The Lazy Genius Podcast - #254 - Chores I Do Every Day

Episode Date: March 21, 2022

I don’t have a lot of time, you probably don’t either, and even if you do, most of us don’t necessarily want to spend all of it doing chores. Some chores you might like, some are therapeutic and calming and give you a sense of accomplishment and purpose, and that’s fantastic. But I think it’s always good to evaluate what we’re doing every day, what we’re not doing every day, and what matters most.   Helpful Companion Links Explore all 13 Lazy Genius principles in my first book The Lazy Genius Way. Episode #225: The Shoe Episode Episode #91: The Lazy Genius Organizes Paper Preorder my newest book The Lazy Genius Kitchen (out May 3!) and get a ticket to the first Pub Crawl event by letting us know you preordered here. 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

Amazon presents Laura versus Fruitflies. Swarming your fruit and terrorizing your kitchen, these little freaks multiply at a rate that would make a rabbit say, yo. Chill. But Laura shopped on Amazon and saved on cleaning spray, countertop wipes, and fly traps. Hey, fruit flies, your baby boom ends here. Save the Everyday with Amazon. Hi everyone. 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 254. Chores I do every day. This is kind of like the new recipe episode I did a couple of weeks ago where I shared how I choose new recipes. It's not that you need to choose them in the same way I do or that you need to do chores in the same way I do. It's more about giving you an example.

and a possible framework for how you might choose what you do. Now, in that episode, I shared the four questions I always ask myself when I get the new recipe itch. And today for this episode, it's a similar vibe, except there are not four questions. There's just one. You're not going to, it's going to blow your mind, guys. What matters most? You guys, what matters most?

Are you surprised? Of course you're not. But that is so crucial for how I decide what chores I'm going to do every day. I don't have a lot of time. You probably don't either. And even if you do, most of us don't necessarily want to spend all of it doing chores. Now, some chores you might like, you know, some are therapeutic and calming. Some give you a sense of accomplishment and purpose. And that's fantastic. But I think it's always good to evaluate what we're doing, what we're not doing, and what we think we should be doing, and then see what that means for what we actually do. And all of that starts with

what matters most. So what I want you to think about is what matters most about how your home looks and how it feels. You also might want to add the category of how it's cared for or maintained. That might be really important. Like there's a there's a daily chore or task that keeps your home or some part of it in good working order and that's important to you and that's great. But probably the primary pair of things that most of us are going to consider is how our home looks and how it feels. Now here's where you might trip up and you don't need to. You get to decide what matters about how your home looks and feels. You don't have to conform to a style, to a level of order, to a specific definition of welcome that you think other people do. You can decide what matters about your home without shame or embarrassment. We all get to decide. Once you do decide, you have a better idea of what daily chores contribute to that, rather than having an endless, list of chores you could do, and then you don't really do anything because you're overwhelmed by all the options. So as an example, I am going to share with you the three things that matter to me about how

my home looks and feels and the practical ways and specific chores I do every day to support those things that matter. So my three things are, it matters most that my home feels cozy, calm, and ready for the next thing. Cozy, calm, and ready for the next thing. I like it to feel cozy because I want a home that you want to be in. I want my family to enjoy coming home. I want to enjoy being at home. I'm here every single day. I want people who visit to feel at home and that it's an enjoyable, comfortable space to be in. Now, calm is pretty self-explanatory. My outside, some of y'all are like this. My outsides impact my insides. If I'm in a cluttered, messy home, it's my own home, by the way. It's not anyone else's home. Because someone else's home has a different purpose in my life than my own home does.

So just so you know, it's not like clutter in general does this. But for my own home, if it is messy or cluttered, I'm not going to explode, you know, but it does make my thinking and my processing a little messy and cluttered. I have a harder time focusing when there's a lot of visual stimulation. That doesn't mean I'm obsessive about tidiness, but I'm just honest about what I need. And if it's easy and still human to support that need in my everyday life, then I'm going to do it. And then the third one, ready for the next thing, is kind of like the magic question, what can I do now to make something easier later, right? It's like the magic question is a blanket over my entire life. I like to feel ready. I like my home to not feel behind. I thrive,

and I think my family does too, to a certain extent. We thrive when we're not scrambling or rushing or behind. It's mostly me, but a little bit my family too. So what is you? What is do those three things mean for me and how I tend to my home every day? When I made the list of chores that I do every day to prepare for this episode, I was kind of shocked because I lived by three main lazy genius principles every single day in my home. And I didn't actually know that it was just those three and so specifically. The three principles are batch it, set house rules, and put everything in its place. I'm going to share with what I do every day and explain how those things fall under those three principles, okay? Now, let me explain the principles first.

