The Lazy Genius Podcast - #407 - How to Create a Flexible Weekly Plan

Episode Date: March 3, 2025

This kind of episode is like Christmas for me. I love talking about planning but with a compassionate, flexible bent. We do not need anymore rigidity or weird shame spirals about failed plans. No thank you. We’re just living our lives, putting things in place where we can, intending to do whatever we decide, but then lowkey expecting that not all of those things will happen. We need to be flexible with both our plans and ourselves. Today, I’m going to give some ideas on how to approach both.  Helpful Companion Links Order my new book The PLAN or ask your library to consider carrying a copy. Jodi Picoult TikTok Cookish from Christopher Kimball Muji 0.38 pens Mildliners in Gold Get the next volume of Latest Lazy Letter (hitting inboxes on March 5th) 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. 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

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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 407, How to Create a Flexible Weekly Plan. This kind of episode is like Christmas for me. I love talking about planning, but with a compassionate, flexible bent.

We do not need any more rigidity or weird shame spirals about failed plans. No, thank you. We're just living our lives, putting things in place where we can, intending to do whatever we decide, but then low-key expecting not all of those things are going to happen. We need to be flexible with both our plans and ourselves. So today I'm going to give you some ideas on how to approach both. First, let's quickly talk about why you plan at all. Like what's the point? We might all have different points, okay? But some likely reasons are, first, we don't want to miss stuff, you know, making a plan, even a super flexible one, it helps us get a little closer to having more things in

place than not. Not every plan will catch everything. But a plan helps us remember more than we might forget. Second, we might plan so that we're not always operating out of a responsive or even emergency mode. Without a plan, we really are just bending to whatever is happening in front of us, what is needed, what's being asked for, what decision we're now faced with. Now, there's nothing wrong with living that way, but it can wear on us fairly quickly. So a plan might help lower that responsive energy because a little more is already in place than not. And then a third reason that you might plan is to lessen your decision-making load. A plan can, can act as a sort of autopilot mechanism, right? Choosing what to do next over and over again

is a bit hard on our brains. So a plan can relieve some of that constant decision making. Some things have already been decided. And then the fourth reason we might plan is to have a starting point. I think this is my primary reason, to be honest. A plan naturally captures all four of these reasons to a degree, but it matters a lot to me. to have somewhere to begin. Beginning from some place, no matter the place, it feels more grounding to me than not knowing anything that's going to happen. And then I just expect to adjust from wherever I begin. That's part of planning, right? As we have learned in my book, The Plan. Planning is not just preparation. In fact, making it just preparation is why some of you are completely burned out

and inflexible with failed plans. And then why others of you don't think you're good at planning at all? When really, you just might not be naturally inclined toward preparation. Planning requires equal parts, preparation, noticing, and adjustment. If you expect that to be part of the deal, you're already more flexible. Already. But back to that fourth reason of having a starting point. I really love having somewhere to start, and I don't mind adjusting as I go.

But having a plan that I don't follow to the letter is way more helpful to my brain than not having a plan at all. Otherwise, I'm just noticing and adjusting, noticing and adjusting. And without some preparation thrown in there, it just feels too frantic to me. It's too urgent all the time. Plus, as the author Jodi Pico says about writing, you can't edit a blank page. You also can't adjust a blank plan. It's nice to have something in place. So you have something to work from.

Also, I had to look up how to pronounce Jody Pico's name because I can never remember. And now I will never forget because I found a TikTok of Jody herself hilariously teaching us how to say her name. We're going to put a link in the show notes because it's 30 seconds of delightful hilarity. And I highly encourage you to go watch it. Okay. So what benefit is there in naming why we plan? Well, when we know why we do something, we're better able to keep doing it because we see why it matters. We can weigh the value of not doing something versus doing that thing. And that picture might give us the nudge to keep making the plan or

whatever it is we're doing. Like I said, I would much rather make a plan than not make a plan. I would much rather have a starting place. The time that I might spend making a weekly plan is absolutely worth the trade-off of what I get by having one, even if I don't follow it all the way, which I rarely do because life does those life things, you know? So for you, name why having a weekly plan matters to you. It could be the motivation you need to do it if you struggle doing it, or it might galvanize you with like a renewed purpose and why you do it at all. Honestly, I think naming that,

it is a huge part of actually just creating a flexible weekly plan. Why are you doing it? What are you hoping to get from it? Naming what matters about your weekly plan. It helps you create one that will actually come closer to working for you. Which leads us to the next consideration here. What are you planning? What are you even planning? What people? What? Pieces and parts are you considering and writing down and scheduling each week or wish you were or think you should. Well, actually, those are three like very distinct questions, to be honest. But chances are when you think about a weekly plan, even a flexible one, you're probably thinking it includes a plan for your meals and your movement and your appointments and your carpools and your time and and and and and and and you might think it has to be comprehensive. Now, do certain categories interlock with each other? I mean, yeah, of course. Is it a little easier

to plan a week of meals when you also have a decent plan for a week of appointments and errands? Yes, because you know the energy level that you might have or when you're actually going to be home to tend to that dinner or you know that your high school kid or your spouse or somebody is going to be home and can get dinner going. The different categories totally intermingle. It's just how life goes. but it doesn't mean that you have to plan every single category every single week. Is it a bit easier if you do? Maybe. But if you're just dipping your toe in weekly planning, mostly because you just felt overwhelmed by having to plan everything,

do not under any circumstances plan everything. That's no way to live. You don't have to do that. So in thinking about these categories, are there certain aspects of your life that you find a positive impact when you have a plan. It doesn't have to be all of them. You know, maybe knowing what's for dinner or what you're taking to work for lunch is enough. Everything else you can more or less respond to and be fine.

