The Lazy Genius Podcast - 10 Essential Rules for Life Admin

Episode Date: September 7, 2026

Life admin is a bear. There’s healthcare, insurance, home care, auto care, childcare, finances and budgeting and investing, taxes, schedules, legal stuff. And it does not include regular daily things like meals and chores and doing your job and taking a shower and going to sleep. I’m already sweating.This stuff feels so huge, sometimes unbearably so. Here are 10 essential rules for life admin (and they’re probably not the rules you’re expecting).Helpful Companion LinksOrder my book The PLAN or ask your library to consider carrying a copy.Fair Play by Eve RodskySign up for our every-other-week podcast recap emailSign up for my once-a-month newsletterSign up for my once-a-month book review email, The Book ListGrab a copy of my book The Lazy Genius Kitchenor The Lazy Genius Way! (Affiliate links)Download a transcript of this episode.Want to share your Lazy Genius of the Week idea with us? Use this form to tell us about it or record your idea and share your voice on the show.

Welcome to the lazy genius podcast where we all get to be a genius about the things that matter and lazy about the things that don't. Every Monday, you'll learn to compassionately manage your time, wisely, solve problems, and kindly live in your season. I'm your host, Kendra Adachi, and I'm so glad you're here. Today is episode 485, 10 essential rules for life admin. Life admin is a bear. There's health care insurance, doctor's appointments, renewing registrations, and inspections for cars, changing the smoke alarm batteries, trimming trees in the yard, saving for retirement, paying taxes, organizing all the papers to pay the taxes, managing your kids' sports and social calendars, digital things like figuring out parental controls on devices, remembering

passwords, creating a will because adults are supposed to have those, I guess. And those are just the general categories, you guys. Health care, home care, auto care, child care, money care, taxes care. It doesn't even include like regular daily things like meals and chores and doing your job and taking a shower and going to sleep like I'm already sweating. Life admin feels so huge, sometimes unbearably so. And it's even harder if you have a chronic illness or you live with someone who does. If you have a really tight budget and have to be super thoughtful about how you allocate money for like your FSA, HSA, if you live in an older home that needs updating more regularly, a million other scenarios. Even when it's a lighter load, life admin is really hard. So if you have a

heavier load of life admin, it's extra hard. The biggest thing that I want you to leave with today is a sense of peace that you are not some lone ranger out here who does not know what she is doing. Life admin is hard for everyone. I do not have family members with chronic illness or anything that requires like a lot of extra health care energy. I no longer do my own taxes because I cried too many times when I did them myself. So I hired someone to do it. We live in a 70 year old home, but with a lot of renovations in the last 15 years. So the list in home care is shorter than it could be. I have a partner who helps and makes his own haircut and doctor's appointments. Like we even see different doctors and dentists from one another. On the difficulty

spectrum of life admin. I am on the easier side of it for sure. Now, I do run a business and a home, and I have three children and lots of responsibilities and commitments. But for the most part, I have it easy compared to many. And it is still so hard and so much. And when I am particularly overwhelmed by my season or by life admin tasks staring me in the face, I have to work real hard not to crumble under the pressure because it is a lot of pressure. So ultimately, you are not alone. You are not some outlier who doesn't know how to manage all of this while everyone else seems to know what they're doing. Like we're all good at different things, managing what we can, some of which we do well and some of which we do on a wing and a prayer. All of that is fine.

All of that is quite normal, actually. So if all you need today is a reminder that life admin is hard for everybody and that makes you feel better on its own, like you could stop listening. I'm so happy about that. But I do have more to share. Namely, 10 essential rules. for life admin. I don't think these are the rules that you are expecting, but we'll see. Rule number one, be kind to yourself. See, I'm already throwing you a bit of a curveball. But daggummit, if this is not wildly important. Life admin, as we have established, is so huge and also really personal. And because it's so huge and so personal, it is so easy for us to become comparison focused and stressed out.

and frustrated because we feel like we should know what we're doing or we start comparing our situation to other people or we are resentful that other people aren't really helping us. You have got so much to keep track of. It feels like you're the only one doing it. So when a handful of life admin tasks suddenly falls on your shoulders, you might very easily become hardened towards them. You might be unkind towards yourself that you were not more prepared to choose a doctor, or in network before you call to make an appointment. It's just so easy to be unkind to yourself

when stress is high and when tasks are undone. And that's the first essential rule. Like, it's not to get more done, but it's actually to befriend the fact that you have not, to befriend the fact that this is a lot and that you're one person. It begins by being kind to yourself. That's why we're starting here. When you have to get on the phone with your insurance agent because you filled in a form wrong and now it feels like your whole morning is taken by this task. It's a better experience when you start with kindness towards yourself, even though you made a mistake. Be kind to yourself, even though this is hard. Be kind to yourself even though you have so many questions. Be kind to yourself even though you've only successfully managed one out of 10 life

