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.
Discover shows related to Actually Trying, based on actual content similarities. Explore podcasts with similar topics, themes, and formats, backed by real data.
📸 You can see the vision boards mentioned in this episode on Instagram:
Personal: @rosehoneymorgan
Podcast: @field.notes.pod
If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave a review — even a short one. It genuinely helps this show find the people it’s meant for.
New episodes every Monday, with short Friday Field Reports.
Why Vision Boards Fail (And How to Fix Them)
Most of us don’t have a motivation problem.
We have a too-much-advice problem.
If you’ve ever saved hundreds of self-improvement posts, understood all of them, and still felt overwhelmed, guilty, and no closer to actually changing anything — this episode is for you.
In the first ever episode of Field Notes, I explain the premise of the podcast and put our first experiment to the test: vision boards. Not the fantasy, yacht-and-linen version — but the kind that might actually work in real life.
I talk through:
why modern vision boards often backfire
the neuroscience behind why visual cues can work
where self-help goes wrong when it focuses on outcomes instead of process
how humans have used imagery for survival and behaviour change across history
and why cave art might be a better model for self-improvement than Pinterest
I also bring along my 2024 and 2025 vision boards as the first (and most humiliating) guests on the show, including the one goal that accidentally did work thanks to a Sarah Connor lock-screen.
This podcast isn’t about becoming a new person overnight.
It’s about filtering advice, testing one small idea at a time, and figuring out what’s actually worth doing, outside of perfect conditions.
On Friday, I’ll be back with a short Field Report on what happened when I made a process-based vision board and whether it helped or just gave me another thing to judge myself by.
Follow along to see me desperately trying in real time on:
Field Report: I Was Wrong About Vision Boards (And Panicked)
Season 1 · Episode 2
Friday, January 9, 2026 • Duration 16:13
Things did not go exactly to plan.
After launching the podcast and immediately developing a brief but intense sense of delusion, I realised I’d slightly abandoned the entire premise of the show. Instead of calmly testing a saved bit of advice and reporting back, I panicked, went semi-guru, and tried to convince everyone (including my family) that vision boards absolutely, definitely work.
This episode is me correcting course.
I talk about:
my delusions of grandeur
why outcome-based vision boards can feel motivating and then quietly ruin your life
how “process pictures” are supposed to work in theory, and why they’re surprisingly hard when your goals involve screens, editing, or admin
and the growing realisation that naming a podcast without Googling it first may have been… optimistic
We also establish two recurring Field Notes features:
Fail of the Week (there were many)
Find of the Week: if your perfume doesn't smell great, leave it for 4 years then come back to it
If you like self-improvement in theory but struggle with it in real life, you’re in the right place.
It may not get you any more of a discount that you can get yourselves (I haven't clicked it yet), and they may request that I take it down after listening to this episode. But hey ho. The show notes are looking professional this week.
Field Report of the dopamine detox experiment. I tested three “highly scientific” methods in my most dangerous scrolling window: 7–10pm after the girls are asleep.
What I tried:
Night 1: full raw-dog detox (no phone, no TV, no music, no book… just vibes and existential dread)
Night 2: reading instead (Kindle + a dangerously moorish fantasy romance)
Night 3: TV without the phone (feat. the Bonnie Blue documentary and a sudden moral debate I wasn’t prepared for)
We also cover:
why “doing nothing” is a rich man’s hobby
the weird way scrolling has ruined reading
why watching a whole film now feels like personal growth
sex being transactional across human history (lightly… then not lightly)
Flatmate’s Field Notes: my husband’s unhinged business analysis of Bonnie Blue
Find of the Week: Brick (a physical gadget that blocks apps unless you walk to it)
Fail of the Week: realising I’m not enjoying reading like I used to (rude)
If you tried a dopamine detox too, I want your results. And if you’ve used Brick, please report to the group chat (my DMs).
