Self improvement meets comedy, by accident. Rose Honey Morgan is a chronically sleep deprived mother of two small children, with a catastrophic history of sticking to anything. So naturally she's spending the year testing self-improvement trends and wellness theories (with questionable methods and an anthropology degree) to work out what actually works, so you don't have to.
The experiment episodes follow Rose as she tests the trend, consults human history to work out whether we've completely lost the plot, and reports back on what actually happened. The Guru and Granny episodes bring in Old Ma, Rose's mother, a boomer with strong opinions, no filter, and advice that is either accidentally profound or completely unhinged. Sometimes within the same sentence.
Actually Trying is a podcast for frazzled women who want to sort their lives out - but don't want to waste time on it unless it really works.
Découvrez des podcasts liées à Actually Trying. Explorez des podcasts avec des thèmes, sujets, et formats similaires. Ces similarités sont calculées grâce à des données tangibles, pas d'extrapolations !
Have We All Got Undiagnosed ADHD? Let's Ask Old Ma
Saison 1 · Épisode 29
jeudi 23 juillet 2026 • Durée 51:10
Welcome to Actually Trying. Same podcast, new name, new format.
This week: have a lot of women got undiagnosed ADHD, or are we all just weird? I'm seeing a psychiatrist in two days. Old Ma thinks we should go back to the five original lunacies. She held that position for about ten minutes, until she found out there might be some legal speed in it for her.
We cover:
Why ADHD in girls gets missed entirely
Object permanence and forgetting your friends exist
Whether it's real or just Big Pharma cataloguing sweaty palms
Getting diagnosed as an adult: private assessment, five-year NHS waits, and what £200 online actually buys you
Ask Guru & Granny: a secondary school teacher of 22 years wants to jack it in and become a florist. Is 48 too old to start again? We get into midlife career changes, side hustles, and why women over 50 are the fastest-growing group of entrepreneurs globally.
Next time: I report back on whether I actually got diagnosed.
Timestamps
0:00 New name, new format
3:20 Have we all got undiagnosed ADHD?
3:50 The five original lunacies
10:30 ADHD in boys vs girls
12:00 Object permanence
13:50 Eight signs of ADHD in women
18:40 My missed diagnosis at school
27:50 Ask Guru & Granny: teacher wants to be a florist
39:20 Women over 50 and starting a business
49:30 The £200 private diagnosis
ADHD in women, inattentive ADHD, ADHD symptoms in girls vs boys, object permanence, emotional dysregulation, private ADHD assessment, NHS waiting lists. I wrote that list for SEO, in case you didn't realise and just thought it was a random outburst.
Follow along to see me desperately trying in real time on:
Field Report: I Tried Every Walking Trend on the Internet
Saison 1 · Épisode 28
lundi 18 mai 2026 • Durée 28:50
A field report (and Guru & Granny) featuring Japanese walking, Hot Girl Walks, movement after meals, and using the Steppin app to earn screen time through steps.
Click here to try the Steppin App - https://www.steppin.net/
Timestamps
0:00 Intro — reporting back on the walking experiment
1:00 Step In app review & my tragic step count
2:30 Why earning screen time through steps actually worked
4:10 The psychological cost of doomscrolling
4:45 Hostage-situation brand deals & choosing a secret code word
6:20 Japanese walking results
7:50 Why I abandoned the Japanese walking halfway through
9:00 Looking unhinged in front of villagers
10:00 Hot Girl Walks & mindset walking
10:45 My recurring imaginary hostage scenario
11:30 The gold eyeshadow plane defence plan
15:00 Krav Maga, Buffy & survival fantasies
16:30 Did Hot Girl Walks actually help?
17:15 Movement after meals
18:15 Finds & fails of the week
19:00 Hay fever, wasps & wanting to flee England
20:30 Guru & Granny: should you force a grown man to eat vegetables?
24:00 “You are not responsible for his asshole”
Can Walking Fix Our Entire Lives and Personalities?
Saison 1 · Épisode 27
lundi 11 mai 2026 • Durée 26:26
This week I’m testing whether walking really is the closest thing we have to a magic pill - and whether I can get my steps up without becoming the sort of person pacing the kitchen at 10pm to hit 10,000.
I’m trying:
• Japanese interval walking
• hot girl walks
• walking/moving after meals
• using SteppIn app to earn screen time through steps
• taking antihistamines so pollen can stop ruining my life
Also: why 10,000 steps may be a marketing myth, why walking helps mood, and whether we’ve lost the plot with step counts.
20:00 Hay fever, antihistamines and walking barriers
Field Report: Are Morning Routines Nuts or A Necessary Evil?
Saison 1 · Épisode 26
vendredi 8 mai 2026 • Durée 21:33
DM me your Guru & Granny dilemmas:
@rosehoneymorgan
@field.notes.pod
This week I tested three viral morning routines from an American wellness girl, a British productivity girl, and an aggressively glowing Australian woman.
The result:
• I gagged on expired coconut oil
• got laughed at by my children while doing Chinese lymphatic movements
• briefly became the kind of woman who makes her bed
• and accidentally discovered a morning habit that might genuinely improve my life.
Also:
• why affirmations made me feel like I was gaslighting myself
• the surprising psychological effect of making the bed
• whether electrolytes are worth the hype
• why “high-fiving yourself in the mirror” feels deeply threatening as an English person
• and the moment I almost accidentally quit the podcast altogether.
TIMESTAMPS
00:00 — The field report begins
01:00 — Why the podcast vanished for 3 weeks
03:00 — Burnout, school holidays & trying to keep this running
06:00 — Coconut oil pulling: immediate failure
08:00 — Electrolytes: annoyingly effective
08:45 — Rebounding on a Peppa Pig trampoline
11:00 — Chinese lymphatic dance humiliation
12:15 — The Mel Robbins 5-4-3-2-1 rule
The Internet’s Morning Routines: Do They 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.
In this episode
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
Timestamps (ish)
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
Field Report: I Tested Internet Advice for Surviving PMS
Saison 1 · Épisode 24
vendredi 27 mars 2026 • Durée 09:34
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.
Timestamps
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
Field Report: I Tested 4 Anxiety Techniques So You Don’t Have To (You’re Welcome)
Saison 1 · Épisode 22
vendredi 20 mars 2026 • Durée 13:15
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.
🧠 What you’ll get:
• 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
4 Anxiety Techniques I’d Never Heard Before (Let’s Hope They Work)
Saison 1 · Épisode 21
lundi 16 mars 2026 • Durée 27:48
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.
The Four Anxiety Techniques
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
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.
Field Report: I Tried Electrifying My Brain for a Week…
Saison 1 · Épisode 20
vendredi 13 mars 2026 • Durée 14:01
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.
Inside the Flow app
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
26:00 Tiny chopped vegetables vs letting nature take its course
27:00 Would Old Ma want another child in the family?
28:00 Final thoughts & term-time podcast plans
Ask Guru & Granny
Send your dilemmas, life problems and questionable decisions to:
@rosehoneymorgan
@field.notes.pod
Follow along to see me desperately trying in real time on:
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.
Find of the Week
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!
Fail of the Week
I currently have around 200 unanswered messages across email, WhatsApp and DMs.
The longer I leave them, the more awkward the replies become.
Classic.
The experiment continues
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.
Join the conversation
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
Join the Book Club
We’re currently reading Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway inside the Actually Trying Book Club.
