Hustle Sanely

320: 5 Things To Do *Now* For a Stress-Free Fall 🍂

• Jess Massey

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0:00 | 16:15

Am I the only one who feels like fall sneaks up on us every single year??? I know it starts the same time every year, but I'm still like, "wait what, it's here!!!!" every September 😅🍂 This year I am determined to go into fall feeling mentally prepared so that it’s a stress-free season!

In this episode, we cover:

  • 5 things to do BEFORE the end of August to help us head into fall without the chaotic vibes

| RESOURCES | 

SPEAKER_00

I need y'all to be honest with me. Am I the only one that fall sneaks up on every single year? Like I know, I know that it starts the same time every single year. And I also know that I spend the majority of July and pretty much all of August wishing summer away because I just cannot hang with the heat. But fall still takes me by surprise almost every single year. I think it's because I really do lean into the kind of slower, whimsier schedule of summer days. Time just like doesn't feel real sometimes in the summer. You know what I mean? I also think it throws me off that Target is putting back to school stuff out in June and then Halloween stuff starts coming out in July. Like my brain just cannot figure out like what time of year it actually is. Not to mention, we've been working on the 2027 paper collection since last October. Like I literally never know what year it is, what month it is, like, which is kind of ironic since I own a planner company. But this year I am determined to go into fall feeling mentally prepared so that it's more of like a stress-free season. My daughter is starting preschool in August. Today is actually her first day of school. If you're watching this the day that it comes out, and August through November are the busiest months work-wise for me personally. Can y'all say planner season? It is upon us. So I am doing these five things before the end of August to help me head into fall without the chaotic vibes. Like, we just we're not here for that this year, okay? We are not being caught off guard, we are not gonna be overwhelmed. Like the fall is going to be a peaceful season, period. Welcome or welcome back to the Hustle Stanley podcast. I hope you're taking care of yourself. This is your digital classroom for learning how to break up with burnout and build a peacefully productive life. If you're tired of feeling like you're running on E and stretched so thin, grab your notebook and let's get to class. The bell has rung. So let's learn today's lesson together. Here are the five things that we're all gonna do, me and you, girl, collectively, okay, before the end of August, so we can actually enjoy fall. Number one, declutter our fall clothes and fill in the gaps. So, first thing, go pull out your fall bin or dust off the section of your closet that you haven't touched since spring started and go through everything. This is the first year that I have used bins to get my fall and winter clothes out of my closet. Let me just tell you, it is made getting ready in the spring and summer so much better. So I highly recommend stowing away clothes that are out of season so that they're not taking up space in your closet. I got like these little bins from Amazon that just slide right under our bed. So pull those out, get your fall clothes out, and you know the drill. You know how to declutter. Does it still fit? Do you love it? Would you actually reach for it? Anything that's a no goes in the donate pile. While we're in there decluttering, we're also going to be making a list of pieces that we actually want to invest in this fall. Not like a Pinterest board list of every cute fall outfit that we've ever seen in our whole lives. Just like the specific gaps that are missing in your fall wardrobe after decluttering. So I don't know, maybe it's a good quality pair of boots, maybe it's one cozy sweater that isn't peeling within an inch of its life, like all of my sweaters are. Doing this now sets you up to shop with intention in September instead of like panic buying a bunch of stuff in October because you have nothing to wear to the pumpkin patch. You know what I'm saying? So that is step number one. We are decluttering our fall wardrobe now so that come September, October, we already know what we're excited to wear in the fall. We're not stressing out about what we're gonna wear. The second thing that we're gonna do now to help us have a more peaceful fall season is create a holiday prep game plan. I know. I know that it's not even fall yet, and I am bringing up the holiday season. But listen, this is exactly the move that makes October, November, and December feel sane instead of chaotic. If you wait until October to start planning holiday stuff, that's when you're gonna feel stressed out and overwhelmed and like you don't have enough time to make all the memories you want to make. Doing this takes way less time than you think. And it's nice because if you start now in August, you can spread all the work out, right? You can do a little bit here, a little bit there. It's way more manageable. Because truthfully, most of us don't have these humongous chunks of time in our schedules where we can like focus on tasks. Most of us have like small pockets of time that we're needing to like get a few things done here and there, right? So that's why we're gonna start holiday planning and prep now. And we're not waiting until like midfall, okay? We are gonna do three things to help us take charge of the holiday season now. First thing, decide on and buy Halloween costumes now while sizes and options actually exist. Instead of fighting through picked over racks in October or trying to like haphazardly piece together a costume based on what you've got lying around the house because it is Halloween morning and you don't know what your kid is gonna dress up at. So that's the first thing. Second thing we're gonna do is start a holiday gift idea list and a rough budget. You don't have to buy anything yet. I'm not saying that, but just capture ideas as they come so that you're not starting from a blank page in December. Like we are not waiting until December to make the list of people that we need to buy gifts for. This is gonna help us where we don't forget to buy someone a gift who