Say Goodbye to the Sunday Scaries (Here’s Your Reset Plan)

Welcome to the In Between Podcast, a show for women navigating the space between where they are and where they want to be.

This is your go-to holistic business podcast where we dive into strategies, mindset, habits, and of course, making a meaningful income so you can live your dream life.

I'm Astrid, a multi-six-figure luxury wedding photographer and a former corporate marketing girly.

And I'm Alexis with 10+ years in tech as a senior brand partnerships manager and business coach. Think of us as your business besties cheering you on as you level up. Let's get into it. Hey friends, welcome back to another episode of The In Between Podcast. It is one half of the pod, Alexis, and the other half, Astrid.

And today we are chatting about one of our favorite things, which is Sunday reset. So if you're feeling like every week you're just scrambling and your, your calendar is running you, you're not really deciding what it is that you want in your life, you feel like you don't have enough time, And you're stressed, then this is going to be the perfect episode for you. We're going to walk you through how each of us do our Sunday resets. Those are always so personal, um, and so you can get some ideas on how to tackle yours, and hopefully you can feel way more relaxed next week.

Yes, we are here to help you get organized and also help you find a system that is sustainable and something that you can actually repeat weekend Over weekend, not just like, you know, you get this big dopamine hit of, I'm going to get super organized and you do it differently one week, but it doesn't feel like it sticks. So how do you find a Sunday reset or even a weekend reset routine that really sticks and something that you feel like you can repeat week over week and just feel like there's an aspect of sustainability to it instead of it feeling like a trend that you're trying out? Um, but before we dig into that, let's do some quick life updates. Do you want to go first?

Yes, I can go first. I have just been deep into work, honestly, like editing all the galleries, which has been super fun. I am gearing up for another wedding season, so I'm having all the calls with the brides and I am so excited for our season. It's going to be beautiful. I will be in— I'll be shooting in Central Park, which I'm still like processing, but one of my brides is having her ceremony in Central Park. Oh my gosh. So I'm so excited. I adore her. She's an angel, has great style, very intimate wedding. Then they're, they're having their reception at a beautiful like Italian restaurant. So nice and moody and candlelit. So I'm stoked for that. Um, so yeah, so I am doing all the things. cleaning my house up in all the ways, and I am in a decluttering phase as well. So this past weekend, I decluttered everything in the bathroom. So, like, my skincare. And then you know how you just get a million lotions and bath salts and all of that kind of stuff? My cabinets were overflowing. There came a point where I just kept shoving stuff in there.

Yeah.

And so I finally cleaned it out, and it was a massive bag. of stuff. And so, um, yeah, so anytime that I feel like shopping now, I declutter and I remind myself of the things that I do have.

I love that. I love that. It's like helps you with the overconsumption where you're just focused on using what you already have. You're inspiring me. There's so many different pockets of our house that we need to declutter. And like even just our junk drawer, our junk drawer is looking a little too junky right now. I need to, I need to fix that. But I love that. And it's so cool you're shooting in Central Park. Do you know how much it is to get a film permit for New York, for Central Park?

No, I don't.

So whenever I went to, um, New York to film for this documentary that Circle is going to be in next month, uh, with this news outlet, we were working with this film crew and they've done a crazy amount of jobs and they've like filmed everywhere. And they were talking about The importance of getting permits for certain areas and how Central Park, it's like $1 million for an hour. So when you see—

Oh, really?

It puts that into perspective because when you see films where they actually have a section of the film that's shot in Central Park, it makes you think about how much it costs the film production to even film that piece of the movie or show in Central Park. So it was like, wow, okay, that's insane. But yeah, a million bucks for an hour.

That's crazy. I'm gonna sell prints.

I know.

That's what the rate is going at.

That's so cool that you're gonna shoot a wedding there. That's like iconic. Um, okay, on this side of things, Matthew is traveling for work this week. He is in West Texas. out on an oil rig site for the week. So I am solo parenting with Piper and just hanging out here at the house. Like, I am doing my best not to hermit. I noticed how when Matthew's gone, I have to really push myself to get out of the house a bit more because usually he's the— because like, I travel so much that when I'm home, I don't want to leave. So when he's here, he's like, let's go do this. Let's go do that. Like, let's get out of the house. But when he's gone, I'm like, I haven't left the house in 4 days. So I am pushing myself to get out of the house a little bit more. I have some social things planned with some of my friends. Um, but yeah, just focusing on being with myself and hanging out with Piper, lots of walks. And, and you have inspired me to tackle an organizational project while he's gone because I have the free time and I should just do that. So thank you for that. Okay, moving on to in-betweens. What are you in between right now? And if you're new to the pod, we always start every episode sharing what we're in between, whether it's in life or business. We always believe that you're in between something. Do you want to go first? Because if not, I do have mine.

You go for it. I'm still marinating on a couple.

