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    A Love Letter to Autumn: How to Romanticize the Season

    October 5, 2026
    / Fall, Seasonal /
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    What would it take for this autumn to feel as magical as you want it to? Maybe it is that first crisp morning when you can finally feel the season changing. Maybe it is bringing back a little childhood Halloween magic, or spending an entire Saturday surrounded by autumn.

    The autumn that you remember isn’t made in one perfect weekend. It’s made in moments like these, big and small, woven throughout the entire season. That is what it means to romanticize autumn.

    It starts with the autumn that is already happening around you, and builds up to the few experiences worth putting on the calendar. Here is how I move through it.

    Romanticize autumn in your everyday life

    Notice what is already changing

    Fall changes so quickly. The same street you walk down every day can look completely different a few weeks later. So pay attention to the places you already pass through: your commute, your neighborhood, the view from your window.

    For me, I notice it in the mornings when I walk to the trolley. The humidity is gone. The leaves are starting to change. There is a crispness in the air, and it smells like earth. It is this completely unexplainable feeling I get in my bones that fall is finally here.

    I actually wait for that feeling to have my first pumpkin spice coffee. I buy the creamer when it shows up in stores in August, but I wait until it feels like the right time to pour it in. That is part of why I love autumn. You can watch it change day by day without going anywhere or doing anything special.

    Let your everyday shift with the season

    Once you are noticing it, let the things you are already doing change with the season:

    • Have your morning coffee in your favorite fall mug.
    • Make a fall playlist for your commute.
    • Take your lunch outside on a cool, breezy day, or walk a street with better foliage.
    • Put on a fall movie or a cozy ASMR video while you cook or clean.
    • Make something seasonal for dinner.
    • Bring out the cozy blankets and open the windows.
    • Turn off the overhead lights and switch on the lamps and candles in the evening.

    You are already making the coffee. You are already commuting, cooking, and relaxing at home. All you are doing is changing parts of those ordinary days to match the season. That is really what finding the magic in the mundane is about.

    A warm mug held in a cozy fall setting, illustrating how to romanticize autumn at home.

    Stop for the perfect fall moments

    And every once in a while, stop for one of those perfect fall moments. One of my favorites is watching the sunset. Grab a blanket, put on a cozy sweater, and bring something festive to drink, whether that is hot tea, an evening coffee, or apple cider. Sit outside for ten or fifteen minutes while the sun goes down. If you have a fire pit, light a fire and take in the smell of the wood burning. You can do it alone, or bring your partner, your friends, or your neighbors.

    I look for these moments during the day too. I stop on my morning walk to photograph a tree when the light hits it and it looks like it is on fire or covered in gold. One time, the day after Halloween, I noticed candy scattered across the sidewalk among the leaves, and I stopped to take a picture because it was such an autumnal moment. When you catch yourself thinking this is a perfect fall day, let yourself be in it.

    Small autumn experiences worth an evening

    So far we have not added anything to the calendar. Now let’s make a few small plans.

    Bring back a little childhood Halloween magic

    Pick a Halloween movie or special you loved as a kid. Get those Pillsbury Halloween sugar cookies with the little pumpkins or ghosts in the middle, or grab your favorite childhood candy. Give yourself the Halloween night your eight-year-old self would have been over the moon about.

    I think part of why the seasons felt so magical when we were kids is that the adults around us were always creating those experiences: the decorations, the special foods, the movies, the traditions. As an adult, you get to create that magic for yourself.

    Carve a pumpkin and make a night of it

    Put on some music, make a mess, and carve or paint your pumpkin. Save the seeds and roast them, or scatter them outside like I do to see if a pumpkin patch magically comes up next year. When you are done, put a candle inside and light your jack-o-lantern. Make a whole evening of it with pizza or apple cider.

    Make something that tastes like autumn

    Choose a food you associate with this time of year and make it yourself. I have recipes I make every single fall. My mom’s apple pie. Chili once October gets cold. Pumpkin soup with homemade puree. Almost every year Kevin and I do an apple bake-off, and he takes the results to work so his friends can pick a winner.

    Sometimes these experiments turn into traditions. Last year I made a chicken pot pie in my cast iron skillet, and it was so good it went straight onto my repeat list for every fall and winter. Think about what tastes like autumn to you, whether it is something you grew up eating, a family recipe, or something new. Take your time and let your kitchen smell like fall for an afternoon.

    Try one tiny new adventure

    For a change of scenery, go somewhere new. Try a local cafe and ask the barista for their favorite fall drink, or finally visit that coffee shop or bookstore you have passed a hundred times. It is a simple way to add a little novelty, and you might find a new seasonal favorite.

