The Lazy Genius Podcast - #376 - The Lazy Genius Back-to-School Checklist

Episode Date: July 29, 2024

August is almost here, and when it hits, it hits hard, especially if you have kids going back to school. So today, I’m going to do some of the work for you. I’ve gathered some of the biggest tasks you likely have to prepare for going back to school, and by listing them all together and sharing some ways to Lazy Genius them. 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 #326: How to Magic Question Your Morning Get the checklist here! Planetbox Lunchboxes Episode #272: The Complete Guide to Seasonal Ceremonies 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 sip. Play. Post. Taste. View and enjoy. Via rail, love the way. Hey 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 376. The Lazy Genius back to school checklist. August is almost here, and when it hits, it hits real hard, especially if you have kids going back to school. Yes, this is definitely an episode geared toward folks with kids. So if you do not have kids, I suggest listening to episode 326, how to magic question your morning. We're heading into a new season no matter who you are.

So thinking about how to adjust your mornings to support what matters in that new season is a lovely way to spend your podcast listening time. All right, let's go through our lazy genius back to school checklist. Fun news, the checklist is available for you to print out. You can go to the lazy genius collective.com slash checklist and you can get it emailed to you for free. So if you would rather just listen now and not, you know, take notes or anything, go for it and then you can get the checklist after. All right. Why do we need a back to school checklist? Because there are so many one-off tasks to take care of in this season, and they are weirdly easy to forget. Or we remember them too late. So today I'm going to do some of that work for you. I have gathered some of the

biggest tasks that you likely have to prepare for going back to school. And by listing them all together and sharing some ways to lazy genius them, I think the next couple of weeks might not feel quite as scattered. Not completely calm, because that is an unrealistic expectation, but a little less scattered. Okay, item number one, doctor's appointments. I'm putting this one at the top because it's likely the most time sensitive as everyone is trying to get their kids to the pediatrician or the eye doctor or the dentist before school starts. And if you have a kid who needs updated shots or needs a doctor to sign off on a physical for a student athlete, not to sound panicked, but time is running out. But it's not all the way out, which is why it's on the checklist and it's first.

if your kid needs appointments and you have the ability to call the doctor right now, pause this episode and make the call. If you cannot call right now, pause this episode and set a reminder in the best place that you'll remember to make the call. Okay. Okay, that's item number one. Item number two, clothes. Now this one might not be as urgent as it feels. So let's break it down. When I grew up, back to school clothes were like a whole thing. The marketing efforts to get a to go to the mall and buy several full-fledged cold weather outfits, it was enormous, and it must be done before school started. Well, depending on where you live, it might be 90 degrees for another two months. Nobody needs jeans right now. Plus, kids grow. So getting clothes now for a season that's later

might end up being like a tiny waste of time. So here's your task. Think about your location and the likely weather as school begins? Can your kids survive on the clothes they currently have? If they can score. Like make a note in your calendar for when the weather is likely to start turning so you can go shopping. You know, you can put that task in its place for later and stop thinking about it now. But if they're fine with what they've got, like check this baby off. Now, if your kids go to school and they have to wear a uniform. This is obviously a different story. You probably do need back to school clothes. So let's break down the decisions and the tasks within this one small project. Okay. First, see what you have and then name what you need. Second, make sure your kid has space in

their room for new clothes. Okay? Those are kind of your two first things. We got a couple more after this. In our house, drawers are suddenly packed tight with clothes because we haven't cleaned out what no longer fits in a while. So when you go to check for what you need, remember that this is going to happen. You're going to see overflow or clutter in your kids' closets or dressers or whatever, and that is normal. Don't panic. Okay. Go into the room with a trash bag when you check for old school clothes so you can easily pull out what doesn't fit anymore as you're in the drawers in the closet to donate it or whatever you're going to do with it. Okay. Okay. So first you're going to go see what you have and name what you need.

And then second, you're going to make sure that there's space in the room for the new clothes. Third, you're going to put a task or an appointment in your calendar or whatever makes sense to you to either order clothes online or to go to the store to get what you need. If your kid is picky about like colors and styles, make sure you make that plan for a time that they are free or they have at least like a modicum of energy, right? Okay. So that's the third task is you're going to plan. when you're going to shop. Fourth, shop. Great. Love it. Fifth, remember that you will likely need to

launder those new clothes before school starts if you have the uniforms. So if you want to go ahead and put that task on your calendar, go for it. But even if you don't, remember that you will be adding some extra laundry to whatever your laundry rhythm is. And because you've already removed the clothes that don't fit from the kids' rooms, you will have a place to put them away. So look at that. You're such a rock star. So that's item two. Close. You can see how if you just were to say, I need to get back to school clothes, it is not complete. That is not a complete task because you have to look to see what you have.

