The Lazy Genius Podcast - #322 What to Do with Random Pockets of Time

Episode Date: July 10, 2023

What do you do with those little pockets of time between appointments or meetings or pickups and dropoffs? Our time feels out of whack somehow, and there are these random pockets that don’t feel good for much of anything, and because we don’t approach them intentionally, they feel wasted, and then we feel bad about it. So let’s talk about how to approach that time.   Helpful Companion Links Find Katie @whatkatefinds and Kherington @currentlykherington on Instagram (thanks guys, for inspiring this episode!) Sign up for the Latest Lazy Listens email. Grab a copy of my book The Lazy Genius Kitchen or The Lazy Genius Way! (Affiliate links) 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 am 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 32, what to do with random pockets of time. Let's start off with appropriate credit and the origin story for this episode. My friend Katie, you know her as what Kate finds on Instagram. She's amazing. She is the inspiration for this episode. A few months back.

Because of an injury, she entered the season of appointments and physical therapy and whatnot, where she had her days bisected in such a way that left her with what she calls stupid pockets of time. And then one of her buddies, who I also know from Instagram, currently Carrington, Carrington renamed Stupid Pockets of Time with the beautiful acronym, Spot. Where do I have spots? Okay. So Katie has a highlight on her Instagram account that's titled Spot, where she describes, her process and how this whole thing came to be. But she said something in one of those story panels

that feels very resonant for a lot of us. She said, when this happens multiple times a week, this being having stupid pockets of time that feel wasted, I feel very frustrated, unproductive, and annoyed at myself. I think we can all identify with that feeling. Our time feels out of whack somehow and there are these random pockets that don't feel good for much of anything. And because we don't approach them intentionally, they feel wasted and then we feel bad about it. So Katie asked herself, how can I reframe this and use these stupid pockets of time to my advantage? And that's what I want us to do today. I'm going to proceed, however, with calling them random pockets of time for a couple of reasons. One, I'm not going to take Katie's phrase or acronym. And if I use it in the title or I keep saying it,

it will become mine. It's like the Daily Delete, the practice of deleting your photos from your day, so your photo app doesn't become unwieldy. That is not mine. The Daily Delete is not mine. It is Miss Freddy's. But because I said the name of it on an episode with her, people think it's mine. It's not. So the Daily Delete is Miss Freddy's and spots or stupid pockets of time is Katie's. So we will say random pockets of time with no acronym as we proceed. Also, the more I thought about it, though, I think that a stupid pocket of time and a random pocket of time are actually a little bit different. A stupid pocket of time is always random, but not every random pocket of time is a stupid one. Allow me to explain the difference. Because I think sometimes the way we think about these things,

it really does matter. A stupid pocket of time can feel annoying. Stupid pockets of time have an air of inefficiency to them. Like I have this appointment at 1 and this other appointment at 3.30, even though I wanted the second appointment to be at 2.30 and I couldn't. And now I have this inefficient 45 minutes between appointments. You know, this feels stupid. But some pockets of time feel emotionally neutral, even good. They're not annoying at all. They're just random. A random pocket of time for me might be the 45 minutes between finishing up lunch and then picking up my kids at 2 o'clock. I'm not annoyed by that time at all. is great, but it is random. And it could be a little trickier knowing how to spend it, right? So I'm going

to use the phrase, random pocket of time, even though it does not provide a good acronym like Spots does. We will leave that for what Kate finds. But also, I think this phrasing might be more inclusive to a lot more of our experiences and can still offer a name that covers a wide range of frustration levels, random, stupid, what have you. So let's talk about how to approach that time. Now, here is something funny as we begin. When I was working on this episode, I've been working on it for a while today, I tried to come up with a system, a path, this list of questions to help you figure out what to do with your random pocket of time. But I started to realize that in some cases, thinking through the questions, it would take up

all the time. And really, the reason that I had the questions to begin with was to help you feel confident to choose what you want to choose. But you know what? I want you to feel that confidence without needing a handful of guiding questions to get you there. I'm just telling you right now, you can just pick something. And even if you look back and you think, oh man, I wish I had done something differently with my time, it doesn't mean that your original choice was a bad one or that you can't trust your choices at all or that you have to knock it out of the park with whatever you choose every single time. Basically, the system that I created, it took more time than the pocket of of time might, and it was holding your hand too much in getting you to the place where I just want

you to be a grown up and choose something. So I'm going to say it right now. You can choose something. You can just choose. I'm going to give you some ideas in this episode, but you don't need a complicated system for this to reassure you that you're allowed to just choose something. you can you're really smart you're also allowed to spend your pockets of time doing what feels right in the moment and if after that moment something else comes to mind you don't have to feel bad about your choice okay like you're allowed to do this you're allowed to do this so instead of a complicated system this episode is going to just use a ton of the 13 lazy genius principles which i'm going to shorten to lgps like i did in my second book the lazy genius

kitchen. When you're talking about something like that, like several times, like over and over again, saying Lazy June's principles over and over again, it gets a little tongue twisty. So it's LGPs when I remember to say it. But we're just going to apply a lot of LGPs to your random pockets of time. And you can notice which ones give you an idea of how to approach your own time. We'll be right back. The Volkswagen Atlas is a seven-seat powerhouse that actually makes sense for real life. It's got cargo space for all your gear, the dogs, and even half of your rec league soccer team. And under the hood, a two-liter turbocharged TSI engine that hauls up to 5,000 pounds. The seven-seat Atlas, you deserve more space.