Okay. I am currently in between planning Circles' first IRL event. So it's not a conference where it's like, you know, your typical 200, 300, 400, 500 people in a conference venue. We are stripping it back and doing something more intimate, more conversation-driven, more like roundtable mastermind-esque. And so picture 50 community builders and thought leaders in the creator space gathering together for a day and a half, um, in a really cool resort with lots of intentional discussions. And at each table, an attendee is actually like helping facilitate deeper conversation, deeper connection. Um, and yeah, I'm going to help run it, plan it with this team that we've hired. And I'm learning like their entire playbook of how to run these high-touch, really hospitality-focused IRL events. And it has been really cool. So I'm just in the, in the, in between taking what I've learned from running a lot of virtual events and big summits with tens of thousands of people, and even like attending events on behalf of Circle to now hosting an IRL event and all the things that you need to think through. From the moment that they step into the lobby to register, to like the small details that really make something really memorable and make someone feel really taken care of. So that's been fun to like stretch myself and be creative and learn from this amazing agency that we're working with. And I have my first site visit at this hotel in Austin. So I'm going to drive over here in the next couple of days and go meet with. their hospitality team, their event team, and scope out the whole place. And, um, Jason and Annabelle, our agency partners, are in California and I'm in Texas. And they're like, we're looking at a venue in Austin, you know, would you be willing to go do a site visit? I was like, absolutely. It also gets me out of the house while Matthew is gone. So I was like, okay, I'm done with my social quota for, for that day. Um, but I'm excited to learn and I know we are hosting our first in-between retreat here in a couple of weeks at the end of August. And it's even things I'm learning from this experience of planning circle events to our own masterminds and how to run those. So yeah, it's been really cool. What about you?

Girl, I am so, so happy for you. That sounds so fun. And also, Thinking back of where your career has led you, starting with AT Avenue, and like you really have thought through customer experience all the way to now. And I feel like that's at the center also of what you appreciate the most whenever you travel and whenever you're working with brands. So I love that this is pushing you into something that you naturally love. So I can't wait to see your creativity run with that, for you to learn, for you to share all the details with me.

Yes.

Because I want to learn all the things. Um, but yeah, such a cool new skillset to unlock there.

Thank you.

On my front, um, hmm, there's— okay, I know which one. I know which one between— I'm going to go with. So I joined a mastermind about 3 months ago and it's Gina Knox's mastermind and it's all about finances as a business owner. And if you listen to the podcast for a while, you know that I actually really love finances and I love more like the budgeting side of things. And so this is more on the aspect of like how to save for retirement, how to build wealth from investment accounts and like all that world that overwhelmed me. And so quite honestly, for like the past 3 months in the mastermind, I've been learning a lot. I've been executing a lot, but it still was overwhelming me. And I was like kind of avoiding it, kind of running away from it. Kind of like when you're taking A class in college that you know you're supposed to take, but you're like dreading it. And I finally unlocked and like understood fully the big picture yesterday.

Hmm.

And I'm very, very excited to explore this new side of like prioritizing investing, prior— like the amount of impact that investing before you're 40 can really have on your life later on versus doing it later. And it's things that I heard on podcasts and I heard on things and I'm like, yeah, okay, I get it. And now I feel like seeing my own numbers reflected on a piece of paper and what my life could look like, something just clicked for me. And so, yeah, so I'm entering a new financial stage in my life of just new habits. My budget has shifted now as well. I have a new layer of ambition, a new layer of like, okay, I actually want to take on extra weddings than I planned on and have certain amount of weddings just go straight to that. Um, and planning on that front. And honestly, I think for me too, it's, I want to share it with a ton of people because that's knowledge that I didn't grow up with. Like my parents don't, don't have a retirement account. Most of my family doesn't. And that is financial privilege in a way that like I didn't have and now I do have that I feel like the more you share that with other people, literally $50 a month, $100 a month can make all the difference in your life. So yeah, so that is what I'm currently in between. I am geeking out over it and literally like my TikTok For You page is just all like random financial things.

Wait, is your next venture becoming a financial planner?

Honestly, I would love to. I see it.

I see it for you with like the little notebook in your pocket and everything.

I honestly, that might be me in my late 30s. Let me build wealth first and then teach others how to do it.

That's amazing. I am always so inspired by how you dig into things. And like once you decide that you're going to learn something, you're going to learn everything that you can about it.

I'm a hyperfixator.

You are a hyperfixator and we love that about you. Um, but yeah, just to like see how much you've grown already and have learned so much and like having it click is, is big. And it's also a testament to knowing that that wasn't necessarily something that you saw modeled to you or something that you grew up knowing about, but something that like you were taking ownership of your own learning and you're taking ownership of your own future wealth. Um, I just think that's amazing. So I'm proud of you for for empowering yourself to learn and to grow in that way. It's really cool.

Thank you. Thank you so much. With that being said, let's lean into our Sunday reset. So I am stoked to be able to talk about some of the habits that have really helped us unlock a new layer of our goals, of our lifestyle. And I feel like maybe you would agree with this, but The Sunday reset is really where the life is built, where we're consistently choosing, how do I want my week to look like from a social perspective, from a work perspective, from a financial perspective? And we're preemptively telling ourselves and choosing that future us.

Yeah.

And putting in the reps week by week is really when we can look back and say, wow, like my savings have built up. I have built great friendships. because of that social circle, or I've been able to really lock in on my work goals and my financial income as well. So with that being said, will you guide us through some of your thoughts on your own Sunday reset?