You have to name what you need. You have to remove what is in the way. You have to make a plan for when you're going to shop. Then you actually have to shop. And then you got to wash the clothes and put them away so the kids can put them on their body. It's the whole thing. You're doing great. That's why we're overwhelmed in August, you guys.

Okay, item number three, shoes. This might be more urgent than clothes just because kids' feet grow very fast, but also because a lot of folks do get new shoes at the start of school, which means your kid's shoes could be a year old and look it, right? Souls are coming apart in the best way. So check your kids' shoes. Some schools don't always allow things like open-toed shoes or kids have gym so they need shoes they can run in with any necessary information, check what your kids have, get rid of what they

don't need, and then make a plan to get what you do need. We are big fans in our house of getting the exact same shoe that a kid loves in their next size. That makes it so we don't always have to go to the store, which let's be honest is maybe one of the worst things of all time. Like our rackroom shoes in August is truly one of the most depressing places to be. You can feel the parental stress in the air. So that's a way we avoid the stress is we just size up with the same shoe. And then our kids pretty much wear the same pair of shoes until they fall apart. Now, not every lifestyle allows for that, but it does for us. But whatever way you do it, check on the shoes. Item number four, lunchbox and lunchbox and backpack.

Say that three times fast. Check in. Lunchbox and backpack check in. Do The kids in your home need either of these. Because what often happens is you go to Target or Office Depot or wherever you're going to get your school supplies and a kid sees the display of new backpacks and they want one. But you can't remember if they still have a good backpack at home because it's under somebody's bed or it's full of Legos or something. So before you go shopping, check on the lunchbox and backpack situation. Do that you need new ones. Does your kid want new ones and you can accommodate that? Like, go ahead and decide that too because backpacks can be expensive. So sometimes a kid has to use the same one another year if it's still a good shape, you know, but making those calls before you go

to the store where you can tell your kids, hey, you guys, you're going to see some really rad backpacks when we go to the store. We're not getting new backpacks this year. I know that's a bummer. Or like if they want to spend their own money to get a new backpack, you know, but go ahead. head and know your situation, your lunchbox backpack situation, before you go to the store. Now, as far as lunchboxes go, I will say, again, I've said it before, we are big fans of Planet Box lunchboxes. They are steel bento box style boxes. Sam has had the same one since he was in preschool and he is about to start high school. Like, I am serious. These lunchboxes are indestructible. Now, we have gotten him a new carrying case for it, maybe twice.

And all the kids have their own carrying case and sometimes we'll update those depending on their style or like how worn down they are. That the boxes themselves, they're the same. We have the same three lunch boxes. They are so great. We love them so much. They are more expensive, but they last forever. So if your kid takes lunch to school and you don't mind the initial investment because

they are definitely pricier, then like, plastic zip-up kind. I cannot recommend Planet Box lunchboxes enough. I do not have a code. I wish I did, but I do not. But they sometimes have a back-to-school sale or an Earth Day sale, sometimes Black Friday. Not super often, but check in if that's something you want to invest in in the future. The ride that steals the spotlight every time it hits the road, that's the Volkswagen TIG one. Its sleek exterior makes a first impression you can't ignore. Step inside to find available full leather seats and wood accents. Under the hood,

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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, item number five, school supplies. I don't know about you, but every single year, there are so many supplies that we get from the supply list that my kids never use. But since I never kept track of those extra supplies and they were just kind of flowed. loading in different drawers and baskets throughout my house, we would always just end up getting new school supplies every year and spending a lot of money on it and being like, why do we have

so many empty notebooks? So two years ago, I wised up and I gathered all of the unused school supplies from around the house and I put them in one big box. Now if a kid needs a folder or a notebook in the middle of the year, I just go look in the box first and often we have what the kid needs. So before you go shopping for school supplies at the store or before you start filling an online card or whatever, shop your stash first. You might have more than you think. After you look at what you have and you name what you need, then make a plan of how and when you'll get the rest, just like all the other things that we've talked about. Will you order online? Do you like going to the store with your kids and giving them their own list? You know, do whatever supports what matters

to you. Now, I personally love going school supply shopping because of how much I loved it as a kid, but I also do not like going to more than one store since my kids implode faster than I always think. Okay. Pro tip, take them after a meal, not before one. Hangary children in an office supply store is like unbearable. We also have had really great success going to Office Depot instead of anywhere else, simply because there is inevitably a weird school supply item that Target or Walmart does not have. And Office Depot just seems to have everything. This is not an ad. This is just our personal experience. Everyone is different. So you do you. I just like going to one place. And Office Depot seems to be the best place for us. Also, I am so sorry, genuinely, that school supplies are so expensive.

