The Lazy Genius Podcast - #127 - The Lazy Genius Chooses a Planner

Episode Date: October 14, 2019

A few weeks ago, I shared how I plan a week like a Lazy Genius. That led us to a great conversation on Instagram about the many, many options available to us when we’re choosing a planner. But here���s the thing, there’s no perfect planner because there’s no way to manufacture a perfect life. This week, I’m sharing how to use planners as tools in being a genius about things that matter and lazy about things that don’t. Links That Might Be Helpful If you’re looking for planners that I’ve used in the past or use now or planners my friends have used, read The Lazy Genius Guide to Planners. Did you miss the weekly plan episode? Listen to The Lazy Genius Weekly Plan. If you want to know when the Ultimate Homemaking Bundle, which contains my ebook The Swap, goes on sale, click here to get on the list to be notified. I’ll be LIVE on Instagram this Thursday at noon EST if you’re around. I usually post a photo in my feed before I go live, so if you have a question for me, leave it there. I’ll try my best to answer it. Download a transcript of this episode! This podcast is hosted by Kendra Adachi and executive produced by Kendra Adachi, Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Hi, lazy geniuses. You're listening to The Lazy Genius Podcast. I'm Kendra Adachi and I'm here to help you be a genius about the things that matter and lazy about the things that don't. This is episode 127. The Lazy Genius chooses a planner. A couple of weeks ago, I was doing an Instagram live about making a weekly plan. And of course, planners came up in the conversation. So much so that I decided to dedicate an entire episode to the topic. If you're new around here, and want to listen to the episode about the weekly plan or any of the other 127 episodes, go to the lazy genius collective.com slash lazy and just scroll your heart out. Or better yet, you can actually search the lazy genius podcast in your favorite podcast app.

I personally love Overcast and hit the subscribe button so you don't miss any new episodes. And that weekly plan episode was just a couple of episodes ago. It was 124, the lazy genius weekly plan. And if you want to go back and watch the Instagram live from that episode or any other episode, follow me on Instagram at The Lazy Genius. If you click on my IGTV, you'll find a lot of those live conversations archived. So you can hear the little tangent on planners if you are interested. But as I was talking about planners and saw all of the questions and all of the hearts being clicked,

I realize there's a lot to be said about choosing a planner. it's not really so much about which one to choose because frankly I can't tell you that, but I can share some thoughts on how to choose one in light of what it means to be a lazy genius, where we are a genius about the things that matter and lazy about the things that don't. So in this episode, I'll share the lazy genius planner manifesto. Yes, there is one of those. And then we'll dive into three different sections, the purpose of your planner, how you use it, and then how to choose it.

Before we do that, I want to let you know, though, about a cool opportunity, especially if you are in the market for some homemaking tools. Ultimate Bundles is a company I'm an affiliate for, and they gather together a ton of amazing resources from all over the internet that are focused on one singular topic. You get an Ultimate Bundle, see why that name is there, why it's so great, of made up of courses, printables, e-books, all kinds of things that individually would, cost you over like $1,000 easily, all for one low bundle price of less than $30. It's one of the best values on the internet. The ultimate homemaking bundle is available this week, the 16th and 17th of October only. And in it is the lazy genius guide to decluttering

called The Swap. The Swap is an e-book that I wrote that gives you a practical path through your stuff and helps you develop practices to be a declutterer for life. If you've been wanting to get your hands on the swap, this is a great opportunity, and you get way more than the swap. If you're interested in getting a heads up on when the ultimate homemaking bundle is available, click the link in the show notes. We'll send an email to those people as soon as it becomes available, so you can check it out and buy it during this two-day flash sale. Okay, let's talk about choosing a planner. First up, our lazy genius planner manifesto. Do you know why we need a planar manifesto?

