None of what I’m sharing in this episode is revolutionary. But I think that’s actually the point.

For a long time, I operated at a pace that felt productive but didn’t always feel good. I had a lot of tabs open — literally and figuratively. Moving quickly, getting things done, showing up for my work and my family — but with a buzzy, scattered quality to my days that I had just accepted as normal. As the cost of doing everything.

What I’ve come to understand, slowly and through a lot of small experiments, is that the way I move through my day has a direct and significant impact on how I feel at the end of it. Not the amount I accomplish. Not the number of things I check off. The way I move through it.

These are the habits that changed that for me.

A Slow and Intentional Morning

Before anyone opens a laptop or checks a phone or starts rushing toward the day, we have breakfast together as a family. Ben, Ollie, and me — at the table, eating together, talking, playing a little. It sounds so basic. It is so basic. And it has become genuinely one of the most grounding parts of my entire day.

There’s something about starting the morning slowly and intentionally — being fully present with the people I love most before the day asks anything of me — that sets a tone I can feel for hours. I’m calmer. I’m more patient. I’m more myself.

I’ve also noticed something about Ollie in these mornings that matters to me deeply. When we move slowly, she moves slowly. When we’re calm, she’s calm. When we’re present, she’s present. Our mornings have become a kind of signal to her about what the day is — and I love the signal we’re sending.

A Morning Smoothie I Actually Love

I have a morning smoothie that I genuinely love. It started as the Daily Harvest protein smoothie, and I’ve since recreated the recipe at home with my own ingredients. It’s become a real ritual — something I look forward to, something that makes me feel genuinely nourished rather than just fed, something that’s mine in the middle of a morning that’s largely oriented around everyone else.

I think there’s something important about having one thing in your morning that’s purely for you. Not functional, not efficient — just something you genuinely enjoy. Having that one small thing you look forward to changes the quality of the morning in a way that’s disproportionate to how small it actually is.

10,000 Steps on the Walking Pad

Once Ben and Ollie head out to play in the morning, I get on my walking pad and I walk. My goal is 10,000 steps, and I do it while I work — answering emails, recording voice memos, thinking through content, listening to something that fills me up.

I came to the walking pad because I wanted to move more during my workday without it requiring a separate block of time I didn’t have. What I didn’t expect was how much it would change how I feel mentally. Moving my body while I work — even slowly, even at a gentle pace — genuinely changes the quality of my thinking. I’m less stuck. The ideas come more easily. The afternoon slump that used to hit me regularly has almost completely disappeared.

If you work from home and you haven’t tried a walking pad, I genuinely cannot recommend it enough. It doesn’t have to be fast. It doesn’t have to be intense. It just has to be movement — and movement changes everything.

One Thing at a Time

This is the one I resisted for the longest time, and the one that has made the most difference.

I used to operate with a lot of tabs open. Multiple projects at once, constantly context-switching, telling myself that doing many things simultaneously was efficient. What I’ve learned is that the opposite is true. When I focus on one thing at a time — one project, one task, one conversation, one moment — I do it so much better. The work is better. The presence is better. The quality of everything goes up when I stop dividing my attention and start giving it fully to whatever is in front of me.

This applies to work, but it also applies to motherhood. When I’m with Ollie, I try to be with Ollie. When I’m working, I work. When I’m taking care of the house, I take care of the house. The permission to be fully in one thing at a time, rather than partially in everything at once, has been genuinely life-changing.

Moving Slower on Purpose

I’ve made a deliberate choice to move slower. Not because I have less to do — I have just as much to do as ever. But because I’ve noticed that when I buzz around the house, rushing from one thing to the next, that energy becomes the energy of our home. And I don’t want that to be the energy of our home.

I want Ollie to grow up watching her mom move through life with intention and calm. I want her to learn that things can be done carefully and thoughtfully rather than frantically. And honestly — she’s teaching me the same thing. Watching a toddler experience the world slowly, noticing everything, taking her time with each discovery — it’s genuinely one of the most grounding things I experience in a day.

Moving slower doesn’t mean getting less done. It means getting things done in a way that doesn’t cost you your peace.

An Evening Wind-Down Ritual

The last habit is an evening one, and it’s become something I genuinely look forward to every night.

I use a red light mask as part of my evening skincare routine — it’s become a genuine signal to my body that the day is winding down. I also use a magnesium spray before bed, which has made a real difference in the quality of my sleep in a way I didn’t fully anticipate.

The specific products matter less than the principle behind them: having an evening ritual that signals to your nervous system that it’s time to rest. That the day is done. That you’ve done enough and it’s okay to let go of it now.

Sleep is genuinely one of the most important things we can do for our mental health, our patience, our creativity, and our capacity to show up for our families. An evening ritual that supports good sleep is worth investing in — even if it’s small and simple and takes five minutes.

The Bigger Picture

There is a lot to get done as a work from home mom. A lot. And for a long time I approached all of it with a kind of frantic energy, as if moving faster and doing more simultaneously was the answer.

What I’ve learned is that the answer is almost always the opposite. Make a list. Move with intention. Approach each thing with care. Be present in each moment rather than scattered across all of them. And trust — really trust — that if you show up calmly and consistently, it will all get done.