    The bigger autumn memories worth planning

    Now let’s go a little bigger, with the things worth space on your calendar.

    Chase peak foliage somewhere beautiful

    Pick a day when the leaves are near their peak and go somewhere beautiful for it: a local trail, a garden, a park, the countryside, or even a neighborhood that gets pretty this time of year. I always try to get in at least one fall hike during peak foliage. I love seeing places I visit all year change from season to season. Bring your camera and give yourself a few hours. Peak foliage only lasts a short window, and that is part of what makes it special.

    Return to a place that feels like fall

    I love having a place I return to every year that feels like fall. For us, that is Trax Farms outside Pittsburgh. They run a fall festival from September through the end of October, with tractor rides, corn mazes, pumpkin patches, apple cider slushies, baked goods, and music. It is where I get my apples for my mom’s apple pie, and I am already dreaming about the apple cider slushie I will get in a few weeks.

    Find your version of that, whether it is a festival, a pumpkin patch, a farmers market, or a small-town event. Go eat the food, listen to the music, and enjoy being somewhere completely immersed in the season. If you love it, go back next year. That is how traditions start.

    Host a Friendsgiving

    Make one of your bigger memories about the people you love. One of my favorites is hosting a Friendsgiving. Invite a few people, make it a potluck, and keep it casual or set a beautiful table with florals and your nice dishes. Cook together or spend the morning cooking, then share the meal and go around naming one thing you are grateful for. Your shared experience could also be inviting someone along to the hike, the festival, or the pumpkin patch. Pick something you are genuinely excited about and make the plan.

    Build your autumn menu

    You are not going to do all of it, and that is fine. This is the part that keeps romanticizing autumn from turning into a chore.

    Take everything that sounds good and make an autumn menu:

    • Pick two or three little things to weave into your everyday life.
    • Add two or three bigger experiences for an afternoon in September, October, or November.
    • Choose one or two things you really plan for.

    That might total five to ten things for the whole season. Put the things that need planning on your calendar: the Friendsgiving, the festivals, the pumpkin patch. Let the smaller things stay flexible. Maybe you wake up on the first chilly Saturday and make pumpkin bread. Maybe it rains after work, and that becomes the night for soup and a Halloween movie. Come back to your menu whenever you want a little inspiration, and pick whatever sounds good in that moment.

    Autumn goes by so quickly, and I think that is part of what makes it special. So when the last leaves finally fall, hopefully you can look back and feel like you really lived this autumn.

    -Rachel

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    How to Be Consistent: Do Less, Not More

    July 14, 2026
    / YouTube Videos /
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    I used to think that consistency meant doing more. More pushing, more forcing, more proving. That is exactly why I kept quitting. So I asked myself a question: what if the key to consistency is actually doing less? I have been running this experiment on myself for the past two years, and the bare minimum habits are what I found.

    Why Consistency Keeps Falling Apart

    We make staying consistent so hard on ourselves. We design routines that look great on paper but collapse the moment life gets messy. Then we assume we lack willpower, and the guilt cycle starts all over.

    But consistency is not built from guilt. It is built from safety. Your brain is not going to repeat something that feels punishing and makes you feel miserable. It repeats what feels achievable and rewarding.

    Ten Years of Failing at the Same Goal

    I wanted to get consistent with exercise for the last ten years. I wanted to be a fitness girly, with a routine that actually stuck and that I enjoyed doing. I literally tried everything. In 2020, I started walking on my lunch breaks. Then I did bodyweight and dumbbell exercises with the Sweat app. For a while, I tracked every single thing I ate in MyFitnessPal, all the macros, all the calories, while doing 30 minutes of weight training several times a week. I was eating less and working out more, and I felt absolutely awful. I hated every second of it, and I did not see results. I actually gained weight, lost muscle, lost strength, and lost my interest in being physically active.

    Every time I added more structure, more routines, more tracking, it all fell apart. I kept thinking the problem was me. I was completely wrong. The bar was just way too high.

    How to Be Consistent: Lower the Bar

    There is a behavioral model called the Fogg Behavior Model. It says that any behavior needs three things: motivation, ability, and a prompt. Everyone focuses on the motivation part, but motivation rises and falls. It is not reliable. Ability is how easy the task is, and that is what you can control.

    Every routine I built in the past required such high motivation to start that it failed the second life got messy. So I stopped trying to build the perfect routine and asked myself one question: what is the absolute smallest thing I can do to commit to this goal every single day?

