Morning routines, productivity, wellness habits, dopamine, sunlight, gratitude, affirmations — do viral morning routines actually work?

This week I tested 3 viral morning routines from an English woman, an American woman, and an Australian woman to see whether any of them could make me feel more energised, productive, and less like I’m running on fumes.

The problem?

I’m doing this with:

• a toddler who wakes up at 4:30am
• broken sleep
• a massive family bed
• and a deep resistance to bouncing on a Peppa Pig trampoline with coconut oil in my mouth

So this is a very scientific experiment.

• my current chaos-morning routine
• Mel Robbins-style 5-4-3-2-1 habits
• oil pulling, electrolytes and gratitude
• Chinese lymphatic movements
• making the bed like a functional adult
• whether morning routines are modern madness… or actually quite anthropological

0:00 Intro – today’s experiment

1:00 My current morning reality

7:00 The American morning routine

10:30 The British morning routine

17:30 The Australian “hot girl” morning routine

25:00 Have We Lost the Plot? Morning routines through an anthropology lens

Actually Trying Book Club:

https://rosehoneymorgan.substack.com/freetrial

Send in your dilemmas, chaos, family drama and questionable life choices for Guru & Granny.

DM me at:

@rosehoneymorgan

@field.notes.pod

I’ll report back on which bits of these morning routines actually survived contact with real life.

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Luteal phase, PMS, hormone hacks, mood swings — do internet remedies actually work?

This week’s field report: I tested some of the internet’s favourite luteal phase advice.

That meant eating a suspicious number of carrots and sweet potatoes, attempting to “rebalance” my hormones, and keeping a list of everything that annoyed me during PMS week.

Some of the advice helped.

Some of it involved heavily salted vegetables and blind optimism.

Here’s the honest verdict.

0:00 Field report: testing internet luteal phase advice

1:00 My accidental vegetable discovery

2:00 The luteal phase irritation list

3:00 The real household tension revealed

5:00 Honest thoughts about the podcast and time pressure

7:00 A possible PMS supplement experiment

8:30 Ongoing trials: hormone hacks & brain headset

9:00 Next week: morning routines

• luteal phase awareness
• PMS mood tracking
• sweet potatoes & carrots for hormones
• magnesium & sleep support

Next week I’ll test morning routines — the topic you actually voted for.

Instagram:

@rosehoneymorgan

@field.notes.pod

Actually Trying Book Club:

https://rosehoneymorgan.substack.com/freetrial

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week dives into the luteal phase (PMS) - what’s actually happening hormonally, why your mood drops, and how to cope without doing a crime.

We cover:

• what the luteal phase actually is
• why you feel more sensitive, irritable, and withdrawn
• whether it’s hormones… or your life being out of alignment
• practical ways to support your mood (from Instagram, obviously)
• and a slightly chaotic Guru & Granny segment involving vegans and king prawns

00:00 Intro – why we’re ignoring the poll and talking PMS

05:30 What the menstrual cycle actually does to your brain

10:30 Why the luteal phase feels like low power mode

12:30 Have We Lost the Plot? (evolutionary take)

14:00 “You’re not moody, your life is out of alignment”

16:00 Luteal phase survival tips (food, magnesium, sleep)

19:00 Guru & Granny: vegan boyfriend chaos

Got a dilemma?

Relationships, family chaos, existential crises…

DM your questions to:

👉 @rosehoneymorgan

👉 @field.notes.pod

(You can stay anonymous)

If you want deeper dives, experiments & slightly more structure:

👉 Join the Actually Trying Book Club:

https://rosehoneymorgan.substack.com/freetrial

Follow the podcast, leave a review, or send this to someone who:

• becomes a different person before their period
• has ever thought “why is everything suddenly awful?”
• or needs a luteal phase survival plan

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This week I tested 4 anxiety techniques…

two from a Harvard-trained life coach and two from Old Ma.

The methods:

• orgasm (did not happen)

• contemplating death (surprisingly helpful)

• building a “sanity quilt” (tiny habits that actually regulate you)

• visualising your perfect day (emotionally risky)

Some worked. Some absolutely did not.

Main takeaway:

👉 You don’t fix anxiety with one big breakthrough

👉 You fix it with small daily things that make life slightly more bearable

Also:

• no one is thinking about you as much as you think

• you will be forgotten (freeing, not depressing)

• and stroking your dog is genuinely medicinal

If you feel constantly slightly on edge, overwhelmed, or like your brain is doing too much…

this episode is for you.