Like, I get sticker shock every single year because I have three kids and supplies for all of them. And as my boys get older, it's like more things. It's bigger, bindings. It's bigger. and all the notebooks and calculators and like all this really expensive stuff. And also we're buying way more than we need year after year. And I think that might be true of all of us, right? Is that school supply lists are not always like, they're not perfect, are they? They're not perfect. They're going to be things on there that the kids don't actually use.

So I hope that seeing your school supplies this way and maybe having your own stash at home, it will lower your cost having a personal stash. But just want to say solidarity. The sticker shock of school supplies is no joke. Okay. Item number six on our checklist, paperwork. Okay, listen. You know this, but you always forget this.

When you go to open house, remember, you're going to get all these forms, right? Now, your school might be different than mine. You might have online forms. You might have very little to do because you have just one kid. There's lots of possibilities here. But the point of this particular checkbox is that there were almost certainly be paperwork. And we often forget it's coming. When the kids go to open house, like I'm already a little stressed because I usually do open house alone since my husband is a school counselor. And so he's at open house at his own school. So it's three

kids, three classrooms, three different social expectations, right? For the kids, like the friends that they're going to have in the room, it's three different levels of excitement or disappointment, depending on how many friends are they have in the same class or if they like their schedule or whatever. There's a lot to emotionally manage at Open House. And then each teacher, and even more when they're in middle school and high school, because they have so many teachers, gives you a handful of papers or Lord help us, a QR code with information sheets, supply lists, classroom needs to shop for, medical forms, all kinds of things. This is your reminder, my friends. This is coming.

this paperwork is coming. So when you find out the dates and the times of your open house, put those on your calendar along with an hour block to fill out all that paperwork. You don't have to do it that same night. But if you come home with all those papers and no plan of when you're going to tend to them, the task will hang over your head and it will get bigger and bigger as time goes on. And that will make you so sad. So plan for it now. magic question that puppy. What can you do now to make all that paperwork easier later? Know what's coming and put it on your calendar. Okay, item number seven, meals around the start of school. Okay. Your energy, schedule, timeline, all of it is going to be different from mine and

from everyone else listening to this episode. But we all have to eat and likely feed. We have to feed the people multiple times a day. And when we're already a little stressed out by all the extra tasks of going back to school, the feeding feels more overwhelming than it already is. And it's already overwhelming. So your task now is to the best of your ability, meal plan around the start of school. Don't go running about the phrase meal plan. You're going to be okay. It's just deciding. It's just making a choice. Okay. Now, you might, might do the week before school starts, the week after school starts, the first two weeks once school starts. It might even just be the first day or two of school. But I highly encourage you to

choose as many meals as you are able now. Knowing that dinner is planned, at least you have a placeholder during such a busy, emotionally chaotic time is going to be a huge lifesaver. Maybe you make the dinner the night before school starts super special. Like, you know, it's a family favorite restaurant or something. And then the first day of school makes something that makes everybody feel good, you know? Use as many brainless crowd pleasers as you possibly can during that time to make life easier and more comforting to everyone. By taking 15 minutes to do that now, you are eliminating a ton of mental load later. Okay. Item number eight, bedtime routines. There is legitimate panic when it's two days before school starts and your kids are still going to bed way later than they do during the

school year or like they've stopped taking showers as often or whatever happens in the summer. As it should, right? The summer is different. But that transition can be tough when done quickly. So think now about what you need to help your kids adjust between now and the start of school. Think about what times need to shift if you need a new order of operations for bedtime routines so that there's a little bit more structure. Whatever it is you need. The point isn't necessarily. necessarily what you do, but that you start thinking about it earlier than when the panic happens, right? Now, this isn't as relevant to every kid or every family, but it is for most, and it's easy to forget. For our family, school starts on Monday, August 26th. So we will start moving the

kids toward an earlier, slightly earlier bedtime than usual the Monday before that, right? So we'll take that week to ease into a slightly more structured evening rhythm, and it'll be fine. We'll also start eating dinner a touch earlier that week since our summer dinner start time has been getting later and later, which is fine because there's no rush to get ready for bed quickly in the summer, right? But soon there will be. So make a note whenever you will see the note to start adjusting evening and bedtime routines in whatever direction you need. Okay, item number nine, kindness towards distraction. This is less concrete than the other checkboxes, but it's just as necessary, if not more. This is the time of year when we are pulled in many

directions. We are trying to be present in the summer. We're trying to prepare for the fall. We're tired and overstimulated. We're longing for routines again. Maybe we're dreading the routines. There are so many things that happen when we go from one season to another. And the transition from summer to fall is a big one. It's easy to be distracted, to have anticipatory stress, to get snappy with your kids, to get frustrated with your partner because you're doing more to manage all this than they are, to get in your own head about how well or how terrible you're doing this whole parenting thing or being a person thing. There's a lot to do and there's a lot that we think about. So please be kind to yourself in this season of distraction, okay?

