Transcript

SPEAKER 1 Honestly, I was buying lunch near the office almost every day and spending far more than I realised. So, on Sunday evening, I started making two or three lunches at once. Preparing things in advance is what makes it work. If I leave it until the morning, I'll always choose another ten minutes in bed and buy something later. I don't make anything impressive—usually rice, vegetables and whatever is left from dinner—but I like not joining the lunchtime queue, and I've saved enough for a weekend away. I keep one lunch in the freezer too, for the weeks when Sunday disappears before I've cooked anything. Well, I wouldn't prepare anything in the morning. SPEAKER 2 Well, I'd wake up at two in the morning, check one message and then be looking at videos half an hour later. I bought a cheap alarm clock and started leaving my phone in the kitchen. Removing the easy temptation helped more than any clever sleep advice. I still take the phone upstairs occasionally if somebody in the family is travelling, but most nights it stays downstairs. I fall asleep faster, and the first thing I see in the morning is the window, not a list of notifications. The alarm clock is annoyingly loud, but at least I have to get out of bed to switch it off. SPEAKER 3 I wanted to move more, but I kept imagining I needed an hour at the gym. My neighbour suggested a ten-minute walk after dinner, so we started going round the block together. Having another person waiting outside is what keeps me doing it, especially in winter. Some evenings we walk much further; other times it really is ten minutes. I don't count steps or measure anything. I just come home feeling less sleepy than when I stayed on the sofa, and we've got to know half the dogs in the street. We chat while we walk, so it doesn't feel like a piece of exercise I have to force into the evening. SPEAKER 4 By the weekend, every room seemed to contain cups, post and clothes that belonged somewhere else. I tried doing a huge clean on Saturday and hated it. Now I choose one room on Friday evening and spend fifteen minutes putting things away. Keeping the change small is the reason I haven't abandoned it. Sometimes the timer stops and the room is still messy, but it's better than before. The funny thing is that I now notice things earlier, so a pile rarely grows into a full afternoon's work. I put on music while the timer runs, and that makes the fifteen minutes feel less like a punishment. SPEAKER 5 Mornings were a rush because I'd stand in the kitchen deciding what to eat, then leave with nothing. I started putting oats and fruit in a jar the night before. A reminder on my phone at nine o'clock helps; without it, I remember when I'm already in bed. I'm not perfect about it. On Fridays I often buy breakfast with colleagues, and that's fine. The useful part is that most mornings I can take the jar from the fridge and leave, so I'm not hungry by the first meeting. I leave the jar beside my keys, because a healthy breakfast in the fridge is no use if I forget to take it.