They are in the lazy genius way. If you are new here, I wrote a book called The Lazy Genius Way that has 13 lazy genius principles that you can apply to embrace what matters, ditch what doesn't, and get stuff done. Now, the first principle, Batchett, is doing the same kind of task all at once rather than piecemeal as needed, right? House rules are rules or guidelines to live by in your home that prevent life from quickly getting out of hand. And then put everything in its place is what it sounds like. Have a place for your stuff and put it away. You don't have to be a minimalist. Just put your stuff away. So those are the three principles that I use. Now, a subset of the principal batchet is the idea of zones. Zones are areas of your home designated for a certain thing,

right? That's not a new idea. You likely have to be. You likely have. zones in your house already, whether intentionally or accidentally. You put certain things in certain places all the time. Now, the idea, though, of zones is that they're a holding place, a catch-all for a certain type of thing before that thing goes into its actual final place. So a zone allows you to gather similar things and then tend to them all at once, batch it, as they are put in their place. My list of chores is 75% about zones. I use zones constantly.

And I don't know that I even realized it because I've been using them so long and they are so automated and part of my life. And to be honest, people sometimes comment how tidy my house is and how it doesn't seem out of order very often, if at all. that is not because I'm like a ruthless tidier or have a stick up my butt about a dirty house or because I spend a ton of time keeping it in order. None of those things are true. What is true is that I use zones a lot and they're amazing. They're amazing. And because they are part of my daily rhythm and have been for a long time, my house usually feels cozy, calm and ready for the next thing.

It makes sense that that would be the case because that's what matters most to me. I've intentionally supported those priorities, and now they're kind of on autopilot. And a huge part of that is because of zones. So let me explain the zones I use every single day. The first zone we use is kind of a going out the door zone. Okay. It's a zone for the daily stuff that you need when you leave the house. We have a little side table next to the back door with a basket for keys and wallets and stuff. right next to that are hooks where I hang my purse. And in that same area is a box of masks. It's where we have like a little basket of reusable shopping bags. So all of our like, I need this when I leave stuff is in one zone, right? Everything has a place there. The kids have the same with their backpacks. Their backpack zone is

like different because their backpacks are enormous and like super heavy. The zone is literally an area of the floor that's out of the way, and that's where their backpacks go. They used to hang their backpacks on hooks, but then their bags just got heavier and heavier, and I don't want to break my furniture. So the floor, it is, but it's the floor and it's out of the way, and it's fine. So when I say to the kids, put your backpack away, they just put it on the floor in that spot. It's great. So what that does is we're not scrambling for keys or bags. We're not busy looking for things when we're leaving. Oh, and that reminds me, the shoes, the shoes. All of our family shoes are also by the back door. I have some of my shoes in a basket. Causes are under like a side table

and the kids' shoes are under a bench by the back door. I did a whole episode on shoes, by the way, so you can listen to that whenever you would like. We'll put a link in the show notes. But everything we need to leave the house, it is in a zone right by the door. It has a place. It doesn't have to be super orderly in that place because the same kind of thing is in the same place and that alone feels orderly. Stuff is where you need it to be. Are the shoes lined up zero percent? Do the kids just like kind of chuck them, you know, in there? That's exactly what they do. But that doesn't matter that much because we're still ready for the next thing. The shoes are still where they need to be. They don't have to be lined up pretty in order for that to count. Another day.

daily thing that we all have to deal with is paper, right? Mail, school forms, all the things. I have an entire episode about that, too, that is excellent. It's kind of a game changer. It's one of my favorite episodes, actually, mostly because zones save your life when it comes to paper. I zone our paper every day, and it takes like literally six seconds. I know where everything goes based on its urgency that's covered in the episode, and paper is where it's supposed to be. There are no piles all over the house making it feel cluttered. Paper is always, always zoned. We also have zones that we use every day for laundry. There's the obvious thing. Like dirty clothes, we have hampers, right? You put your dirty clothes in the hamper. But we have hampers in different

bedrooms and bathrooms depending on who, like, de-robes wear, you know? But ultimately, we don't deal with dirty clothes around the house because everyone is in the general habit of zoning those clothes. Another piece, though, that's really helpful that I've mentioned before, but I haven't mentioned it for a while, is a little bucket we keep in the kitchen for the cloth napkins, the dirty dishrags, a stray sock, whatever dirty clothes we encounter in the kitchen area, they go in that little bucket. It's a galvanized steel bucket that's pretty, and so it looks fine. It looks good being left out. But that's where we zone other dirty clothes, and it keeps things feeling tidy even if the bucket is full. We'll be right back. It's something else here now. Something new.