• realistic anxiety coping strategies

• small daily habits that actually help

• a brutally honest test of popular techniques

• a reminder that your life doesn’t need to be perfect to be good

00:00 Testing 4 anxiety techniques

01:00 Why orgasm didn’t make the list

02:00 Thinking about death (and why it helps)

04:30 The “life in weeks” reality check

05:00 The sanity quilt (best one)

08:00 Tiny habits that improve your day

10:00 The perfect day exercise (spiral warning)

11:30 Final thoughts + what actually worked

@rosehoneymorgan

@field.notes.pod

Weekly experiments in:

• anxiety

• self-improvement (without the cringe)

• modern life

• and trying to function like a normal person

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

If you live with that constant background hum of anxiety, you’ll understand the feeling of trying everything — therapy, routines, productivity hacks — and still feeling slightly on edge.

So today we’re trying something different.

This is a Mother’s Day anxiety special, featuring:

• two anxiety techniques from my mother (Old Ma)

• two techniques from a Harvard-trained life coach

• and a conversation that includes orgasms, existential philosophy, and a surprisingly detailed death plan.

In other words: a fairly normal episode.

In this episode we explore four very different ways of dealing with anxiety:

1️⃣ Old Ma’s technique #1: orgasm as emotional regulation

2️⃣ Old Ma’s technique #2: contemplating death (memento mori)

3️⃣ The “Sanity Quilt” method from Martha Beck

4️⃣ The Perfect Day exercise

Some of these are more sensible than others.

The Sanity Quilt idea comes from Martha Beck.

Imagine a patchwork blanket where each square is a small activity that reliably calms your nervous system.

Not big life changes.

Just tiny stabilisers you can rely on when things feel overwhelming.

Examples might include:

• a quick walk outside

• dancing to one song in the kitchen

• lighting a candle

• listening to music

• texting a friend

• reading a few pages of a book

• making a cup of tea

• eating a tiny cheeseboard (personal favourite)

The idea is to build a toolkit of small things that help you regulate before you spiral.

The Perfect Day exercise asks a different question:

Instead of chasing big life goals, what does a good ordinary Tuesday actually look like for you?

You imagine a realistic ideal day — from when you wake up to when you go to bed.

Not a fantasy billionaire life.

Just the kind of day your nervous system would actually enjoy living in.

Because life is basically thousands of Tuesdays in a row.

• how worrying brains invent problems that never happen

• why modern life might be fuelling anxiety

• why remembering death can sometimes make life easier

• Old Ma’s surprisingly detailed end-of-life plan

If you want Old Ma and I to attempt to solve your life problems, send us your dilemmas.

Relationship chaos, family drama, existential crises — we’ll take it all.

DM your questions to:

@rosehoneymorgan

@field.notes.pod

You can remain anonymous if you like.

Please follow the show, leave a review, or share it with someone who:

• worries about things that never happen

• enjoys slightly unhinged mother–daughter conversations

• or might benefit from a sanity quilt and a small cheeseboard

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Earlier this week I began testing the Flow Neuroscience headset — a device that uses transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) to stimulate areas of the brain linked to depression.

In simpler terms:

I’ve started plugging my forehead into a charger.

This Friday Field Report is the week one update.

I talk through:

• What the headset actually feels like to wear

• The slightly alarming wet electrode pads situation

• Whether the electrical stimulation hurts (spoiler: mildly… but in a “strong skincare” kind of way)

• The surprisingly good therapy app that comes with it

• Why the behavioural therapy modules are actually better than a lot of therapy I’ve paid for

• Whether the experiment is making me feel even slightly more motivated

So far the results are… inconclusive.

But I do feel a bit more like “come on then, let’s be having you.”

Which is something.

One thing that genuinely impressed me was the built-in therapy courses.

The headset isn’t just about the electrical stimulation — the app includes:

• behavioural therapy modules

• mindfulness and meditation sessions

• sleep support

• habit-building exercises

• diet and lifestyle guidance

All delivered through a chat-style interactive course, which is surprisingly engaging when you’re struggling to focus.

It’s a bit like a choose-your-own-adventure therapy conversation.