    The answer was ten minutes. Ten minutes of intentional movement every day, whatever I felt like doing. Some days that was yoga, some days a walk, some days a GrowwithJo video on YouTube. My brain could not argue with ten minutes. No matter how busy or tired I was, I kept repeating the same thing: it is only ten minutes.

    Within the first month, ten minutes started turning into 15, sometimes 20, sometimes 30. That happened naturally, without me pushing. I showed up enough times that movement no longer felt like punishment. To be completely honest, my sciatica sometimes flares up, and I skip days. But because I built the bare minimum entry, the floor held even when things got messy. I still manage two to four days a week. Since gaining that consistency, I have gotten better sleep, avoided the afternoon crashes, gained better energy, and lost 25 pounds.

    One Page a Night

    Reading was different. I wanted to be a reader, and that distinction mattered. I was a reader as a kid, but being forced to read for the school curriculum ruined my love of it, and my relationship with reading went back and forth for years. So I gave myself a rule: read one page of a book every night before bed.

    James Clear writes about identity-based habits in Atomic Habits. The idea is that every small action is a vote for the kind of person you are becoming. That is exactly what one page felt like. Every night I read one page, I am a reader. Every time you finish a small, clear task, your brain gives you a signal: great job, let us do it again. One page turned into three, three turned into several, and by the end of 2025, I had read 24 books. Now I read 30 to 60 minutes almost every night. It does not feel like discipline. It feels like a ritual at the end of my day.

    How to Be Consistent Using the Bare Minimum

    If you want to use bare-minimum habits to create consistency, here is how to start:

    • Pick one thing that matters to you and shrink it until it almost feels too easy.
    • Decide exactly where and when you are going to do it. Look at what you already do in a day and attach it there. My nighttime skincare became the trigger for reading. Feeding my cat in the morning became the trigger for my ten minutes of movement.
    • If you need a physical reminder, use one. If you want to start taking a supplement, put it near your toothbrush. You brush your teeth every day, so the toothbrush becomes the trigger.
    • Let the momentum raise the bar on its own. Do not force it.

    The Fogg model, the dopamine loop, identity-based habits: they all point to the same thing. Lower the bar until your brain stops fighting you. Show up as the person you want to be, even if that version of you only shows up for ten minutes. The bare minimum is not the fallback plan. It is the plan.

    Until next time,

    Rachel

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    Spring Bedroom Refresh & Clothing Declutter

    April 26, 2026
    / Fashion, YouTube Videos /
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    Every spring I do a full spring bedroom refresh and wardrobe cleanout. I find it genuinely satisfying in a way that is probably a little weird.

    This year it did not go as planned.

    The weekend started with a broken washer, a landlord, and two hours I did not have. It rolled into a Monday that was 75 degrees inside my apartment with no air conditioning, me sweating through trying on every single thing I own, and a linen collection that has apparently gotten completely out of hand. I Doordashed a Starbucks at 5 pm because I needed to survive the spring bedroom refresh I had done to myself. And then I got a message from a coworker that I was not expecting to get on my day off.

    I was not planning on talking about it on camera. I almost cut it from a previous video. This time I left it in.

    spring bedroom refresh clothing declutter vlog

    This is one of those videos that started as a cozy hangout and turned into something a little more real. If you have been following the work and career content here, you will understand the context immediately. If you are new, this is probably a good place to start understanding what this channel is actually about.

    The gingham sheets are incredible by the way. That part went exactly as planned. I woke Kevin up at 3 am to tell him about them, and I have zero regrets.

    Come hang out. It is slightly chaotic, completely unfiltered, and my cat is there the whole time judging everything.

    Rachel

    CLICK HERE TO SEE MY OTHER VIDEOS ON MY CHANNEL

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    First 90 Days at a New Job: Stop Trying to Prove Yourself

    April 19, 2026
    / YouTube Videos /
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    When you start a new job, there is this quiet pressure to prove yourself right away.

    To work harder. To say yes more often. And to prove that you deserve to be there.

    The first six months are not about that.

    They are about setting the foundation for a better experience and building a stronger reputation for the long term. Below is exactly what I did in my first three to six months at my new job to build that foundation, without overcompensating or putting too much pressure on myself.

    1. The Foundation Phase: Absorb First

    Within the first three months, you are not expected to learn everything right away or to be absolutely perfect at your job.

    What you want to do is:

    • Learn how the job works at a high level
    • Fully understand your role and the why behind it
    • Understand the company culture and how the team operates
    • Observe who’s who — team dynamics, unofficial leaders, informal workflows
    • Ask questions and get your feet in the water

    This is the foundation phase. You are not supposed to be performing yet. You are supposed to be absorbing.