Yeah, of course. And I think before we get into what our individual Sunday resets look like, I think it's understanding why we do it. And I think it's become a trend to see people do their daily vlogs or their reset vlogs on Instagram or TikTok. And it's like, it's not just something that we do to clean up our space. It's something that I do on the weekends to help my days ahead feel more organized, especially when I'm in a really busy season. I feel like I use my weekends to fuel, like refuel Not only just my own energy, but the energy of my house and my environment so that when I'm busy, my environment has been set up in a way that I can just get what I need from it. I don't walk into my office and I'm stressed because it's cluttered. I don't open the fridge and go, what am I going to have for dinner tonight? Like those little decisions that we have to make or the things that can frustrate us throughout our day, I make those on the weekend for myself. And then throughout the week, I'm focused on work and showing up and giving my best energy there. And then I don't have to worry about what I'm going to have for dinner or when am I going to go to the gym this week. I already have that planned out. So it helps me feel more in control of the way that I spend my time. It also helps me reduce anxiety around the like, what am I going to do this? When am I going to get this in? Like that anxious that you feel around your time. And then the stress that you can feel around your time. If I don't have enough time to do this, I don't. Feel like I can ever make time for this hobby. Well, if it's not scheduled, it's most likely not going to happen, especially as we're growing families, we're growing businesses, and so it's like as our responsibilities change, we have to be more mindful of the way that we plan and spend our time so that we can take care of ourselves and and take care of the things that we care about. I also feel like this helps me create a lot of mental clarity because I'm getting clear every single week on what my values are and how those values show up on my calendar. So I value nutrition. Okay, so I'm— this is what I'm gonna eat and this is my meal plan for the week. I value movement. Okay, here's where I'm literally going to schedule my movements. I've booked my class passes. I know when I'm gonna go to the gym or when I'm gonna go to a studio. Done. I value time with my husband. Okay, these are the days that we're gonna go on a date night and this is our like time with each other on the weekend. And this isn't all time blocked out. Um, like minute by minute. It's more so just knowing, okay, I know date night's on Wednesday night. Is he planning it or am I planning it? Okay, got it. I want some time for he and I to like go to brunch or do something just us on the weekends. Okay, great. I've got that kind of like in my head. And then I also feel like it helps you protect your time as well. I feel like whenever I was in my early 20s, I said yes to everything. I was like the ultimate yes girl. And anytime someone was like, you want to go to coffee? You want to go here? You want to go there? I was like, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep. I was never home and I was always like fueled by my social calendar, but my house was a mess. I like never actually ended up eating at my house because I never had time to cook. So I was spending a lot more money eating out. Um, and then therefore like, oh, I'm spending more money than I probably should eating out. But now I can save money by cooking in. Um, and yeah, just helping me protect that time a bit more. And it's like, hey, I can't hang out this week, but I'm free next Thursday or I'm free in 2 weeks. Or, you know, the common thing that you see on the internet when you're trying to plan something with your friends and it's like, what are you doing 3 months from now, Tuesday at 2:00 PM? I hope it's not quite that intense, but it does just help you know your schedule a bit more. Um, and feel like you're in control. Anything that you want to add on the why you might reset or what's been helpful for you? Yeah.

I feel like on my end, in addition to all the things that you said, which you nailed it, I think for me it's also a point of self-reflection that is nonjudgmental. I feel like whenever I've been so goal-focused and things don't happen and I am reflecting at the end of the month or at the end of the quarter or even at the end of the year, I in the past could have been a bit more judgmental, like, okay, I just needed to lock in more. I just need to be more disciplined. And I feel like because the time frame is so short from one Sunday to the other, I feel very naturally to be graceful with myself of like, okay, let's reflect back. Like, why couldn't I get 10K steps every day this week? Oh yeah, like, well, um, I have my period, or I— it was raining. Okay, like, next week How can we pivot? Well, we have a walking pad. Okay, great. Next week we're just going to pivot and that's going to be our strategy and our thing. But it doesn't have to feel this forceful aspect of it. And so for me, I think being gentle with myself, having that check-in every single week feels like keeping up with my relationship with myself while prioritizing still everything around me as well. And I think that's where I can truly listen to that inner voice of like, okay, well, what do I need this coming week? Of course, the goals and the execution and all of that is important, and that's a part of my Sunday reset, but I first start with checking in with myself, and then everything else can shift according to that.

Yeah.

So yeah, I think just having a more short-term check-in is very helpful. And another one is just reducing friction. Like you said, being able to open the fridge and then you have healthy food available to you and you're not like, okay, now I have to order, or now I have to go through the drive-through. And so how can we reduce that friction? And you can just show up on Monday morning, you know exactly what you're probably going to eat that morning, what you're going to work on, and then life feels a little more light. And I think sometimes for me, this also came from Life just felt so heavy and I just could no longer keep up with it.

