The Lazy Genius Podcast - #221 - Get Your Back-to-School Life Together

Episode Date: August 2, 2021

It is the first Monday in August, and August is a unique month. For people with kids or if you’re an educator, it still feels like summer outside but you’re transitioning into fall routines. There are a lot of things to do to prepare for the next season, and it can feel overwhelming to keep up with all of them. And even if you don’t have kids, August is transitional. It just is. Today, let’s put some specific words around the challenges of this season. Stuff Mentioned Check out The Lazy Genius Way (affiliate link) if you’d like to read more about how I use Lazy Genius principles every day. Episode 168: How to Go Back to School Episode 94: The Lazy Genius Guide to Freezer Meals 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

Hey there, you are 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. Today is episode 221. Get your back to school life together. It is the first Monday in August and I think August is a very unique month. It is a transitional month for people with kids or if you are an educator. It still feels like summer outside, but you are transitioning into fall routines and to going back to work and going to get to school. There are just a lot of things to do to prepare for the next season. And it can feel very overwhelming to keep up with all of them. Now, even if you don't have kids, August is transitional. It just is. Summer, I think, is just a very particular season with vacations and friends who have different schedules than they normally do and more chill vibes and all the things. So I think we're all feeling a little bit of that, like, I've got to get it together, kind of energy. So today, I want to. us to put some specific words around the challenges of this season and then we're going to go through a simple process to handle those challenges in a very lazy genius way. We are going to embrace some new perspectives and also be super practical. We always want to try to do both around here. Okay. So first thing, if you are new here, welcome. A lot of what I'm going to be sharing is based on the principles from my book The Lazy Genius Way. It came out in August of 2020, a super great time. A super great to release a book into the world. And it lays out 13 lazy genius principles that you can apply

to any situation in any season of life. It is a very versatile, personal approach to life management. So when I talk about the principles, when I say like lazy genius principle, that's where they come from. They come from that book. Also, everything about this lazy genius space, everything starts with one thing. Name what? matters. If you don't know what matters to you, you have no way of knowing what to be lazy about and what to be a genius about. So we're going to talk about that as well. The subtitle of that book, The Lazy Genius Way, is Embrace What Matters, Ditch What Doesn't, and Get Stuff Done. And we're actually going to use that subtitle as like our three sections today. We're going to do that in this episode.

So let's start with Embrace What Matters. Right now, I think, you're likely feeling a little rattled by like all the things. I think a primary reason for that is because there are a lot of one-off tasks happening right now, especially if you have kids, not exclusively, but especially. There are just a lot of things to get done, right? Buying school supplies, maybe back to school clothes, transitioning summer stuff out of the house, bringing school stuff or fall stuff in. You might be thinking about haircuts and doctor's appointments, any number of things I have not mentioned. Plus, I think summer to fall is one of the most transitional times of the year. Top three for sure. It's like summer to fall, like back to school

and maybe New Year's, you know. So when when you add, what happens is when you add a higher number of those singular tasks, those one-off tasks to an already shaky routine that's in transition, it feels like really big challenge. It can easily feel, in fact, like you're drowning. And let's not forget that we are still dealing with the aftermath of living in and through a pandemic. I say that a lot, but it's a lot. So what can we do? First, we're going to embrace what matters. Now, how do you know what matters? You start with a list. I want you to do a quick brain dump of all the things that you feel like are on your plate this month, just this month. Or maybe it's just a week. Or maybe it's just a week or two weeks, whatever you want your range to be, you know, because like maybe school

starts for you in another week or two or you go back to work or whatever it is, but pick a small, finite length of time. What are all the things you feel like are on your plate? I would also like for you to put on that list the things that you value or need or want during the month. What is getting left behind because you're dealing with all the urgent stuff? Like what are things to, you know, take care of yourself. What are things that are fun? What are things that you're missing out on or you feel like you're missing out on because you're focused on all of the urgent things. So if it's in your life, I want you to write it down. There are no wrong answers here. If it's in your life, write it down. Now we need to embrace what matters.

Okay, so one of the most common things that I hear from you guys is how do I know what matters, right? So many things matter. And I get that. I totally get that. And I see how when I say, I want you to narrow down what matters to one thing. I can see how that can feel kind of stifling and maybe even in certain instances impossible. Now, I still believe in the power of naming what matters most about a particular situation or experience. Having that main thing, what matters most at the forefront,

it helps you make difficult decisions a little more easily. And then it also helps you invite a kinder, truer perspective into your situation that keeps you from going, a little bit crazy. But I had a brainwave the other day that I hope gives you a little bit more wiggle room maybe in naming what matters most. In seasons like we're in now, in seasons like August and back to school, perhaps we can adjust how we frame what matters a little bit. When so much matters at once, the task is to name what matters most about all the things that matter. I'm going to say that again.