    2. Set Up Introductory Meetings With Everyone

    Schedule a 15 to 30-minute chat with your team, your department, and yes, even the managers. If it is virtual, set up a Teams or Zoom meeting. If it is in person and you are comfortable, go get coffee.

    Learn about their role, background, work style, and expertise. Share a bit about yourself professionally and personally. You are starting to build working relationships from day one.

    This is something I had never done before in any of my previous positions. It was a requirement of my current job when I first started, and I absolutely loved it.

    I came in with a quick itinerary, and the one question I asked everybody at the end of every call was: “What is your favorite thing about working on this team?”

    It was a great way to gauge the environment and the cultural fit.

    If someone is trying to sugarcoat a bad culture or a toxic environment, you can typically tell based on their body language. It is also just a great way to build rapport from day one.

    This is something I am going to keep doing in every role moving forward.

    3. Take Notes on Everything

    I am serious. Literally write every single thing down.

    • Notes on how to do things
    • How-tos for every process you learn
    • Random side conversations
    • Decisions made in meetings

    Start building your own process guide for your job, especially if none exists.

    If later somebody says, “What did we decide in that meeting?” you have the receipts to answer that question. That makes you look reliable and like you have got your stuff together.

    This was super helpful for me coming into a job where the team was fairly new, and there were no process guides at all. Nothing was written down about how to do the job or the steps involved. As soon as I started learning, I started taking notes. And now everything I wrote down from the beginning is a full process guide that the entire team uses for onboarding. It is the source of truth for how to do the job.

    4. Be a Team Player and Be Easy to Work With

    This is underrated, but it is huge.

    • Do your share of the work
    • Show up on time
    • Follow through on what you commit to
    • Communicate effectively — be clear, be concise
    • Don’t be afraid to ask for clarity
    • Express gratitude — say thank you
    • Jump on a call if things are getting misunderstood over email
    • Celebrate other people’s wins and your own
    • Be kind, approachable, and positive

    And I know all these things sound very obvious.

    But you would be surprised how many people come into a position without basic emotional intelligence or conversation skills.

    Being someone that people want to work with sets you apart, and it is going to make your job so much easier, especially if you are looking to get support, get assistance, or grow in the future.

    At the end of every project, I try to send an email saying the project is completed and thanking everyone for their assistance and collaboration. I do it because I truly appreciate the help, but also because I want to be known as someone kind and easy to work with, and I want to make other people feel like the work they put into a project with me was worth it.

    5. Create a Daily Workflow and Work Loudly

    At the end of each day, write down tomorrow’s to-do list.

    Throughout the day, keep a running list of everything you completed. It keeps you organized, keeps you motivated, and makes sending your weekly wins to your manager at the end of the week so much easier.

    Figure out when you have the most energy and protect that time.

    For me, that is mornings. I start at 9 am and go until noon or 12:30. That is when I do the most detailed, difficult, high-effort work.

    I avoid meetings during that window as much as possible. I do not check email. I put Microsoft Teams on Do Not Disturb.

    And then: work loudly.

    Nobody is going to know or care how hard you work unless you talk about it.

    And yes, it might feel cringey to do this. But this is how you become the person who gets raises, gets promoted, and builds a reputation for getting things done well.

    Even if you do not like your job or care about climbing the corporate ladder, I still recommend doing this. If you are not willing to speak up for yourself and advocate for yourself and make how hard you work known, then you have no right to complain about the output you are getting from your job.

    6. Take Initiative

    Don’t wait to be told to jump in.

    If you were trained on something once or twice and feel comfortable doing it, just go ahead and do it. Volunteer for small projects that interest you. Proactively offer support to your team. It shows confidence, commitment, and that you are ready to grow.

    Being new is a superpower because you see things differently. You are not completely invested in this role yet. You are coming in with fresh eyes. You might spot a problem that no one else has noticed because they have so much time, emotional investment, and mental load in the work that they just cannot see it anymore.

    Your perspective is valuable even if you do not have the seniority yet.

    7. Set Boundaries From Day One

    Protect your time from the start.

    • Block your calendar for deep work and lunch
    • Turn off notifications from Teams, Zoom, or email when you need to focus
    • Don’t be afraid to take breaks

    This is something I was afraid of at the beginning of my job. I was just afraid to walk away for ten minutes to take a break, because somewhere in my head, I thought that if I walked away and was unavailable for ten minutes on Teams, that meant I was not doing my job.

    Which is ridiculous.

    Taking breaks allows you to be more productive. I switched to the Pomodoro method, and that has really helped me stay energized throughout the day.

    If you can, advocate for a start time that works for you. I highly recommend asking those questions and setting up that expectation from day one.

