5 Principles to Defeat Overwork
with Megan Hyatt Miller

The 5 AM Miracle Podcast, hosted by Jeff Sanders

Episode #395: 5 Principles to Defeat Overwork with Megan Hyatt Miller

Jeff Sanders 0:03
Are you working too much? Yeah, I thought so. It's so easy to get caught up in the cult of overwork, which is why we need to be reminded how to structure our work and lives to get back to the balance we know as possible. This is The 5 AM Miracle, episode #395: 5 Principles to Defeat Overwork with Megan Hyatt Miller. Good morning! I am Jeff Sanders, and this is the podcast dedicated to dominating your day before breakfast.

My guest today is the President and CEO at Michael Hyatt & Company and the co-host of the popular business podcast, Lead to Win. She is also Michael's oldest daughter. And as the architect of Michael Hyatt & Company's standout culture, she is committed to helping her team win at work and succeed in life, while also delivering phenomenal results to their customers. When she's not taking the company to new heights, she's fully present at home with her husband, Joel and five kids in Franklin, Tennessee. And now here's my interview with Megan Hyatt Miller.

Megan Hyatt Miller 1:15
Hey, Jeff, it's so good to be with you today. I'm excited to talk.

Jeff Sanders 1:18
Definitely excited to have you on the show today. It's gonna be a lot of fun. And the first kind of big thing I want to get to is the topic at hand, which is the new book, which you have co authored with your father, Michael Hyatt and the book is called "Win at Work and Succeed at Life: 5 Principles to Free Yourself from the Cult of Overwork." First of all, it's a great title. Second of all, I think it's fits this show really, really well, specifically from this angle of overwork. And I think that the the topic of working too much is one that has spanned my personal life, certainly, but also with this show over the years. And why do you think that overwork? is such a common thing? Like, why would how we found ourselves in that position so frequently?

Megan Hyatt Miller 2:00
Yeah, well, I think there are a few reasons. I mean, the first one is that we live in a culture that tells us that work is the primary orientation of our life, you know, we're either getting ready to work working or recovering from working. And so I think that, that that's just kind of the prevailing attitude in our culture, I also think that there kind of has become a status symbol, particularly for high achievers around something we call in the book, the hustle fallacy, you know, the whole idea of hustle, you see it hashtag on social media, you see people talking about it, like complaining, but, you know, like really bragging about how tired they are, because of how much they work, I think we get a lot of significance and meaning from overwork. And I also think that we live in a culture that's always on, you know, these, all these devices that we have, and all this technology was supposed to enable us to work less, but in reality, it's just enabled us to work anywhere, which there are certainly benefits to that. But there are also trade offs. And the trade offs are unless you kind of really become the master of your technology, it can find you anywhere, you know, in the edges between your professional life and your personal life can become very, very blurry. I think a lot of us experienced that sort of, you know, like all over the place in 2020. And it can be difficult to have boundaries, it can be difficult to, to stop and to even be aware that we haven't stopped working and that it just gets so kind of bled together that it's a mess, a mess. So yeah.

Jeff Sanders 3:27
Yeah. Along those lines of boundaries, I know what the issue is people have experienced too, are now either working from home or have been for a while, and I made that shift myself about seven years. Wow. And it's definitely a challenge when you realize no one is telling me when to go to lunch. No one's telling me to clock out. There's no set rules for a lot of us. And so how do we kind of establish even boundaries at our house to make sure that work and home life don't just kind of mush together as one big blob?

Megan Hyatt Miller 3:54
Yeah, well, I think it's really challenging. And for the first time, probably ever, in our history, we're all figuring this out together. You know, and I think that's a good thing. And, and certainly has some challenges. You know, one of the things we talk about in this book, when I work and succeed at life is the idea of constraints as being something to embrace rather than fight. And I think is we all kind of step into this place of remote work and, or even some kind of hybrid, that we need to impose constraints on our day, when we start working, and when we stop working. And that's a new concept for a lot of us. And it's partly challenging, because we think about constraints as being limiting, you know, that if we, if we have constraints, then I'm not gonna be able to get it all done and, and what happens when, you know, things change or whatever. And what we say in the book is that actually constraints foster productivity, creativity and freedom. And so one of the things I found in my own life is that when I put hard edges on my day, I actually worked from nine to three, so I only work a six hour day and by the way, that's not essential to getting this double win, you know, that we talked about in the book winning work and succeed in life, you can kind of define that however you want. But for me, that's what my double win looks like that I make better decisions with how I use my time, when hard constraints are in place. You know, all of a sudden, the priorities become very clear, there's not enough time to do it all. There isn't enough time to do the most important things. But it's on me to really be clear about what those most important things are. So I can focus on the highest leverage tasks and projects that I need to be attending to. I think

