The Lazy Genius Podcast - #226 - How Batching and Bags Can Get You Out the Door

Episode Date: September 6, 2021

In the last episode in a quasi-series on getting out the door, we’re going to use Courtney Cleveland’s method of packing for vacation to help us get out the door with all the right stuff (and at the right time!). And the magic of Courtney’s method is the combination of batching and bags. Let’s jump in.   Stuff Mentioned Courtney Cleveland of All the Best Days is my travel guru. Here’s a bonus episode I did with her last summer. The other episodes in this mini-series on getting out the door: ep.223 The Lazy Genius Gets Out the Door, ep.224 When Things Don’t Go According to Plan, and ep.225 The Shoe Episode. My book The Lazy Genius Way contains 13 principles, one of which Courtney follows with her bag routine: Batch 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

Hi there. 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. Today is episode 226, how batching and bags can get you out the door. All right. So a couple of weeks ago, I did an episode on getting out the door. And in gathering up inspiration for that episode, I asked you on Instagram at The Lazy Genius what your biggest struggle was. And the answers fit into just a handful of categories, but they were so broad and specific that we've actually been breaking down those categories into separate episodes. So episode 223 is about getting out the door, but it's focused on expectations and timing. Those are the biggies, right? In episode 224, we talked about when things don't go according to plan. Like when you are walking up the door, any kid has to poop. So many responses about people pooping. And then last week in episode 225, we talked all about shoes. in particular figuring out how to get your kids to find and wear them. The final category of what's challenging about getting out the door is forgetting something or maybe having having everything,

but like feeling like you're forgetting something. So essentially our final category is stuff. How do we remember all the stuff? Bring all the stuff. Help our kids remember all their stuff. And then honestly, I think this isn't just about getting out the door for a regular day. anytime we leave our homes, we likely are bringing stuff with us. So having a strategy for that stuff, it can be helpful, whether you're going to the grocery store or on vacation. This episode is, of course, inspired by your answers, as I said, but it was really given wings by our honorary lazy genius of the week, which I will share here in the beginning instead of at the end Courtney Cleveland. Courtney Cleveland is my personal travel guru. She's on Instagram at All the Best Days.

of her links and all that. We'll put those in the show notes. But Courtney's mission is to help you have your best day wherever you are. That means helping you name what matters about your days, especially when you travel and making that happen no matter what city you're in. It's such a great concept. And Courtney, Courtney was actually even a guest on the show back in 2020 when we talked about staycations. So you can go back and listen to that episode. Plus she's like legitimately hilarious. Anyway, the point of bringing Courtney up now, even though we're talking about getting out the door and not exactly going on a road trip, is because of how Courtney uses bags. Courtney is a master vacation packer. And I want to use her approach of packing for vacation

to help us get out the door with all the right stuff. And the magic of Courtney's method is the combination of batching and bags. Okay. So first, what is? batching. You all probably know it's one of the 13 lazy genius principles that I use in a lot of episodes and lay out in my book, The Lazy Genius Way. Hey, which PS is available in audio, ebook, hardback, and now paperback. Did you all know that? It's in paperback now. That's so fun. Anyway, batching is essentially grouping or categorizing a task. So you're dealing with one thing all at once. You already naturally batch laundry by washing all of your son's clothes in one load because they all go to the same place. That's in a laundry episode. You might batch making your own lunch by cooking

one pot of soup on Monday and you eat it the rest of the week. You could batch buying and addressing birthday cards, loading the dishwasher all at once instead of throughout the day, paying bills, filling out all the paperwork from all of your children's schools. Batching is doing or grouping something into a single category, task, or location all at once. and I want us to park on the location. A bag is a location. A bag you pack for a specific task is a location. You're packing the bag based on where the bag is going, right? It's like washing a load of laundry based on where it's going. It's going to a kid's room. It's going to your closet to be hung up. It's all the towels that are going to the linen closet, whatever. A bag is a location. And you can

pack that bag based on where your bag is going. Okay, let's go back to Courtney for a second. Courtney packs for vacation this way. It's the best way possible. Every family member has their own duffel bag. Okay, so there is a single bag or a single location for one person's stuff. If you need to pack little Johnny's socks, you know what bag those socks need to go in. They go in Little Johnny's bag. Everyone gets a bag. Now other things that are not people also get their own bag. or their own bin. Shoes, for example, for Courtney, go in a single bin. She's got a big, everybody's shoes and a big bin. Water stuff for beach and lake frolicing, you know, and then also for rainy days. Those go in another bin. There's a snack bag, a fun bag, a laundry bag. Basically,

every category has its own container, has its own bag. The stuff is batched by what it's for and or where it's going. This is what I want you to think about for your daily efforts of getting out the door. What categories of stuff do you need on the average day? We all have basic essentials, right? Your basic essentials are probably something like your phone,

your wallet, your keys, and a mask. Something like that. Those are the basics. What are some other essentials that you might want to add? Your MetroCard, if you live in the city. a water bottle, hand sanitizer, your planner, your Kindle or a book, sunglasses, tissues, gum, a tiny hairbrush, earbuds, you get the idea. Everyone has their own list of essentials. But if you can make that list once, batch it, batch that list, and then put all of those things