we wanna bless. You know what I'm saying? Like we're just we're just being intentional, we're being a little bit forward-thinking here. We're making the list of people that we want to shop for with ideas of what we want to get them with a little budget attached to it. And then the last thing that we are gonna do to help us prep for the holidays now is jot down a general holiday to-do list. So getting holiday cards made, traditions that you wanna prioritize, when you want to decorate, is there any travel happening during the holiday season? Whatever your season includes, jot it down on the list, okay? Getting it out of your head and onto paper now means that it's not taking up mental space for the next three months. So those are the three things that we're gonna do to help us start planning and prepping for the holiday season now. The third thing that we are gonna do together now to help us have a peaceful fall season is revisit our 2026 goals and schedule what's left. Emphasis on that part, scheduling what's left. We are solidly past the halfway mark of the year. So pull out whatever goals you set back in January, or maybe you did a mid-year goal reset, like we talked about on the show last month. It doesn't matter when you set the goals, but make a list of all the goals that you have left that you haven't done yet, and then go through it and first of all, make sure that you still care about each of the goals and that they still make sense for your season. So I share this example all the time, but it's just so real. From my own life in 2022, I found out I was pregnant in April. So I threw out all the goals that I set in January, halfway through the year, and basically started fresh because my season of life changed, right? The goals I set for myself at the start of the year did not make sense anymore because my priority shifted. Goals are not a metric of success, okay? They are vehicles to get us closer to the life that we want to be living. So for the goals that you still want to pursue this year, you have your list of ones that have like made the cut, like, okay, I haven't done these yet in 2026, but I still care about them. They still make sense for my season of life. So you have this list of goals. Now you're gonna give them a home on your calendar. So look at the months that we have left of 2026 and actually schedule each goal that you have left based on what you've got going on for the rest of the year. So, like this goal gets worked on during September, this one I'm gonna focus on it during November, etc. Part of the House Wilsanely planning system is having a monthly focus goal because that helps us actually make real progress on our goals. Instead of just feeling overwhelmed and wondering how to do all the goals on our list a little bit all at the same time, that hardly ever works. Okay. If you use the House Wilsanely peacefully productive planner, the pages behind the quarter four tab are perfect for this. There are three spreads that help you intentionally prep for the three months that make up the quarter, what your priorities are for the season, new routines to support you for the season, and space to jot down what goals you're focusing on and what important events are happening in your life for each month of the season so that you can like plan your goals accordingly. So if you don't have a peacefully productive planner, girl, I don't know what to tell you. You need to go get one. The fourth thing that we are doing now to help us have a peacefully productive fall, we are updating our meal planning rotation, okay? Summer meals and fall meals, different vibe, different vibe, lighter, faster, more convenient summer options kind of give way to soups and cozy crock pot dinners once fall gets here. Fall dinners are my favorite. I am a big soup lover, okay? But in our house, we love doing theme nights for dinners because it just takes the guesswork out of it. So for summer, our themes have been Monday, a steak-based dish. So whether it's a steak salad or steak and veggies, Tuesday, always taco Tuesday. Wednesday, we've kind of deemed as like easy peasy for the summer. So chicken nuggets, for example. We like the Just Bear brand. Listen, it's not just my daughter eating them. My husband and I will chop some up and put them in a salad or something. They are so good. You have to try them if you've never tried them. And then we also love, I don't know if it's goodles or goodles mac and cheese. We say goodles, but I've heard people say goodles, and I'm just like, that doesn't flow. To me, it's goodles. Anyway, whatever it's called, that mac and cheese brand, we love it because it's high in protein. And so we'll eat that with some sort of veggie or a salad. In the summer, our daughter had danced from five to six on Wednesdays. So we had to get home and make dinner happen quick. And so that's why it was easy peasy night. Thursday, always pizza night with friends. On Thursday, we always have friends come over and we order pizza. Our work days are Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. So Thursday is kind of like our Friday. And then Friday in the summer was seafood or pasta, just kind of like depending on our mood. And then Saturdays and Sundays, we tend to wing it based on like what's going on. We'll either eat leftovers, go out to eat, pick something from our go-to meals list. There's our summer menu theme. And now for fall, we're kind of thinking something like Monday is going to be soup, chili, or stew. Tuesday is staying taco Tuesday. Wednesday is going to be salads with a protein of choice. So whether it's like a chicken Caesar salad, steak salads with a balsamic or grilled shrimp salads with lemon vinaigrette, like just some kind of like proteiny salad. Thursday, pizza night with friends. Friday is gonna be a sheet pan night or a crock pot meal. So just like a very simple, quick meal. And then we'll still wing it on Saturdays and Sundays. That's just like what we like to do on the weekends. So you can see I didn't change the whole thing. I just made a few shifts based on what I know we enjoy eating in the fall and have coming up in the fall. Let me know if y'all want me to share our current list of go-to meals. We usually change those up like every six months or so. I can like pop those in an email to send out to the girls on my email