So the task is to name what matters most about all the things that matter. So for example, let's say in your brain dump, you list out buy school supplies, stock the freezer with easy dinners, and transition your kids bedroom into a place that works a little bit better for reading and homework and not just play because you're going into school. Okay. Now, for you, all of those things matter, right? You're like Kendra, don't make me get rid of those things. and I never would. Just because you name what matters most doesn't mean you get rid of other things. We're always carrying multiple things that matter. And when we do that, when we have multiple things, I want you to consider what matters most about those things that matter. So what matters most in that

example, what matters most about buying school supplies? Is it cost? Just getting it done before all of the, you know, those index cards on a metal ring are sold out? Those things always sold out so fast. Is it like you want to walk around the store very leisurely and you want to let your kids feel the thrill of picking out their own school supplies? Like those are very different things. Those are very different approaches to buying school supplies. So of course the task matters.

But what matters most about that task? How do you want to approach it? The same goes with the free. freezer meals. You're wanting some easy dinner options to make the transition back to school easier. Cool. What matters most about the meal? What matters most about those meals? Is it comfort, variety, ease? Is it okay if you make three meals four times and put them in the freezer? Or do your 12 meals need to be 12 different meals? By the way, I have an episode on freezer meal math and how to plan freezer cooking, no matter the size of your freezer, by the way. It's excellent. It's in the show

notes if you want to listen. But yeah, like what matters most about those meals? What matters most about maybe not just the food that you make, but the process of cooking those meals? Do you want to include your family? Do you want to share the experience with a friend? Do you want to do it alone and take your time? Or do you want to just bust through it efficiently? Do you want your whole freezer cooking session to be very planned out? Do you want to do a piecemeal? Are you doing some kind of Bizarro food prep, which is a blog post that will also put in the show notes? Bizarro food prep is fantastic. But do you see what I'm saying? Like, you can name what matters. You can list out all the things that you have to do in any given time frame. But I'm not asking you to necessarily pick the winning

task. Sometimes that's helpful. Sometimes it's important to name what task matters most so that you can for sure do that task, right? But more specifically, what matters about what matters. Those answers will make a big impact on what comes next. It's almost like, it's almost like marking on your list that you make what you want to be a genius about and what you want to be lazy about. You could even use the letters L and G, you know. And also, this is another clarification. Genius doesn't necessarily mean you give all your time to it. It just means it matters enough. to take some intentional energy toward that thing in some way. And then conversely, lazy does not mean that you give zero time to something or you ignore it

completely. It just means it doesn't get a lot of your energy or effort. There are plenty of things in your life that you're lazy about that are done well. It doesn't mean all your lazy stuff is crap. It just means you're using some lazy genius principles maybe. Look at that. To make your lazy tasks happier and easier. easier and maybe happen faster so you can use your time and energy on things you want to be a genius about. Does that make sense? Not if it makes sense. I can't see you, but we'll just pretend

like we're in a room together or something. Okay. So we've written out all the things, right? You have named what matters from that list, maybe even named what matters about the things on that list, marked a few Ls or Gs, whatever you need to do to put the items on your list into their proper context and now it's time to ditch what doesn't matter. When you look at the list, what can be let go? What got an L? Now some things are obvious once they're written down. You think, oh, right, I don't actually care about that. And you just let it go completely. Like, cool. But the likelihood is that most things on your current list will stay. So let's take the ditching to another more specific level.

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. When you named What Matters, about what matters, about what matters. matters? Is there anything on your list with an answer that is lazier or quicker in nature? Look at how you labeled what matters. So let's go back to that school supplies example again. Okay. Now obviously getting

school supplies matters if you have kids or you're a student yourself. But when you wrote down what matters about that, about that task, what was the answer? Was the answer just get it done? Then be lazy. Go on a website and order everything at once. If you don't care about particular items or you don't want to be Kathleen Kelly with your bouquets of sharpen pencils, just order everything at once. It doesn't really matter, right? The time spent being like really thoughtful about it, being nostalgic about it, having really unique choices, any of that stuff, it doesn't matter as much to you as getting the task done. So just get it done. That's an example. That's an example. example of something that matters, but that you can like technically be pretty lazy about.

So look through your list and see first if there's anything you can legitimately let go of. You know, again, maybe something that doesn't matter at all now, that you see it written out. Now, you likely will not have many of those during a time of year like this, which is fine and good. But then look at what matters about what matters and see if any of those things can have a lazier approach. So we've embraced what matters. We ditch what doesn't and now it's time to get stuff done. Okay, I want you to do a little bit of reverse engineering now. We are going to incorporate the calendar and actually schedule these tasks.

Now, not everything is a one-off thing or can be scheduled, but at least schedule what can be. Okay. What tasks on your list are singular tasks? Do they have a built-in deadline already? obviously getting school supplies that could have a deadline of the first day of school right you you want to have your school supplies on the first day of school but do you want that to be the deadline that actual day probably not you don't want to be up to the wire so think about when you would feel good having those school supplies purchased based on what matters to you pick that deadline you can even

write it down or type in your calendar or whatever now I want you to think about how much time that you need to get those supplies and what you need to do before you go Do you need the list? Do you need your kids? Do you need two hours? What do you need to make it happen? And that will impact when you plan on doing that thing by your deadline. Okay. Then I want you to just go through that process with all the one-off things on your list, everything that has a deadline attached to it. Okay. Now, here's the thing, though. There are certain things that are going to be on your list that have multiple steps that you haven't actually written out as having multiple steps. For example, what if you write take the kids to the doctor on your list now listen taking your kids to the doctor