Yeah, agreed. I think it just gives you that sense of, um, control. Like, I know that we can't control everything. We're not in control of everything, but I do think for the most part we're in control of our choices and in control of our time. And so it's like, what are the things that you can do on the weekends to properly plan for the week ahead? So that it can feel lighter if you're in a busy or just a hard season. So the first thing that I do, and this is kind of like in tandem and we can kind of go back and forth, is grocery shopping slash meal prep planning. So usually, and this is a tip I love as well, is I have a shared note with Matthew That we add groceries to throughout the week. And so he's adding things to the grocery list. I'm adding things to the grocery list. It is not my responsibility to know when we run out of something, nor is it his. It's a shared household responsibility. So we keep a shared note. And then underneath that note of what we need to buy at the grocery store, we have meals this week. And then I have 3 bullet points of what the meals are. And we have used this note now for, I don't know, years, 3 years since we've lived in Texas. And I have this running note of all of our favorite meals. So for the things, for the times where we're not quite sure what we want to eat, because that's a big one, like what do we want to eat that we're both excited about this week? Sometimes I'm like, I want soup. And he's like, I do not want soup this week, which is so fair. Um, so going back through a lot of our favorite meals and picking from there, it doesn't feel like we're starting from scratch every single week. Like let's go to TikTok, let's go to Pinterest, like let's find new recipes. Sometimes we want to do that, and sometimes we'll even send new recipe ideas to each other throughout the week. But having that shared note and like a running list of past favorite meals just helps us be able to be like, oh yeah, let's— we haven't made Mediterranean meatballs in like 2 months. We love those. Let's make those. Okay, great. Another recipe by heart. I know what we need to make, like ingredients-wise. Perfect. So we're usually having meal planning conversations on Friday evening or Saturday morning. And then we typically like to break up our grocery shopping and meal planning. I despise the grocery store on Sundays. It is not relaxing to me. It is not— it's not like this, like, yay, let's go plan for the week. So I do it on Saturdays now and it's way more relaxed. It's not as busy. I can actually find a parking spot without waiting and it just works better for me. So usually we go together. Sometimes he goes, sometimes I go, but usually it's a shared, like, fun activity we do together Saturday mornings. And then we meal prep on Sundays. And I did want to also mention the difference between meal prepping ingredients and meal prepping meals. And I feel like this is sometimes people are like, oh, I don't want to meal prep. Like, I don't want to eat that exact same thing. Day over day, or like by Friday I don't want that anymore. Well, in that case, you could probably meal prep some vegetables. You could meal prep your protein of choice and some pasta or quinoa or rice and some salad. And then you could mix and match your bowls or your different types of meals with different sauces, different dressings, things like that. I feel like that has helped me whenever I'm just kind of like, tired of the same exact meal, but I don't want to cook a lot throughout the week. So I try to do all of that on Sundays. And that includes washing our fruit. It includes like, we wash our grapes, we wash our strawberries and our blueberries, like literally like the things that cause you more friction to do them throughout the week. We do them on Sundays. And it honestly, we've got it down to like under 2 hours, 2 to 3 hours. And I have really been liking one of our 3 meals to be a Crock-Pot meal so that I'm only actively cooking 2. And then the other one's a Crock-Pot meal and Matthew does all of our dishes and I cook. And that's like the way that we split our responsibilities. And that works great in our household because I love to cook and it brings me a lot of joy. I find it to be quite like therapeutic and I hate dishes and bro loves to clean and loves doing dishes. So it works out great for us.

Oh, I love that so much. Honestly, the shared notes idea, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant. Especially the keeping the recipes on deck of like things that you have loved, because we will just hyperfixate on a couple recipes and then move on to the next ones, and I forgot what I loved in March. So yeah.

And also, I think it also like helps with the age-old argument between you and your partner of like, did you get this at the store? Like, you forgot? Well, it's not my responsibility. Like if it's something that you need that needs to go on the list, you put it on the list. And we just don't even ever argue ever about the grocery list or like those little nitpicky, you forgot this. It's like, well, it wasn't on the list. And then that's kind of like where it ends. And he's like, yeah, you know what? You're right. And so I just feel like it helps the communication and like the shared responsibility.

I love that so much. On my end, since we're talking about groceries, I'll just jump on mine as well. So we do grocery shopping on Sundays as well.

well.

And so mine is a little bit different because my partner and I don't live together, but we very much tackle it as a team. And I love that because even though we each have our own list, our evenings and our dinners is a shared responsibility. And so we just take turns on who buys it. And then we take turns on like, oh, he loves to grill or he loves to make the steak, he makes that. Or I love to cook this one thing and then I cook that and he does the dishes. So it's like an ever-evolving door of just having us be a team with that. And so then on Sundays we have like our shared list of what we're buying for our dinners and we come into agreeance with that. And then we each have what we want to eat for breakfast and lunch, like completely separate. And so that has helped us a lot because before, um, we would each do our groceries planning for the week and so much food will go wasted because we would always end up at my house in the evening. And so then like his food would rot and then I was buying way too much. And so, um, yeah, so we have done that. It has been really helpful. And then we just choose about 2 meals for the week. We only plan all the way up to Friday, and 2 meals have worked really well. I prefer to eat basically like dinner food also as lunch, or I'll also meal prep some like salads. And okay, lately I've been giving into the salad packs because I love them, but I also know that they're like not great for you. I know 2020 Ashford was hyperfixated on them and I am on it again.

