All The Adulting Skills You Were Never Taught | Erin Zammett Ruddy | Modern Wisdom Podcast 224

I realized that I wasn't doing these things as efficiently as possible and we all know those people who are super efficient and they just, like, plow through every task and they do it. Like, my father's one of those people. You know, when I started writing the book, I was 40 and I was like, "I have three kids, I have, like, a job, I have all these things that make me seem like an adult, but I'm still a disaster and, like, a hot mess." And I thought, "You know what? These people might be onto something," right? But I also knew that I didn't have it in me to, like, Marie Kondo my whole life, because I would dump the contents of my closet and probably leave it there for three weeks, and get a divorce. (laughs) You know, like... (laughs) So I was like, "I need little things that I can do, small little step by step things that I can implement almost without noticing, and it has a huge impact on my day and my life."

(wind blowing) I'm joined by Erin Zammit Ruddy. Erin, welcome to the show.

Hi, Chris. Thank you so much for having me.

Thank you for being here. Are you gonna teach us how to adult today? Is this an adulting seminar?

(laughs) Um, a little bit. I hope I am almost an adult. That was sort of the plan when I set out to write this book, that by- at the end, I might actually be an adult. So, I'm getting there.

Yeah.

At 42.

(laughs) Well, there's hope for us all yet then. Um, life doesn't-

Yeah.

... come with an instruction manual and upon reading your Little Book of Life Skills, I've realized how much of this stuff you realize kind of just emergently. It's like how to make your bed or, like, how to properly load a dishwasher and stuff like that. No one actually does teach you these things, so is it just a desire for you to seek some advice from smart people that have got the answers and then compile them for yourself, like a How To Be Erin.doc book?

Yeah, I think, um, I think I did r- I realized that I wasn't doing these things as efficiently as possible and we all know those people who are super efficient and they just, like, plow through every task and they do it, like- like, my father's one of those people. And at- at, you know, when I started writing the book, I was 40 and I was like, "I have three kids, I have, like, a job, I have all these things that make me seem like an adult, but I'm still a disaster and, like, a hot mess." Like, rolling- rolling around with, like, I mean, you know, my car is a... Anyway, I'm just, like, I was a little bit of a mess and I thought, "You know what? These people might be onto something," right? But I also knew that I didn't have it in me to, like, Marie Kondo my whole life, um, because I would dump the contents of my closet and probably leave it there for three weeks and get a divorce. (laughs) You know, like... (laughs) So I was like, "I need little things that I can do, um, small little step by step things that I can implement almost without noticing," right? Like, just little things where I'm like, "Huh. This is a small thing and it has a huge impact on my day and my life." Um, and so yeah, so I was like, I- let me set out to find, um, the best experts for each of these individual tasks which, you know, range from like waking up in the morning, um, to making a great cheese board, to sending a proper email, to helping a friend through a crisis. Um, and then, you know, there's a ton of fun stuff. There's folding a fitted sheet, of course, doing laundry which I was terrible at, um, and just doing it in a way that felt like I would do it. You know what I mean? This is a book that I could read, somebody like me. Like, you don't have to go out and, like, buy a million things to try to redo your life. It's just like small little hacks, little things with big rewards.