Work and Play with Nancy Ray

Today, I'm veering off the normal podcast course and I'm breaking a few rules and I just want to share some of where I am in my own work and play and how that affects this podcast moving forward. I'm really excited about where I'm headed and I want to be very honest with you and take you along in this journey with me. I value you, I'm grateful for you listening, especially those of you who listen every week. I'm so, so grateful and I'm excited just to share my heart with you today. For the full show notes, head to nancyray.com/podcast/155

Today, I'm going to share my two favorite work habits and that is: how I start my workday and how I finish my workday. I'm just going to go ahead and put this out there—they're pretty nerdy. Some of you are probably going to laugh and be like, I'm never going to do that, and that's fine, but they've worked for me and I really like them. I'm trying to get back to them after this fourth baby, it takes a little bit to kind of get them in your system again, but I tell you what, when you can rock these routines, your workday is amazing. For the full show notes, head to nancyray.com/podcast/154. Resources from this episode: Two Second Lean, by Paul Akers Deep Work, by Cal Newport Affiliate links have been used in this post! I do receive a commission when you choose to purchase through these links, and that helps me keep this podcast up and running—I truly appreciate when you choose to use them!

We all have tension in our lives. And a lot of times that manifests itself in anxious thoughts and just feeling like we can't get our heads around something or we can't move through it and that's just part of being human. It's just part of living life and this isn't the episode that I had planned for today, but it's the episode that God put on my heart. So I'm just going to talk about tension and anxiety and how to get through that, how to get past it, how to get through to the other side. I'm going to share some practical things that I've walked through in my life very recently and I'm going to share the things that helped me get through it. And then at the end of this episode, I'm just gonna to be honest and share a little bit about what's going on with the podcast and what you can look forward to in the coming weeks and months. For the full show notes, head to nancyray.com/podcast/153.

There's something about meeting regularly as a family that brings you together, not only in a practical way—which it does—you can talk about the calendar and your schedules and your plans, but emotionally you can connect and you can share things you're looking forward to or problems that you're having and I didn't have this growing up. We didn't meet regularly as a family, but it's something that we've started to do recently and it has been such a joy. Today I'm going to share with you the simple outline that we follow for our family meeting and I hope it's helpful to you. For the full show notes head to nancyray.com/podcast/152. Resources from this episode: Positive Parenting Solutions Affiliate links have been used in this post! I do receive a commission when you choose to purchase through these links, and that helps me keep this podcast up and running—I truly appreciate when you choose to use them!

Welcome to the Nancy Ray Book Club, where every month I read a book and then I share my three biggest takeaways from that book with you here. This month, I read the Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel. A book that came really highly recommended to me by a few trusted friends and it did not disappoint. So yes, today we are talking all about money and our relationship with it. For the full show notes, head to nancyray.com/podcast/151. Resources from this episode: The Pyschology of Money, by Morgan Housel Nancy Ray Book Club The Millionaire Next Door, by Thomas Stanley Affiliate links have been used in this post! I do receive a commission when you choose to purchase through these links, and that helps me keep this podcast up and running—I truly appreciate when you choose to use them!

I have been doing a lot of thinking lately on productivity and how to be productive, mostly because right now I have very limited amounts of time that I can devote to projects. As a breastfeeding mama, my windows of time are very limited—they're limited when I need to feed the baby next. So in a lot of ways it forces me to think strategically about my time. As I manage a household with four little kids and a lot of stuff, as well as my online business, I've realized there are two parts to productivity. Those are also the two places I tend to get hung up, but when I get them right, they are key. So hopefully today's episode will unlock some insight for you, too, and will give you some helpful tips on how to be truly productive. For the full show notes, head to nancyray.com/podcast/150. Resources from this episode: Golden Coil Planner What's Best Next, by Matt Perman My Favorite Pens (Pilot G2 Ultra Fine) Some of the links in this post are affiliate links, which means that I do receive a commission when you choose to purchase through these links! Those commissions help me keep this podcast up and running—I truly appreciate when you choose to use them!

Having four small children six and under simply means that over the last six years there has been a lot of sickness in our house. And for two and a half years of that time, we have lived through the pandemic, our culture has been hyper-vigilant and very fearful of any kind of sickness because of COVID. And while there's really no right or wrong way to be sick, because you're just sick, I have learned a few things. I've learned ways to cope with sickness, ways to cling to Jesus, ways to pray over your children during sickness, ways to perhaps make sickness a little less miserable and that's what I'm going to share with you today. For the full show notes head to nancyray.com/podcast/149. Resources from this episode: Pink Himalayan Mineral Soak How to Raise a Healthy Child in Spite of your Doctor, by Robert Mendelsohn Work & Play Cornerstore

We are living in a tense time. Cultural pressures are really high. Our nation feels like it's falling apart some days and is super divided and it's hard, and more than anything, the dark world around us is begging for light and truth. I sense there's just so much spiritual confusion and a drought in people's lives spiritually. This episode is simply an encouragement for you to be bold and strong and to live out your faith in every aspect of your life, and to cling to Jesus every day. I hope these words encourage you. For the full show notes, head to nancyray.com/podcast/148.

Welcome to the Nancy Ray Book Club, where once a month I tell you about a book I'm reading and loving and I share my top three takeaways from that book. To learn more about the books I'm reading this year head to nancyray.com/bookclub. And to get even more out of these episodes, I encourage you pick up these books, join me and read them alongside me. Now, today I'm going to be talking about The Self-Driven Child, which is a book that's going to stay with me throughout the rest of my parenting journey. One that I am highly encouraging Will to read alongside me and one that I'm committing to picking up and reading again when my kids get a little older. It's that good. Think about it—who doesn't want a self-driven child who grows up to be a self-driven adult. Now the tagline of the book is "The science and sense of giving your kids more control over their lives." If you have kiddos of any age, I think this episode is going to be really helpful and will hopefully give you some things to think about and act on that will help you raise motivated, driven children. For the full show notes, head to nancyray.com/podcast/147. Resources from this episode: The Self-Driven Child, by William Stixrud and Ned Johnson Nancy Ray Book Club Work & Play Cornerstore Affiliate links have been used in this post! I do receive a commission when you choose to purchase through these links, and that helps me keep this podcast up and running—I truly appreciate when you choose to use them!

Well, today is part two of a wrap-up of my break from social media, and I took six months off and I'm just talking about the impact it's had on my life and my work. And today we're going to get practical. I'm going to answer some questions about, practically, how did I pull myself away from social media? What did that look like? How did I fill my time? But I'm most excited about my conversation with my friend Shanna Skidmore(!), which will happen later in this episode. So, I'll answer some questions first, then I'll ask Shanna some questions, and we had the most amazing conversation about it and how to build a life that you want. For the full show notes, head to nancyray.com/podcast/146. Resources from this episode: The Blueprint Model + Nancy's offer Toggl Shanna's website Affiliate links have been used in this post! I do receive a commission when you choose to purchase through these links, and that helps me keep this podcast up and running—I truly appreciate when you choose to use them!