admin categories. Be kind to yourself about the one. One is more helpful than zero and you have found a way to navigate that one. Another will eventually come, but stop. be raiding yourself for being behind in everything. Befriend the chaos of life admin. You don't have to give into it because I do know you want to have a better handle on it, but that doesn't mean you have to tame it like some wild animal or something. I just need you to take a breath. Stay soft, be kind and do one thing at a time. That posture alone will make your relationship with life admin better automatically,

a guaranteed. And until you actually give a little energy to this first essential rule, the others will not go down as easily. Like this is where it starts. You got to be kind to yourself. Rule number two, start small. You knew I was going to say it. And you might be mad that I am. And I'm okay with that. It still works. It always well. Small steps are easier to do. And easy steps are more sustainable over time. So if you listen to this episode and you want a huge system for every category of life admin that I listed at the start, we will be here for seven days. There's just no way. Systems really cannot be built anyway, not for regular people in regular life. You have to start small with one thing. Do it for a while until it becomes easier and more natural

and then add another thing. This is how people do more with less effort. It is not that they have some elaborate system that they built all at once. It's that they did small things one at a time, over time. And eventually a system grew out of it. That's true in daily chores, in routines, and in life admin. You got to start small. It works better. It works for longer even, even though it doesn't feel like it's really like working yet. Now, I do get it. It is appealing to take like an entire day and put everything in a big binder with labels and tabs and create calendar alerts and all the things and then essentially like set it and forget it. That's kind of what we want is we want to put it all in its place and then set it and

forget it and it all just sort of like takes care of itself. But what happens is you start getting alerts for everything at once without having any rhythms around the essential things, and so you start to ignore the alerts. You forget where the binder is. You let all of these things build up again, even though they are organized in a big binder, and even though you have alerts set up. Having your life admin organized is not the key. Starting small and continuing those small steps is the key to actually getting this stuff

done. Now, if you're overwhelmed by what feels like everything, but today you got a bill in the mail for your car insurance. Just start with your car insurance. Pay the bill and be done. Or realize that the stress is having the paper bill. And maybe you go and you try and log into your account. But then you're like, oh, no, you have to go through,

you forgot the password and you have to reset it and you have to go through that whole rigam roll or whatever because you never remember your password. And then you're distracted that whole time by like, children or dogs or doorbells or whatever. And like, you're like, I'm just trying to pay my car insurance. Like, which your car insurance could also be high compared to last time. And it makes you go, man, that's like, that's high. Should I change insurance companies? And then you start down that road. What I'm saying here, you got to back up and start small. Just pay the bill. Just pay the bill. You can make a note of all those other things if you want. But right now, just pay the bill.

and if you want while you're in there, maybe you can even see if there's an automatic payment option and you can set it so you don't have to worry about it next time. And it just pays itself. But don't let the car insurance stress be like a cruel catalyst reminding of all the other things you should be doing. Just start small. Do the one thing. Be kind of yourself about it and then be done. Start small. Okay, rule number three. Something. is better than all or nothing. Something is better than all or nothing. I know you people. Y'all are all or nothing people. I am too. Like we are a club. But all or nothing is a problem. Because if we wait for all of the life admin to happen before we're like, and we did it, good job.

Are you kidding me? Nothing will ever get done. Ever. It's too much. So in many ways, this is an extension of start small, but really, I just want you to do something. It doesn't matter what. It doesn't matter if it's like some archaic approach. It doesn't matter if you have a good rhythm in one area of life admin and then like no rhythm at all in all the others. Having this all work as one big machine is not of a goal. Your approach does not have to be perfect or even complete. Just do something. Just do something. It doesn't matter what. Do something that helps like whatever feels the most stressful right now. You don't have to make it complicated or overwrought or even something you can repeat. Just pick one live admin task or a small category and do something to make a

little easier. Like done. Let go of all or nothing and be content with something. Okay. Rule number four. Know where things are. This is such a practical rule and immensely, immensely helpful. Just know where things are. And by things, I mean, paperwork, maybe batteries and air filters, you know. But with whatever life admin tasks you have, like just know where things are. One of the easiest ways to do this is putting everything in one place. So, for example, paperwork, put all the papers in the same desk or the same filing cabinet. Like you could file them. You could file the papers. But honestly, that is not essential. It'll take you a little longer to find what you need. But the point is really just knowing where stuff is. And it's easier to do that.