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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 let's start with what I already alluded to. Be kind to yourself. That is the the final LGP in the Lacey Genius Way of the 13 that are listed. And I think it is maybe the most important for this topic. It is wild that so many of us have such wonky feelings about time and how we spend it. But we do. Think about it.

It's rarely exciting to have extra time or free time because we feel like we should do something productive or helpful or something that gets us ahead. And sometimes that's true. but it's also okay to do something fun. You can choose to rest or play or veg out or have fun in whatever small way you can for that random pocket of time. But the point is, I want you to be kind to yourself with whatever you choose.

If you carry that with you, you will have a much more positive experience with all of this for sure. Another LGP that could be helpful here is to ask the magic question. When you have a random pocket of time, Ask yourself, what could I do now to make something easier later? Depending on the time of day or where you are, the answer will change, obviously. But that is an excellent LGP to apply to a random pocket of time. Do something that has to do with the food you'll eat that day. Gather up the bills or the paperwork that you're wanting to take care of later. Track down the receipt of that thing you were going to return when you run errands later. Find your kid's binky and put it in her bed so you're not searching for it at bedtime in a little bit. it. The magic question is super helpful, especially if an answer quickly comes to mind. Now, if it doesn't,

maybe that's not how you need to spend this random pocket of time. But if that question is already in your rhythm, ask it. What a great principle for this. Another obvious principle is decide once. You can decide a lot of things one time about your random pocket of time. Maybe you make a list like Katie did and you can just choose something from that list, right? I'll say more about that list in a minute. But you can do what I do and you can make your decide once reading. If I have a random pocket of time and there's nothing productive that I know would serve me well to do now, I read.

Reading is my decide once for so many things, but for sure for random pockets of time. Or you can decide once that you'll do one quick, productive thing followed by something that's fun for you. decide once. It doesn't matter what. This LGP is so important and helpful here because the whole idea of this episode, what to do with random pockets of time is about what to do. It's about a decision. So if the hardest part of this is the actual decision making, decide something once. See how it works. Okay, so we've talked about three LGPs so far. Be kind to yourself, ask the magic question,

and decide once. Now, let's mention batch it. For those of you who always giggle when I say that, I hear it and I hear you. All right, you are already familiar with batching. It's doing the same kind of task all at once instead of over and over and over again. This is where the list comes in. You can batch a list of possibilities to spend your random pockets of time. Katie has one in her spot highlight that's excellent and it is divided into categories which are really great her categories are connect things like text or call a friend or a family member you know errands and to dos so things like returns go to the post office choose what's for dinner self-care she actually mentions the lazy genius 17 minute nap which that nap is amazing y'all painting your nails going outside reading which

we've already mentioned is my favorite and then her final category is clean, you know, things like water the plants, pick up stuff around the house, tidy a messy a messy drawer real quick. You can again find Katie's list in her spot highlight at what Kate finds on Instagram. Now, some other ways to think about your list could be based on how much time you have. You can have a list of things that take 10 to 20 minutes, 30 minutes, an hour, whatever. maybe that's part of your own personal challenge in figuring out what to do. It's thinking about how much time something will take. And let's say you don't know. Let's say you don't know how much time a thing will take. When you do something during a random pocket of time, notice how long it took or how it felt

inside that random pocket of time. It could be that cleaning out that junk drawer, it took 30 minutes. And also it felt so good to get it done in the 30 minutes you had. You're like, wow, what a great use of my time. Put it in a time category. Or you can put a 30 next to it. You know, put a 30 next to clean out a messy drawer so that you know next time how well that thing could fit in the random pocket of time you have. You could also make your list in a batch and group it by things when you're home and when

you're not at home. sometimes we have a random pocket of time when we're out maybe that errand didn't take as long as we thought but you have to pick up a kid in you know 25 minutes and it's not worth going back home for what do you do so maybe batching a quick list of things to do when you're out could be helpful by having a list of options especially a list that's categorized in whatever way that's helpful it makes the decision easier. It's curated decision making. We'll be right back. Our next LGP to think about is put everything in its place. Now, that could actually be how you choose to spend your pocket of time. Like what is out a place that could be put back? But that's not the only way to think about this principle.

Putting everything in its place could mean your list. Put your list in a place that you'll always have access to. It could be a notes app list or, you know, something on your phone. But if you're an analog person or maybe your process is naming the kinds of things that are great for this week's random pockets of time, not ideas forever, you might write down those options in your planner, but then take a picture of that list so that if you don't have your planner or that piece of paper with you when you're out or something, you likely will always still have it because it's on your phone, like in your photo app. But if you make a list, put the list in its place. You can also think about this principle in light of the types of things you often choose to do with your random pockets of time. For example, I have an outgoing basket.

I've mentioned it before. It's this big basket where I put returns and things that need to go somewhere, not in my house. By having those things in their place, in that basket, I can just grab them when I have a random pocket of time and tend to them. You know, I can return them to the store or the friend or wherever. But because those things are already in their place, it makes it much easier to act on them when I have a random pocket of time that I want to use on errands. So there are lots of ways to apply, put everything in its place. Another one is essentialize. And we talked about this a couple of weeks ago in the episode, How to Feel Good About Free Time. essentializing is getting rid of what's in the way.

And there could be a handful of things that are in the way of knowing what to do with your random pockets of time. But most likely one of the biggest roadblocks is your guilt. Get rid of it, please. If it looms large, talk to someone about it. Talk to a therapist, a friend, a partner, a journal. Try and figure out why you feel so badly using your random pocket of time to read or rest or do something that doesn't produce in the way you think you should be.

producing. That is an unhelpful, unkind way to look at yourself and your time. So open yourself up to getting rid of it. It's in the way, pal. Get rid of it. What about the LGB go in the right order? There is a right order for a lot of things like cleaning the bathroom. You need to dust first, please. But a general right order for a lot of situations is, name what matters, calm the crazy, and then trust yourself with what comes next. This feels like an excellent principle to apply to random pockets of time. When you are presented with one, ask yourself, what matters right now? Maybe you need a beat to calm your body or do something that makes you feel like yourself

because the day has been long and tough or tiring or whatever, and you could really use this little break. So what matters is that you come back to yourself for a bit. Okay. Next, calm the crazy. What crazy is preventing you from doing that? It could be a thought. It could be that the couch you want to sit on is covered in stuffed animals from playing

veterinarian with your kids. Throw the stuffed animals in a laundry basket, move it out of sight, sit on your couch. Third, trust yourself with what comes next. Trust yourself to sit in silence, to watch a video that makes you smile, to read a book, to take a nap. What if the answer to what matters is that you eat dinner on time because you have to be at an evening event. Okay.

now calm the crazy. Maybe the kitchen itself is crazy. You know, it's still covered in the remains of breakfast and lunch. Making dinner on time will be hard when all of that is there. So calm that physical crazy by tidying up the counters. And then trust yourself with what comes next. That could be enough for now. Or maybe you'd like to go ahead and chop something or mix something or pull cans out of the pantry or whatever to get things a little closer to ready for that dinner. Trust yourself. with whatever comes next. So that's using the LGP go in the right order when you have a random pocket of time. And let's look at one more before we go, and that is schedule rest. A great way to use random pockets of time that you know are coming is to schedule rest into those pockets.

It doesn't have to be long rest and it doesn't even have to be at home. But when you see a pocket, turn that pocket into scheduled rest, even on your calendar, like put it in there as an event. go get a cup of coffee from a favorite coffee shop and sit there with a book like on purpose plan it schedule it schedule a nap schedule a loan time schedule a phone call with a friend schedule whatever you want to experience the kind of rest that you need we are really bad at scheduling rest so what a gift to use random pockets of time as an opportunity to do that so really we don't need a system to do this to decide what to do just choose a lazy genius principle that makes sense for you and see how it lands some things need systems and other things just need a quick tool to help these principles are made to do that for you and i hope

that seeing how they can be applied to your random pockets of time not only helps you decide what to do with those pockets but also how the principles can work in other ways too and that is what to do with random pockets of time okay before we go let's celebrate the lazy genius of the week this week it's Marie Noel who shared this excellent food idea. She writes, hi, I really enjoyed this week's episode on foods we stock in the summer. Your comment about cereal made me think of a trick I use to make easy fruit crumble. I use cereal that my kids won't eat as the topping. I mix it with whatever I have on hand to bind it, butter, an egg, milk, and any other ingredients like oats, flour, nuts or seeds. If I feel like it, it's fast and it helps reduce waste. But this is just

brilliant. I cannot think of too many cereals that would not work for this. I mean, I don't know, maybe something like fruity pebbles, but even those mixed with oats and butter and used on top of a berry crumble, I think that would actually work. I had to share this as we're all likely dealing with a bit of that summer fruit bounty and eating to use stuff up. What a great approach to using both fruit and uneaten cereal. So thanks for this tip Marie and congratulations on being the lazy genius of the week. Okay, y'all, that's 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. 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.