Jeff Sanders 5:31
that requires some pretty awesome discipline to stick with that kind of schedule. I love the idea of a shorter workday. I guess how then let's take that as a good example, you have a six hour workday. And let's say that you are the kind of person that I think that a lot of people are listening to show high achievers, creatives, lots of ideas, lots of good pursue, how do you choose? How do you only say, Well, I can't do the 100 ideas on my list, I can only do four of them. Yeah, how do you break that down to make that choice?

Megan Hyatt Miller 6:01
Well, one of the things that we talk about in the book, really, the first principle in practice is around defining your own double win. And this is going to look different for all of us. But we walk you through a process of thinking about your non negotiables in three categories. So the first one is self care. The second one is your relational priorities. And the last one is your professional results. And so self care, relational priorities and professional results. And what we really talk about as we're as we're talking through these ideas in a book is that this is a performance strategy. So we're not talking about compromising your operating results, or your financial results, so that you can have more margin in your life, we want you to have more margin in your life. But we also want you to have awesome operating results, we want you to be able to produce fantastic results that you're responsible for in your professional context, whether you're a business owner or working for someone else, whatever that is. So part of this idea of non negotiables is getting really clear on what are the professional results that are non negotiable for me, you know, for example, in my case, I'm the CEO, I have to deliver the annual budget. So if I'm not prioritizing that, if other things are crowding that out of my workday, or another one for me is envisioning the future. If I'm not spending sufficient time envisioning the future of our business, there's no way I can lead my team there, right. So I've got it when I'm looking at my calendar, I'm kind of jumping ahead a little bit in the process, we talked about scheduling, what matters, if I'm not scheduling, those non negotiables, the things that matter most than other things that are less important, maybe shiny object syndrome, you know, those are going to crowd out the most important thing. So I really think a lot of the ability to win at work and succeed at life, this idea of the double win is made possible by the clarity we have around the most important non negotiables in our lives in these three categories.

Jeff Sanders 7:53
Yeah, the one thing I just thought of when you're mentioned, this idea of a non negotiable is that in my last day job that I had, it was one of those kind of I would say like a typical job where your boss says, when you first get hired, here are the things you are responsible for. But then you find out very quickly, I actually had to do a lot of other things, too, right? As there's more added to my plate in this last position. I had this talk with my boss, right? He said, like, You're asking me to do all these other things, but you're not going to fire me if I don't do those new things. But you will buy through the course exactly cared for. Yeah. So I have that kind of conversation of what am I actually required to do? Because those things for me have to get my first priority, because I don't want to lose my job. So Exactly. So part of this process to to have those those conversations,

Megan Hyatt Miller 8:34
it really is. And what we want to do is shift our thinking from accomplishing tasks, to accomplishing outcomes, you know, what are the results and outcomes that you're responsible for? Because for most of us, whether you work for yourself, or you work for someone else, you know, our paychecks are dependent on accomplishing outcomes and results. That's why we were hired, you know, no one is looking at your task list and making sure you checked everything off usually, unless you have an incredibly micromanaging boss, usually what's happening is they're they're holding you responsible for delivering a certain outcomes and results. And so when you think about, okay, if I got clear on what those are, and then I got clear on how do those relate to each other, which ones are the most important, which ones are literally non negotiable, like you said, If I don't do these things, I might get fired, or I might not have a business or I might not be able to pay my employees, you know, we need to be really clear on what those things are. So that the other things that don't meet that criteria are really kind of secondary on the list. You know, we're not talking about non negotiables like what are all the things you love to do? We're talking about what are kind of like the bare minimum in terms of your performance for self care, relational priorities and professional results. If you can get clear on those I promise you have enough time to do those things. You probably will have to let go of other things, but it will be okay. Because, you know, as Stephen Covey used to say the big rocks would be in first there'd be room for your big rocks.