From exclusively on Paramount Plus. It's the series Stephen King calls Scary as Hell. Everything here is impossible, but it's also real. Sci-fi vision calls it the best show streaming right now. We're running out of time and we still don't know the rules. Don't miss what the movie blog calls something you need to watch. Saving those children is how we all go home. From binge all episodes exclusively on Paramount Plus.

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. Now, a quick word about tidying. We, as a family, we do that three times a day, maybe two to three. I tidy after the kids leave for school because I work at home and it helps me have the L, as we call it,

which is our kitchen dining living area. It's like in the shape of an L. It helps me mentally to have that tidy when I come in for lunch or whenever I come back in the house because my office is in the garage. And that takes just a minute, just a minute. And I'll explain some details of that particular tidy in a second. We also tidy the L as a family before screen time in the afternoons, which is when I cook dinner. The kids are the ones that tidy the space so that I'm not spending my free time doing it when they could do it, you know? And then the third time is after they're all in bed. And again, there's very little to do, if anything. But those two minutes make a really big difference. Now, okay, as far as toys go, I feel like this.

is important. My kids are older, you know, they're 5, 10, and 12. So the days of like a, like a floor covered in Hot Wheels are less frequent. But there are still toys and junk left all the time. There are books on every surface. There are random things they brought home from school from like the treat bucket or whatever. Obviously, Annie still plays with tiny toys. So we zone that by, it's not that we restrict their toys to stay in their rooms. That's not a thing. They bring their stuff out all the time. But most of their stuff has its final resting place in their room. And because of that, their effort to kind of drag it out into the middle of the house and then put it back is just like a bit harder.

So often the kids play in their rooms. Now, I don't care if their rooms are tidy on a daily basis. I actually don't care. We do room tidies on Saturday. So however it is in the middle of that, it does not matter to me or really to them. And if it does, like Ben, my middle kid, he kind of likes a tidier room. And so he keeps his cleaner. Annie and Sam are just like living in chaos from Saturday to Saturday.

But they don't care. But then in the L, we do have a basket for stray toys. It has no rhyme or reason to what is inside. It's just everything that is toy adjacent goes in there. That is its zone until it goes to its final place. So if all of our daily things, you know, our paper or toys, our bags and stuff, if they are all in a rhythm of being zoned, you can see how the house is usually pretty tidy. It's not excessive or obsessive. It's just living by batching

because we use zones and we put everything in its place. And we have house rules about tidying and putting your stuff away. But it's actually really, really chill. It's really chill. Now let's talk about the kitchen. You all know I love talking about the kitchen, right? I wrote a book, a whole book about it called The Lazy Genius Kitchen. Did you know that? It comes out May 3rd, which is just in a few weeks. It's very exciting. At the end of this episode, actually, I'm going to share what's happening tomorrow on Tuesday,

March 22nd, for those of you who have pre-ordered the book. So stay tuned about that. But basically, let's go back to the kitchen. Basically, it is great to know how to cook, right? It is great to have recipes. But the thing I think that gets us crazy tamas. in the kitchen is that we don't have a rhythm. We don't have systems or knowledge or priorities in place about how we organize our space in a way that matters to us, how we plan our meals in a way that

matters to us, how we keep our kitchens ready for the next meal in a way that matters to us and so many other things. Now, that's what the lazy genius kitchen talks about in great detail with illustrations and charts and lists and guides and permission, and it's fabulous. Now, I talk about kitchen zones in tremendous detail in the book that I will share with you here a couple of zones that we use every day. And I guess they would be kind of considered chores, but they make all the difference in the world. The first, and as I'm looking at my list, the only zone, truly, the only zone, because I thought it was more than that. The only zone that we use in the kitchen that changes everything is the dirty dishes zone. I, I, uh, I, uh, I,

I actually just opened my copy of the Lazy Genius Kitchen. I went to the index because there is an index in this puppy. It was so fun. I looked under Z for Zones. And there are 12, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 10, 11, 12, 12 listings under zones because I talk about them a lot. I talk about them a lot. And I'm going to flip right now to page 122 to talk about the dirty dishes zone. I'm just going to read, I'm just going to read it from the book.