The therapy format inside the Flow app — genuinely useful behavioural therapy exercises delivered in a way that actually keeps you engaged.

If I find similar tools that don’t require a brain-electrocuting headset, I’ll link them here. Ok so there's one called Youper but it's not available in the UK annoyingly. Abby - your AI therapist looks good. Or Wysa the app looks good too. Haven't tried any of them though so... just going off the App Store sales pitch!

I currently have around 200 unanswered messages across email, WhatsApp and DMs.

The longer I leave them, the more awkward the replies become.

Classic.

I’ll report back again once I’ve used the headset for the full three-week protocol to see whether it actually improves:

• mood

• motivation

• executive function

• anxiety

Or whether I’ve simply been mildly electrifying my forehead for no reason.

If you’ve tried anything that actually helped your mental health, motivation or executive function — send it my way.

DM me on Instagram:

@rosehoneymorgan

@field.notes.pod

We’re currently reading Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway inside the Actually Trying Book Club.

Join here:

https://rosehoneymorgan.substack.com/freetrial

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today’s episode is about mental health, low mood, chronic anxiety, executive dysfunction, and a slightly alarming-looking headset that may or may not be about to change my life.

I’m trying the Flow Neuroscience headset — a non-invasive medical device that uses tDCS (transcranial Direct Current Stimulation) to stimulate the part of the brain linked to depression.

In simpler terms:

I am, apparently, going to start plugging my forehead into a charger.

And honestly? At this point I’m open to it.

In this episode I talk about:

• My long history of low mood, dread, anxiety, and general internal gloom
• Everything I’ve already tried:
• CBT
• EMDR
• Acceptance and Commitment Therapy
• medication
• exercise
• water
• sleep
• trying really hard not to lose the plot
• What the Flow headset actually is
• How it’s meant to work
• Why the NHS uses it
• The statistics that made me willing to strap an electrical device to my head
• Whether this is cutting-edge science or a sign that modern life has gone badly wrong
• Why our ancestors may have had lives that were more naturally protective of mental health than ours are now

A new Ask Guru & Granny segment on beauty, Botox, fillers, lipstick, tailored clothing, and why my mother believes a teaspoon of botulism could kill the human race.

So, as usual, it’s a mixed bag.

I’m starting the headset experiment now.

On Friday I’ll report back on:

• what it feels like
• whether it hurts
• what the app is like
• and whether I feel even slightly less like I’m permanently treading emotional water

The bigger results, apparently, take a few weeks — so this is just the beginning

If you want me and Old Ma to attempt to solve your problems, send them over.

DM me on Instagram:

• @rosehoneymorgan
• @field.notes.pod

And if I ignored your last one by accident, just bump it and send it again.

We’ve just started Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway inside the Actually Trying book club.

https://rosehoneymorgan.substack.com/freetrial

Please follow the show, leave a review, or share it with a friend who:

• is hanging on by a thread
• has tried everything
• or would absolutely try electrically charging their forehead if it meant feeling a bit more perky

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Last week I tested the internet’s favourite anti-doomscrolling trick:

turning your phone to gray scale (black and white).

The theory is simple: remove the bright colours that hijack your brain’s dopamine system and suddenly your phone becomes far less addictive.

Did it cut my screen time in half?

Well… not exactly.

But it did reveal some interesting things about how our brains react to colour, stimulation, and the endless scroll.

In this week’s Field Report we discuss:

• Whether gray scale actually reduced my screen time
• Why social media becomes weirdly less appealing in black and white
• How the experiment accidentally pushed me into a ChatGPT rabbit hole
• Why real life suddenly looked much more colourful and vivid
• A brief “Have We Lost the Plot?” anthropology segment on humans and colour stimulation
• The unexpected downside: trying to play phone games in grayscale

Plus:

Find of the Week

Appreciating colour again (and the joy of bold interiors)

Fail of the Week

Spending another two hours helping June solve a murder in June’s Journey

Join the Actually Trying Book Club

👉 https://rosehoneymorgan.substack.com/freetrial

Lucy’s interiors Instagram

👉 https://www.instagram.com/lucycollierinteriors

Follow the podcast so you don’t miss next week’s experiment.

If you enjoyed this episode, share it with a friend who is also trying (and occasionally failing) to reduce their screen time.

Next week’s topic may or may not make brands even more nervous about working with me… but at this point the damage is probably already done.

See you then.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.