Should We All Be Doing Dopamine Detoxes? (I Have Concerns)
Season 1 · Episode 3
Monday, January 12, 2026 • Duration 21:00
This week I’ve saved a worrying number of reels about dopamine detoxes.
So naturally, I decided to make it everyone else’s problem too.
From raw-dogging flights (no phone, no music, no water, no joy) to promises that cutting out dopamine will magically fix motivation, laziness, and modern life in general — dopamine has officially entered its villain era.
In this episode, I’m not trying anything yet. I’m circling the idea, poking it, and asking some basic questions first, like:
What actually is dopamine and why has it suddenly become the enemy?
Are dopamine detoxes sensible… or just dry January for your phone?
Is scrolling ruining our brains, or are we just terrible at stopping?
Why can I listen to podcasts endlessly but can’t watch a full TV episode without grabbing my phone?
And at what point does “self-control” turn into sitting on a plane staring at the flight map like a Victorian orphan?
I also dig into:
Healthy vs unhelpful dopamine (effort vs passive flooding)
Why modern life makes everything feel simultaneously overstimulating and boring
How screen culture is quietly reshaping films, TV, and attention spans
And whether completely removing stimulation actually helps… or just makes life grim
By the end, I set up this week’s experiment:
One day of doing nothing (true detox, unfortunately)
One day replacing scrolling with reading
One day watching a full film without touching my phone (pray for me)
This is — where I test modern self-improvement ideas in real life, outside of perfect conditions, and report back honestly on what actually happens.
How Do We Improve Focus When We’re Exhausted? Coffee, Mushrooms or Microdosing?
Season 1 · Episode 5
Monday, January 19, 2026 • Duration 37:05
Tiny cultural translation (for non-UK / under-25 listeners)
•Bargain Hunt: British daytime TV where people buy antiques and act like it’s a pension strategy.
•Wordle: a daily five-letter word game we all got hooked on in lockdown.
New listener segment starting next week: Ask Guru & Granny
From next week, we’ll be answering listener questions — anything you’re stuck on, spiralling about, or quietly panicking over.
Or DM me on Instagram: @rosehoneymorgan or @field.notes.pod
Tell us if you’d like to be anonymous or named.
Neither of us are licensed psychologists or counsellors. My mum’s main credential is “a life well lived” and several decades of being unimpressed by nonsense. Mine is that I'm now a guru.
We are all exhausted. Properly frazzled. Brain-fogged. Running on caffeine, habit, and whatever scraps of motivation are left after bedtime.
And then you open Instagram or TikTok and get hit with the most infuriating contradiction imaginable:
Drink coffee for energy.
No — coffee is ruining your nervous system.
Try mushroom coffee.
Field Report: I Drank Mushroom Coffee All Week - Here’s What Happened
Season 1 · Episode 6
Friday, January 23, 2026 • Duration 18:51
Housekeeping: Ask Guru & Granny starts Monday
You send in your problems.
You get:
a chronically online take (me)
a chronically offline take (Old Ma)
Questions can be about:
work
relationships
identity
confidence
decision paralysis
....anything
Send questions to:
📩 rosefieldnotespod@gmail.com
Or DM me on Instagram: @rosehoneymorgan or @field.notes.pod
Tell us if you’d like to be anonymous or named.
(Neither of us are licensed psychologists or counsellors.)
(they actually give one to anyone. still... I think it's 20% off)
This Episode
This week I went all in on mushroom coffee - far beyond the recommended daily allowance - and flirted with the idea of ayahuasca.
Not at a retreat.
A workshop.
Which is very much the pre-retreat.
I went in curious, sceptical, exhausted, and - unfortunately - deeply distracted by a fit shaman, which immediately ruled out any future scenario involving vomiting, purging, or losing control in front of an attractive man.
So: ayahuasca is crossed off the list .
Main Character Dressing: Can Clothes Actually Fix Your Life?
Season 1 · Episode 7
Monday, January 26, 2026 • Duration 35:34
We’re told to dress for the life we want — not the life we have.