Or maybe you're already in a reasonable rhythm with meals. Or you just can't be bothered to plan them. You know, I get that. But if you don't plan when you're going to move your body and you're going to metabolize your stress for the day, then everything feels harder, right? Maybe that is all you plan. Again, there is greater ease when all of those plans intermingle when they talk to each other, when the gears line up, so to speak. But it doesn't mean that spinning one gear is insufficient.

It's great. You know, start small, baby. So as we continue talking about how to create a flexible weekly plan, remember that part of that flexibility is not planning things that you don't have the energy you need for. or the discipline or the rhythm or the muscle memory for. Like for me, I have been planning our meals each week, sometimes even two or three, four weeks at a time since I don't know, like a decade, at least probably. Obviously there are weeks when I don't, but those are pretty rare. And it's usually because something in my body or in our lives, it just made it too hard for

whatever reason. But meal planning has become such a necessary rhythm for how my family operates, how I plan my own time because I'm the one who cooks all the meals and does the shopping and the prepping and stuff in our division of labor, that's my job, not causes. And if I don't plan our meals, it's like the world is upside down. It has become so essential to my own well-being and to the practical rhythms of my week that to not do it is far worse than the effort of doing it. And it does take effort. I mean, it's less and less because of brainless crowd pleaseers, et cetera. But sure, it takes effort. Planning does take a little effort. But maybe the

tradeoff is worth it. So I would encourage you to focus on a category that has that kind of impact for you. Just plan the thing that makes life feel substantially easier. Or to flip it, plan the thing that if you don't plan it, you're like, oh, no, no, thank you. Translation to all this. You don't have to plan everything. By nature, a flexible weekly plan has margin and softness and white space. If you have more white space than I do, or your sister does or your friend does, that's okay. That's normal. We all have different ways of doing things and none of them are right or wrong. They're just different choices on how to plan. So you're not doing anything wrong. 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. So to orient ourselves a little bit, it's good to name why you plan. What does it benefit you? What's the trade-off?

What's the positive? impact. Naming it makes you more likely to do it. And then what are you actually planning? Time, meals, movement, tasks, rest, interactions, errands. What are you planning? Don't plan more than you need to, especially if you're not already in a comfortable rhythm of doing it. Otherwise, it'll be too much and you'll quit because it's too hard. Not because it feels too hard, because it is. It is hard. When you start from relative zero and you just add a bunch of stuff because some lady on a podcast told you to? No, that's too much. Start small. I'm bossing you into starting small. Okay, so with those two things in mind, we can create a flexible weekly plan. You have to start out

being flexible with yourself and your life with why you're doing this at all, and your plans are going to follow. They will adapt the same softness and flexibility and compassion that you're extending towards yourself. Now, the problem that we're faced with now is that there are so many approaches to a weekly plan. Well, to be more specific, there are so many approaches to weekly preparation, because really that's what we're doing right now. Planning, as we have defined it, is also noticing and adjusting as you prepare and you do that in real time. But what we're talking about today specifically with a weekly plan is really preparation for the week. You're getting your ducks in a row or your birds, if you're me, because I'm so obsessed with birds. And all of us

have different ducks and different definitions of what a row is and different tools to get those ducks in their rows. You might use a paper calendar, a digital calendar, or no calendar at all. I legit know people who have no calendar. They live off of other people reminding them of stuff, like appointment reminders, you know, whatever. Now, I could not do that because too much would be forgotten. But I'm not going to even assume that everyone has a calendar. We all have different things that we're planning, as we already discussed. We have different tools that we use. You know, like, for example, carpool planning happens every week for me, but it might not for you. Like, we just all have different things that we're planning. And that can actually make this whole

process feel overwhelming because there's not necessarily one formula. But when is there ever a formula for anything we're doing, you guys? We've got to let the formula, the formula stuff go. Okay. So to create a flexible weekly plan, we are going to utilize two, primary lazy genius principles. Remember there are 13 of them. I wrote about them in my first book, The Lazy Genius Way. Those two principles today are go in the right order and put everything in its place. To me, that's actually what preparation is. You're ordering and placing things where they need to go. Now, you're also doing it with kindness and you're ready to notice and adjust as you live, right? There's no rigidity here. This is just placement. Remember, we are painting.

right? As lazy geniuses and compassionate time managers, we're painters. We're not trying to put together a puzzle that exactly matches the picture on the box. It's too much pressure. Okay. So here is your order. We're going in order. Here's your order for creating a flexible weekly plan no matter what you've got going on. Step one, pick a time to do it. Okay, pick a time to plan. I like Sunday afternoons. That's just when I do it. Depending on how much I'm planning or how busy the upcoming week is, it takes me about 30 minutes maybe to plan my week. Now, that's not like a rule for you in either direction. I'm just telling you how long it takes me. Granted, I do love to prepare and I've been doing this for a long time. So if you do this and you haven't really done a weekly plan before and it takes you longer than 30 minutes, you're not doing anything wrong.