Because we spend so much dang money on planners we never use. We spend literally hours pouring over websites and Instagram ads trying to find the perfect planner. And I think most of us are still on the hunt. That's why you're listening to this episode. Which leads us to our manifesto. In it, we make three declarations. You ready? Declaration one, there's no such thing as a perfect planner.

you're still searching because you're looking for something that doesn't exist. You think that the perfect planner will keep you from feeling frazzled and stressed out, that that is not a thing. I have done this so many times. I buy a planner, think it's going to solve all my problems, and when I forget an appointment, or I leave pages empty, or I just feel stressed out, like for any reason. I assume it's the planner's fault and buy another one.

our expectations are way off if we think a planner can just fix everything. It cannot, which leads us to declaration too in our manifesto. A planner is not magic and will not create a perfect life. We can easily get inspired by planners that have reflection questions or places to track habits or whatever. But when we're not naturally wired to reflect, or we don't have anything to track, we think that we should do those things because they're in the planner. They must be important, right? Not necessarily. Don't force your life to fit a planner. It just doesn't work that way and it won't magically make you more organized or reflective or ambitious or amazing. You're actually already amazing as you are right now and chasing after some ideal version of yourself and hoping that a

perfect planner will get you there. You're going to be so tired and you will never see that planner through an entire year. And finally, Declaration 3. A planner you love now might not be right later. There's no perfect planner. There's no planner that will work for every person and every season and stage of life. If you're like, if you're a stay-at-home mom, for example, with, you know, two little kids under three, keeping them alive is your only job, right? You don't need a planner with an elaborate daily layout. All that does is make you feel like you're missing something, that your days should be elaborately laid out and filled and planned. In fact, in some seasons of life, you might just need like a wall calendar so you don't forget birthdays and doctor's appointments. And maybe you have

just like a pad of posted notes to scribble down a grocery list. Not every season even needs a planner, much less the same one as you go through different seasons of life. So that's our planar manifesto. There's no such thing as a perfect planner. A planer is not magic and will not create a perfect life. A planner you love now might not be right later. Remembering those things as you choose your planner will be massively helpful and keep you from trying to be a genius about something that doesn't actually matter. Okay. So let's move on to our three planner topics. The purpose of your planner, how you use it, and how you choose it. So first, what is the purpose of your planner? It's super important to name what matters about a planner for you specifically, not what you think you should do

or write down or track or whatever. If you're not tackling any big creative projects, you don't need a planner that helps you tackle big creative projects. Unless you name what matters, you're just going to keep buying planners you use for three weeks and then quit because you're not, you don't know what to look for because you haven't named what matters. So what kinds of things might matter. There are two main categories to think about what you want a planner to help you do and how you want the experience of using it to be. So for what you want a planner to help you do, it could be to remember important dates. I feel like that's a pretty obvious one that is probably true for all of us. You might want a planner to help you track a goal or a project. Maybe you want a

planner that also helps you reflect on your days so you're more present. or maybe you want a planner that offers like a lot of space for you to just brain dump because that's a really helpful practice for you. So what things that matter? Reflection, tracking, goal setting, project planning, date remembering, brain dumping. Name what matters and what doesn't so you'll know what kind of planner to look for. There are very few planners that have all of these things in them because usually if you try and do all of those things in the context of one planner, you're going to lose your mind. Another category to consider when naming what matters is what you want the experience of using the planner to be. Does it matter more for it to be really versatile depending on what you have going on in a given week or month?

That's why a lot of people love the bullet journal because you can just do what you want with it. Maybe you love a really high quality planner and will only use it if the ink doesn't bleed through the page on the other side. You want a clean look or a vibrant cover. Like aesthetics might really, really matter to you. and that's great. They do to me too. Or do you want it to be just like super functional no matter how it looks. Also, think about how much the planner leads you versus your leading it. The more blank and open-ended the layout, the more work you might have to do in filling out what's important, which might matter to you a lot to be the one in charge. Or maybe you love the idea of having the planner ask you questions