if it's easier to do your tasks, if you know that every single piece of important life admin paper is in here, you know, is in this drawer, is in this file cabinet. Like, you can sift through it and you can find it, but at least you know that you will find what you're looking for because the papers are not scattered around your home. The same goes for home stuff and yard stuff and car stuff. Like, just know where things are. And the easiest way to do that is by putting all those things together. Put everything that's connected to home care in one closet or on one utility shelf in your garage or under one person's bed in those like shallow storage containers, batteries, air filters, the names of your paint colors. For the car, it's like, you know,

car wash stuff and motor oil and like the new set of windshield wiper blades you need to replace. Like just know where things are. It's easier to do your tasks if you know where things are. Now, if you live somewhere with storage challenges and limited space where things just kind of have to go, like, where they go, you could, I mean, listen, you could certainly declutter. But that's like, listen, no, that's a big old project. We're not doing that. Instead, just make a note in your phone of where things are. Like, when you buy the air filters, because they were on sale at Costco, but it's not time to replace them yet. Or you actually don't know when that time is, but at least you have the air filters. Put a note on your phone. that says air filters size 12 by 12 in my bedroom behind the dresser. Like sometimes you just got to store things behind a dresser, but you might not ever find it again. So wherever you keep things, just know where they are. Where they are doesn't have to be some ideal location, perfectly organized or color-coded,

grouped according to type. None of that is essential. What is essential is just knowing where things are. So whether you do group similar things together, because you have space for that, whether you keep all the papers in one place, no matter what they are, or whether you have a long note in your phone with a random list of where things are as you buy them or as they come in the mail or whatever, do it. Just know where things are. All right. So far, we have, be kind to yourself.

Start small. Something is better than all or nothing. You know where things are. Rule number five is decide once, wherever it's easy. You don't need to decide once about everything, nor should you, please, but automate your decisions anytime it is easy to do so. For example, let's look at making doctors appointments. You have your own like annual checkups, maybe with a couple different doctors. You have dentist appointments. And if you have kids, like so do they. They have all those things.

I have sat in many a waiting room and heard the receptionist ask a patient as they're leaving. Would you like to go ahead and schedule your next appointment? And the answer is so often. No, I'll just call later. which sometimes is necessary, but you guys, this is your chance. Because what happens is you don't call later or you call too late or you're forced to take an appointment at a very inconvenient time because you had to wait longer and that's all that is available.

Now, I know, I know that there's a risk. It feels like it's a risk scheduling an appointment that might not work down the road. You're like, I don't know my life is like in six months. I know, I know. But here's the thing. If it doesn't work, just call and reschedule. You're going to have to call anyway. The reminder is built in.

The reminder to call anyway and reschedule is built in because you can see the scheduled appointment already on your calendar and realize, oh, that's actually not going to work. And then you're going to make a note to call and find another time. But most of the time, you guys, that scheduled appointment, even if it's far in advance, it's going to work. You work around it. It's on your calendar. So you work around it.

It has a place. already. That's why if you're able, a great decide once is to make the next appointment at your last one. You're already in doctor's office mode. Just go ahead and like lock the next one in if you can. Or you might decide once that you will make all appointments on Mondays and Thursdays because those days work better with your general weekly rhythm. So anytime you have to make an appointment for anything and they're like, when are you available? And you can say Mondays and Thursdays are the best day. Like, just have that as your choice. Or for your kids, you can decide once that you will always take the early morning

appointment or that you will only get your kid out of school during lunch or close to regular pickup time. None of this like middle of the morning nonsense. You can have an automated decision for when an appointment happens when it's time to make a new one. Other life admin things that you can automate. Automatic bill pay, of course, annual pest control that just shows up on their schedule and not yours. You know, you always make all your hair appointments for the year online in January. I do that for my boys and it is the best thing ever because it's just like, and there we go. We have a year's worth

of appointments. Boom. You can also automate life admin by like batching certain things together, right? When you're making your hair appointment, make one for your kids at the same time. Even if they're different barbers or salons, you're just like in in haircut appointment zone. So just go ahead and make the next one for your kids. Or, you know, change the air filters. when you change the smoke alarm batteries, lay pine straw and clean the gutters the first Saturday of March, those kinds of things. Now, of course, you don't have to decide once or batch or automate everything. Again, please do not do that because you won't remember any of it. If you have to write it down, you probably have too many things. But if you choose just one or two things, it will make life easier

than it is now. Like not completely easy, but easier, which is always our goal. Let's figure out how we can stay a person and be kind and get our stuff done, not by becoming a robot, but by making life a little easier one decision at a time, solving one small problem at a time. Okay, so that was rule number five. Decide once whenever it works to. Rule number six, live in your season. If you are in a season of dealing with a really hard health care issue that includes things like more doctor's appointments and navigating a complicated insurance system, trying to get support for a kid with special needs, those kinds of things. Like that is going to become a priority. Of course it is. Of course. And part of living in that season is letting go of other things. Is it okay if your yard looks