    Do not stay late just because you feel like you should. No one is going to the grave getting an award because they stayed later at their job for no reason when they did not need to.

    Clock in at your start time. Clock out at your end time. Go home and live your life.

    being new at your job is a superpower

    The Foundation Is Everything

    When you do these things in your first 90 days, you are not just adjusting to a new job.

    You are building a reputation on purpose.

    That reputation becomes credibility, and credibility becomes influence. People trust you. They listen to you when you speak. And you are able to make your job easier and improve how things work. That is what makes work feel more sustainable long-term.

    What is one thing you wish you had done differently in your first few months at a job?

    -Rachel

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    Winter, Work Uncertainty, and Trying to Show Up Anyway

    February 10, 2026
    / Uncategorized, Winter, YouTube Videos /
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    This winter has been aggressive.

    We’ve had multiple weeks of snow, temperatures deep into the negatives, and the kind of cold where you can feel it inside your house. Normally, I enjoy winter. This year feels different. There’s a point where winter stops feeling cozy and just starts feeling limiting. I hit that point recently.

    Working from home during storms sounds nice in theory. And at first it was. No commute. No ice. No rushing out the door into weather that feels personally offensive.

    But after a while, being home because you want to and being home because you have to are two very different things.

    At the same time all of this was happening, work shifted.

    My manager is leaving. I’m genuinely happy for her. She was supportive in a way that made it easy to grow quickly in my role. That kind of manager is rare, and I don’t take that for granted.

    But when someone like that leaves, it creates a lot of unknowns.

    Right now, there isn’t a clear plan for what happens next. There are open roles. There are people still learning. And I’m sitting in this strange space where I’m already doing higher-level work while also knowing I don’t want the path that usually comes next.

    I don’t want to be a manager. I don’t want 50–60 hour weeks. I don’t want to be on call or working during PTO. If I’m going to give extra hours to something, I want it to be something I’m building for myself long term.

    So a lot of my mental energy lately has been going toward boundaries. Not whether I want to grow. I do. Just not in ways that cost me everything else.

    The other thing that’s been very obvious lately is that I’m still dealing with burnout.

    Last year was heavy. New job stress. Loss. Grief. Big life shifts. Friendship changes. I don’t think I ever fully reset from all of it.

    It feels like I’ve changed faster than my life structure has. Some days still feel like my nervous system is stuck on high alert. I’m working on it. I’ve been in therapy for years. But progress doesn’t mean everything suddenly feels easy.

    One thing I do know is that creating still feels like me.

    When I was laid off in 2024, making videos and documenting small routines made me feel like I was finally living a life that actually fit me. I don’t want to lose that again just because life gets stressful.

    So right now I’m focusing less on removing every hard thing and more on intentionally adding back things that make me feel like myself.

    For me, that’s YouTube. That’s creating. That’s building something that belongs to me.

    I don’t have clean answers right now.

    Work is still uncertain. The future is still a little blurry. And I’m still figuring out how to feel steady again.

    But I’m still here. I’m still showing up. And for now, that feels like enough.

    Until next time,

    Rachel

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    Winter Reset Reflection: A Year of Surviving, Not Thriving

    January 15, 2026
    / Uncategorized /
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    This year was heavy. It was a year of surviving, not thriving.

    Winter is when I pause and reflect on where I’m at. I don’t rush into goals. I slow down, reset my systems, and give myself space to recharge before the next season. Every December, when winter rolls around, I go into hibernation mode. I intentionally slow down, reflect, relax, and spend a lot of time deep in my thoughts, thinking about this past year, how I felt over the last couple of years, and what I really want out of my life. I do this from December to February.

    If you’ve been here for a while, you probably know that this past year has been a lot for me. Both of my grandparents passed away. And then very unexpectedly, my cat passed away as well. I also started a brand new job this year after being unemployed for a whole year, and I had to go back into the office on a hybrid schedule after being remote for five years. That meant adjusting to a new schedule, commuting, and finding a rhythm that fit my new life. So with all of these things happening at the same time, this year was definitely not a thriving year for me. Every day, I was just trying to get through one day to the next and survive.

    winter reset reflection

    In this season, my reset looks like doing my life audit and treating it like a real project. I started moving my standard procedures into ClickUp, so I can see what’s not started, what’s in progress, and what’s completed. I gather the receipts, journals, camera roll, and creative outputs, then I start looking for patterns. I go deeper than surface level. I want more boundaries against energy drainers and toxic situations. I want nights and weekends filled with reading and learning, calmness, free time, functional systems, and intentional movement. I want less scrolling because I’m too tired to do anything else, less multitasking, and less stress and anxiety.