list if you guys are interested. That brings us to the fifth and final thing that we're gonna do now to help us have a peacefully productive fall. We are creating our fall vibe. This one is the fun one, and I don't want you to just skip it because it doesn't feel productive in the traditional sense. Setting the vibe for the season is part of what makes it feel intentional instead of something that just happens to you. We are all about romanticizing life around here. So this is gonna help us with that, okay? We're gonna do three simple things to help us create our fall vibe. First one is uh my favorite making a fall bucket list. It does not have to be long, all right? Just a few things that you wanna prioritize from September through November so that you're feeling present for the season. Maybe it's visiting a pumpkin patch, maybe it's trying out a specific recipe, going on a hike that's extra pretty during the fall time, going apple picking, hosting a Halloween party. I would say to choose two to three things per month of the fall season that you're excited to do. And I feel like that's a perfect length for a bucket list, you know? The next thing that we are gonna do to help us create our fall vibe is create fall playlists. I love this one too. Well, I should say I love having fall playlists. I personally don't enjoy making playlists, so instead I hop on over to Spotify and I find playlists that fit my vibe. So that's what I'll be doing. And then these kinds of playlists I actually do like making. I like to go on to YouTube and create a playlist of vibey fall ambiance videos that we can play on the TV to just kind of set the mood in the house and like have on in the background. I also play them in my office when I am working to just have something in the background to help me romanticize the season. I like making these playlists ahead of time because I think it is so annoying when you go to turn one on and you are having to like search and look for one that is actually vibey when you're just trying to push play and move on. You know what I'm saying? So that's why I like to save or make playlists ahead of time. I'll share some of my favorite fall Spotify playlists and YouTube fall ambiance videos in my Instagram stories this week for y'all. So make sure that you are hanging out over there. And then our third thing that we are gonna do, this should not shock you, to help us create our fall vibe. We're starting a Pinterest board for fall. We did this in the summer to help us romanticize the summer months and we're doing it again for fall. And this actually pairs perfectly with step one because now you're not just decluttering and buying at random. You actually know the vibe you're going for this fall, right? So on your fall Pinterest board, I would say to add five to seven outfit ideas, some things that you want to include on your fall bucket list, maybe some manicure ideas that you want to try out this fall, meals you want to cook in the fall, all of those kinds of things. Like I said, we made a summer version of this to help us romanticize summer, and I thought it was so fun. So I'm gonna encourage the girlies to make one for the fall as well. And that wraps up today's lesson. But what good is learning something if you don't apply it to your life? We are all about taking action and implementation here in the Hustle Stanley classroom. It is time for me to assign your homework for the week so you can actually create a peacefully productive life. So, this week's homework, aka what I want you to do before our next class, I think you can probably guess what I'm gonna tell you. I want you to schedule three hours between now and the end of August. So you have over half of the month left to knock these five things out. Here's the thing: you don't have to do one big three-hour block if that doesn't work for you. I just talked about that in this episode that most of us don't have big chunks of time just laying around in our schedules. You can break it up if you have to. So, like 30 minutes here, an hour there, whatever you gotta do, but just set aside three hours so that you can really work through these five things. Okay, class is officially dismissed. It is time for some extra credit, aka me filling you in on all the things happening in the Hustle Stanley community right now. First and foremost, peacefully productive planner updates. Y'all, our 2026 weekly planners are marked down to $25, which is over half off. You still have four solid months left in 2026. So if you've been wanting to try out the Hustle Stanley planning system, this is the perfect time for you to snag a planner and see if it's a good fit for you. Plus, you get to take advantage of those pages behind the quarter four tab that we talked about in this episode. And then speaking of planners, our 2027 collection is launching in September, just like it does every year. I've been sharing little sneak peeks over on Instagram. So make sure you're following along over there. And I will say we don't have specific launch dates yet for the 2027 collection because we don't have a date from our manufacturer yet of when we're gonna be receiving our inventory. However, if you are in Hustle Stanley Study Hall, you will 100%, even if we don't have the inventory yet, we'll be running a pre-order for Hustle Stanley Study Hall members. And then just make sure if you are not on our email list and you want a planner, you need to get on there. And that's honestly the last thing that we're gonna talk about anyway. So good little tie in there. If you're not already on our email list, you need to sign up. I'm just saying, we send out an email every single Saturday called Slowdown Saturday with some peaceful productivity inspiration and we fill you in on all the things happening in the Hustle Stanley community. We will also be giving you all of the 2027 collection information via email. So if you are not on our email list yet, go get on there. I will put the link to get the Hustle Stanley emails in the show notes and/or description box. So go sign up. You definitely want to be getting our emails, okay? I'm telling you. I'm telling you. All right, y'all. That is what I've got for you today. Thank you so much for coming to class with me. I will talk to y'all in the next episode. And of course, I hope you have the best day ever.