Jeff Sanders 9:57
Yeah, well, along those same lines. We mentioned this site idea of having a calendar and your scheduling what matters? What's that process like to say that someone has identify? Okay, here are the three or four things I want to do every week. Do you go about just saying that before the week begins? Like, here is my calendar here blocks of time room to do these important things? Like what does that look like in a practical sense of actually booking your time?

Megan Hyatt Miller 10:18
Well, if you think about it, most of us, the way we handle our calendars is other people put their priorities in our calendar, and then we take whatever's left, and try to try to look at our own priorities and see how we can squeeze that in, right? Instead, it's kind of like, if you think about a budget, you know, if you try to save after you spent all month long, and whatever you have leftover is going to be kind of your saving strategy, you're probably going to have like, $5, left, right. I mean, there's, you know, the, it's just kind of the way that the live works, we're going to use all the resources we have. Instead, if you start and you say, No, I'm going to prioritize it the beginning, I'm going to save money first. And then I'm going to spend what's left, I'm going to decide what my vision is for savings, and then I'm going to figure out how to live on the rest. That's kind of what we're talking about here. You know, different contexts. But the same principle, we want to make sure that before the rest of your schedule gets filled up with things that are important to other people. And I listen, I understand, we all have to have things on our calendar that are important to other people, maybe less important to us. But we've got to kind of take a stand proactively for the things that matter most in our lives, including our self care and our relational priorities. Because if those things get neglected, then as it turns out, they back up into our professional lives and our ability to produce those professional results. So that's why that hierarchy is there when we're talking about these non negotiables.

Jeff Sanders 11:36
Yeah, I mean, certainly, there's definitely this focus that I've taken for years, as I call it a health first approach. So I'm looking at my calendar and asking, like, how do I make sure that I don't burn out this week? Like, how do I make sure I have enough sleep? And I know that that is the the opposite approach most of us take, if we say like, well, I'm gonna be at work for you know, 10 hours a day, and I'll sleep when I die. It's like that it backfires. I mean, I had definitely experienced burnout in the past. And because of that, I don't want that in the future. Right, I feel like there has to be this intentional focus on, you know, if my health is first if my self care is first, it that changes kind of the way that you map out your time,

Megan Hyatt Miller 12:12
it really does. And what you'll find is why you may be spending less time working, and hopefully that is exactly what you're gonna be experiencing, that's not for you, you will not be accomplishing less, you'll actually be accomplishing more. So, you know, we talk in a book about this idea of, you know, either the hustle fallacy or the ambition break, and the hustle fallacy is all about, well, like you said, you know, sleep when I die, guess I'm just going to double down here for a little while until this projects launched, or I finished this thing for my boss, or I start a new business or whatever. And it'll be worth it, you know, I'll have to neglect my health and my most important relationships for a little while, but but it'll be worth it. You know, of course, we all know, it doesn't usually turn out to be worth it, it usually turns out to be a disaster. And as temporary things have a way of becoming permanent. Or the flip side, you know, the other option that's presented us is this idea of the ambition break? Well, you know, we say to ourselves, I guess I'm not going to be able to reach my professional potential, I guess I'm just going to have to tap that ambition break, but at least I won't be neglecting my health and my most important relationships. And what we say in this book, when at work and succeed at life is no your your work, and the rest of your life don't actually have to be in opposition to each other, we can actually come up with a third option, this idea of the double win, winning work and succeeding in life, where these things are mutually reinforcing. And how you attend to your personal life actually makes you perform better at work and how you perform at work. And the decisions you make there enables you to perform better in the rest of your your personal life, you know, they don't have to be at odds with one another. It's just that we're presented with these two kind of crummy options, you know, and that's really why we wrote the book is to say, hey, there's a third way that not a lot of people are talking about, and it's totally doable. And it's so rewarding, you know?

Jeff Sanders 13:49
Yeah, there's one thing that I know I've kind of experienced personally, that I'm sure others do as well, especially high achievers, which is when you decide, okay, I'm going to work less, they'll have me a day off occasionally or less time. There's a guilt that comes from not working, or there's kind of this mindset that says, Well, if I'm not in the office, that I'm doing something wrong. And how do we get kind of that mental, our mindset shift is say like, it's good to have time off. It's good to be with my family, it's good to not work constantly, like can we get to a place where you feel good about the devil when

Megan Hyatt Miller 14:21
I think we can you know, one of the things I want to say too, that we didn't talk about at the beginning, but one of the reasons that people overwork you talked about, you know, kind of settling in at home and how that can be difficult sometimes, when we're at work. I mean, first of all, for a lot of us work is really fun. You know, we love work. And that's great. That's like a great problem to have, you know, we have our clients often come in when they start with us and they'll say things like, Well, my hobby is work. You know, I'm a business owner, I love to work, you know, and we're like, Yeah, but not so much you know, and for sure people love to work but also work is where we get our sense of identity in many cases or where the place where we've decided to get it. It's the place where we get Kind of that pat on the back where we can check things off the list where the winds are definable, sometimes home can be messy, it can be hard the winds, you know, it's a long game that we're playing. If we're raising children, for example, or taking care of elderly parents, it can be a lot it can be demanding. So there's some empathy around that. But yeah, I think that we have to realize that as human beings, there are at least 10 domains of life work is only one. And that this takes a little practice if you're a high achiever, but but that non achievement is actually incredibly powerful. We dedicate a whole chapter in the book on this, and part of the reason for that is because it rejuvenates our body in our mind, to set us up for making our best contribution at work. I mean, just think for a second about when you had the last best idea you've had for your work for your job, or your business. probably wasn't why you were sitting at your desk, right? I mean, it's out you maybe you were on a run, maybe you're in the shower, maybe you're on a hike, I don't know, whatever your your thing is, in those rare moments, when you give yourself a little margin to go do something that's not achievement oriented, I bet you had tons of ideas that came up for your business, you know, and that's, in part, the power of non achievement. Besides just having a more interesting and fulfilling life. It also gives our brain and our body the space that it needs to prepare for innovation and creativity. You know, if we're just constantly slogging through, we deplete our creative reserves, we really don't have a lot to bring to the table. And so this is, from a performance strategy standpoint, non achievement is one of the most powerful weapons that we can use.

Jeff Sanders 16:35
I don't fall into that category of someone who certainly like I need that time off. And when I have it, it's incredible how quickly I get new fresh eyes. Right. And I think that was one area of my life, I've noticed that that happens most often is when I do a couple of things. First is that I slow my pace quite a bit. And the second is that I only allow myself to really focus on one or two big things at a time. And I know that for me, like I can't function if I'm trying to do like seven projects simultaneously. So I just don't know. Yeah. And how do we get to a place where we can identify like, Okay, I'm only going to do a couple of big things. And that's going to drive the results I'm going for. And I asked this question for the perspective of, you know, we often think that everything is important, but that's not really how that plays out. Like, how do we know if this is the next most important focus for me right now?

Megan Hyatt Miller 17:24
Yeah, well, I mean, I think it kind of goes back to what we were talking about, first of all, being clear on what the professional results are that you're responsible for. But then, you know, we have a practice that is in our full focus planner product, we have this 90 day planner called the full focus planner. And in that planner, we really work to connect your annual goals to your daily actions. And we do that through a couple different ways. We ask you to set 10 to 12 goals per year, but to do no more than three per quarter. So right there, you're focused on three things, or fewer per quarter that are kind of your primary things that you're focused on, then we're going to ask you to on a weekly basis, to look at your list of goals to look at the projects that you have, and to identify what are the weekly Big Three outcomes that you need to accomplish this week to move you closer toward those annual goals or other projects that you have? And then on a daily basis, what are the big three tasks that you need to accomplish? If you don't get anything else done in your day? What are the top three priorities that you have discrete tasks that you need to accomplish? Everything else is gravy, you know if you get that done, but we're not trying to get 40 things done, we're trying to really look at that long task list that we have and pick out the three things that are really your daily Big Three, they're the most important high leverage tasks that are really going to move the needle on your goals and most important projects. And I think most often we don't stop and ask those questions. I mean, half the battle here is taking the time and it doesn't take a lot of time. But taking the time to get clear on what matters most at you know, kind of a macro level but also at a micro level.