a bit haggard this year? Yes. Is it okay if you eat repetitive, easy meals most days of the week, things like eggs and cereal, hot dogs, sandwiches, spaghetti? Yes. Is it okay if your house's bare bones cleaned and tidied while you navigate appointments and paperwork? Yes. Is it okay if you stop being involved with a beloved committee or something, a group or something just for this year while you focus on this health challenge? Yes. Is it okay to stop going to the workout classes during the day because all of your appointments are during the day now and instead you just take night night walks when you can. Yes, seasons of life often bring tough decisions. And I'm not saying that making them is easy. But part of dealing with life admin, especially very challenging seasons of it,

means letting go of other things that simply cannot matter as much right now. Yes, they matter, but they cannot matter as much. You cannot hold it all. So please stop trying. Now, on the flip side, some seasons of life admin are a lot, but they're also kind of fun. Like, I think about that with having two high schoolers and dealing with like all the new weird life admin stuff of like driver's license and car insurance and parental controls with new phones and figuring out college visits. Like, it's a lot of stuff to decide and keep track of. And sometimes it is a drag. But mostly it's like it's kind of fun. It's kind of exciting. It's bittersweet, but it's exciting. My boys are growing up.

Dealing with all the things to get them in a family car and watch them drive off to school together is wild and also delightful because I did not have to do it. Sam and I have had a really great time narrowing down schools for his college certs. You guys, we have four favorite picks. We have four schools to start our visits with. Like we've done so much work to get to these four schools and it's very exciting. But like overall, even though it's been so much work, it's like a really sweet season that I want to enjoy. joy. And it's hard to do that when I'm resenting the life admin that is involved. Like I said earlier in the episode, you have to befriend this part of life.

If you hate it and resent it and dread it only, then you will only have negative associations and bad attitudes. Befriend your administrative chores. They're never going away. They're never going away. It doesn't matter how many binders. and automations you make, they're never going away. So be as kind about them as you can, especially when you are in a hard season. All right, rule number seven is one of my favorites. Make it easier next time. Make it easier next time. Whenever you finish a life admin task, take a quick second and ask yourself, how can I make it easier next time? You just use the magic question. This is the magic question. What can I do now to make this easier later?

I love, y'all, I love the magic question so much. I can hardly stand it. So what can I do now? to make this easier later, put a sticky note on the stack of paperwork that includes like the other documents you need and you had to search for the next time you fill out this form or maybe the password for the account. Put a file folder in your mail drawer, clearly labeled taxes and put everything related to your taxes that comes from your job and donations, all the things in the mail, all the forms. They go in that folder so that next year you don't have to spend four hours sifting around all your papers to try to find what you need. After you change those, the smoke alarm batteries and the air filters and the water filters, go set up some kind of like

product subscription where batteries and air filters and water filters arrive at your house every six months, including six months from now. Like go ahead and know the right sizes. You just did it. You probably just, you still have the wrapping on the counter of your air filters. Pick up, like, figure out the right sizes and automate it. Order them. And then the next time they arrive, that is your cue to do that task. You can make a note in your phone, like a recent lazy genius of the week did, where you keep track of seasonal tasks as they happen. So you remember them next time. So like right now, you'd pop over there and you'd write down all the things that you need to remember to do next August when the school year starts. Things like check the state

of lunchboxes and backpacks and shoes. It's the same energy as making your next doctor's before you leave the doctor today. You're sort of already in the headspace of doing the thing and you have fresh eyes on what you need. So make it easier next time by making some kind of note or reminder or keeping what you need together in one labeled place while you already have it out from doing the chore right now. This is one of my favorite ways, favorite ways to make life admin tasks so much easier. Rule number eight, let people in. Let people in. The Everybody hates this one, but you've got to get over it. There are so many paths here.

Okay, so first you can let friends in. My favorite thing here is some kind of like life admin collective. You know, maybe one of you, you have a group of friends and maybe one of you is great at making phone calls or just doesn't mind it so much. Another can like whip out a spreadsheet like it's nothing. And others are really good at processing scheduling details or, you know, you just have like one person who can help you think through what's hard and help you focus on what really matters in the season as you figure out all of the different life admin things that you have got to do. Just talk it out, you know? Let your friends in.

Enter into their life admin challenges and let them enter into yours. Or you could just body double, just do things side by side. I do this with my friend. There's a friend of mine that like on a need to basis, we will just be like, we got to, we got to do this at the same time. You want to go to a coffee shop and do this? or if there are friends who are going through really, really difficult things, then like we will just sort of rally and be like, what can we do to take off some life admin pressure on you right now? And that's more on a need to basis.

But I am becoming more and more intrigued by like doing it regularly as a thing to count on, like having like a life admin day once a month or something with people and just doing it. We'll see. But regardless of how, please let your friends in. please let them in. Now letting people in could also be professionals like hiring an accountant to file your taxes instead of crying. I mean doing it yourself. Do you know how many times I've cried over taxes? I said this before. Do you know how many times? So many times. I've also cried over budgets and retirement. There was a long stretch where Kaz and I were like so cash poor.