every week to answer, or it has blocks that are already labeled with things that you often forget about, but that do matter to you? So do you want to be more in charge of the user experience, or do you want a planner that kind of takes the lead? These are all really important questions to ask as you begin choosing. Aw, isn't something we need to travel for. It's something waiting for us in everyday life, whether in a city street or a moment with a work of art. I'm Dr. Keltner, host of the Science of Happiness podcast. Join me for Cities of Aw, a special series on how our public spaces can spark awe, wonder, and enhance the quality of public life. You can find us wherever you listen to your podcasts. So number one, what's the purpose of your planner? What matters and what doesn't

so that you'll have an easy filter on what to ignore. Number two, using your planner. Now that you've named what matters, think about how you want to actually use it. What is your ideal view, like layout-wise? How do you generally think about time? Is it daily by week, by month? I've purchased a couple of planners in the past that did not have a monthly layout. It was all weekly, and it drove me crazy. Now, I didn't know how desperately I needed a monthly layout. I do like a smaller view of time like daily or weekly, but monthly is kind of where my brain likes to sort of sit and play. I see time in months first. So I have to have a planner with a monthly view or my user experience is shot. So how do you interact with time? How does your season of life support that?

Again, if you're a stay-at-home mom, you likely don't need a planner with an elaborate daily layout. It's just a waste and it makes you feel like your days are a waste too. which they are very much not. They just don't operate hour by hour. They operate by like snack request by diaper change. So think about how you interact with time and then name what your ideal page layout or kind of combination of page layouts

will be based on that. Another thing to consider and how you use your planner is how often you'll actually use it. I use one most days, but that has not always been the case. I would buy planners and not write anything in them for days and days when I was home with little kids most of the time. Now that I work at least four days a week

and I have to juggle five human schedules alongside my work, which also makes me more tired and in need of regular rest and self-care, a planner that I can engage with daily is really important so that I can remember what matters and what doesn't on a more regular basis. Also, so I don't forget like a kid's eye, appointment or something. So think about what a typical week looks like for you. How often do you need to look at a planner based on that? If you don't need to look at one every day, you don't need a daily calendar. If you are a big weekly planner where you like love to lay out all the moving parts on

like a Sunday night, for example, focus on a planner that allows you to use the pages that way. You need a more robust weekly layout than anything else. Name those things. name how you think, how you spend your time in this season, and therefore how you need to interact with your planner. Naming those things will help you choose. Which leads us to the final point, the choosing. How do you actually choose? Well, hopefully the process has already been made easier with the lazy genius planner manifesto and these two first points of naming the purpose of your planner and how you best need to use it. But you still do have to choose. And it's weird. It feels like such a big commitment. And I mean, I guess in some ways it kind of is. It's usually for an entire year,

which is a long time. But remember to temper your expectations. A planner is helpful if it does the basic job of whatever purpose matters most to you. It doesn't have to be and frankly won't ever be perfect. So as you move into the actual choosing, keep your expectations in a reasonable place. This is literally a book of paper. You're not trying to solve every problem with this little book and it will fail you sometimes. That is normal and okay. Thankfully, you've already gone through the steps of naming what you need. So at least the likelihood of your choice working pretty well is pretty high. So as you choose, write down what you need and what you don't need. Write down what you want and what you don't want. There is a planner for just about any person out

there within those reasonable expectations. So rather than just like, Googling planners and perusing and guessing on what might work for you based on how well it's worked for others or how well the website is laid out or anything like that. Name what you need for a planner to work for you. Move into your search already armed with like the information that's necessary and you'll limit your search big time that way. If it helps, you could have like a deal breaker or two. You know, like my monthly, like I have to have a monthly list. I don't care how beautiful the thing is or how many people love it. If it doesn't have a monthly layout, I'm out. So create a list that helps you filter your choices down quite a bit so the choosing is limited and more appropriate for what you