Okay. Honestly, with the salad packs, the like premixed salad packs that you buy at the store, it's not that they're not great for you. I watched a very in-depth TikTok a couple of years ago on how this girl like kept eating them and that's all she would eat for lunch. And she ended up getting like worms from them and she literally had to like do an entire gut cleanse. And they had to get all these worms out of her stomach and intestines. Sorry, this is so gross. But ever since I watched that TikTok of her personal experience, I was like, I'm out. I will not be caught dead with a salad kit.

Okay.

Noted.

So anyway, I'm sure it's great.

I'm sure they're great.

It tastes so good. And honestly, I just hate the prep of vegetables, but I'm eating vegetables every day. But okay, fam, I'll report back and I will switch that habit up.

But you won't get worms. I'm sure, I'm sure it was just an isolated incident.

Yes. So yeah, so that's how we do food. And then the next one on mine, and then I'll shift it over to you, was a budget review. So this one's really simple for me. It takes about 5 minutes every Sunday morning. I'll make my coffee, I'll make my breakfast, and then once I'm done with that, I'll sit with my coffee and then I'll update my expenses for the week. And so for me, I find that to be way less overwhelming than doing it at the end of the month and trying to think through like, what was this transaction for? And I will— in the past, I've avoided it because it just felt like, oh, that's going to take me like an hour to do at the end of the month. Okay, I'll do that Monday, or I'll do that Tuesday. So now I just take— it literally takes me 5 minutes to update my transactions. I add them to their budget categories. And in full transparency, I would say I hit my budget like It's not all the time, but I have a pulse on what it is that I'm spending money on. And I think it's just more an accountability thing to be like, okay, Astrid, we bought some jeans this week. That's fine. But how are we going to adjust and pivot the rest of the month? And then also pulse check, let's not add a bunch of stuff to your Amazon cart. And so it's just really helped my overconsumption and just shopping a whole ton to see it every week and track it every week.

Yeah.

Um, so I just have an app that I do that on. And then the only app that I use, I just use the EveryDollar app. I've been using that since I was like 19 or 18.

And does it just sync all of your accounts, like your credit card and your, say, your checking?

No, no. So I have, um, Rocket Money, and Rocket Money will sync everything. But what I've realized is like, if I'm not tracking it every week, I'm not looking at it. I'm looking at the overall spend, like spending, because it's automatically logging it for me in a category. But it's like not enough of a friction or a pain point. So I will manually add the transaction to my EveryDollar just as like accountability.

Oh, okay. So that's an extra step that you do.

Yes.

Okay.

But Rocket Money, I'll still look at it every Sunday. And that's like overview of like, credit cards, accounts, and everything's linked. It's telling me, hey, you spent this much on subscriptions, this is how much you're over. Um, but yeah, for me, I just need that extra step. But if you want automation, Rocket Money is honestly amazing, and that's like my favorite one.

Okay. Yeah, Matthew and I are looking for a new budgeting app because we, we do this monthly. We don't do it weekly, and which I love the weekly Like process that you've built, maybe we should probably switch to weekly. Um, right now we do it monthly and it doesn't feel like it's enough. Um, and he's like, maybe we should go bimonthly, but even still it's like, oh yeah, we overspent on groceries. It's like, well, we overspent on groceries versus, hey, we're at 50%, we're halfway through the month or 50%. We've got X number of dollars left. Now we need to be thinking of the meals that we plan so that way we can keep our grocery bill under budget. It's like those kinds of things that you're trying to make decisions on. And oftentimes because we're looking at it monthly, it's almost so reactive. It's not proactive enough. It's like, oh yeah, we overspent on these categories. It's like, well, we didn't have visibility into overspending or like when we were about to reach capacity of the category to stop or to like make a different choice. Um, so I think we need to get Rocket Money. I like that idea a lot. Yeah.

Yeah. Um, let me know how that goes if you do try it. And another thing that it's helped me with for the Sunday reset is that then it will impact also My calendar. So say I check in on the 3rd week and like my restaurant budget is very tight, but I said I'll have dinner with this one friend at a very expensive restaurant. Then I'll reach out to them and be like, hey, do you want to do coffee and a walk instead? And so it allows you to pivot so much quicker with that too. And then it impacts like your calendar as well.

Yeah, I love that. Okay. Next up for me is laundry. Um, I know that this is focused on Sunday reset, but I really start to reset the moment, like my Friday workday is over. So typically when it comes to laundry, it is broken up amongst different days as well. I don't like the pressure of trying to fit everything in in one day, AKA I don't like going to the grocery store and then coming home and cooking. I don't like starting the laundry and then finishing all of it and putting it all away in one day. So usually we divvy out the laundry Saturday mornings and we make all of our piles down our hallway. And then we just, Matthew and I will take turns keeping up on it. And we do our best to fold and put away as they come. So whoever took them out of the dryer, It is your responsibility to put them away and to hang them up and to put them away.

Yeah.