Ready? Y'all, seriously, this thing is so pretty. Okay. Part of the prep flow log jam, I talk about side note, I talk about what a prep flow log jam is earlier in the chapter, but okay, part of the prep flow log jam is the cleaning up of dirty dishes. Random bowls and cups from the many meals and snacks our people eat are spread out all over the place. And we think we have to clean up the dishes fully for it to count. Not true. The dirty dishes, zone is a singular place on your counter specifically and exclusively for dirty dishes until you're ready to clean them. And the zone doesn't have to be huge. A one foot square is awesome, but that

zone is only for dirty dishes. Don't put other stuff there. If you move dirty dishes to the dirty dish zone and do nothing else, it changes your space and positively impacts your flow. It's kind of wild. The other surfaces are clear, which is very calming. Plus, since they're all in one place, you can more easily wash those dirty dishes or load them in the dishwasher in a single batch all at once whenever you're ready. It sounds simple and it is, but it also creates a fantastic rhythm for you and your space. Okay, that's an excerpt from the book The Lazy Genius Kitchen, and we use the dirty dishes zone. The kids included, they know that term. single day. When you finish eating, you take your dishes to the zone. I don't have to load those

dishes into the dishwasher, like before I go to work, in order for the kitchen to feel orderly because everything is zoned. Everything is in a place it needs to be until I can deal with it completely. It is a lazy way to be tidy and I love it. It is so simple but so helpful. Just put your dirty dishes in their zone. That's it. Let them sit there until you're ready. We also have a drink spinner, which is a zone for like water bottles and cups that are in use. That way, cups are not all over the house. That is a newer zone in the last couple of years, and it is fantastic. So when you're ready to drink, you know where your cup is.

Remember, ready for the next thing. That's something that matters to me. And that's it. You guys, that's it. Those are the chores I do every day. I just zone stuff. That's all it is. And then at the end of the day, I tend to those zones if they need it, right?

The paper zone does not need daily tending. The dirty dishes zone does, so I do it. Or cause does it. Actually, let's be honest, usually cause does it. I have a house rule that I do not go to bed with a dirty kitchen. It is just an essential part of my rhythm because of what matters to me. So I want you to think about zones. Think about what matters to you. Think about what you're doing every day that you might not need to, especially if it's taking time away from doing something that would help you more or bring you more joy. If you want help with this in your kitchen, especially, but you can learn tools to help you in your whole house, really. You should get the lazy genius kitchen, like for real.

Okay. Now, I want to give you a couple of details about this book before we go and then about a party we're having tomorrow. This book is hardback, illustrated, full color, absolutely beautiful. Now, it's not a cookbook, y'all. There are literally two recipes in the whole thing. But there is a ton about how to put flavors together, how to approach. certain meal types and all kinds of things that will help you know what recipes you should choose

for your life wherever you get your recipes from. But the book teaches you a five-step process for lazy genuicing any area of your kitchen. And then I also apply those five steps to multiple areas of the kitchen to give you ideas and tools on how you can create a kitchen that not only works for you, but that you enjoy being in. Imagine that. Basically, I feel like none of us were taught how to be in the kitchen, how to do all the things that relate to food that aren't actual cooking. And this book teaches you those things. I am so obsessed with it. I am so proud of it. I truly think it's going to change your life in the kitchen and be a reference and a tool that you'll use for years and years, no matter your life stage or your skill set. It's so good, you guys.

I can't. It was so good. So good. Now, tomorrow, March 22nd, Tuesday, marks the original publication date of the Lazy Genius Kitchen. Now, if you're new here, story time, the books were on a boat that was in a storm, and we thought for a long time that all the books might be in the bottom of the sea. So that was fun. We have since learned, you guys, that a third of the books are, in fact, in the bottom of the sea. A third of them are ruined. but two-thirds are okay and dry. So that is very exciting. But because we were unsure of the book's status for quite some time, we had to move the publication date from March 22nd tomorrow to May 3rd, which is where it will stay. Celebration, we weren't sure about that. But we had a whole tour planned around the March 22nd date, and we had to pivot big time in how and when we would

launch this book. You can hear all about that if you want in episode 249, how we are lazy geniusing the boat situation. That's the title of that episode. But something we're doing, which is so fun, is a pub crawl or a pub location crawl, where we are having events that crawl from one publication date tomorrow, March 22nd, to the other May 3rd in a few weeks. That pub crawl kicks off tomorrow night at 8 p.m. Eastern, and it is a virtual part of. And it is a virtual party that is free for everyone who has pre-ordered the lazy genius kitchen. We are having some special guests pop in and join us, namely some folks who endorsed the lazy genius kitchen.

