Ep. 48: Small Changes, Big Effects with Karma Brown
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In our ongoing series about lifestyle change, we explore the story of Karma Brown, the best-selling novelist whose new non-fiction book, The 4% Fix, represents a compelling case study in the way small changes can lead to big effects. Years ago, as a working journalist and new mom, Karma Brown dreamed of writing her first novel. But between diapers and tight deadlines, she felt overstretched. How she achieved her life goal contains lessons for all of us.
Links, references and highlights:
Buy The 4% Fix: How One Hour C;an Change Your Life at Indigo or Amazon.
Karma Brown’s website features links to her best-selling novels.
Karma Brown is an award-winning journalist and bestselling author of five novels: the #1 Globe and Mail bestseller Recipe for a Perfect Wife, and the international bestsellers Come Away With Me (a Globe and Mail Top 150 books of 2015), The Choices We Make, In This Moment, and The Life Lucy Knew. In addition to her novels, Brown's writing has appeared in publications such as Self, Redbook, Canadian Living, Today's Parent, and Chatelaine. Karma lives just outside Toronto with her husband, daughter, and a labradoodle named Fred.
Small Changes, Big Effects final web transcript
Christopher Shulgan: Welcome to Eat Move Think, the podcast from Medcan CEO Shaun Francis that empowers people of all ages and cultures to live well, for life. Executive producer Christopher Shulgan here, with the latest in our series on lifestyle change.
Christopher Shulgan: Episodes 45 and 47 discussed the theory of change with a weight management doc and a psychologist. Now in this episode, we're examining a case study of change in action. Our guest is Toronto-area author Karma Brown, who wrote the number one Globe and Mail bestseller Recipe for a Perfect Wife and The Life Lucy Knew. Now she's written a non-fiction book that recounts the way one single, small habit transformed her life for the better. We'll get to precisely what that habit is in the episode. But for now, know that it's easy and accessible to everyone, no matter who you are. And it stands as an example of the way seemingly inconsequential alterations to daily living can add up to trigger major effects.
Christopher Shulgan: Now here's my conversation with Karma Brown, author of the new book, The 4% Fix: How One Hour Can Change Your Life.
Christopher Shulgan: Karma Brown, how are you today?
Karma Brown: I'm doing well. Thanks for having me. How are you doing, Chris?
Christopher Shulgan: I'm good. I'm surviving under the circumstances, I would say.
Karma Brown: As we all are, I think.
Christopher Shulgan: We're delighted to have you on the show, as you're doing the publicity rounds for your latest book, The 4% Fix. What I love about the idea of featuring it is that it plays really nicely into this series that we're doing on Eat Move Think around how to change. At this point, I want to say that it exists as a case study for the way small changes can have big effects. That sometimes just a little tweak to your life is all that's necessary to do the thing that you've been wanting to do for years. It's full of the sense that it's never too late to just figure out that one little tweak, and we're going to talk about what tweaks you made that can result in that change.
Karma Brown: Yeah, exactly. It doesn't have to be anything big, right? I think that's the risk is that everyone assumes that you have to make a huge change to see a result, to see something new happen in your life. And that's not true at all.
Christopher Shulgan: So let's go back several years, and Karma, can you describe the situation that you were facing where you thought, "Gee, something has to change?"
Karma Brown: Yeah. I mean, it's actually quite similar to what's going on right now for a lot of people, I think, where basically, I was never alone. I had a new baby, and I had a lot of goals. I wanted to write a novel. I wanted to write lots of different things, but particularly a novel. And I had a baby who never slept, and so was with me nearly 24/7. And we are all in this stage right now—or a lot of us anyway—where we have people with us in our spaces all the time. And at the time, I just—you know, I wasn't quite sure how to make it work. I was feeling frustrated. And then my daughter also never slept. And so she would get up at 3:00 am, 4:00 am, and I would sit there with her on the couch with me, And we'd be watching Dora the Explorer, which was the big cartoon back then. And I would just exist or try to survive on that couch at 4:00 am every morning, while she did her thing and just, you know, waited for whatever, the next change that was going to happen in the course of our day.
Karma Brown: And at some point I thought, "Okay. Well, I'm up. I'm going to be up for the foreseeable future at this time of day. And she's okay. I'm here, you know, she's playing, she's doing her thing. So maybe I can do my thing." And I just started trying to write at that time of the morning. And initially it was hard and it was distracting, and I didn't know what I wanted to write exactly. But I got into this rhythm, and it became a habit. And I learned that time could be mine. I didn't intend for it to be time that I had to use for this goal, but once I realized it was right there if I wanted to take it and try, then everything shifted for me. And I got that novel written in the mornings, bright and early.