Um, and that's why we take turns. So it's like, oh yeah, I got, I got those and now you got these. And it's just like, we don't ever fight about it. It's just like this shared responsibility. And then if we do let it pile up, which happens if we're busy, then at the end of Sunday night, sometimes it's like the last thing you want to do and you just want to put, you want to Put them. You want to put your arms around all of them, and you want to put them in a hamper, and you're like, "I'm gonna do that later." But that's what I do. Matthew has this like grit about him sometimes that is like I love, but it's also kind of annoying where he's like, "We gotta do it because this is gonna be tomorrow's problem, and we need to do this right now." I was like, "Anyways, thank you, David Goggins." I will. We'll like work together and it'll be done in 15 minutes. And then we hang everything, we put everything up. But for the most part, by Sunday night, everything is put up, or at least it's like drying on the dry rack. And then I just have to hang it up the next day. So I don't like doing laundry throughout the week and I don't like lingering laundry throughout the week. I like to like have it done and I have my workout clothes for the week. I have my underwear for the week. I'm not like, oh, I'm running out of underwear and it's like Wednesday. It's like, no, I've already done that. We're good. I know you're laughing at me right now because you're the opposite.

I could not be more opposite. The lingering, like my clothes linger with me. They hang out all week.

That stresses me out. But tell me about your laundry. Literally in parentheses in her notes, she has my downfall.

I'm standing up for the girlies that struggle with the laundry. It is truly my downfall. When I tell you my boyfriend has tried all different kinds of incentives to help me with this, like he has. I think in the past he's also told me if you keep up with your laundry this week, I'll like and then he'll like put a you know ice cream at the end of the week or something like that. He folded my laundry this week to keep up with it. So yeah, I I'm learning to be better with this. I think for me what happens is. My weekends, whenever it's wedding season, Friday night, I'm focused on the wedding that I have the next day. Then I'm shooting all of Saturday. And then Sunday I will reset but prioritize everything but laundry because I just hate it so much. And then once I actually do, I do the laundry because I would need to have clean clothes and I definitely want to keep up with that. But it's the folding and putting away that I'm like, it's just not worth my time. It's not worth my joy.

Okay. Are you able to romanticize it in any way?

I will try. I will say I keep up with it whenever I'm not shooting weddings on the weekends. Right now, I can't imagine just letting it sit there in the laundry thing. But I think I just get so hyperfocused on the other side and it's just my personality that I'm like, that's just not a priority. I just shift fully. Into it. And Nick reminds me, like, whenever I've done it, he's like, babe, how long did that take you? He's like, 30 minutes. Now in my mind, it genuinely feels like it's gonna be 5 hours, and that's why I avoid it. So I will— I'm gonna work on that, and I am working on it.

You are working on it. One of my favorite things to romanticize tasks like that, because that for you, laundry, is me emptying the dishwasher.

Okay.

I hate it. I hate it. I don't know why. And I know where everything goes. I just don't like it. So I understand that angst that you have towards certain household chores. But when it comes to folding or even sometimes doing the dishes or that, I will listen to a podcast, listen to music, or I'll call somebody and I'll put on my headphones. And then I'm like, if I call somebody while I'm doing a household thing, I am locked in. Because then I'm just focused on the conversation and then my body is on autopilot. And then I'm just able, I'm hanging things up and I'm not even really thinking about it. But me just sitting there in silence, putting away laundry, miserable. So I totally get it.

I would never do that. Yeah. I think honestly right now I am logging in the peace that I feel from doing and keeping up with my laundry. And that was honestly where this topic came up, I was quite ironically folding my laundry, listening to a different podcast on this topic and decluttering. And I was like, we should talk about that on our podcast. So I think that remembering the peace that I feel now when it's just like, if I just keep up with it, look how much better a whole week feels and how much lighter. And it's not this lingering, I need to fold my laundry at some point. That is what I'm clocking so that it can motivate me going into busy season.

Yeah. So that's a good point. I do feel like we rise and fall. What is that quote by James Clear? It's like we rise and fall based on our systems and habits.

Yep. The Level version.

Yeah. I also feel like we create our own chaos and I don't like chaos. I don't like being in a chaotic state. And a chaotic environment, and you said the word peace, and I'm like, yeah, that's actually exactly what I want. I want a low maintenance life and a low maintenance environment, so that when I need to be here for my job, or I need to do this for my side business, or I need to travel, like my environment feels very like low. Yeah, what am I trying to say? It's like very low maintenance, and I don't feel like I have to keep up with too many things because I have the systems in place that just like. kind of help run themselves. But, um, do you want to go one more and then we'll jump over to me?

Yes. Yeah. So my next one is one of my favorites. I have a weekly appointment with my boyfriend. So every Sunday night—

I love it—

every Sunday night we reset our relationship and like where we're at personally. And this has been super helpful for us because It's a way, one, where we've been able to set goals for the week, um, and have the other person hold us accountable and like cheer us on. And so it's individual goals and each person has like their own say. I'm not telling him what to do and vice versa. And it's also become a really safe space to share feedback, to share, hey, this is what I would like next week to look like, or this week actually felt really stressful. So we'll usually start with like, okay, what were your highs and lows of the week? And so as you're sharing what were your highs or your lows, that usually leads into a deeper conversation. And I've found that it's almost like that maintenance on our relationship where before things get too big on those repeated small items, we are able to just tackle it right away.

Yeah.