So for sure, some familiar and fun faces to you. We will have amazing giveaways at this event, like legit, amazing giveaways for people who are there. I'm still trying to decide if I'm going to lean in like really hard and wear a sailor outfit. We will see how that goes. but it is going to be a super fun way to kick off this weird season of launching the previously Lost at Sea Lazy Genius Kitchen into the world. I absolutely think you will love, you will love

being there. Now, it's on crowdcast and not on Zoom. So there are no worries about having your face in front of hundreds of people and accidentally not being muted while you tell your kid to like clean up dinner or whatever, you know. It'll be like watching a show. And we are working really hard to make it a really, really good one. Now here is how you can come. Okay? Ready? Number one, you pre-order, that means just buy early, the lazy genius kitchen, in any format, any format you want. So hardback, Kindle, or audiobook. Now, part of me is like, hardback, please, that is what you want. And I still think that's true because this book is such a reference. You will reach for it again and again. And that's how it's designed. But a few weeks ago, I read the audiobook, and I think a lot of you will enjoy

having some of the parts read to you because it's me doing it. Some of you like that. Now, some of it's weird to read because it's like charts and stuff, you know? So there is an accompanying PDF that has like all the charts and lists and stuff that's connected to your audiobook if you really want to hear me read it. But that's the first thing you do. That's number one, is you order the book in any format from any retailer. So Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Target, your local indie, Audible, wherever you want. And then number two, and number two is the very, very, very, very, very, very important part. Ready? Then you go to the lazy geniuskitchen.com. Okay. You're going to go to that website and you're going to enter your order information, including your email address. The only way,

that we can know that you pre-order the book is if you tell us first. The booksellers and retailers are not going to do that. You have to do that. And then once we have your email address and your order information, you will automatically get things that we send you like the ticket and login info to that virtual kickoff to the pub crawl tomorrow night. It is also where we will send a massively amazing pre-order bonus in April, you guys. It is an actual like e-book. of written out lazy genius recipes. Because remember, the lazy genius kitchen is not a cookbook, but you still might want some recipes. So the April pre-order bonus is a PDF of 25. You guys, 25, 25 lazy genius recipes all in one place, written out like actual recipes.

So I feel like you're going to want that and it's free for everybody who pre-orders. So why not go ahead and pre-order now, even though you don't get the recipe e-book until April, because that's the April bonus, because we're doing one, we've done one every month. But why don't you go ahead and do it now so that you can come to the party tomorrow? Now, we will have a replay of that party that will be emailed out this week sometime. So even if you're not free at 8 o'clock Eastern, you can still watch it. I think you'll want to because some pretty fun people are going to pop in. This is your invitation to change your life in your kitchen with the lazy genius kitchen

and then celebrate with us tomorrow at our party. And then in a couple of weeks, you'll get that recipe PDF in your inbox. But remember, you have to pre-order and you have to let us know you did today. This is the final important word, okay? Listen up. You know, I don't usually speak with this much like intense devil. line language. You know, so this is like a little, it's a little strange for me, but this is really important for you to listen to. All right. The deadline to get access to the live event, to be there

live tomorrow night, the deadline to get that access is tonight, Monday, March 21st at midnight Eastern. Okay. If you give us your pre-order information after midnight tonight, Monday, March 21st, you will still be able to watch the replay that because of how the crowdcast streaming links are sent out, we won't be able to get you access to the live event right before the live event. So you have to give us your pre-order information at the lazy genius kitchen.com by tonight, Monday, March 21st at midnight Eastern. Does that make sense? After that, you can only see the replay. Okay, cool. Intense deadline information over. That is it. That is it for today's episode and a lot of information. Thank you for hanging in. I hope you enjoyed this episode. I hope it encourages

you in your own choices of what chores you do every day and which ones you can skip. And I'm just so grateful for every single one of you. And until next time, be a genius about the things that matter and lazy about things that don't. I'm Kendra. I'll see you tomorrow night at the pub crawl and also next week. 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.