It is a very normal place to be. So if you find yourself distracted, take a deep breath and be kind. Say it's normal. This is normal. I am okay. And finally, item number 10, seasonal ceremonies. So you're distracted. Your kids are probably failing a lot of things.

The energetic transition that happens at the end of summer before school starts, it looks different for everyone. But it's still there. It's there for all of us, right? A beautiful way to aid that transition is to have either a summer closing ceremony or a back to school opening ceremony or both. Spread them apart if you want. You know, close the summer the week before school starts and then use that week to get all the things like ready and you can rest and then you can open the start of school somehow.

Now if you're new around here and you're like, what are you talking about? I love sharing this idea of opening and closing ceremonies, seasonal ceremonies. It was inspired years ago by the Olympics when I realized how valuable and meaningful marking the beginning and end of something was. Those opening and closing Olympic ceremonies are so important. And then I noticed that I already did that in a couple of ways in my own life. You know, we marked the start of the fall holiday season with a day to our favorite corn maze and pumpkin patch. And it really marks the start of the season for us.

Doing that kind of thing intentionally is so good for my energy, for my family's energy, for memory making without it being full of pressure. So if you're going from one season to another, whether it's obvious like summer to fall or more personal, like the end of a round of chemo or a home renovation or just a season of having to work late on a big project, it doesn't matter what the seasonal change is. You get to decide what that change is and how to mark it.

The marking is the important thing. So as you're moving through this next month, and you're dealing with everyone's different energy and expectations, make a plan to either close the summer or open the school year. Do something simple or grand, playful or reflective, as a family or with friends, whatever you want, whatever you want. But mark the change of the season. I really think you'll be deeply glad that you did.

Okay, so to recap, our back to school checklist, doctor's appointments, clothes, shoes, lunchboxes and backpacks, school supplies, paperwork, meals around the time that school starts, bedtime routines, kindness towards your distraction, and seasonal ceremonies. Paying attention to those 10 things now will help you get ready to go back to school with more deep breaths, with that tiniest bit more order, and hopefully enough ease to make the stress, the very normal stress, more tolerable. And that is the lazy genius, back to school checklist. Now, remember, you can print it out.

If you want to do that, it's super simple. The checklist is like an appropriate level of cute that you can put on your fridge or your planner or whatever. It does have a couple of reminders on there to help you work through each task in a very lazy genius way. So if you want to get yours for free, just go to the lazy genius collective.com slash checklist. There's a link in the show notes.

All right. Before we go, let's celebrate the lazy genius. of the week. This week, it is Rebecca Beechy. Rebecca writes, I love your principal of deciding once. Without realizing I had done it years ago, I decided once that our kids back to school routine would look like this. The night before the first day of school, number one, I print out some back-to-school questionnaire that I found on Pinterest that asks what grade they're going into, who their best friends are, what they want to be when they grow up, et cetera, and have the kids fill them out. And then I save them from year to year. Number two, I measure and mark them on our doorframe ruler. And on the afternoon

when they get home from the first day of school, I decided once years ago to always have the same snack waiting for them, dirt pudding with gummy worms. This is the only time of year I ever make this particular dessert. So to them, it tastes like going back to school. When my oldest went off to college, I couldn't resist. I wrapped up a chocolate pudding snack pack, a pack of Oreos, and a bag of gummy worms for him to unwrap on his first day of college. He texted me that he kind of loved that. Rebecca, this is so precious. Decide once coming in strong with this comment here. I will say to those of you with kids in the middle of their school life, don't feel like you can't start a tradition in the middle. You can. You don't even have to make it a tradition. Something that's repeated. You can just choose

something for this year. Do it, enjoy it, and move on. If your kid is in the sixth grade and you're not having done the questionnaire or measuring them or something like that earlier than this, please don't fret. Be here today. Be kind where you are. You can mark the moment where you are, however you'd like. Thank you for this idea, Rebecca. And congratulations on being the lazy genius of the week.

This episode is hosted by me, Kendra Adachi, an 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 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.

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.