And so that has been really healthy for us. We've been doing it since January. And then after highs and lows, we'll each set our goals for the week. Um, we'll share it with each other and, um, we'll chat a little bit more about it. And I have really loved that because I realized with my business goals, I have them front and center quite often, but with my personal goals, I wasn't looking at them as often. And so the weekly ones, it's made me think, okay, like, oh yeah, I want to hit 10K steps 5 days a week. And so then now I go every day in there, or my skincare routine. And it's just these light and fun things. Or I want to have a coffee with a new friend this week. And then when I do, he's like, how did coffee go? Or what new friend are you going to reach out to? So yeah. And that usually takes us, I want to say tops 30 minutes. We make some tea, we curl up on the couch, we chat through our stuff, nothing crazy. And we've also pivoted that To— we're on busy weeks when we're on our way to the grocery store, on the way back, we'll just do our tea and talk during the drive. Um, so yeah, that one's one of my favorites.

I, I think this is a beautiful ritual to build with your partner. I love that you have done this and that it's, you know, been almost 7 months and you're like, you've built up the system so much that it's a part of your weekly life together. I think that's beautiful. And I love the like intentional check-ins and And just like the supportive nature of it, like you're supporting each other. And, and I do think when you don't know or have visibility into your partner's goals or like what they're struggling with or what their lows are, it's like, when else are you going to talk about those things? And like, unless they manifest in some other way, you know? So I think it's really beautiful to have those touchpoints. Um, okay. Next for me is a house. Cleanup slash just like a house reset. So I hate clutter. And I also am like, I like decor, but I feel like our house is like relatively pretty simple. And I like that. I don't like a lot of like visual stimulation in my home. And so when something's out of place, you immediately see it. Um, so on, I would say usually like Saturdays or Sunday mornings. We'll go through the whole house, pick up everything, put it back in its in its place, and then we'll usually do a round of vacuuming. So I'll just like vacuum the whole downstairs, vacuum the whole upstairs, and then like Matthew will wipe down surfaces. And it literally takes like under thirty minutes, twenty minutes. Like it doesn't take very long at all. But then I feel like we're able to have the rest of our day or the rest of our weekend, and the house feels very put together. I like to light a little candle at the end, just because it's like this nice little ritual, and then the house is. is like put to bed. Typically throughout the week, and I've talked about this on the podcast as well, at the end of each day, we're doing a very quick reset. So we're like resetting the kitchen. I don't like things just sitting somewhere for days and days on end. So we'll usually do a reset of like our— there's certain places in our house, and I know that you're the same way. There's like certain places in our house that like just collect things. Yeah. For us, one of them is our dresser. Like our dresser will just like, you can't even see the top of it. There's just like stuff everywhere. I'm like, what is happening? It stresses me out. Um, our tub in our primary bathroom, we'll just like drape clothes over it. There's this stool in our closet, same thing. Like it'll just end up with like piles of clothes on it. And then oddly enough, our kitchen island. It's just always got stuff on it. And so it's like when I see all of those 4 places with stuff on it, I'm like, oh my gosh. And I don't know if this is me being OCD, but I'm just like, we got to clean this up. This is too much. What are those places for you?

Those places for me are, I have this little basket with a blanket next to my bed and that's where I put my clothes. If I was trying to decide between outfits and I'm in a rush, then I'll put the one I didn't wear there and I'll say, I'll hang it later. Or if I only wore it for like 20 minutes and I'm like, I need to hang that. That's where that— that's the catch-all clothes. With laundry, I'm pretty good. Like every single day I put my laundry where it needs to go. So it's just the hanging clothes or anything I need to fold, like a hoodie that I barely wore, that it just kind of like keeps going into a little mountain. And sometimes it's collapsed over to the side, especially in the winter with like sweaters.

That's amazing.

And then I would say sometimes my vanity in the bathroom because I do my makeup in there and my skincare routine. And so sometimes I'll just put the makeup back up there and then not back where it belongs. And then it just keeps catching all of that stuff. And then yeah, in my kitchen island, the left corner, that's where I put mail that needs to be read through, things that I— that's my Astrid don't forget corner. So it just has a bunch of random stuff, like a gift I need to give someone, mail I need to check through, bills I need to pay, uh, my purse and my headphones for the gym, and just like things that I need on the go. Um, that's pretty much it. I feel like everything else, we do reset pretty much every night, but everyone's got those spots.

Everybody does. Yeah.

