesswithkatie and join the community on the hashtags #IntentionalMargins and #everydayhappinesswithkatie on Instagram.
Wednesday Jun 09, 2021
Wednesday Jun 09, 2021
Episode 8: In this 4-part series we explore if exercise will really make us happier? Today, we tackle why we exercise in the first place, and the answers and what we do about it might surprise you.
Transcript:
Welcome to Everyday Happiness where we create lasting happiness, in 2 minutes a day, through my signature method of Intentional Margins (creating harmony between your to-dos and your priorities), happiness science, and musings about life.
I'm your host Katie Jefcoat and we’re still talking about exercise, but now, we’ve reframed that into movement and everything feels right.
If you listened to the last 2 days, you may have caught that I’m settling into this idea of “movement” instead of “exercise” and I can say, I’m liking it. A little reframing in my mind and a little tweak of the wording made all the difference for me. What I know for sure is that there are a million ways to do anything, you have to find what works for you.
Today is about finding the joy in moving. The biggest shift comes from changing your mindset between exercising and that dark urge to change your body. We can do that by concentrating instead and how the exercise makes us feel. The goal of exercise should be that it brings you some sort of joy and happiness.
One idea is: You start with being present and mindful in whatever movement you choose.
Yoga is a good one for this. But it could be anything. Tomorrow, I’ll tell you why tennis worked for me.
If you want to dig more into this podcast that I was inspired by, you can listen to Laurie Santos episode 20 of The Happiness Lab.
Think about how you experience your body not as the way it looks but as what you can’t see reframing movement in this way can lead to greater happiness
And until tomorrow, let’s connect on social at @everydayhappinesswithkatie and join the community on the hashtags #IntentionalMargins and #everydayhappinesswithkatie on Instagram.
Tuesday Jun 08, 2021
Tuesday Jun 08, 2021
Episode 7: In this 4-part series we explore if exercise will really make us happier? Today, we shift the language. Listen in and hear the one word that changed everything for me.
Transcript:
Welcome to Everyday Happiness where we create lasting happiness, in 2 minutes a day, through my signature method of Intentional Margins (creating harmony between your to-dos and your priorities), happiness science, and musings about life.
I'm your host Katie Jefcoat and today we’re back talking about exercise
Yesterday we went through the science of why exercise matters, both mentally and physically.
I was listening to The Happiness Lab with guest Jessamyn Stanley, a love your body curvy yoga instructor.
And she said one word that clicked for me - MOVEMENT. It’s the idea that we can be happier through “movement”. Ah, movement, maybe I can get behind this. A little reframing in my mind and a little tweak of the wording might make all the difference.
The science is clear - we need to move. Movement will make us happier (and healthier). So, if you really don’t want to run and have no interest in jumping on the Peleton bandwagon, give yourself grace that those types of movement are not for you.
One way to have a healthy relationship with exercise / movement is to re-frame the way you think about exercise.
Exercise for happiness can’t be about fixing something. That’s another ah-ha moment. It can’t be about body hating. So many times we exercise to fix something, to tone something.
That’s why tomorrow we are going to talk about how we find the joy in moving. Notice how I didn’t say “exercise”;).
Until then, let’s connect on social at @everydayhappinesswithkatie and join the community on the hashtags #IntentionalMargins and #everydayhappinesswithkatie on Instagram.
Monday Jun 07, 2021
Monday Jun 07, 2021
Episode 6: Most research shows that exercise makes us feel good. Even a half hour a day of cardio. So this has got me thinking about my health, both physically and mentally. Can exercise be the ticket to help with both? Join us in this 4 part series to find out and hear some ah-ha mindset shifts along the way.
Transcript:
Welcome to Everyday Happiness where we create lasting happiness, in 2 minutes a day, through my signature method of Intentional Margins (creating harmony between your to-dos and your priorities), happiness science, and musings about life.
I'm your host Katie Jefcoat and today we’re talking about exercise.
Most research shows that exercise makes us feel good. Even a half hour a day of cardio. Not only do the happiness scientists agree but also in a recent book by Sanjay Gupta, who is a neurosurgeon, also indicates that exercising is really crucial to a well rounded self.
So this has got me thinking about my health, both physically and mentally. Can exercise be the ticket to help with both?
Exercise can increase your dopamine (which is the feel good hormone) and serotonin levels (which make everything in your mind more even and less super “hot” or super down), making it a great option to boost your happy hormones.
I’m not a scientist, but I can see this. Going for a run when you are super stressed out increases serotonin. I mean, you won’t catch me running unless someone is chasing me, but I can see how it works for some people.
And of course, exercise produces these good endorphins, which can increase happiness, so I’ve bought into the science of “why” exercise is good for my happiness and perhaps, my mental health generally.
It’s almost impossible to say that exercise isn’t good for you.
But, I’m not the girl to hit the gym, or go for a run. It’s not for me. So tomorrow I’m going to share with you my mental hack to re-frame how I was thinking about exercise, and I think you’re going to like it.
In the meantime, let’s connect on social at @everydayhappinesswithkatie and join the community on the hashtags #IntentionalMargins and #everydayhappinesswithkatie on Instagram.
Sunday Jun 06, 2021
Sunday Jun 06, 2021
Episode 5: If happiness is up to us, and we know we can affect our happiness, how do we make more of that special happiness hormone, oxytocin? Tune in for one quick way to boost your oxytocin.
Transcript:
Welcome to Everyday Happiness where we create lasting happiness, in 2 minutes a day, through my signature method of Intentional Margins (creating harmony between your to-dos and your priorities), happiness science, and musings about life.
I'm your host Katie Jefcoat and today I want to share a practical way to boost your happiness hormone, oxytocin.
What we know is that Happiness is up to you. Now, a caveat, Of course there are injustices and we should speak up, and there are things that we cannot control, and we should feel all those things. But that should not preclude our happiness - in whatever moments of time, you can get.
As we’ve chatted over the last week or so, human connection is a basic way to quickly and effectively boost happiness.
On the flip side, for most people, scrolling through social media will not boost our happiness.
What? Social media is my virtual coffee shop, I love it. I am a connection junkie. But the science is pretty clear that social media is not a substitute for human connection, those likes and comments and seeing what your friends are up to, that’s not going to boost your happiness. It’s like being on a diet, but binging on ice cream when you are hungry. It’s not going to help your diet goals.
If you need a boost of the happiness hormone, oxytocin, human connection is the way to go. And if this is true even for me, who thinks social media is my virtual coffee shop, it's probably true for you too.
When we are lonely, we are starving for OXYTOCIN,
We starve for eye contact and human touch, both boost oxytocin
If you can get with someone, do that. But if you can’t, a video conference, or a Facetime is really the next best thing.
The reason video conferencing works, is that although I can not touch you, I can see you and OXYTOCIN comes from seeing you too - looking at your eyes.
That means being intentional and not multitasking on the video call.
So, go out and touch someone or catch up with a friend on a video call. Let me know over on social how it went. @everydayhappinesswithkatie