Oh my goodness. We were like we were both in school and a lot of our so when you're in school, it's real hard to, you know, work full time. Some people do it. Props to you guys. And a lot of our savings, well, I say our, his savings, a lot of his savings went to buying me out of a contracted scholarship for a program I couldn't complete because of a family emergency. Like we just, we had so little money and I cried about it so many times. I was scared and green. I didn't understand all the money words. I didn't think we'd ever have. anything extra to save or what saving for retirement even meant? Like it was all so overwhelming and complicated and it felt too grown up. And also I just want to like live well and be,

be generous where I can. And like, we don't have to have everything. Like it just was so, it was so overwhelming. And I did not know what to do or where to begin. But I tell you what, the first year I hired an accountant and I only had to pay $150 to her to file my taxes, I gave for a stack of papers and a check for $150. Are you kidding me? I cried again, but tears of happiness, that's all it took. I mean, $150 is no joke. But I also thought it would be way more than that.

That probably is now, because that was like 20 years ago, but still, still. Or when we hired a financial planner, even though we had no money. Like, I remember telling her, hey, we have no money. Like, we have no money. I don't even know how this works. We had no money. And she was like, let me take care of that. I get paid when you start making money.

we've actually worked with both of these women for years and years. And life was easier and still is because we let professionals into what we could not do very well on our own. We could kind of do it, but not very well. And it was so stressful. Now, I know you can't outsource everything you do to a professional, nor do you want to. But you can outsource one thing? Can you outsource one thing?

or maybe just one thing more than you currently do? What is something that you might be able to hire someone to help you with that will actually take such a load off of this life admin pressure? Now, you can let in friends, you can let in professionals, you can also let in a partner. If you have a partner and you currently carry like the bulk of the life admin load, have a conversation and start to share the load more evenly. Most of the weight of life admin is the invisible stuff. It's the remembering. It's the mental details that are just hanging out your brain or you only know where they are. That's why it's good to hand over full categories to your partner, not just the execution piece of whatever it is. Eve Rodski, that's the author of Fairplay. She talks about this a lot in that book. It's not just that your husband picks up a kid from football practice.

He actually oversees all the details related to football practice. Thinks about them, decides them, gets the alerts, navigates, you know, things when plans need to change. So if you feel overwhelmed by some particular category of life admin, don't just ask your partner for help doing the task. Thinking about the task is almost harder. So ask your partner to take the whole thing. This happened when we needed a third family car. I did not want to be part of that process.

at all. Like, I didn't want to search for a car or pick, I didn't want to pick a car. I didn't want to figure out the finances of said car, work out the insurance of the car. I just wanted to, like, wake up one morning and there was a third car in front of her house that the kids could drive legally and is properly insured and registered. That's all I wanted. So I asked cause to take the whole dagam thing. Now, did he, and he did, he did. Did he pick something different than I would have? A different car. Yes, he did. Did he wait later? to do something compared to when I would have done it. Yes, he did. But none of that matters because it was his to do. He oversaw it and he got it done. Like praise B. So if it matters

enough to you to do it, then you got to do it. But if you're like, it doesn't matter enough or I would rather have this off my plate, you got to let the other person do it the way they're going to do it. A good way to think about this is like if you've ever been on like a PTA board or a booster Club or any organization with a board, anything at all. The president's job is to remember everything, basically. Like, they don't do everything, but they make sure everything gets done. You know, they steer the ship. The vice president supports the president, but does not have to hold all those details and responsibility in the same way. So when I stopped being the booster club president for the middle school band, I didn't have a president lined up yet. And I asked our VP, who, when she came on

VP, to be fair, she was like, I never want to be president. But we thought we would have someone lined up and we didn't. There was nobody there. And so I asked her, I was like, hi, would you consider taking this role? And she honestly and kindly said no, because of that very mental load, that very thing. She was like, I can support you and I can execute all day, but I just cannot be the person that remembers all the things. And I was so glad she was honest about that. And she's absolutely right. So think about that in your own life. You don't have to be the president of every part unless you are the only adult, then you kind of do. But if you have a partner, don't be the president all the time.

Be the VP. Support and help execute if needed, but some things need to exist in the other person's head fully and completely. So number eight is to let people in, whether it's friends, professionals, or a better partnership with equally shared. labor with all this stuff. All right. Rule number nine, befriend the alerts. Befriend the alerts. This is a short one, but very practical. If you set yourself up for success right now with like some kind of alert or reminder and then in three months, your calendar pings you with that reminder, please don't begrudge the ping. Don't roll your eyes and be a pill. At least not for very long. That alert is kindness. Like you have given yourself a kindness by creating a reminder so that this thing, you know, paying,

the insurance or whatever, it does not get forgotten. Defend the fact that life is full of admin tasks and this one happened to tap you on the shoulder today. If you like shrug it off like a mean girl or you bat it away like it's a mosquito, you are not going to have any sort of energy to do the thing at all, much less like batch it with another similar task or how to make it easier next time. Like none of that will be will happen and none of it will be enjoyable because you're whiny. Ask me how I know. Your girl can get real whiny.