Christopher Shulgan: And so previous to motherhood, can you talk about what your work routine would have been? Because early mornings were not exactly your forte.
Karma Brown: No. Are they anyone's forte? I don't know. I was, like, in that stage where I was a night owl. And I'd come home from work, and then with my husband, we would make dinner, you know, those relaxed times where you can just have a glass of wine and make a nice meal and take your time and then stay up late. And sometimes I would write late at night, but it was after this entire day. I had everything that had happened during the day sitting on my shoulders, and so it was never the most productive time for me to be working creatively. But I was truly a night owl. And I got up the next day in enough time to get myself ready to go to work, which I expected was normal and how everybody went about their days, you know, when you're in your mid-20s. And that was it. You know, I never considered the early morning unless I had to catch a flight or something like that. I was a night owl.
Christopher Shulgan: So then you start protecting this time. You sort of happen upon this time because your daughter is waking up at 3:30, 4:00 am. You're up. Why not? And then it segues into this next phase, which is that becomes your protected time.
Karma Brown: Yeah, I mean, I'm not even sure if it was a conscious decision to protect that time. It was almost like, by the time I realized how valuable that time was to me, I had it, it was mine, I had already claimed it. And so everyone in my family understood that that was my writing time. And as I said, it's just a habit. You know, now I don't sleep in. I set an alarm because I believe in the habit and in doing everything I can to be successful to make sure that I'm up. And, you know, sometimes you sleep in. But my body just naturally wakes up. It just knows what to do, you know, every morning now, after all these years.
Christopher Shulgan: The book is The 4% Fix: How One Hour Can Change Your Life. In a really sort of concise way, can you tell me what the 4% Fix is?
Karma Brown: Yeah. The 4% Fix refers to four percent of a 24-hour day. So you're taking this one hour, you are claiming it as yours, you are protecting it with everything that you have, and then you are using it in order to tackle something or try something that you've always been curious about, but didn't think that you would have the time for. And, you know, I'll say right now it doesn't have to be at 5:00 am. I talk a lot about my 5:00 am writing habit, and why the morning is a great time in order to do that. But it can be at night, it can be in the middle of the day. The point is the hour. The point is the investment in yourself, in something that you are excited about and curious about.
Karma Brown: I talk a lot about cake in this book because I love cake, but it's also a great way to look at dividing up your day. You know, a cake with 24 pieces, make sure that you give yourself that piece of cake first. And if you can't give it to yourself at 5:00 am, then you need to wrap it up and put it aside so that you make sure that you get it as everyone else takes the pieces of cake that are available on that platter.
Christopher Shulgan: The 4% Fix is this idea that you're reserving four percent of your day for something. You and I are both writers. In actual fact, I have taken that 5:00 to 6:00 am just like you have and written a book with that time. But the point is, it doesn't have to be writing, it can be anything. You know, you talk about CrossFit. It doesn't have to be exercise. It can be anything.
Karma Brown: Exactly. Yeah. And like you said, I mean, I used it for my writing. I continue to use it for my writing. But I also use it for a lot of other things. I've used it for baking projects that I wanted to do. I mean yes, I was baking macaroons at 5:00 am. Because why not? You know, I'm up. I've used it for reading books that have been sitting on my to-be-read list for a long time. That's just—I love reading, so that's something that was a personal enjoyment project for me where I could just get through some of those books that had just been sitting there waiting for me for a long time. I have considered using it to learn another language. You know, a lot of people use that time for exercise. Maybe you want to learn an instrument, I tried the ukulele. It didn't go super well. And I gave it a few mornings and learned a couple of chords and put the ukulele down.
Christopher Shulgan: Certain, I think, A Type people would be tempted to set what you call and what Jim Collins calls a B_HAG. Like, a big, hairy, audacious goal.
Karma Brown: Mm-hmm.
Christopher Shulgan: And you actually talk about the opposite of that. Can you talk about your P-HAG?
Karma Brown: Okay, so B-HAG, as you said, is this big, hairy, audacious goal. And it's a term that floats around. I first heard it when I was working in consulting. It was used often in our meetings and when we were working with clients. And it was used as this idea like, this is what you want. You want B-HAGs. Go after them. You know, make them big and audacious. And I have always found that to be just overwhelming. You know, such a big goal then requires multiple little goals, and you end up with this tree of goals and branches, and how are you going to get where you need to be. And it can lead to that feeling of failure. It's too big, I can't get it done.
Karma Brown: So I prefer to look at it as P-HAGs, which is a petite, hairless, agreeable goal. So the exact opposite of a B-HAG. It's a much friendlier way to look at goal setting, in my opinion. And, you know, those are goals that are smaller, are manageable, are much more likely to lead to success. And, you know, for people who are—like, I'm a Type A productivity junkie, and I'm like, probably in some sort of recovery, especially after 2020, when pandemic productivity was this whole thing, and people were writing, like, novels in very short time. And so I'm recovering from my Type A productivity. As a recovering Type A productivity nut, the P-HAG is particularly important to me right now, because, you know, again, it's not about the productivity, it is about the goal. And it is about helping yourself to be as successful as possible.
Karma Brown: And we are right now in this new year, new you thing—which is another term that I really try not to use, because resolutions just—that's a great way to make yourself feel terrible about what's going on in your life. They're too big, they're too bold, and as much as I love a good bold goal, you really do need to have some structure behind it, some of those little more manageable goals that can help you get where you need to be. Sometimes you set a great big goal, and you're so committed to it, and you've invested so much into it, and you're maybe halfway there, and you realize that that is not something that you want. And then it's really hard to let go of that without feeling like you've somehow failed.
Karma Brown: So I—you know, for myself, I work on these P-HAGs, and I try to suggest that other people do that as well. Just, if you're into goal setting and you're a goal-setting junkie, it is also a really lovely way to be able to tick off a lot of boxes on the list of goals that you might have.
Christopher Shulgan: That's amazing. We're here with Karma Brown, the author of The 4% Fix, which is about how taking a certain slice of cake, a protected time of the day and applying it to a certain thing that you want to get done. But it doesn't have to be a big, hairy, audacious goal, it can be a petite, hairless, agreeable goal. People tend to procrastinate, or people tend to provide excuses for themselves. And one of those excuses can be, "I'm too old for this. You know, this is too late. I'm too late. I'm not going to do that big thing or that thing that I always wanted to do, because I'm X number of years old." But you believe that's nonsense. And you believe that's nonsense, I think, because you've done the research and you've found case studies of people who have achieved amazing things at progressed ages. Can you talk about that a little bit?
Karma Brown: Yeah. In the book, I talk about a few examples, Colonel Sanders being one of them, who—I believe it was after 40, you know, came up with this successful recipe and had all the success that we know today in that second half of his life, after going bankrupt and seeming to be quite destitute. I think he was living out of his car at one point. And there was another example of a runner who didn't start running until she was, I believe, 100. And it was—it had something to do with the fact that, you know, she likes to garden to keep herself healthy. But she thought, "Well, why not? Why don't I just try to run this race and see what happens?" Which is an amazing thing to consider with a 100-year-old body, I think. But it turned out really well for her, and she's won a number of races for her age.
Karma Brown: And, you know, I think that there are lots of examples of people having great success later in life. And even for myself, you know, coming to a new career later in my life, I didn't publish my first novel until I was 41. The point is to look at it and see if you can try, and see what might be possible. Because there really is no reason not to try if it's just fear that's holding you back or the thought that maybe your time has come and gone, and you're going to leave that to the younger people to really go out there and be bold and brave and try something new. But I love writing novels, and I never would have realized that if I hadn't taken the chance to do it.
Christopher Shulgan: In our last show, we talked about how sometimes what you need to do is move around the chess pieces on the board in order to achieve something. And if you don't achieve that thing with the first arrangement, then the idea is move them around again, and maybe that'll work. Or move them around again, and that'll work. And so what I love about this is that this is a way of moving those chess pieces around the board. So in your book, you talk about the way you can't just think that you're going to wake up at 5:00 am and immediately be able to work amazingly, and everything is going to be perfect, and you're going to be running through the daisies or whatever. That actually some preparation is required. And some of that preparation is on the back end, is at night, in terms of when you go to bed. Can you talk about some of the stuff that you might want to do before you start getting up at 5:00 am?
Karma Brown: Now the thing that people really need to understand is that if you're going to get up early, you have to go to bed earlier. There is just no way to fiddle with your sleep schedule so that you can make this work and sleep less. You know, everyone needs a different amount of sleep to feel good the next day, but the fastest way to make sure that this doesn't work is to get yourself underslept, which can happen very quickly if you're not preparing the nighttime routine. So one of the things that people can do if they want to try to get up earlier, is maybe 5:00 am is not the time. So if you're normally getting up at six, or sorry, seven, maybe you set your alarm for 6:45. And the night before, you go to bed 15 minutes earlier and everything just adjusts from there. And if that is manageable, do it again another day. Then push it back another 15 minutes.