in one place into a bag, you can just grab the bag. No trying to remember what you need when you're trying to get out the door. Now, this particular concept, especially for essentials, like this being the first example, you're probably like, yeah, Kendra, we know. That's what a purse is. We get it. But a lot of you still struggle to find your keys or your phone or your wallet. So having one place for those things, whether it's the bag you'll leave with tomorrow or a little basket that's next to your bag where you put those essentials like a keys in a wallet, it really does help. Now, what's interesting too is that one of the comments that I got multiple times on Instagram was the challenge of changing purses, right? Like you do the work of putting everything

in a purse, in a bag, but then you want to take another purse another day and you no longer have your essentials. Some of you have like several purses that you rotate through. And not all of those purses or bags have what you need all the time. So let's talk about that real quick. One way you can handle that is to have a very, very small bag of essentials, like a very small bag that can go inside your other purses and you transfer that from purse to purse. Or maybe all of your purses can have those very easily stocked essentials, like tissues, gum, a clean mask, like all of your purses can have one of those, like a little bottle, lotion, whatever you want. And now all you need to do is to make sure that those non-stockable items, like a phone and a wallet, are all together in one small bag or in a little basket by your

bags, right? And then you just transfer those few essentials to whatever purse you need. Again, this is fairly basic and not as necessary for a lot of you, but it's worth mentioning. But this concept can work for a lot of things that you might not have thought as much about before. Okay? This episode is releasing on Labor Day, the unofficial day that most pools close. Now, all summer long, we've had a pool bag. Everything we need for the pool. Sunscreen, goggles, pool toys, towels. None of those things have left. the bag except for when towels get washed but when they come out of the dryer they go right back in the bag there is no other storage location for pool stuff in our house except for that bag that way all we have

to do is grab the bag when we leave there's no gathering of stuff you know it's been absolutely amazing what about for running errands with your kids let's say you are a stay-at-home mom or a parent and you have little kids. What do you always need when you run errands with your kids? Maybe it is a handful of like, you know, reusable canvas bags if you use reusable bags. It's snacks and water bottles for you and the kids. It's a little toy or a book. It's a blanket or a lovy for those almost inevitable meltdowns at the end of your errands.

Extra pants for your toddler, who's potty training. Wipes because somebody always gets sticky. What if you had all that stuff in? a bag ready to go just for errands. Or at least you had a list on your fridge of those things, of those essential errand things that you can consult as you fill a bag when you're about to go, right? The point here is to group your stuff together by where you're going or what you're doing when you get there and maybe even keep that stuff in its own bag all the time, like the pool bag, especially if that activity is going to be repeated fairly regularly.

I like to think of it like a decision, right? This is the bag for this thing. This bag is for this thing. Whatever is in here is what I need for this thing. I am batching my thinking and my gathering into this single space. Okay, let's go back to Courtney's packing for vacation. If you are on a road trip and you stop for lunch, but it's raining. You don't have to search through the whole car for an umbrella or rain jackets or whatever or even wonder if you brought them in the first place because you have a container for water stuff. It's already been decided and you know exactly where to go to get what you need. If you're in the car and a kid is getting cranky because they're bored,

you can grab something from the fun bag without rooting through, you know, a catch-all duffel bag that's holding everything that you couldn't fit into your suitcase. That same kid has an accident in the car and needs a new pair of pants. you don't have to open every single suitcase trying to find out where you crammed that kid's clothes. You just grab his bag and then grab his pants because this bag is for this thing. This bag is for this thing. When you're thinking about getting out the door for any type of activity or kind of day, see what happens if you say this bag is for this thing.

This is the bag for this thing. And then fill that bag with what you need. We'll be right back. 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. Okay, let's workshop this whole bag thing just a little because it's one of those ideas that you think,

yeah, okay, Kendra, this is stupid. Kind of like the episode on cleaning your kitchen in the right order, but then you do it and you want to bake me a pie or help me meet James McAvoy or something because it helped you so much. This just might be that. Okay, so let's say you're going to work. And after work, you are going to pick up your kids from school. from school, one has to go to soccer practice and the other is going to piano. All right. So during those two events, during soccer and piano, you're going to go to the grocery store to get some groceries. Okay. Now remember our phrase, this bag is for this thing. The kids are going to school. They have backpacks, right? That bag is for that thing. Everything for school goes in the backpack. You are going to work. You might have a, you know, like a large purse that you take to work that holds everything you need for a typical. workday. Your laptop, water, a pack lunch, that kind of thing. This bag is for this thing.

Okay, those are pretty obvious. Now, one kid is going to soccer practice after school. She needs a change of clothes, cleats, shin guards, socks, maybe a towel, and a water bottle. This is a situation where personally I would have two water bottles, one to put in the school bag and one to put in the soccer bag. Why? The soccer bag is for soccer. It should hold everything your kid needs for soccer without having to think or transfer anything. The school water bottle, it could be forgotten at school or just left in the backpack because no one thought about transferring it. And then even if that does happen though, if it gets forgotten, your daughter still has water for soccer. She's got a soccer water bottle in her soccer bag.

