Ep. 433: Batching & Birthday Celebrations

Happier in Hollywood

The Onward Project

Careers, Education, Business, Self-improvement

4.8 • 2.5K Ratings

🗓️ 28 August 2025

⏱️ 31 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Inspired by recent conversations with other Content Creators, Liz and Sarah talk about their determination to start “batching,” especially when it comes to all of their non-TV work. In Take A Hike, Sarah reveals why planning a celebration for her recent birthday has made her happier. Spoiler alert: fondue is involved. Then, in The Craft (& Fain), they share listener Kayla’s advice to drastically lower their daily goals as they work on their novel. This week’s Hollywood Hack will improve your puzzling: The NYT Games app. Finally, Sarah recommends the memoir How To Lose Your Mother by Molly Jong-Fast

Get in touch on Instagram: @Sfain & @LizCraft

Get in touch on Threads: @Sfain & @LizCraft

Visit our website: https://happierinhollywood.com

Join our Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/HappierinHollywood/

Happier in Hollywood is part of ‘The Onward Project,’ a family of podcasts brought together by Gretchen Rubin—all about how to make your life better. Check out the other Onward Project podcasts—Happier with Gretchen Rubin, and Side Hustle School . If you liked this episode, please subscribe, leave a review, and tell your friends!

LINKS:

Stay In LA:

https://www.stayinla.org/

The Melting Pot:

https://www.meltingpot.com/thousand-oaks-ca/

How To Lose Your Mother by Molly Jong-Fast:

https://amzn.to/4mwGmdd

Photo by Brooke Lark on Unsplash

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcript

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0:00.0	So is our goal to get the script in today?
0:09.0	I don't think so. I think realistically tomorrow, but definitely tomorrow. All right, tomorrow it is.
0:16.0	Hi, and welcome to happier in Hollywood, the podcast about how to be happier, healthier,
0:28.6	saner, more creative, more successful, and more productive, and a backbiting, superficial,
0:33.6	chaotic, unpredictable, fundamentally insane world. I'm Liz Kraft, a TV writer and producer
0:39.7	living in L.A. And with me is my high school friend and writing partner Sarah. That's me,
0:45.3	Sarah Fane. On this podcast, we talk about being writers in Hollywood, how we balance a career and
0:50.7	friendship, and how to survive the war of attrition that is life in Los Angeles.
0:55.5	Today we're going to talk about batching. What is it and why should we be doing it?
1:00.7	Then and take a hike, I'll reveal why planning my birthday celebration made me happier.
1:06.9	We also have a The Craft and Fane courtesy of a listener.
1:11.3	This week's Hollywood Hack will improve your New York Times puzzle experience.
1:15.8	And finally, Sarah has a memoir recommendation.
1:19.8	But first, Sarah, happy birthday.
1:22.6	Today is your birthday.
1:25.2	Yes, it is.
1:26.4	Thank you so much.
1:27.4	I'm having a wonderful birthday so far. Good. And we're going to talk more about your birthday. Yes, it is. Thank you so much. I'm having a wonderful birthday so far.
1:29.5	Good. And we're going to talk more about your birthday later. But first, Sarah, in our last
1:33.9	episode, we talked to council member, Audrey Nizarian, about his efforts to keep production in
1:39.4	L.A., which is something, of course, we care a lot about. And we were asking him ways that people can get
1:44.8	involved. And his office reached out and let us know about a grassroots campaign called Stay in
	...

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