is not just taking your kids to the doctor it means making an appointment at the doctor you have to call them uh you have to find and print out the health forms for the kindergarten shots or for the soccer team or whatever um maybe it's finding child care for the other kids if the one who's going needs all of your attention it might mean going ahead and planning an easy dinner that day if you have a kid like mine, who was broken into a million pieces after she gets a shot. So some tasks have multiple steps that we don't think about when we write down, take the kid to the doctor, right? So I want you to think about tasks that have that, that have multiple steps, and then think about where those steps can go. Break it down a little bit. And put dates on it. Spread out the tasks that need

doing. That's why you feel overwhelmed. You see, take the kids to the doctor on your list, but there are other things involved in that, so many that you might feel a little paralyzed in what's next, because technically you can't take the kids to the doctor. It's not next. That's not what's next. Call for an appointment is next. You see what I'm saying? So reverse engineer and schedule whatever you can in light of what matters to you. Break it down. Start small. Make it smaller. Remember, that is a lazy genius principle. Start small. Some other lazy genius principles that you can apply to a season like this are batch it where you do the same kind of task all at once. Decide once where you make a decision one time about something and then never again. Like for example, maybe you decide once that your kids can choose

whatever designs that they want on their school supplies, whatever they want to do. Just go ahead and decide. Or maybe you decide once that every kid gets a singular color that's theirs when you're buying all the things. That way you can just grab stuff when you're shopping without a lot of effort and they don't fight over it because you already decided which kid gets the orange lunchbox. Now a really great principle for this time of year is to ask the magic question. The magic question is what can I do now to make something easier later? Whatever your something is based on the list you made earlier, what can you do now to make that thing easier later? Now, I don't have specific answers for any of your questions because you all have different questions and challenges and personalities and

families and life stages and all of it. But you know your life and you can apply that principle in particular to your life as specifically as you want to find a very simple next step or even the beginning of a new system as you move forward in your time of transition. But asking the magic question is so, so helpful. What can I do now to make going to the doctor easier later? When you're sitting at your computer and you're near the printer and the printer's on, I don't know about y'all, but we don't keep our printer on all the time. And so if you go to print something and the printer's not on, you're like, oh, the printer's not on. I realize it's a very specific challenge. But when the printer's on and you've got your computer open, go ahead and print out the form. You don't need it yet,

but it'll make it easier later if you're rushed to get out the door and it's already printed out. So that magic question will be magic if you see what I'm saying. So embrace what matters by making a list of the things that do matter right now and then name what matters about each of those things. Next, you're going to ditch what doesn't matter by either just letting something go completely or realizing that you can be lazy about it even though it has to get done. See where you're willing to put time and energy and where you would rather just take a shortcut. right? Just get it done. Now after that, I want you to get your stuff done by scheduling your

tasks. Start with your singular tasks that are clogging up your brain, like school clothes or whatever. Break those things down into smaller pieces if you need to. Put dates on them and spread them out. Then you're going to apply lazy genius principles to those steps in order to make them happen. Now I would also like to remind you of two other principles during this practice. Those are live in your season and be kind to yourself. Live in the season of this time of busy transition. You don't have to let the stress be in charge, but you can acknowledge that whatever it is is hard, right?

It's normal to feel a little rattled right now. Don't beat yourself up about it. Which leads me to, be kind to yourself. Always, always, always, always, always, always, please. Be kind to yourself. You're not a terrible mom. or person or homemaker or whatever because you're stressed by things in your life or because you're not making school shopping a memorable experience for your kids like it doesn't matter you get to

decide what matters be kind you're doing great and that's how to get your back to school life together okay before we go let's celebrate our lazy genius of the week this week it is Wendy Jackson. This one is very specific and very amazing. Wendy put big sausage slices in her change your love chicken. You guys. I am shook by this decision. I think we all need to try this immediately. You just do everything the same way. You would just add sausage, like cut the sausage links into chunks. Maybe like one link would be into maybe four pieces, like at least an inch thick. and then you just scatter them around with your vegetables. I would say just cook everything the same way

except maybe use just a little bit less oil on your vegetables than you usually do since you are already getting extra fat from the chicken skin, but now you're getting a little bit more probably from the sausage unless it's like a chicken sausage or something that doesn't have as much fat in it. But that's just a guess. Whatever it is, I think this is definitely worth trying. So Wendy, thank you for changing all of our lives by adding sausage to change your life chicken.

And that is it for today. Thank you so much for listening, everybody. I want to say thank you to all of you who not only listen, but who also tell your friends and your family about the podcast, who share it on socials. It's just always so very kind. And it really does impact this business in a positive way. It creates, it obviously creates more freedom for more people to be lazy geniuses in the world, which I love that. And I'm just really genuinely grateful. So thank you for taking the time to share even this episode this week. And don't forget about the lazy genius way, a book that teaches you all 13 principles and how to apply them to any situation that you have. Okay, y'all, 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 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.