    And honestly, a big part of this reset is admitting that my cup has felt full all year, but the water kept pouring. So every little thing going wrong has been triggering major anxiety and tears. I realized I need to take care of myself first. I have to do what’s nice for me before I can do what’s nice for others. I don’t think that’s selfish. I think that’s realistic, healthy, and self-aware.

    That’s what this winter reset is for me. Making space to feel what I pushed down. Reflecting. Getting myself right. And then moving forward into 2026 with more clarity.

    Until next time,

    Rachel

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    Skip Resolutions. Do This 4-Step Reflection Ritual Instead.

    December 8, 2025
    / Wellness, YouTube Videos /
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    (This article was adapted from my YouTube video: New Year’s Isn’t for Goals — It’s for This 4-Step Reflection Ritual | Life Audit Series)

    Everywhere you look in January, it’s vision boards, goal setting, “new year, new me.”

    But here’s the truth: Most resolutions don’t last.

    Studies show most people abandon their goals within weeks, and that’s because they miss the most important step: REFLECTION.

    Winter was never designed for rushing ahead.

    Nothing in nature blooms in January. The earth rests. Animals hibernate. Seeds stay tucked underground. And that rhythm exists in us, too.

    So instead of forcing goals, locking in, or pretending the winter months should be productive and explosive… this is the season to look inward.

    Below is the exact 4-step reflection ritual I use during my own life audit each winter — the same one that helped me understand who I am, what I want, and how to build my dream life.

    1. Reflect — Gather Your Data

    This step isn’t about remembering your year.
    It’s about looking at what you actually wrote, created, captured, or documented.

    Gather your “receipts”:

    • Journals
    • Morning pages
    • Planners
    • Camera roll
    • Goal planners
    • Creative projects
    • Social content
    • Blog posts or Substack entries

    If looking at the entire year feels overwhelming, zoom in on one category: career, health, hobbies, relationships, or routines.

    As you go through everything, ask yourself:

    • What brought me joy?
    • What drained my energy?
    • Which habits worked?
    • Which didn’t — and why?
    • What goals did I hit?
    • What goals did I avoid?
    • What memories do I want to carry forward?

    For me, rereading my morning pages from 2021 was a shock.
    In my memory, I thought I was improving my life… but my own words told a different story. I was frustrated, depressed, and angry at my job. 

    I kept calling myself lazy. I kept questioning why I couldn’t find discipline and motivation, and I was speaking to myself in a negative tone.

    I said to myself, “Yeah, girl, no wonder you were so miserable because you just kept resetting that negative talk to yourself and living in negativity.”

    Now I don’t even talk to myself that way.

    That’s the value of reflection: you see things you completely missed in the moment.

    Take your time. Don’t rush. Reflection isn’t about judgment — it’s about noticing.

    2. Assess — Audit Your Time, Relationships, and Satisfaction

    This can be tough. It’s not meant to be easy. 

    You do want to be very, very honest with yourself, even if you’re seeing things in this section that you don’t like.

    Time Audit

    Look at:

    • Screen time
    • Social media use
    • How long tasks actually take (cleaning, cooking, commuting, workouts)
    • How much time do you spend creating vs. consuming

    Ask yourself: Is how I spend my time aligned with my values?

    If it’s not, then you know that’s something you’ll need to work on or change.

    I did a time audit in 2024 for my YouTube channel because I wanted to see how long it took me from start to end to produce a YouTube video.

    The reason that I wanted to do that is to see if there were ways I could speed up the process or make the process work better.

    Also, it gave me a general idea of how much time it would take me to produce a video when I go back to work, and how I can fit YouTube into my life and into my schedule when I’m working a full-time job.

    Relationship Audit

    Look at the five people you spend the most time with and ask:

    • Do they energize me?
    • Do they drain me?
    • Do they support me?
    • Are we growing together or apart?
    • Am I putting in all the effort?

    This is not the easiest thing to do, especially because relationships have a lot of emotions attached to them.

    When you do this, you want to be in a good mental space to put time and effort into thinking about this.

    This includes friendships, partners, and even family.

    If someone is toxic, draining, or pulling you backwards, you need to face it honestly.

    Satisfaction Audit

    This is where you rate every area of your life on a scale of 1-10. 10 being, “Amazing, I love this. This is fantastic.” And 1 being, “This is absolutely terrible. What am I doing with my life?”

    Rate different areas of your life from 1–10:

    • Career
    • Friendships
    • Health
    • Finances
    • Recreation
    • Spirituality
    • Environment

    Those are just a few areas that you might want to review. You might have more, depending on what’s important to you and what you value in your life.