So defriend the alerts, befriend the reminders, befriend the small steps you have taken. Say them as a kindness, not as an annoyance. And then finally, rule number 10. Schedule rest, not just routine. Yes, this needs to happen in life admin tasks too. you have a schedule rest. You have to do it.

Here's what that looks like. There will always be something to do, always, forever and ever until you die. So you have to choose to rest. You have to choose to stop. What I don't want you to do is create some kind of life admin routine where you do like a few minutes every day, where you work on something or you have like a theme day for life admin, like it's a meal matrix, you know, where I'm going to work on, you know, house things on Mondays and car things on Tuesdays and, you know, whatever. Or maybe you choose

Sunday to do life admin things in bulk, because when else are you going to do it? I don't want, I don't want you to do any of that. I don't want you to do any of that. I mean, you could, but I think it's desperately important that you schedule rest in your life from life admin. It doesn't have to be a whole day. Like a whole day is tough and not available. for everyone. But if you work Monday through Friday, you spend Saturday doing chores and meal prep and helping with homework and going to soccer games and all the things. And then on Sunday, maybe you go to church or you see family and then you come home ready to prepare for the week. You're not resting anywhere. And now you want to throw in some sort of like two-hour life admin

session for all the extra things. Like nowhere in there is a break from life productivity. Now, you might think, well, yeah, Kendra, that's the point. There isn't any time. There isn't any time to rest. That's only because you haven't made it. You haven't made time. I will die on this hill, y'all. I will die on this hill.

I don't care how busy your life is. How many responsibilities you have, how many people you're caring for, how alone you are and doing it all. I mean, I actually do care. I care a lot. I actually care a lot, which is why I make this podcast and write books, because I do care about all of that so much. But when it comes to your rest,

I don't care. You can keep talking to me about it. You can keep trying to convince me that I'm wrong and that you don't have time. And I will listen to you, but I will not change my mind. There is time. You just have to schedule it. You have to schedule rest. There is time. There is space. You can stop. You just have to choose to do it. The tasks will never end. And you cannot wait for them to be done. before you can rest. Otherwise, you will never, ever rest. So if you leave this episode with quite literally anything at all, I think it's this one thing. I want you to schedule rest. And I'm going to be specific with you right now. I usually don't give you specific things. This one's going to be specific. I want you to schedule three sequential hours a week where you do not do anything productive.

Three hours back to back. You can enjoy family time during those three hours. You can hang out with a friend or go for a walk. Whatever. You don't have to just sit there. But for three straight hours a week, minimum, I want you to choose to not be productive, to not deal with life admin. I want you to rest from that on a regular basis. You think you don't have time, but you do. Do you know how I know you do? Because you easily spend three hours on Instagram or three hours over planning on Sunday nights to get control of your life or three hours going behind your family after they have done chores imperfectly, but like fine enough, but you're in a resentful huff because you want it done a certain way.

Or you've spent three hours picking up the pieces of someone else's drop balls because you're a nice person and you don't want to say no. I have a short list of things that I will like come hard for you on. One of them is husbands who complain about not having enough variety at dinner time, but don't help cook. Don't get me started. And another is you saying you don't have time to rest. Maybe that's the list, actually. You are not the exception.

We're not made to constantly spin. And you've just got to stop believing that you don't have the option to stop. That's why you're so pissy at me right now. Because you think I'm wrong, but you also maybe know that I'm right. And slowing down is scary when the scurry is all you know. Rest is a learned skill. It is. But then when you start doing it, golly day.

It's like a whole world. It's like we're dagham Jasmine right around a magic carpet or Dorothy entering Oz. It's like everything changes. Rest is a key, y'all. I mean, I could give you some kind of binder system. to catch all of Life Admin. And there are people out there who will sell it to you. Go buy it.

I'm great with that. But if you go buy it or you try to make it on your own without any effort towards this singular thing, towards schedule rest every single week from the craziness of life administration, no binder will save you. It does not matter how good it is. How thorough.

How color coordinated. How complete. You'll just be a well-organized robot on her way to burnout. Now, ladies, because guys mostly already do this, okay, you have to choose to stop. Choose once a week for three sequential hours. If you have to change the exact time week to week, that's fine. Some seasons are like that.

You know, it's like your three hours have to go on different days. But I want you to make it your goal to set aside the same three hours every week to not do any life admin of any kind, actively make the choice. and if you are skeptical of me for my bold claims, that's fine. Just give it a try. Take three hours a week for six weeks and see if it doesn't make you an even more productive person when you're not resting and also like quite happier. Don't bet me on it though because you will lose.