Um, so the next one for me is a calendar review. So after we do our tea and talk, Um, based off of those goals. So if I said I was going to walk 10K steps every single day, I will look at my work calendar and say, okay, when is it realistic for me to fulfill these 10K steps and how am I going to actually get it done? So what I love about this combo is setting short-term goals for the week and then stepping into how are you going to execute it and actually get it done. So my schedule also changes quite a bit based off of shooting based off of different aspects. So I will line it all up and I'll say, okay, Monday, Wednesday, Friday, I'm walking before work, lunch, and after. The other 2 days, probably not realistic. So let's lock in the 2 other days I'm going to walk over the weekend. So I already gave myself that freedom. Tuesday, I'm not anxious about when am I going to get it done. So I will go ahead and review my calendar based off of my movement. So when am I working out? When am I walking? And then I will review my work calendar and like double-check my meetings. Did I have to invite some of my team members to it? Do I need to move anything around? And I go ahead and add in when I need to leave for stuff too. So if I have a shoot, I'll block off my calendar prior and like afterwards so that I have a full visibility into what my day looks like. Um, and then same thing with like social side of things. So that's where I say, okay, this was my downfall before is like I would plan out all my goals and my work. And then suddenly I realized like I didn't really have much of a social life locally. And so I've been integrating that of like, okay, who do I want to set up a coffee date with this week and when does that work? And then I'll text them and line that all up. So yeah, so that's tops takes me 30 minutes to review. Saves me so much time and energy. And I would say the biggest thing too is whenever the Sunday scaries start to creeping— creep in for me, it's mostly because I am thinking about all the projects that I need to get done this coming week and I feel overwhelmed. And so another thing that I do is for those projects, I look at the gaps of time between my meetings and shoot time and drive time. And designate spots for when I'm going to edit and when I'm going to execute. And that gives me so much peace of mind because I'm like, oh, okay, I actually have enough time this week. If I focus and don't distract, I can get it done by Friday. And that was actually what happened to me this past Sunday. And I felt really great. I felt on track and less overwhelmed. So that's pretty much what I do. I know that sounds extensive, but it's really just like 30 minutes of reviewing and planning.

Yeah, honestly, same. I will sometimes even do this whenever I'm on a walk, um, like on Sunday, Sunday mornings or Sunday midday, I'll be on a walk, especially when it's not as hot in Houston. So I haven't been doing this lately, but I like doing this when I'm on the move, um, and I plan out my movement sessions. I'll look at what ClassPass classes I want to take and just prep my calendar ahead between my work calendar and my personal calendar. And then my personal calendar, I have everything for the In Between, the In Between Mastermind, and then also my coaching clients as well. So I'm just making sure that all the Zoom links are in the meeting invites, that everything's like prepped and ready. Um, and then if Astrid and I are doing a podcast that week, knowing what it's going to be about, like, can I prep notes in advance and all of that and try to do as much of that on Sundays as I can, just so that I feel like, again, Monday morning, I feel like I know what I'm walking into. And then usually like Monday mornings on the work front, I'll spend the first 15 minutes or so reviewing all of my project plans and starting to make my to-do list for the week per project. So it's not just like one running to-do list. Um, but based on like per project, these are the things that are the most pressing for me to get done this week. And then I've, I've Sometimes have done that on Sundays, but usually I do it on, on Monday mornings and then it works for me. But just having those things planned on Sunday makes me feel so much, so much better. And to your point, like, I don't want to feel like it's Sunday night and I'm scared to start the work week. So I like to spend the majority of my Sunday afternoons relaxing. So by about 3 o'clock, 3:30, I want to be horizontal. I either want to be on the couch watching a movie, cuddling with Matt and Piper, or I want to be in my bed. Even like I'll do a little Sunday afternoon reading in my bed and just like be upstairs and like on top. There's something about sitting on your bed on top of your duvet and you just like have a little blanket on and it's just like so cozy. It just feels so like relaxing. So anything I can do on Sunday afternoons to relax And just kind of get my cortisol levels down and just feel like, okay, we're, we've got everything prepped and ready for the week ahead. We can just chill now is really important to me. There's nothing like, it's like 7 o'clock and you're like, I'm still doing all this stuff and I haven't gotten any time to just chill. I need my chill time. It's very important. It's like the equivalent of like being hangry. I don't know what the equivalent of that is for like not having any downtime or like not being able to chill. But I get that way. I get like the hangry version of that.

Me too.

Does that make sense?

Oh, absolutely. I actually, my last one was I needed late afternoon to evening restorative time. And honestly, especially during busy season, some of the other things just give because that is priority for me. To me, that's like refueling the tank, being able to just lay horizontal and relax and not be productive, if I've been productive Monday through Saturday on a shoot week. So that's my favorite thing to do. Usually for us, it's around like 4 PM. And then we're able to like disconnect, go on a walk, leave my phone out to the side. And something I really want to start integrating is social media free Sundays. I'm going to start that this coming week just because Sometimes I catch myself scrolling for fun on Sundays in that restorative time. And I also do that throughout the week. So I'm going to do a little digital reset there.

Yes.

But yeah, that's when I go and wash my hair and let it just be ready for the week and then do a face mask, watch a fun movie. We played a game the other day on a Sunday night and just played music and had snacks and just lean into that playfulness as well. And so, um, with that, I hope that all of you have enjoyed this episode, that you feel inspired to create your own version of a Sunday reset. So what does that quote-unquote menu look like for you? What are some things that you can do to set yourself up for the week? What are some things that you can do to feel restored? What are some things that you can do to feel just happy with like the life that you're having and living. And this is your weekly reminder that you are in control of what your weeks can look like and you can manage that as well. So we love you all so much. And if you want to connect with us, you can do that on— or actually, before I share that, did you have anything else?

No, no, no, keep going.

You're good.

You're good, babe.

Um, but yes, you can connect with us on Instagram at inbetween.podcast. And you can connect with me @astrojohannaphoto.

And you can connect with me @alexistechmiller. Thank you so much for being here. We know there are a lot of podcasts out there, so thank you for being a part of our community and listening to this one. We love you, and we will catch you next week.