    The point of doing this exercise isn’t getting tens across the board, because nothing is ever going to be perfect. 

    You’re never going to hit perfect. 

    The goal is to see what areas are doing well and what areas need more support and more work.

    Once you complete this exercise, you don’t have to overwhelm yourself with trying to fix every area of your life. You might only want to pick one or two that are a high priority to you.

    This past year, one of the things I really wanted to work on was my exercise, my physical health, and wellness. I put a lot of energy into fixing that this year and didn’t really focus on too many of the other areas, because I knew that this was the year I wanted my exercise habit to finally stick, and I had to do whatever it took to get that to finally work out for me.

    Write down why you gave each score. 

    When you go back and reflect on this later in the years to come and in the months to come, you know exactly why you were feeling that way at that time.

    This stage can get emotional, and that’s okay. 

    Just remember that emotions are fleeting. So even if you’re feeling not so great about this reflection part right now, that’s a temporary feeling, and it’s eventually going to go away.

    3. Answer the Hard Questions

    Now that you’ve reflected and assessed, it’s time to go deeper.

    This is where you stop skimming the surface and dig into what worked and what didn’t, and what you actually want moving forward.

    Again, this is not about having perfect answers. This is about being brutally honest with yourself.

    Pick 1–2 questions that stand out, and then choose the one you do NOT want to answer — because that’s where your growth is hiding.

    Here are the questions I use:

    • What’s something I keep saying I want to do, but never make time for? Why?
    • What habits drain me the most?
    • What habits give me energy?
    • What surprised me about myself this year?
    • What moment made me feel most like myself?
    • What fear or challenge did I overcome?
    • What do I want to be known for?
    • If I repeated this exact year for the rest of my life, how would I feel?
    • If tomorrow didn’t come, would I be proud of how I lived?

    When I asked, “What do I want to be known for?” the answer changed everything.

    I realized I didn’t want to just work a 9–5 and call it a life. 

    I want to be known for and want to be remembered for helping people find the best version of themselves, and to just be happy. 

    I want to be known for the way I created and the way that I just kept learning.

    4. Connect the Dots — See the Patterns

    One question can rewrite your entire direction.

    This is where everything comes together.

    Look at your reflections, assessments, and answers.

    Then ask:

    • What patterns keep repeating year after year?
    • Which goals do I keep writing down but never hit?
    • What roadblocks keep showing up?
    • What small changes made a big impact?
    • What stories do I tell myself — and are they even true?

    When I annotated my morning pages from 2021, highlighting, color coding, tallying themes, the patterns became loud and clear.

    The pattern that kept coming up in my goal planners, year after year after year, was exercising. 

    Finding a fitness routine, finding a way to make fitness and exercise a habit, and finding a way to make it consistent.

    Just like the earlier steps, this takes a lot of brutal honesty with yourself. So if you keep seeing those patterns and then keep repeating, don’t be afraid to tackle them for this upcoming year.

    Don’t worry about connecting all of the dots perfectly. Even spotting one or two patterns and focusing on those can be enough to shift the way you think about yourself and your goals.

    The point isn’t perfectionism. It’s to understand yourself and to know thyself. That way, you can move forward with more clarity.

    The Foundation for Real Change

    This is exactly what I do every winter. 

    It does take a lot of time. 

    It does take a lot of brutal honesty with yourself.

    That’s why I give myself the whole season to reflect and analyze, and assess, and to connect all the dots.

    Reflection fits into the season. Nature isn’t blooming right now, and so we shouldn’t be forcing ourselves to either.

    Winter gives us the perfect space to pause, to process, and to reflect. That way, when spring does come, we can be clear, rested, and ready for real growth.

    Instead of resolutions that fizzle out by February, use this framework:

    Reflect
    Assess
    Answer the hard questions
    Connect the dots

    This is the foundation for growth that is easy to maintain and actually allows.

    This reflection isn’t separate from goal setting. It’s a part of the core foundation of it.

    Goal-setting only works when you know:

    • Where you are
    • What’s shaping you
    • Who you’re becoming

    So here’s my challenge to you: Pick one reflection question — especially the uncomfortable one.

    Sit with it this week. Write it down. Be honest. See what arises.

    If you want to see how this reflection work turns into real change, I walk through my entire Life Audit process in a YouTube video. It’s the framework that helped me stop repeating the same year and start building my dream life.

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    Gilmore Girls Cozy Fall Baking | Rocky Road Cookies from Sookie’s Recipe Book

    October 9, 2025
    / Fall, Uncategorized, YouTube Videos /
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    It’s Gilmore Girls rewatch season, and that means it’s also the perfect time for Gilmore Girls Cozy Fall Baking.