Again, I'm going to die on this hill. I will die on this hill. All right. So in lieu of binders and systems, which are too big to begin anyway, here are my 10 essential rules for life admin. Half of them are lazy genius principles anyway. One, be kind to yourself. Two, start small.

Three, something is better than all or nothing. Four, know where things are. Five, decide once when it's easy. Six, live in your season. Seven, make it easier next time. Eight, let people in. Nine, befriend the alerts. And 10, schedule rest.

Like, for real, that's, I think, that's eight lazy genius principles in that list of 10. Like those principles are working real hard today. I love it. And those are the 10 essential rules for life admin. Now, after the break, we'll have a mini office hours with a question about how to lazy genius tipping and we'll celebrate the lazy genius of the week with a great idea for sharing the life admin load with friends. We'll be right back. All right, it's time for this week's mini office hours. Our question is from Rachel in Iowa. Something I've been struggling with lately,

is tipping. I often panic and feel obligated to give anywhere there is a tip jar, which is everywhere. Do you tip a takeout? Do you tip when you go up to the counter to get a smoothie or an ice cream cone or only when they wait on you? I feel like this has gotten out of hand and I need a way to lazy genius it. So I only need to decide once how I'm going to tip. Well, Rachel, this is definitely my advice and it is to decide once however you can. And even if you change your mind, even if you get there and the decide once like doesn't quite fit the situation, at least you started with a decision rather than like floating an indecisive land. But listen, tipping is really tricky.

Like a lot of people, they make their money from tips. Some people don't always do the kind of job that feels like it deserves a generous tip. We're always given the option to tip everywhere now, like you said. And so it does feel pretty constant. Fun story. one of my kids in the early days of having his own green light deba card. He went to get ice cream at a local place with some friends and some of his other friends work there.

And so he got his ice cream, which costs like, I don't know, you know, like four or five dollars. And then he, he tipped 20 bucks. That child tip 20 bucks. Because he was like, you know, they worked hard. And I wanted to tell them thank you. I was like, dude, like $3 would have been like a super generous tip on one ice cream count. not like 20 good great it was so funny it's become like a it's a family joke now for sure um but it's not just the numbers like a lot of us really want to take care of people and be generous when we can

but we can't every single where we go it's like it's hard it's really hard and because there are a lot of different kinds of categories where tipping decisions happen i don't know that there is a single decide once that covers it all right so my suggestion is to think about the tipping scenario that comes up the most often or maybe causes the most distress and figure something out there. So maybe it is food establishments that aren't like typical tipping scenarios. Like tipping at a sit down restaurant, it makes sense. Like we know what to do there. That's less stressful. You know, the math might not be fun, but the decision itself is not the issue. That a coffee shop, an ice cream parlor, like takeout. And,

like you said, like those are trickier. And for the record, there's not one answer here, right? Like, everybody gets to decide. Everybody has different budgets. I mean, bless my kids heart, but I cannot be tipping $20 every time I get an ice cream cone. I would love to that that does not fit into our family budget very well. So just start small, just like we're talking a day with, you know, with life admin. Like you don't have to figure it all out or have a rule about every single tipping scenario. Just start with one that comes up often. So you might decide once that you will tip a dollar at local coffee shops, bakeries, ice cream parlors, et cetera.

You know, tips are appreciated, but they're not, you know, as required. And so maybe you will do that there. Or maybe you like the idea of supporting local places. Maybe that's like your decide once. Whereas if you go to a chain coffee shop or a chain fast food restaurant to get some kind of like frozen treat, you're probably not going to tip. Maybe you do. And if you do, that's great.

this is like, remember, all neutral and hypothetical. But maybe it matters to you to support local places and you want them to stick around longer. So you're going to decide once that you're always going to tip a couple bucks whenever you go to one of those places. Or you could decide once that you will tip 10% on takeout orders instead of the 20 or more that you might tip if you're sitting down at the restaurant. Or, you know, this question might even make you realize that you want to be a generous tipper as often as possible. And you're like, oh, man, that actually really matters to me. So I'm actually going to decide once that I'm not going to get as many coffee shop coffees at the chain places.

I'm going to make it at home most of the time so that I can save some of that money so that I can enjoy the local place and also tip when I go there. You know, like it's all personal. It's all up to you. So choose the thing that makes tipping feel most aligned with what matters to you and or what is the most stressful or common, and just make one decision there that simplifies it. You don't have to do it all.

Please don't. Just start with one. And once you get into a rhythm of that, you could add another. So like I have a personal decide once that I always, like I always tip, it's not really a tip, but like I always round up at Goodwill.

Like every single time. They're like, would you like to round up for our program? Like, yes, I would. Every time. I don't think about it. And it really does make it easy to just like not think about it.