That if we change how we dress, we’ll change how we feel.
That confidence, motivation, discipline, and even happiness might be hiding in a blazer, a slicked-back bun, or a pair of cowboy boots.
But… is that actually true?
Or is this just another internet reinvention fantasy dressed up as self-improvement?
In this episode of Field Notes, I look at main character dressing, aesthetic identities, and the idea that clothes can function as behavioural cues — through humour, cultural anthropology, and lived experience.
This one is for anyone who:
feels permanently scruffy, flat, or half-alive
knows they care about how they look, but can’t seem to follow through
suspects there’s something psychologically real going on here… but also something deeply ridiculous
What we cover
• Main character dressing — what it actually means, and why it’s everywhere
• Dressing for the life you want vs dragging yourself around in leggings and a fleece
• Why clothes can genuinely affect mood, confidence, and behaviour (without becoming delusional about it)
• A gentle roasting of men in tracksuits (you can sit with us — just behave)
• The aesthetics currently doing the rounds online:
Field Report: I Tried Clean Girl Dressing (And Was Humbled)
Season 1 · Episode 8
Friday, January 30, 2026 • Duration 16:19
This week’s Field Report follows on from Monday’s episode on Main Character Dressing — specifically the idea of “dressing for the life you want.”
So naturally, I committed to the ultimate test:
I dressed as a Clean Girl.
And so did Old Ma.
What followed was… humbling.
Scraped-back buns. Stark white activewear. An identity crisis involving my hairline, forehead, and general facial geography. Turns out Clean Girl Dressing is not for the faint-hearted — or anyone with a large skull, ginger hair, or a low tolerance for belts.
In this episode, I report back on:
What Clean Girl dressing actually feels like in real life
Why scraped-back buns are basically a humiliation ritual unless you’re a 9 or 10
Whether wearing white really does change behaviour (spoiler: it does, slightly)
Why clothes can affect confidence, posture, and how willing you are to steal your children’s snacks
The unexpected psychological impact of feeling “seen” vs wanting to disappear
Why everyone needs a symbolic power item (boots, hat, gilet, etc.)
The problem with buying “nice pieces” instead of full outfits
Why belts are medieval torture devices
And what Clean Girl taught me about hygiene, confidence, and hand-washing (sad but true)
Finds & Fails
Find of the week:
The concept of a power outfit — clothing that lets you walk into places like you own them (post office, returns desk, life in general)
Looking for Signs from the Universe? Helpful… or Have We Lost the Plot?
Season 1 · Episode 9
Monday, February 2, 2026 • Duration 28:07
Want to actually try this year? Join me at - https://rosehoneymorgan.substack.com/subscribe
I’ve started Actually Trying - a private Substack podcast + newsletter for people who are sick of collecting advice and never applying it.
Each month includes:
A realistic book club (starting with Atomic Habits by James Clear — no perfection required)
An Anti-Brain-Rot Club to relearn things we probably should already know
Weekly private podcast episodes
Cheat sheets, summaries, and notes delivered straight to your inbox
New private episodes drop every Wednesday.
You can listen in your normal podcast app.
What if asking for signs from the universe isn’t unhinged… just very human?
In this episode of Field Notes, I go somewhere my family would deeply prefer I didn’t: signs from the universe, communicating with the dead, near-death experiences, and whether any of this is actually real — or just a very effective placebo.
This all started after I listened to neuroscientist and psychiatrist Dr Tara Swart on Diary of a CEO, where she calmly (and alarmingly confidently) explained that she believes it is possible to communicate with people who have died — not as a spiritual guru, but as an Oxford-educated medical doctor with a PhD in neuroscience.
So naturally, I had to investigate.
In this episode, we cover:
You can:
follow / subscribe so you don’t lose it in your apps
leave a review (even a short one, I will screenshot it for my lame folder)
or send this to someone on the same wavelength
Next Episode
On Monday, I’m testing another widely saved piece of internet advice to see whether it actually survives contact with real life.