Jeff Sanders 19:00
Now I have a little dry erase board on my desk with my top three things for today. And often to you is number two. So I've got that written down right there. And so I think that fits really well because this is a practice that i have i've tinkered with in the past but never committed to until recently. Yeah, I have like I'm a digital guys, everything I do is on the right. But to have that like physical ability to write down like today I'm going to do just these three things, or at least just do these three things before I do other things, right. That's kind of really helped to clarify for me like this matters most now, stay focused, do this because I have a tendency to get really distracted. If I have the list literally on my desk right in front of me. I have found that to be really helpful.

Megan Hyatt Miller 19:42
Yeah, I'm looking at my version of that right now. You're number one on my list. And then I've got a couple other things that are happening today that are really important. And you know that that keeps me focused so that when I get up and go get a cup of coffee or some water and I come back and I have to reorient myself and sit down again. I don't have to try to You're out and asked that question all over again, hey, what's important? You know, I can just look over at my list. And I know I've already decided when things were quiet this morning, and my kids who are awake at my house, you know, I decided what are my three most important tasks that I need to accomplish today. And that kind of clarity enables us to stay on task. And maybe most importantly, it keeps us from getting overwhelmed. And when we're overwhelmed, we don't make good decisions. We don't use our time. Well, we often overworked mean, there's all kinds of negative things that happen from that place.

Jeff Sanders 20:28
You know, speaking of kids, I, my wife, and I had our first child a couple of years ago. And so I've kind of entered into that world. And yeah, you've got kids as well. And that's a whole new kind of spectrum to view productivity through, right? Because there's just such a different lens of priorities with children. And how does someone go about kind of making that operate in a way that says Like, there's definitely time for my kids, but they don't take over my entire life? And how do you find that balance where you feel like things are working without this, that sense of overwhelm that can easily come from that lifestyle?

Megan Hyatt Miller 21:01
Yeah, well, so I have five kids, they're ages 20 to two, I have 2017 1210. And two, so we have kids at all ages and all stages. And we've recently re entered the toddler phase, which sounds like you're kind of in that Yeah, right. Which is like literally the craziest day to get, you know, spoiler alert, it gets way easier from there. So that's the good news. Okay, good. Yeah, your house will not be taken over by toys forever. At some point, they can put them away themselves. But you know, one of the things that I have found that is probably the most helpful with that issue of feeling like, golly, how do I like make sure everybody gets the attention that they need. Putting constraints on my work day has been a game changer for me. So I actually started doing this, because we adopted our two middle boys, our younger three children are adopted, and our middle boys came home in 2011, they had some special needs. And I really was faced with a tough choice of my dad was, you know, going along with our business, and he came to me, he said, I'm really feeling like, the next right step for our business is for you to become the chief operating officer. And, you know, that's gonna freed me up to do all these other things for the future, it's gonna be awesome. And inside, I was like, ah, how am I gonna do this with these kids that have all these needs, you know. And so I thought about it and actually heard somebody speak another woman who was a CEOs really successful. And she said that she stopped work every day at 330, to pick her kids up from school. And like, I'm sitting in the audience, and my head just exploded, you know, like, wait, what, like, this is a thing people are doing this. And as it turns out, not a lot of people are doing this, but it gave me permission to all of a sudden think out of the box. And I know not everybody can do this. And, and the point of our book, and this whole concept is not that you need to end your work day at 300 or 330. But whether it's three o'clock, 330, or whatever, you know, what, what that makes possible is, as I said to my dad, and the story, you know, I need to give my kids my full attention when I'm not at work, I can't be on when I'm not at work, you know, I need to be totally productive at work. And then I need to shift gears. And so he was willing to try this as an experiment. And I've been doing it for years and years and years now. His only condition was, you know, if you can deliver the operating results, then I'm okay with it. I've been able to do that consistently. And so it's worked really well. But I think the big idea in the application for everybody, regardless of your situation, is that you know, whether you choose five o'clock or six o'clock or 630, or whatever, if you can draw a hard line and say this is when I start work. And this is when I stopped work, I the stress in your life around kids, I can promise you will go down exponentially because to me as a mom of five kids where the stress comes from, is I'm trying to finish a phone call work related phone call while getting a two year old a snack while reviewing homework at the island while trying to think about dinner and and like I get snappy and irritable. Like it's not a good situation. You know, same thing in the morning, what kills my morning ritual and the the self care things that I need to be in a strong place for both my business and for my family. If I'm trying to answer email at five in the morning or six in the morning, rather than working out or getting enough sleep or those kinds of things. It just kind of trashes the whole day. And so when we put these constraints in place, not only do we make better decisions about what kind of high leverage activities we're going to do throughout the day, but we also really free ourselves up to be present and on with our families or the people that we love most in our life when it's time to do that.