Karma Brown: You know, it's the small steady steps that help with that consistency and turn it into a habit. And I have talked to a lot of people who have done this. And, you know, they are surprised by how easy it actually is to change the habit if they're committed to it and they make a plan for it. And then they really do see the value of being up early when it's quiet. It is this amazingly peaceful time. And it is all yours because no one else is up. You know, your inbox has not awakened yet, and phone's not ringing. And ideally, your children—if you have them—are still sleeping. It's really about committing to a plan, and making it stick for long enough that you can see if it's going to work for you. Because one night and one day is not enough time.
Christopher Shulgan: Just out of curiosity, what time do you go to bed?
Karma Brown: It depends. I mean, I try to be asleep by 10:00 pm. And that usually means that I go up to bed at nine, so that I can read and I can just sort of quiet down, quiet my brain down before I go to sleep. We typically don't watch TV at night. It's—both of us, my husband and I both do better. We both get up early if we are just reading and then asleep by 10. And then honestly, this morning I woke up at 4:30. I was in bed asleep by 10 and I was up at 4:30 this morning. And I feel good.
Christopher Shulgan: If this is starting to sound good to you, then there are things that you can do. So you can go to bed early. You can make coffee so that it's set, so that it's ready for you when you go downstairs. That's a trick that we use in our own house.
Karma Brown: Yeah.
Christopher Shulgan: And then in terms of being productive, you talk about some pitfalls. There are certain things that you shouldn't do. One of them is social media. So can you talk about the pitfalls that exist between—I mean, in your case, I guess it's, like, between 4:50 and 5:00. Like, don't check Twitter, don't check Instagram.
Karma Brown: Yeah.
Christopher Shulgan: What else is there?
Karma Brown: You know, Twitter's my worst downfall in the morning. I do everything in my power. I don't have it on my phone, I try to not look at it on my laptop. I pretend like it is not available to me. And I've set my coffee so that—and I've set up my work so that when I sit down to do it in that creative space, I'm ready to go. I have my coffee, I have ignored Twitter, and I am ready to go with my creative writing. I mean, there can be any sort of pitfall available to you. But I think social media is probably the worst. Because you know what it's like: you open your phone, you're looking at Instagram, or you're looking at Twitter or Facebook, and the next thing you know, 45 minutes has passed, and you've watched like 12—I mean, in my case, it's always animal videos on YouTube that I get drawn from Twitter over to them, or you've gotten yourself all worked up with political stuff, you know, which happens a lot these days on Twitter. That just all derails your time. And it is just this precious hour, because you have this whole other life that needs your attention and your focus.
Karma Brown: And, you know, not to put a lot of pressure on that ticking clock, but that does need to be considered when you're getting up. You need to decide why you're getting up. You know, I believe that the morning is the best time because you have slept. Everything that happened the day before has been compartmentalized in your brain, you have a clean slate, and you have a quiet space, ideally. And so it's this amazing time that you really don't get it any other part of the day, because at the end of the day, you're still living with everything that has happened to you throughout that day, and all the things that are coming the following day.
Christopher Shulgan: There is another reason why it makes sense to do early morning, and that has to do with neurology. Can you talk about that?
Karma Brown: I can a little bit, but I will warn you, as not being a neurology expert, I did do research on sleep for this book, but it was very focused on, you know, I guess me trying to convince people that 5:00 am is the best time. But there is a part of your brain and it's called the anterior cingulate cortex or the ACC. And really, it's near your temple, and it operates a little bit like a fuel tank for your brain. And so it gets nicely filled up at the beginning of the day overnight. And as you make decisions throughout your day—so this is the part of the brain that's really focused on your decision making. As you're making these decisions, it is slowly getting depleted. And we make thousands of decisions every day. I mean, you think about all the tiny little decisions that you make without even really thinking about it. Like, what are you going to have for breakfast, or which socks do you want to put on? Every time you're making one of those decisions, you're slowly depleting that ACC and the fuel that exists there.
Karma Brown: And if you're waiting to harness this hour for yourself to do something really creative, or something that's out of your comfort zone especially, you're going to need more fuel in that tank. And if you wait until the end of the day, when that tank has become depleted, because really over these thousands of little and then bigger decisions you're making through the day, there's really not much left at the end of the day. However, at 5:00 am when you wake up, it's like having that full tank of gas. And not just in that part of your brain, but also in your body. You're rested and you're ready to be able to tackle whatever it is with a clear mind. And so that's, you know, one of the more compelling reasons about why getting up at 5:00 am or 6:00 am or 7:00, depending on your schedule, just making this the first thing that you do when you wake up.