need. Also, please remember that as you're looking around to choose a planner, if you see a certain planner with a certain layout or feature and you catch yourself saying, oh, I should probably use. You use that for fill in the blank. First, I want you to take stock. If the word should comes up in your thinking, it might not be right. Remember our manifesto. You're not trying to force your life to fit a planer. Find a planar that supports the life you've chosen that already matters. It might look really pretty to have habit trackers all nice and lined up like your little soldiers at the bottom of the page. But if filling those out makes you feel wonky for any number of reasons, that's not the planner for you. Shoulds are not automatically allowed in the door of this process. So think first if you

catch yourself saying you should use a planner to do a certain thing. Another way to help you choose is to just ask around. Now don't ask just anybody. Ask people in your life who are similar, like they're in similar seasons of life as you or they have similar ways of seeing time as you do. You could even like lay out your list of what matters and what doesn't and see if anyone else you, you know, you know, know has suggestions based on that list. Just asking, hey, does anyone have any planner recommendations? Are you crazy? That's going to make you want to crawl in a hole and die under a pile of planners that you will never use but think you should. It's just a losing battle. So stop fighting it. You have to be specific and name what matters to you. And finally, as you choose your planner

and even after you start using it, don't quit it just because you feel frazzled. Remember, a planner isn't magic. You're still a person living life and you're going to feel stress sometimes. You're going to feel overwhelmed by certain tasks. One week will feel great and the next falls apart for a variety of reasons. As you choose, try and think about what it means to commit to this specific planner. Even when you feel overwhelmed, will you continue using it? Will it contribute to some insecurity that you're trying to work out of your own personal narrative. I know that's like a big deal, but that comes into play for some of us. Will it just take up space you don't have on your shelf? When you choose, remember that what you're choosing is going to exist in your life and in your space. So choose

something you're willing to keep around for a while, even if it fails you on occasion, because it will. That's very different from putting pressure on yourself to choose the perfect planner. There's no perfect planner because there's no way to manufacture a perfect life. Just let it be a tool and being a genius about the things that matter and then forget about the other stuff until maybe it becomes important again down the line. So to recap, our manifesto, there's no such thing as a perfect planner. Planner is not magic, will not create a perfect life. A planner you love now might not be right later. Then as you go through the process of choosing a planner, you need to name what matters in what you want it to help you do and in what you want

the experience of using it to be like. Next, when thinking about how you'll use it, name what kind of layout works best for your life and your brain. Think about how often you'll use it and name what that means for what's inside the pages, right? And when you choose, keep your expectations in check. name what you really need and what you really don't. And then remember that just because the planner might fail you sometimes, it doesn't mean you have to get a new one. The planner didn't necessarily do anything. It's likely that life just happened.

Let's lower our expectations and choosing a planner will be so much easier. Now, I know you're wanting to know about like specific planners. And I will put a handful of links in the show notes of planners I've either used in the past or ones that friends have used and what they're good for. It's kind of going to all be wrapped up in a blog post. It'll be linked up in the show notes. So you can read that. You can also join me on Instagram this Thursday, around noon,

Eastern Time, on Instagram at the lazy genius. I will do my best to answer your questions. And I really hope that this process is something that is fun. Right now it is the kind of middle of October. And so a lot of planner companies are kind of ramping up sales right now. because, you know, we're going to be moving into 2020. Is that the most bizarre thing ever? Sounds like alien robot time, 2020. But that is happening. So be armed, be ready and have fun with this process now that you can choose a planer like a lazy genius. All right, that's it for today.

Thank you so much for listening. Remember to click the link in the show notes if you want a heads up on when the ultimate homemaking bundle is available. 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'll see you next week. Have you ever felt like you were living just a B or B plus life? It's so dangerous to live that. More dangerous than a B minus or a C plus life? Because when you're living a B or B plus life, you don't change it.

You think it's good enough. Is it? I'm Susie Welch. I host a podcast called Becoming You. People think, okay, an A plus life is not available to me, but there is a way. We are all in the process of becoming ourselves. Listen to Becoming You wherever you get your podcasts.