Jeff Sanders 24:25
Yeah, I've definitely seen a big shift. When my daughter moved to a new daycare. I did the pickup at 330 that's Yeah, go to for the last couple of years. And I it's a game changer. It really is when I realized, well, first of all, I cannot work when she's at home. Like it's just not gonna happen. It's impossible. Distraction level is extreme. Yeah, and I love the idea. And now I'm really excited about it. I love the idea of having that hard line to stop the workday because then it says, Well, wait a minute, if it's noon, noon right now, I only have three and a half hours right? What am I gonna get done and that changes the way that I choose what happens next. Exactly such a powerful force there.

Megan Hyatt Miller 25:02
Yep, it really is. I mean, I actually think this is a big reason that I've been able to be as successful and our business has grown like it is, is that these kind of constraints force you to make better decisions, you know, you're just not going to waste time on things that are low leverage. Because, you know, I mean, you've got a limited amount of time, I'm looking at my clock right now. And you know, I just have a few hours before I'm gonna go do that school pickup, and I love that it's a hard stop, and literally kids are waiting on me. Like, if I don't come, it's gonna be a big problem. So I really have to be done. There's there's no fudging that. And that means the time between right now, and that three o'clock leaving time, I'm going to make really good calls about how I spend my time because I just I don't have any time to waste.

Jeff Sanders 25:41
You know, one thing on this show that I love to ask my guests about routines, and I feel like this is definitely a topic that fits this book really well and fits the work you guys are doing really well. So I want to hear from I guess, from your personal perspective, if you wake up tomorrow morning with an ideal morning routine, yeah, what kinds of habits Do you want to make sure are there to set the tone for your day?

Megan Hyatt Miller 25:59
Yeah, I love talking about this. And part of the reason I love talking about it is because I have been through a lot of different stages in my life, when, for example, two years ago, when we adopted our youngest daughter, she had some medical special needs. And you know, we went through all the normal things of not sleeping as a parent, but she, she had to eat more often than normal, you know, all kinds of stuff. So my morning ritual was like, tiny, it was like 10 minutes back then. So the reason I want to say that before I share what I'm doing now is because sometimes when people share this, it can be really discouraging if you're in a season of life where you have extreme limitations that you really can't do anything about like little tiny kids, you know, a brand new baby or whatever. What is also encouraging, I think, is that those seasons change. And while you're in a season, that's more limited, my encouragement to you would be to just set the bar so low that no matter what happened, who was up all night, or whatever, you can still do it, you know. So just think in terms of that, and not the ideal. But fast forward two years later, my my morning routine begins at 5am. I love that 5am hour, yeah, I go to bed at nine o'clock. So I get that eight hours of sleep, that is probably the most important decision I make for myself care is getting to bed on time, you know, my, my day rises and falls based on that decision. When I get up at five, I first of all, go get my coffee. And then I sit down and I do some kind of spiritual reflection time, some devotional time, then I fill out my full focus planner for the day, I identify my daily big three and review my calendar. After that I plan my food for the day, which is something that's kind of new for me in the last eight or 10 months, I really felt like I wasn't focusing enough on just making sure I was feeding my body like I'm one of those people that can really easily skip meals and get too hungry and get hangry you know, and all that. And so I just and also have decision fatigue, like, Oh, I got to make a decision for lunch, what do I want for lunch, you know, so I just go ahead and plan that for the whole day that I don't have to think about it anymore. Then after that, I go upstairs to our little home gym that we kind of made work over COVID, which is awesome, because I have to drive anywhere and I do about a 45 minute workout up there, I go out for a run. And then I just you know shower and get ready for the day. So it's pretty simple. It's really all about the those non negotiables for self care that set me up for productivity, and kind of being centered and clear on what needs to be accomplished for the day. But I'm not really overly ambitious with it. You know, I'm not spending tons of time reading it this season of my life. I usually do that while I'm working out, you know, like listen to audible while I'm working out some other things. I just I want to make sure this is something I can consistently do at least five days a week and, and it's working.