Christopher Shulgan: I want to make a plea to people that, don't be too hard on yourself if you're not able to do this consistently right off the bat. That stuff is crazy right now. And so give it a shot. But if you—you know, if a couple of days go by, and you're not making that 5:00 am wake-up, then be kind to yourself, but keep at it. Because I do think—you know, I think there's a tendency to be like, "Well, I'm not really an early riser. And so I'm going to try this out, but my protected hour is 6:00 pm to 7:00 pm, or my protected hour is going to be 1:00 pm to 2:00 pm. For whatever reason, just life is so crazy that for some reason that never works, I think. That for some reason, there is a magical thing about this 5:00 am to 6:00 am hour in terms of productivity and in terms of getting stuff done, that if you can manage it, if you can wake up early, and you can get into whatever it is that you want to get into immediately, it just works and it provides you with a solace.
Christopher Shulgan: I'm kind of being your evangelist here, but I really do believe in what you're selling here. Like, I think that works.
Karma Brown: Like, today in my own life was a perfect example. We're in this pandemic. We're in lockdown right now. I try to work out every day, and I am part of a CrossFit gym. Can't go right now, so they're doing videos online where you follow along. Great. I couldn't do it this morning, which is when I normally do it because my daughter's school, and I was trying to work, and there were all kinds of things happening. And so I thought, "I'll do it later in the day." But now what's happened is that there are all these other things that have since come up for later in the day, and I cannot now squeeze it in.
Karma Brown: So it means I'm going to, you know, have this day where for me working out is as important for my brain as it is for, you know, my heart, the rest of my body. But now I've lost that window. And I've lost that time that I was planning to dedicate to myself, you know, to help me with this. So there's this pandemic productivity issue where people are feeling like they should be more productive, because they have all this time on their hands, which is ridiculous, and everyone needs to let that go. But there's also this sense of, like, how can I possibly take on one more thing? Like, I'm already exhausted or frustrated or feeling just really tired. And that may be a time where then you dabble. Like, you try one morning a week and see if you can do it.
Karma Brown: But the point is to try to give it to yourself first. And I think that's really my main message from this book that, you know, like you said, if you wait until noon, or one, there's a higher chance it's not going to happen, and something else will fill that time and take that piece of cake. So trying to get it done in the morning, trying to give yourself that space and time in the morning is really the critical piece.
Christopher Shulgan: I work with a lot of CEOs, and I have learned that your likelihood of having a meeting that actually happens with a CEO—because CEOs are constantly dealing with the storm of everyday life in a way that is what is happening to everybody right now but times 100. And I have learned that you're likely to actually have a meeting with a CEO goes up the earlier in the day that you schedule the meeting. And so 8:00 am is the best. 8:00 am is the best for a CEO meeting. So the 4% Fix and getting it early, getting it done early, the same logic applies. It's more likely to happen. You're more likely to do it for yourself, if you get it done right off the bat.
Karma Brown: Yes, agreed.
Christopher Shulgan: Karma Brown, you've been so generous with your time. Thank you for that. The 4% Fix: How One Hour Can Change Your Life is an inspiring book. It's a life-changing book, I think, in that this is a case study of how a single small change can create big results, and I love it for that. Thank you for writing it.
Karma Brown: Well, thank you very much for having me. I'm delighted to spend this four percent of my day with you.
Christopher Shulgan: That’s it for this episode of Eat Move Think. I’m Christopher Shulgan, the show's executive producer, and the guest was Karma Brown, bestselling author, talking about her latest book, The 4% Fix: How One Hour Can Change Your Life.
Christopher Shulgan: We post episode highlights and full episode transcripts at eatmovethinkpodcast.com, including a link to The 4% Fix at Indigo and Amazon, as well as links to Karma Brown’s website and Twitter feed.
Christopher Shulgan: Eat Move Think is produced by Ghost Bureau. Senior producer is Russell Gragg. Social media support from Emily Mannella. Editorial direction from Chantel Guertin.
Christopher Shulgan: Remember to rate and subscribe to Eat Move Think on your favourite podcast platform. Follow host Shaun Francis on Twitter and Instagram @shauncfrancis—that's Shaun with a U—and Medcan @medcanlivewell. We'll be back soon with a new episode examining the latest in health and wellness.
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