I also have another person. I will always tip well at local restaurants and I will always tip more if I stay at the table like for obviously like a fairly long time, you know? I remember I remember when Kaz and I were dating. He was a single guy with a job, like with a decent job, but he like usually ate saltines as dinner. So like he did have a little more disposable income, but like not much more than I did. And I remember us going to a local diner. We still are such a diner family. We love a diner.

And we didn't order much. Like the ticket was like way less than $20. Like it might have even been like 10 or 15. And I pulled out the pen to start doing like the very particular tip math because I grew up poor. I also grew up with some stingy, some stingy men in charge of our money. And so it was like, well, this has to be to the penny. Right. So I'm doing, I'm doing all of this.

I also did not have a lot of money when I was dating cause and even into our marriage. Like I said, we were both students, very tight budget. All of those things mattered. All of those things went into it that I was sitting at that table working so hard to calculate this tip to the penny. And he said, hey, I'm paying. I'll take care of it. And he wrote like, I don't know, like seven bucks on this bill that was like somewhere in the

$15 range. And I was like, dude, that's like a 50% tip. because to me, the rule, it wasn't really so much the money, the rule was at the time 15%. I've changed my rule. My rule is now like a 20% minimum because it's hard out there. But like 50%, I know where my kid got his $20 ice cream parlor tip generosity from. But I reacted to cause writing that number in the diner. And I remember he was like, you know, like it's just a couple extra dollars. and that doesn't make a lot of difference to us, but for her, it probably does.

And I looked at the waitress who was my mom's age and had probably worked so hard her whole life and realized how right he was. Like generosity doesn't always mean some grand elaborate number, like $7 or $7. But it also put tipping into perspective for me. Like I've never forgotten that moment that what it feels like on my end as like very little could end up being a lot on theirs, not just the amount that also like just the generosity of somebody leaving you a big tip. I was a waitress for a summer at Applebee's. Man, I did not get left a lot of big tips. But when I did, it was like the best thing ever felt so good inside. So that's just like

some context for what we've always prioritized as a family and a couple, even in very lean seasons. We tip well at local places, especially ones with meals that don't cost so much. Like, it's really hard to live on tips at a place where the 20% even, and not everybody tips 20%, like where that's still not a lot, you know? So we always tip more at places even when our bill is really small. So those are a lot of long stories about tips. But I also just want to normalize, like, the layers and many scenarios and limitations that some of us experience, but also how when you pay attention to what I'm.

actually matters to you and then you create one decide once around it, like tipping a lot at a diner, it really does simplify things. It's great. And it feels good. It aligns with what matters. So thank you for the question, Rachel. I hope it was helpful. If you would like to submit your question, if you're listening for emitting office hours or for just an upcoming office hours episode, send your questions to hello at the lazy genius collective.com. All right, it's time for the lazy genius of the week. This week we have Anika. Anika writes, my latest lazy genius epiphany is to swap admin tasks with someone. Annaica did not know we were doing this episode. Anika's doing it already. That car appointment I've been meaning to make, the research for the best workout shoes,

those tasks used to sit on my list and collect dust because I just couldn't muster up the need to do them for myself. But for someone I care about, I will have them at the top of my list and probably done in half the time. And the people in my life feel the same about my tasks. A great way to move through those medium important tasks that just sit below other priorities is to trade them with someone else who cares about you. It's also a great way to feel cared about and show others I care about them. I really love this. I love this a lot. If you have a sibling or a friend who does not mind researching things, especially for you, like swap them. Text your friend and try it one time, be like, hey, I am dragging my feet on figuring out what shoe to buy for running.

I'm so overwhelmed. Do you have something similarly overwhelming and admini on your end and we can swap? I think we do it better for each other than we would do it for ourselves. And just like, try it once and see how it goes. It might not go great, but it also might be awesome. You could eventually find yourself in like a, almost like a babysitters club situation, but for life admin, you know, life admin club, like get to. together with your laptop and your plan or your phone and everybody just starts making calls and

like body doubling and drinking lattes that one of you made? Just like getting it done. I love letting people into things in my life that are hard because it makes those things easier. And then I love doing the same for them. I love entering into those things in my friend's life that are hard because it makes their life easier. So this is a really great idea. Anna, I thank you for sharing. And congratulations on being the lazy genus of the week. In the next podcast recap email, I'm going to share my two favorite ways to enjoy life admin. So if you would like to get that email, you can sign up at the lazy genius collective.com slash recap. It goes out every other Thursday. If this episode was helpful to you, share it with someone you know, or you can leave a

review on Apple Podcasts. Both are small ways to support the show, but hugely helpful to us. So thank you for your support. This podcast is part of the Odyssey family and the Office Ladies Network. This is hosted by me, Kendra Adachi, produced by Leah Jarvis, and executive produced by Kendra Adachi, Jenna Fisher, and Angela McKenzie. Thanks y'all for listening. And until next time, be a genius about the things that matter and lazy about the things that don't. I'm Kendra, and I will see you next week.