Jeff Sanders 28:31
I like the idea of playing your food for the day. I feel like people have missed and that's why I've not done this consistently over the years. But I've heard great success stories of people who Yeah, well. So how does that work for you? Are you just writing down? Like, this is what I'll prepare and when or what like practically speaking like, what do you what do you focus in on to ensure like, this is the plan for today?

Megan Hyatt Miller 28:50
Yeah, well, not really focusing on the time of day. So I kind of let my own hunger be the guide for that, which generally works out you know, around normal meal times. But I am wanting to be intentional about having foods that sustain me. So I don't really, you know, subscribe to the idea that there are bad foods, but I do want to make sure I'm including like getting enough protein at breakfast, I'm not hungry by 930 or 10 in the morning. So I basically just pick what I want to have for breakfast, you know, and usually I just have a couple different things I rotate through, I don't personally feel that I need a lot of variety at that particular meal. And then I have a list of about five things that I rotate through that or take out for lunch at the office. You know, I decided gosh, this is like a lot of decision fatigue. And if I could just come up with a list that I could have things are like that are pretty healthy that I could rotate through Gosh, that'd be so great if I never had to think about it until I got tired of those five things you know, that will last me for about six months for I'm ready to switch to something else. And then I make a meal plan that we work off of and I just look at that and pull that for dinner and then I have some options for snacks that I put on but it just I really find that the further I get on my own journey as a leader the more and more decisions I have to make and the more decisions I need to try to knock You know, wherever I can not have to make a decision and not have to use my creative thinking, you know, I don't really want to spend that energy that's so valuable on what I'm going to have for lunch, you know, so if I can eliminate that, and if I can think ahead in the morning, make those decisions and get a plan around my food, when I'm in that place of my future self in the morning, which is kind of what I consider that planning time to be.

Jeff Sanders 30:24
Yeah, that's definitely an effective way to look at anything that can reduce decisions. I think you're definitely right about that. Because I have found, especially the more creative that I want to be, and the more important the projects are, like if I devote a lot of energy to things that are less important, I'm just too tired, like mentally too exhausted to do the hard work. And that to me has been a that's a big shift to make to say, I'm going to automate the smaller stuff. So I can just do the big things,

Megan Hyatt Miller 30:49
right. And I just do this by the way, my Notes app on my iPhone. I mean, there's not fancy, I'm just writing it down and then I can look oh, what did I plan for that great of cheese and crackers and some fruit done? It's just so nice. Instead of standing in the pantry, like what am I gonna have? I don't have time to make lunch. I've just I've already figured it out. It's just one less thing.

Jeff Sanders 31:08
Now maybe this has been an amazing conversation today. I've loved all this information. I know our listeners today, we want to dig in more to this book. Where can they learn more from you? Where do they get a copy of the book? And how can they dig in?

Megan Hyatt Miller 31:17
Yeah, so the best place to learn more about the book is at winandsucceedbook.com/miracle. So winandsucceedbook.com/miracle. There's some cool bonuses for your listeners that we put together. So guys, y'all don't want to miss out on that. And then if you just want to learn more about me or our company, Michael Hyatt & Company, you can just go to michaelhyatt.com.

Jeff Sanders 31:39
Okay, perfect. All those links for listeners this week in the show notes page. And Megan this has been fantastic. I really enjoyed this today.

Megan Hyatt Miller 31:45
Me too. Jeff, thanks so much for having me. This has been awesome.

Jeff Sanders 31:56
And for that action step this week, get your double win. It is possible to win at work and succeed at life and Megan's new book will certainly help you get there faster. Once again, the book is "Win at Work and Succeed at Life: 5 Principles to Free Yourself from the Cult of Overwork." JeffSanders.com/395 is the place to go to get the episode notes, including links, transcriptions and more. That's all I've got for you this week here on The 5 AM Miracle podcast. Until next time, you have the power to change your life and the fun begins bright and early.

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