    I’m already into season three, and with the weather shifting into fall, I wanted to bring some of that Stars Hollow feeling into my own kitchen.

    I pulled out the new Sookie’s Recipe Book, which features many of the dishes Sookie St. James made throughout the series. I decided on the Rocky Road Cookies. Yes, the same ones Sookie made at the Independence Inn that Rory gave to Dean because he’s keen.

    I always start my baking off by pulling out all of the ingredients. For this recipe, I needed marshmallows, baking powder, eggs, butter, chocolate chips, flour, espresso powder, instant coffee, vanilla, salt, and macadamia nuts.

    The recipe calls for a high-fat cocoa powder, so I used Guittard cocoa rouge, which has a red tint and is one of my favorites to bake red velvet cake with.

    As for the other ingredients, I ALWAYS use Kerrygold unsalted butter, and I will die on the Kerrygold lovers’ hill. Chocolate chunks were the Guittard super cookie semi-sweet chocolate chips, which was the first time I used them, and I will definitely be using them again as they were delicious.

    I chopped the nuts, measured everything out, creamed the butter and brown sugar, and slowly added the dry ingredients.

    Once the dough came together in the mixer, I scooped it onto trays, tucked in a few extra marshmallows, and slid the sheets into the oven. The kitchen filled with the smell of chocolate and toasted marshmallow, and it reminded me why baking always feels like such a fall ritual.

    The cookies needed a long cool — two full hours — so I waited until the next day to actually taste them, except that I cheated and had one when it was still warm because I couldn’t resist.

    When I tasted them properly the next day, they were rich, chocolatey, and gooey with marshmallow, leaning more brownie-cookie hybrid than traditional cookie.

    The recipe predicted 12-14 cookies, but I got 19 and used a 2-inch cookie scoop. I tested following the recipe by rolling them in my hands, which resulted in flatter cookies, and others I left as is with my cookie scoop. There was not much of a texture difference, and it probably only matters if you have a preference for how your cookie looks. The other tiny enhancement that I made was adding extra chopped nuts to the top of some to look more aesthetically pleasing.

    It was a fun, cozy bake that felt like the perfect way to mark rewatch season. Cookies, coffee, and Gilmore Girls in the background — the perfect early Autumn trifecta.

    What Gilmore Girls recipe should I make next?

    Until next time,

    Rachel

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    Corporate 9-5 Vlog: Romanticizing a Busy Work Week

    June 2, 2025
    / Uncategorized /
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    This week’s post is tied to the fourth episode of my Work Life Diaries series — a cozy corporate 9-5 vlog capturing a busy, realistic work week. The goal with this series is to document how I move through work, life, and the small habits that help everything feel a bit more manageable.

    If you’re new here, I’m Rachel. I create cozy productivity content — routines, reflections, and slow, intentional ways to navigate modern life without burning out. Think of it as a softer take on productivity. I’m not trying to “hack” my way through life — I’m just trying to make space for the things that matter, even in the middle of a busy work week.

    This latest episode is a corporate 9-5 vlog that captures one of those weeks where everything feels nonstop. I also added something new to this video — a small moment near the end that I’ve been wanting to try out. It’s subtle, but it’s something I hope becomes a regular part of my videos going forward.

    👉 If you’ve been searching for a corporate 9-5 vlog that feels a little more grounded and reflective, I think you’ll enjoy this one:

    If you enjoy real-life routines, subtle mindset shifts, and content that feels like a reset button after a long day, I’d love to have you there: HERE IS MY YOUTUBE CHANNEL!

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    April Monthly Reset Routine

    April 14, 2025
    / Seasonal, Spring, YouTube Videos /
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    April always feels like a soft reset. The days are a little longer, the sun is a little warmer, and I start to feel more like myself again. This month’s reset came a little later than usual (thanks to being back at work full-time), but it still felt so good to take a beat and reset my space, my goals, and my energy.

    In my latest video, I bring you along as I tidy up my space, finish a learning project I’ve been working on for my job, and do some gentle reflecting on the first quarter of 2025. I’m setting my intentions for the month ahead, creating space for growth, and sharing some things I’ve been loving lately—from books to little memories that made me smile.

    The end of the April reset video gets pretty chatty (no surprise there), but sometimes those cozy rambles are where the real reflection happens.

    Let me know how your month is shaping up, and if you’re doing your own version of a reset—even if it’s just making your bed and taking a deep breath. That counts too. 💛

    Feel free to check out my full YouTube channel here!

    April reset
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