Follow along to see me desperately trying in real time on:
Actually, you just need perfect sleep, perfect routines, and zero stimulants (good luck with that).
So today, I’m trying to work out what we’re actually supposed to do when we’re tired, overwhelmed, and drowning in wellness advice that can’t agree with itself for more than eleven seconds.
This episode looks at energy, focus, and brain fog through the lens of:
•coffee vs no coffee
•mushroom coffee / nootropics / adaptogens
•microdosing psychedelics
•and why optimisation culture often collapses in real life
I react to some of the most common reels doing the rounds right now — doctors, nutritionists, biohackers, and internet experts all offering wildly conflicting advice — and try to slow the whole thing down enough to make sense of it.
What we cover
•Why so many of us feel permanently tired and mentally scattered
•Coffee on an empty stomach: cortisol, hormones, gut health — fearmongering or fair warning?
•Mushroom coffee explained (what it is and what it definitely isn’t)
•Common functional mushrooms and adaptogens you’ll hear about online, including:
Lion’s Mane, Cordyceps, Chaga, Reishi, Maca, and other “brain-boosting” blends
•Nootropics vs stimulants: focus without the crash?
•Brian Johnson, extreme optimisation, and the fantasy of total nervous-system stability
•Psychedelics and microdosing: potential benefits, real risks, and why this conversation has gone so strange online
•The Stoned Ape Theory (and why archaeologists absolutely love an unprovable idea)
This episode also introduces my mum — Old Ma — an archaeologist, lifelong observer of human behaviour, and proudly chronically offline control group. She brings a very different perspective on psychedelics, energy, and the idea that modern life can be “fixed” with powders and protocols.
This is not medical advice. It’s an honest attempt to translate modern wellness culture for tired people who don’t have the bandwidth to fact-check every reel.
⸻
Follow for clips, extras & deleted scenes
•Podcast Instagram: @field.notes.pod (deleted scenes, extra bits, behind-the-scenes chaos)
Next up: I’ll actually test some of this advice in real life and report back.
Follow along to see me desperately trying in real time on:
Why humans have always searched for signs, meaning, and messages from “elsewhere”
Dr Tara Swart’s experiences after losing her husband — and the science she believes supports them
Near-death experiences that are genuinely difficult to explain (including the red MG story)
Whether consciousness might exist beyond the brain
The placebo effect — and why “even if it’s not real” doesn’t necessarily mean it doesn’t work
Famous placebo studies (fake knee surgery, antidepressants, pain relief)
The reticular activating system (RAS) and why asking for “signs” might simply train your brain to notice more
Manifestation, meaning-making, and why modern life feels spiritually hollow
Whether looking for signs can help with grief, loneliness, and uncertainty — even if you remain deeply sceptical
My own experiment (starts now):
I’m going to ask for a specific, offline sign — not from Instagram, not from scrolling — and I’ll report back on Fridaywith what happened.
If you’re not into the idea of signs from the dead, I also talk through an alternative:
connecting with future you — the older, calmer version of yourself who already survived whatever you’re panicking about now.
Have we lost the plot?
Probably not.
For most of human history, we’ve consulted gods, oracles, ancestors, rituals, astrology, omens, and stories to make sense of the world. When societies lose shared meaning systems, anxiety and loneliness tend to rise — which might explain why manifestation, astrology, and “signs from the universe” are having such a moment.
This episode isn’t about convincing you to believe anything.
It’s about asking whether meaning itself might be useful — even if it’s a little bit made up.
Coming up next:
Friday: Field Report — what happened when I asked for a sign (plus a story involving a psychic)
Next week:Ask Guru & Granny — the new listener Q&A segment with:
a chronically online take (me)
a chronically offline take (Old Ma)
Send your questions to: rosefieldnotespod@gmail.com
Or DM me on Instagram: @rosehoneymorgan
(Anonymous is absolutely fine.)
Follow along to see me desperately trying in real time on:
