The Lazy Genius Podcast - #357 - Your Planning Playbook for Spring 2024

Episode Date: March 18, 2024

One of the most foundational principles of managing your time like a Lazy Genius is to think about your season. We all need tangible help with planning. That’s why I wrote a book called The PLAN. But since it doesn’t come out until October and we need to plan some stuff now, let’s plan our spring together. Helpful Companion Links Pre-order my new book The PLAN or ask your library to consider carrying a copy once it releases in October. Episode #339: How to Make the Rest of 2023 Easier Emily P. Freeman Laura Tremaine Myquillyn Smith, aka The Nester One Line a Day Journal Episode #353: How to Plan a Project and Actually Finish It 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

Welcome aboard via rail. Please sit and enjoy. Please sit and stretch. Steep. Flip. Or that. And enjoy. Via rail, love the way. 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 357. Your plan. name playbook for spring 2024. One of the most foundational principles of managing your time like a lazy genius is to think about your season. There are multiple factors that impact our energy, our schedules, and our priorities. There's also the literal season of the year. Right now here in the U.S., we are approaching spring. It was 76 degrees last week here in North Carolina, what on earth? So depending on your life stage, if you have kids, what part of the country you live in, and even if you live in a different country and even a different hemisphere,

this season of the year will also impact how you plan. It's not just what's happening. It's what's happening in nature. This is why we love one of our 13 lazy genius principles live in your season. It captures so much and it matters so much. But when it comes to boots on the ground, tangible time management, how do we plan within a certain season? I would like, like for us to start doing that more here on the podcast. We already tend to have an episode like this in the fall when the onslaught of fall holidays and the busyness begins, often when we're in the middle of it. And those episodes are always our highest downloaded episodes. We all need tangible help with planning. That is why I wrote a book called The Plan. But since it doesn't come out

until October, and we need to plan some stuff now, let's plan our spring together. Our hope with Team LG is to have a quarterly episode like this, a planning playbook every season, so that you don't have to start from scratch in your planning. Instead, we can walk through a process together. The more you do it, the easier and more helpful it becomes. Now, before we get to the process itself, I want to explain what this is not. There is a difference between being at the start of a new season and anticipating its stressors and being in the middle of a busy season and being overwhelmed. There's a difference in the start in the middle. I tend to think that where we are now in March of 2024, we're in the first space. We're in the, you know, a new season is starting

space and we're looking ahead at all that is to come. If you have kids or in the school system in any capacity, you are already dreading May probably. You know that May is trial by fire. Holy moly. So you might not be super overwhelmed with your daily life today, but you're anticipating that feeling to come soon. I think that happens with all of us as we have that anticipatory stress of how busy we might be one day. Now, when you're in the middle of a busy season, the process is different than when you're at the beginning. The needs are different, therefore the process must be different. Today we're talking about the beginning, okay? So if you are in the middle of a busy season and you are so stressed out and you just feel like you have so much to do you can't even get your head around it

more than like a regular day, I suppose. I would encourage you to listen to episode 339, how to make the rest of 2023 easier. It released in early November last year, which is for sure like, you know, smack dab in the middle of the busiest time of year for a lot of people. So even though the calendar needs are different, the approach is the same if you need it. It is a more detailed approach to your tasks helping you work out your actual to do list. It is more of a game plan than a playbook. Today is a playbook. In sports, a playbook is a collection of plays or choices that your team or players will make that

support your own strategy and how you want to win. You don't use every play in your playbook during every game, but you have narrowed down what works for your team in your season and you choose your plays from that playbook. That's what we're doing here. We're making a playbook, a planning playbook, gathering information, and making a few choices that will positively impact our season. I love it when I get to use a sports analogy. It's my favorite. Okay. The reason we want to create a playbook before we create a game plan or a plan is because you need to understand the season you're in before it starts. If we wait until we're feeling crazy,

it is much harder to get things done and feel like a person. Looking at a new season on a regular basis is so impactful to helping you stay afloat instead of feeling like you're trying not to drown. Okay. So we are making a playbook here in this episode, kind of like a dinner queue for planning. We're going to narrow down what matters right now, you know, what we're dealing with, what is significant about this season. And then when it comes time to actually plan.

a day or a week or a project in this season, you will be far better equipped to do it. Now, this probably is not the first time that you have tried to get ahead in planning an upcoming season. This is a group that tends to enjoy planning. Not everybody, but a lot of you do. You're probably quite good, actually, at taking what is ahead of you and putting it in its place. That here's the problem. When we try and plan an upcoming season, we almost always only look ahead. All we do is plan what's coming. Now, to be fair, that is what the productivity industry has taught us. So it's not your fault for approaching it that way.

But without naming where you are right now and without naming what you've already learned from past seasons, you are cutting yourself off at the knees in planning for the future. Your future plans are deeply impacted by where you've already been and where you are today. It's like how sports teams, sports teams watch tape. They watch tape of previous games. They're learning from what they've already done. They're not just looking ahead at what game is next. More sports. I love when I get to use sports.

I will stop now, but the analogy works so well. All right. So here is our process. Okay. The gist of our planning playbook for spring of 20204 is in three parts. Look around, look back, look ahead. That's it. Stand still where you are.

And then look around. look back and look ahead. The industry has us on a hamster wheel, you guys. We are always in motion, always moving, even if we're not really progressing anywhere. There is an inherent compulsion to keep going and going and going and thinking and thinking and planning and planning and planning and we need to give ourselves more permission to just stand still and look around. Look around at where we are, look back at where we've been, and then look ahead at where we're going. Doesn't that sound so much better than trying to manufacture some invisible future and control our lives? I think it does. I think it does sound better. So our first step is to look around, okay? You may sing Hamilton if you would like.

How can you put words to this? How can you put words to looking around? Well, ask yourself, where are you right now? What season are you in? Now, spring 2024, we know that. What about your job? If you're an accountant, holy molly. I know what season you're in. If tax season is in your spring season, you need to name that and plan accordingly. Otherwise, you're going to try and fit time and energy and life management approaches into a season where they do not fit. What works for an accountant in August will not work for them in March and April? That's true of many people in lots of jobs and seasons of life.

That's why we pay attention to the season we're in. That is why we look around. So where are you right now? where are you today? What's going on in your life this upcoming season, whether tangible or emotional, that will impact your energy, your time, and therefore the decisions you make about both of those things. Look around. You can do this a couple of ways. You can just jot down a quick list of what comes to mind, you know? These are the big hitters. These are the things that I'm dealing with right now. These are the things that I anticipate dealing with in the next month or two. Just jot down whatever comes to

mind. You might flip through your calendar, you know, notice how full or empty it is. Notice the weather. Notice your health, both physical and mental. Notice the health and energy and schedules of anyone that you live with or do life with. Invite a partner into this process, please, so you're not doing this by yourself. Look around. Where are you? What season are you in? Name where you are. 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. I'll share my own season a bit to help put some meat on the these bones. So for me, this spring of 2024, I'm traveling a lot. I spent a lot of the winter traveling, actually. I still have, I just got back from a trip. I have one more trip on my own next week or this weekend, plus spring break with my family before we hit the gauntlet of May. Okay. I also have a good number of evening meetings and things going on where I'm away from home. That impacts my own energy and workflow, but it also impacts my parenting. I am in a season of parenting where my youngest, Annie really loves being with me, like so much. And she has a deep well of missing me from these past

couple of months of being gone more often than I normally am. That means a component of this spring is prioritizing filling her bucket. It's being home for bedtimes, having a house rule, which is another lazy genius principle, where I don't miss two bedtimes in a row, if at all avoidable. she matters to me. Remember when you're a lazy genius, naming what matters in the season you're in, that's the whole thing. She always matters, just like all my kids and my husband and my people always matter, but in this season of her life at her age, with how much she's still a little girl who just wants her mom around, I want to prioritize that for her. I'm also in a parenting season this spring where my oldest kid is about to go to high school, which is nuts. He might get a job this summer also nuts. He's going to be

15 and six months. Heaven help me. It's all fine. That means that as I look around, part of our season as a family is to prepare him a little bit more for the upcoming responsibilities he's going to have. So he and I have been working more specifically on how he organizes his homework assignments, for example, instilling that in him now so that he'll find it like a little. little easier on his own later. There's the magic question, by the way. When his workload in high school gets heavier, you know, he's getting more responsibilities around the house. That is part of what I see when I look around at my current season, is being available for that and prioritizing that. I'm also in a season where my work is on the quieter side, especially compared to what it will be

in late summer, early fall of this year when the plan comes out. Book launch seasons are just absolutely bonkers, that means, while it's quieter in my work now, as I look around, and I've plenty to do, but also some time to do a bit more, if necessary, I might benefit from getting ahead on the podcast, from organizing a couple of book launch projects so that I have a starting point when things are busy later, you know, that kind of thing. I can magic question my book launch by doing some things now to make it easier later. So this first step of looking around is all about naming where you are. See where you are, see what season you're in, name the things that are impacting your time and your energy, and acknowledge them. Don't ignore them. We're not taught

outright to ignore them, but seasonal thinking is not common in most time management processes. And it should be. It's how life works. It's how plants work. It's how animals and birds and the sun work. We can't create a life we love and then click a button assuming that every, everything that works now will work later. It very likely will not. And that is because our seasons change. Let those changes be a guide, not an annoyance. Look around. Okay, step two is to look back. What can you learn from last spring or even from the last three months that might impact how you live your life this season? Two of my favorite people who teach about reflection in different ways are Emily P. Freeman and Laura Tremaine. Emily is an expert in discernment and decision making

and has taught me just in my friendship with her how important reflection is for making decisions in the future. I am a person left to my own devices who just barrels ahead without looking back. Now that is a sad way to be. And Emily has helped me see a better way. She also just released a book called How to Walk into a room. And if the earlier idea of looking around is a bit foreign to you, if you're struggling to see where you are, Emily's book starts out with helping you name what rooms you're in, physically and metaphorically. The book itself is about discerning whether or not you still belong in places and how to know whether to stay or walk away. And the beginning work in that, though, is to name where you are. She uses the analogy of rooms. And it's so helpful if you'd like to explore that idea of where

by now in the context of rooms? Her book is a great place to do that. Laura Tremaine is also excellent at reflection primarily through the art of journaling and accessing our own stories to help us move through our futures in a more wholehearted, holistic way. She has a course called journaling for grownups that is so thoughtful and practical and expansive to those of us who think that journaling takes forever or has to look a certain way. So if you are looking for a deep dive into reflection and the positivity that it can bring you, those two women are my favorites. I should not be your favorite. By no means. I am honestly terrible at reflection. I have a couple of practices that I do that help me, and I'll share those in a minute. But I wanted to plug those women first so you're not

woefully left with so little here from me. I am a planner, not a reflector. Still, planning is most effective when we look back to a startling degree. So these are some questions you can ask at the start of a new season to help you think about the old one. And you can use any of them that you like. I'll share my favorite when we get to it. All right. So the first question is, what do I remember from last season? And I encourage you to think about last spring, if you can, since there are likely a lot of similarities between your life then and now. What do you remember? What do your people remember? What sticks out? The point of this question is to help you notice what holds space in your brain. If it holds space,

even a year later, that means it was something significant probably, whether logistically, emotionally, positively or negatively. It's pretty simple and there are no rules for the answer to this question. What do you remember? Next is what has changed since last season. What's different now? Maybe more specifically, what mattered then that doesn't matter as much anymore. Our decisions should support what matters to us. So take the time to name what matters in this season now before you're overwhelmed in the middle of it. What has changed? It could be schedules. It could be your health. Or it could be a person that you used to do life with. They moved away. Or maybe someone you love and are learning to do life with has moved closer. You know, relationships impact our seasons too.

So what has changed since last season? And then what worked well last season and what didn't? It could be domestic decisions, dinner approaches, even a Sunday afternoon walk that was just good for your soul, you know, what worked last season and what didn't. This one is my favorite just because of how practical it is. I love a practical question. When you name what worked and what didn't work, you can more easily narrow down what might work now. Not always because seasons change, you know, and what worked then might not work now, depending on what has. But having a baseline of kind of reasonable success and how you live and plan is super helpful. Now, if you do not know the answers to these questions because you're like me and you just don't remember the past very well.

Here are a couple ways that you can look back. Okay. Open your camera roll and scroll through photos from last season. Same with your Instagram feed or Facebook or something. See what memories photos trigger. Look back at your calendar. What was going on last spring? When you see your appointments and your trips and all that, what does that bring to mind? And if you use some kind of reflection journal, like a one line a day journal. That's what I use. Or Emily's next right thing, guided journal, which I also use, or anything else, look back at that. Look back at last spring. And notice what you were saying then. Were you stressed? Were you grateful? Were you home a lot, away a lot? Were you connecting with certain people in a meaningful way? Did you start grilling dinner

early in the season and it was an amazing choice? Using those tools, your photos, your calendar, and any reflection journals you already have, even really small things, will almost certainly help you answer those reflective questions. Now, if you still have zero answers, no worries. It's all right. You gave it a shot and you can still look ahead. But I will say if you do have zero answers, perhaps it would be helpful to add a small reflective practice now, like a one line a day journal that might support future reflection for you. So you've looked around and named where you are. You've looked back and you've answered some questions.

Now look ahead. I have some questions here too. But the most impactful one for me is the question, what am I already dreading? I think so much of our seasonal planning energy can feel like dread over one general thing. I do have a general sense of dread around May just because of all the activities, all the school activities, the act of needing to. transition to summer and figuring out a new rhythm and a new summer rhythm and all that. But by naming that now, by naming what already has me stressed, I can use this early part of the season to magic

question it. I can make my problem smaller. I can create a project or two for some of the bigger transitional things like figuring out camps and stuff for my kids. We can, we have an episode actually about planning a project and really a lot of our things that we stress out. about our projects. And so I, both of us can listen to that episode and plan some projects. I can make some of these things that have multiple decisions and steps into a project. So it's not one looming thing that sits on my to-do list. Because remember, projects do not go on your to do list. You'll just keep moving them to the next list because they're too big to check off, you know? So make your project smaller. So I find such comfort and help in naming what already has me

stressed even just thinking about it. If I'm stressed out thinking about it, I'm definitely probably going to be stressed doing it. I would rather make a couple of small choices now to help, you know, stay that off in the future. So what are you already stressed out about? Some other questions to ask as you look ahead are, what are you excited about? Let's add some fun and sparkle into our days, pals. That is so important. Similarly, what are three things maybe that you hope to do in this upcoming season? name them so they might actually happen. Write them down. You know, add them to your playbook here. So they are available to you when you plan. This next one is sneaky good. Hat tip to Michael and Smith, aka the nester, for teaching us to think with our seasonal senses. What sounds, smells,

sights, textures, flavors do you love about spring? Are you a flowers person? How can you bring more flowers into your life? Do you love birds in your yard like I do? You can get a new bird feeder. I love my birds. Do you love fresh produce? You know, consider how you can make a trip to the farmer's market a more regular part of your routine because it's not been in your routine probably in the winter. Plan with your senses. And then the final question for looking ahead is what needs to be made smaller. What is coming up in your spring of 2024 that just feels too big right now? Just write down what needs to be made smaller. You don't even have to make it smaller right? You don't even have to make it smaller right the second. Just note that it needs to happen and maybe even pop a time on the calendar to do it.

This episode is not called your plan for spring 2024. It's your planning playbook. It is a collection of the tools and ingredients that you need to actually plan. As you move into a new month, a new week, a new day, you can glance at the answers to all these questions and notice how they impact your time management. It's like a cheat sheet for what matters, for what to lazy genius, what to spend your time on. It is your playbook for how to move through this season because you've already done the thinking work. You've already looked around, looked back and looked ahead. Now you have what you need to make plans and respond to life as it comes. It's like a dinner queue, but for planning. And I'm so excited about doing these episodes more often. This is the work, y'all. This is the good,

meaningful, personal, versatile work of planning like a lazy genius. Answer questions like these. Consider their answers when you're making your spring plans. Tuck whatever piece of paper you wrote these answers down on into your actual planner so you can see what matters as you plan. Be kind as you adjust to whatever the season brings you. Feel like yourself as you do it. I'm so excited about doing this more often and I genuinely hope this helps. And that is your planning playbook for spring 24. Before we go, let's celebrate the lazy genius of the week. This week, it is Sarah Rosenthal. Sarah writes this. My husband and I are not good at remembering to go on date nights. Life, kids, scheduling, it just never happens. He planned a date night last week and it was lovely. While we were

out, we talked about why we don't remember to keep up with date nights. And he said, we need to find a consistent time to plan these so we can keep them going. What if we plan them while we are on date night? then we'll remember and we won't be distracted by kids and we'll actually get on a roll and keep it up. I was floored. It might be the best idea he's ever had. We have our next date scheduled and our shared calendar app to go to a movie we both want to see. I almost can't believe it. Thanks for everything you're doing, Sarah. Sarah, this is such a great idea. Also, your husband is like co-lazy genius of the week. Planning the next thing while you're doing the thing is one of the sneakiest great ideas ever. Do this with play dates, girls nights, professional meetings, family hangs. It is such a great way. to keep connection going without forgetting. So thank you for sharing this, Sarah, and congratulations on being the lazy genius of the week.

This episode is hosted by me, Kendra Adachi, and executive produced by Kendra Adachi, Jenna Fisher, and Angela Kinsey. The Lazy Genius podcast is enthusiastically part of the Office Ladies Network. Special thanks to Leah Jarvis for weekly production. Thanks y'all 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 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 podcasts.