This bag is for this thing. Okay. The other kid has piano lessons. What does he need for piano? His piano books. Maybe an extra man. in case something happens to the one that he was wearing all day at school. But really, for piano, you just need your piano books. Now, do you really need to put those in a separate bag and their own bag? Like, can't you just put the piano books in your purse or the kid can put it in their backpack? I think no, because then you don't have a bag for the thing. You're going to forget.

You're going to be like bustling around the van, trying to remember where you put the piano books. And then how many were you supposed to bring? And did we bring anything? And, you know, it's, I know, I know this is really. simple, maybe even simplistic, but having a small bag that holds the piano music and nothing else beyond what's needed for piano lessons makes going to piano lessons so much easier. Then you are going to the grocery store during those practices and lessons, right? You have another bag that might have, like, ironically, a few other bags inside it for buying

groceries if you're a reusable bag person. It has your list and a pen. If you make your list on paper, it has coupons if you use coupons, an extra pair of earbuds if you want to listen to music or a podcast while you shop. But everything for your grocery shopping is in that bag. This bag is for this thing. Now here's where this has some magic to it. Yes, it for sure helps like when you're in the middle of the activity where you can just grab whatever bag you need for whatever you're doing and go on your merry way. But where it really helps is in getting ready, especially if you get ready early, than, you know, five minutes before you have to leave. Now, you can totally get ready five minutes before you have to leave. But that means you're likely choosing a more stressful situation.

If that trade is worth it to you, then do it. Do it, do it. I talked about that in episode 223. You get to choose. But let's say the night before, you say to yourself or to your family, let's pack our backs for tomorrow. You think about everything you're doing. You've got your backpacks for school. That makes sense. In the example that we just did, you pack your work bag, you pack the soccer bag, the piano bag and the grocery shopping bag. For different scenarios, you might pack a snack bag for the car as all the kids and adults are like being transported to their various places. They might need a snack. That makes sense. You know, it's a bag for that practice or that meeting, a bag for the gym, a bag for taking books back to the library.

This bag is for this thing. The more you practice. practice it, the more you will likely find it to be quite helpful. And it gives your family, if you live with other people, it gives them a chance to pack what they need for a specific situation rather than you going up to them as you're walking out the door and saying, do you have everything? Like that question gets you nowhere. Do you have everything gets you nowhere? Because like, well, first of all, what is everything? Like what does your teenager or your second grader or your husband, like, what do they really need? That answer is so complex. And then also, how do they answer that other than yes or no? Right? So instead, what this bag idea does is it

helps you be specific and say, do you have your bag for soccer practice? Okay. Now, let's say you are filling the same kinds of bags for the same kinds of activities day after day or week after week. you can totally have a list like on your fridge or on your phone or something of the essentials for that thing. That way, when you tell a kid to pack a bag for going to soccer practice, they can just check off the things on the list. They consult a list, which is a decision that's already been made and batched into one place. Make sense? So even if the bag isn't always packed, like our family pool bag is always packed. Even if your bag isn't always packed, you can have a list of what always goes into a specific bag for a specific thing.

And I would say even if you don't have these like regular repeated places that you're going or things that you're doing, I think the bag language still helps. It's like, hey, little Tommy, pack a bag to take to grandmas this morning. And then little Tommy gets a bag and packs his bag. Which, speaking of little Tommy, the other great thing about the bag is that it's a limiter. it contains what you need for that thing like we've already talked about but it also keeps little Tommy from taking his entire bedroom to grandmas because he can only fit so much in one bag right it's a limiter then you put all of your bags for the next day by the door and everyone can breathe a little easier and even if you don't do this the night before and you do it as you're leaving you still

have containment and limits in your in your storage and in your decision making by saying, I need to pack this bag for this thing. It is so much better than feeling this general like, did I forget something? Panic, right? This bag is for this thing. And then take your bags. Do it when you leave the house on a regular day, when you're going on vacation, when you're visiting a friend, when you're running errands, whatever you're doing, try to add this idea. These two phrases, really, it can be like summed up in these two phrases to your life vocabulary. Let's pack our for tomorrow and this bag is for this thing. I really hope this helps. I think my weirder ideas usually do. And I want to thank again Courtney for doing this so perfectly for

traveling. Y'all, you really do need to go check Courtney out for all of your travel needs. She did a reel about a month ago on her Instagram where she laid out her this whole vacation bag system to the vocal stylings of Brian McKnight. It was magical. She also did a reel of how to jumpstart a car. She used a red jumper cable and the background song was Lady and Red. I'm telling you, she is pure magic. She's helpful and so hilarious.

So thank you, Courtney, for being this week's very special lazy genius of the week. And to everybody, I hope that her inspiration for vacation bags, it spreads into our bags for everyday life. I have honestly been getting out the door with this whole, like, this bag is for this thing for years now. And I can vouch for how well it works in daily usage. Like I just feels like it's a lot because it's like, well, why don't I just take everything I need? I don't need six bags. But then you just take the bag that you need. It really does help. At least it helps me. I hope it helps you too. And that is it for today. Thank you so much 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'll see you next week. Have you ever felt like you are 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 podcast. podcasts.