Call it manifestation, call it good vibes, call it unashamed naivety, we, the co-founders of Capsule are determined that this year will, in fact, be our year (too soon for an ‘up the Wahs’?). Welcome to Twenty Twenty Thrive – our guide to living our best lives! This edition, Kelly Meharg has changed up how she works and now finds herself out of the house all the time (so, just like a normal working woman?!). Here’s how she’s making the most of her time on the move, with the help of many motivational podcasts, her Samsung earbuds that actually fit her weird ears and, sure, a little bit of delusion.
Capsule x Samsung
Look, we are very aware that some of the last few years have been… suboptimal at best. And yes, sure, there are things going on in the world right now that make you want to reach for the stress wine you keep hidden in the pantry behind the wholemeal flour.
But here at Capsule, we know there are many things that we cannot control and that focusing on those only makes us feel crazier. So, for this year, we’ve decided that we are instead going to focus on the things we CAN to help us achieve our ultimate goal – simple, unfiltered happiness and contentment (IS IT TOO MUCH TO ASK).
So here is TWENTY TWENTY THRIVE. We’ve joined up with our pals at Samsung to bring you stories of pure joy and happiness, interspersed with actually helpful advice and tips on how to make this the best year yet. We’ll be focusing on themes like connection, health and self-care with real stories and real experts offering their sage advice and knowledge and, in true Capsule form, we’ll be (over)sharing our own experiences along the way.
Ok so if you read my last Twenty Twenty Thrive piece, you’ll remember how I was chatting about how it can feel very lonely when you work from home and you have nobody, except for a few sad-looking house plants and the builders across the fence, to keep you company (and trust me, the builders are rubbish workmates – all noise, no substance but SO many cans of Monster!?).
So, to combat that, I’ve been making it a mission to get out of the house more, working from cafes, friends’ dining room tables, even sometimes the beach on cloudy days when I can see my laptop screen (so much sand though…). That’s meant that I’m much more on-the-go than I used to be, and I’ve again plunged into the world of commuting, sitting in peak hour traffic and taking public transport to get around the city (I’m literally writing some of this story while I’m waiting for a bus while listening to my ‘chill and happy’ playlist on my Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro (*look at that sponsor plug, thank you Samsung!*.)
I’m one of those dicks who hasn’t had to do the normal-person rush hour commute and now I’m right back into it, damn it sucks, and if you’re not careful and smart and prepared, you lose so much of your productive time. Thankfully, women are careful and smart and prepared, so making the most of your time on the go is not only doable, it’s actually the key for getting shit done!
Here’s a few ways I’ve been using my time out of the house to my advantage to set me up for success:
1. Actually thinking about what productivity means
Gone are the days of measuring productivity by how many unread emails you cleared before 9am because being a martyr for burnout is simply not the vibe anymore. The new definition? Doing what matters – and doing it well. I used to call myself a morning person because I would wake up at the crack of dawn and maniacally begin work in some kind of weird battle against myself and the clock. Now my time is more fragmented, the reality is that yes, by the clock, I lose a bit of it – but the time I have left is so much better. As part of my new look productivity, I’ve started using Samsung’s Gemini AI. Honestly, it began as a curiosity – a “let’s see what this thing can do” experiment. But somewhere along the line it just clicked, and now the help in summarising my notes and helping me make sense of chaotic to-do lists, it has now become an assistant with all the little things so I can focus on the big stuff. It’s not about doing more – it’s about doing less, but better. And in this new world of getting a little AI help, I’m now focusing more on how my time is best used, and concentrating on what matters – which actually feels like the biggest win.
2. Getting my workbag prepared
Organisation is KEY to being able to work (or even function) anywhere so I’m not wasting time going back home for what I need, or spending unnecessary money in *this economy*. My number-one non-negotiable I take everywhere are my Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro (fancy, I know, thank you) because, even if I’m ensconced away at home, I am never not listening to music while I’m working. It helps me block out all distractions (builders, mostly) and focus on the task at hand, and it’s also true when you’re out in The Real World and you’re juggling multiple jobs and hats. If I’m perfectly honest I haven’t been an earbud fan until now because there’s something weird about my ears and they don’t tend to fit comfortably, but the Samsung ones genuinely sit great and don’t cause that annoying ache when you’ve had them in too long.
I’ve been perfecting the art of the work bag for a few months now, and the other things I’ll always carry are: My insulated drink bottle (your girl loves to be hydrated), a packet of nuts (snacky snacky), a hair tie (always – I hate not having one when your hair gets to that annoying time of the day and some old fashioned pen and paper because apparently there’s still a part of me living in the past. (Humble brag but I don’t have to carry a power bank anymore because I’m now using a Samsung phone for my work phone – honestly this even supposed to be part of this story – but the battery life is so good it almost makes me want to cry with joy).
3. Multitasking – but in a chill way, not a nutcase way
Instead of the frenetic ‘must be Superwoman!’ vibe of my previous attempts at multitasking, I’m looking at what I’m doing a little more intuitively and calmly by merging self-care with work efficiency. For example – I’ll pop in my Buds 3 Pro and play my endorphin-inducing happy playlist while doing boring finance stuff. I’ll play my breathwork tracks and practice a bit of mindfulness while I’m waiting for photos to load. I’ll tackle emails while getting a pedicure because I can and walk out of the salon feeling a little like 1980’s Melanie Griffith for some reason. A big part of this is accepting that hey, that to-do list is never going to be ticked off, but we can sure have some fun getting through as much as we can.
4. Looking into energy blocking – the ‘new’ way of time blocking
I’m a BIG fan of time blocking – I will plot tasks into my calendar at the beginning of the week as a way of giving myself little deadlines because I am, and always will be, a journalist and we are literally only effective if we have a deadline screaming at us in the face. But there’s a new way of doing this, and it’s called energy blocking – the art of aligning your day with your natural highs and lows, explains Genie Love, a neurodiversity coach. Not all hours are created equal! “Energy blocking is similar to time blocking – you still look at the blocks of time available in your day and assign activities to them. But the difference is: instead of organising your “to-do” list by urgency or priority, you sort tasks into two categories, high energy and low energy,” she says. “Low energy tasks are the ones that don’t take much out of you. They don’t require a lot of energy. High energy tasks require more focus, effort, or emotional bandwidth. The important thing to recognise here is that what kind of activities require low or high energy can vary significantly from person to person.”
You’re not meant to be operating at 100% from dawn to dusk. Knowing when you’re sharpest, and scheduling your most demanding tasks then, can be absolutely revolutionary. For many women this looks like doing deep work early, holding meetings mid-morning, and saving admin or emails for low-energy slumps. For some reason, I am the exact opposite. But it does help me when I’m on the go and planning out my day as to when to meet people, when to hide myself in a café corner and when to give up, call it a day and go home to my wine.
5. Enjoying the busyness and chaos by reframing it as excitement
Even though I am absolutely loving being out of the house more because it is helping with the loneliness, there are still times when trying to get every bloody thing done is overwhelming. So, I’ve tried to reframe the hustle as excitement. Two meetings and then a mid-morning coffee date and then a work lunch and then an intense three-hour writing session and then a client event? Bring it (also again thankyousomuch Gemini, you organised little minx). As long as it’s not every day (my God can you imagine?) then I can find the joy in the middle of the madness and make space for the privilege of being able to do all of these great things.