We're just different. It's all right. For me, it's a very worthwhile half hour or however long it takes me. And I do it under a blanket on my couch. I look out the window. It might be. My birds, shocker. So pick a time. Just any time. You don't have to even plan on a weekend. I know a lot of people do that, but seven days are seven days. If your life is better suited to run from like a Wednesday to a Tuesday, do that.

It's okay. But pick a time to plan. That's really important. You can always adjust that time. If you try the one time and it doesn't work as well and you want to try something different, that's fine. But that's the first thing you do. You got to pick a time you're going to plan. Step two.

decide what you're going to plan for this week it might change week to week it probably will are you planning what you're going to eat what you're going to wear what you're going to do are you planning what tasks go on what days are you planning rest or connection with people or time for your hobby that always gets pushed aside go ahead and decide what you're going to plan specifically you get to choose and you can choose differently from week to week. In fact, you will, but please start small. Okay. Step three. Gather your tools. Now that you know what you're planning, you can know what you need to plan those things, right? If you're only planning meals, maybe you need a cookbook. And that's it, right? So for me, I need a calendar so I can know what's coming.

I need my email and text because that's a place that I get some of my tasks from to make sure things aren't forgotten. All three of those are on my phone. So basically I need my phone. I also need my seasonal playbook, which by the way, they are currently in their second printing and should be available in a couple of months. Hooray, hooray. So I need my playbook because it's where I keep my brain dump and my weekly to-do lists. In other words, my playbook is it's where my unordered tasks live and it's where I put the tasks that sneak up on my calendar in my email and my text and stuff. Okay, I need my list of brainless crowd pleasers. And like I said, maybe a cookbook if I'm meal planning or if I'm, you know, sometimes I'll just meal plan for my head. But sometimes I need

something written down. Our current favorite cookbook, I mentioned this in, what's saved my life? Is that when I mentioned this? But our current favorite family cookbook is cookish from Christopher Kimball. We still love it. In fact, don't tell my kids. But I made a new recipe recently that was not a recipe from the book. But I told them it was and they were willing to try it. Because if I'm like, if I had, they said, is this from the new book? If I had said no, they would not have tried it. So I'm kind of lying to them.

Maybe that's bad parenting. I don't know. I just want to eat without anyone complaining. And then I also need scrap paper. I always need it for something. I always need paper for something. Plus my pen, my favorite. favorite pen is a black moji 0.38 pen. I love that pen. And then my mild liner highlighter in the color

gold. Those are my tools every time I've got a little stack of that in my living room. And I always go back to it to refer to my plan, but also when I'm making my weekly preparations. Okay. So those are my tools. Yours might just be your phone. Like it doesn't matter. But gather your tools based on whatever it is you are planning. Okay. Step four. Put what you're planning in order. Now, if you're just planning one thing, like one category, you're already done. You don't have to put it in an order because you have one thing. That if you're planning more than one thing, I want you to think about what the most helpful order is. For me, I plan carpool first because I'm working with multiple people's schedules and I want to make

sure I know when I am driving the carpool routes so that I don't accidentally plan something else or like think I have more margin than I do on a heavy carpal day. So carpal goes first. After that, I plan my tasks and what days they go in. So I'm paying attention to deadlines, but I'm also paying attention to my own capacity, you know. Some things I know exactly what day they're going to go on and other things are a bit more flexible. But I put my tasks in place on the days that make the most sense. I can always adjust. In fact, I will and I should. So first carpool, and then tasks on their days. The next thing I plan is movement. Because my days are always so different from each other based on things like carpool and tasks, I cannot have a regular time to move. I've

tried and it never works because my days simply are not repetitive enough. So this is where I now put movement on my calendar, right? I plan my movement. I might look at the weather and I see that Wednesday is like a really pretty day. So I'll plan to go for a walk in the woods in the afternoon or something instead of going to the gym that day to walk on the treadmill or whatever. Or if I see that Thursday is super busy without much time at all, I'll just plan to stretch before bed, right? The preparation of my movement, it always changes. Like where I'm going to move, always changes. But it always goes after I've already planned carpools and what days I'm doing what tasks. If I do it before then, it's just going to get pushed and then it's not going to get done.

And then the last thing I plan is always meals, always, always, always. Listen, you can find a meal to fit any day. You cannot always adjust your day to fit a meal. Okay? Meals go last. It's kind of like when you paint a room before you buy any furniture or a rug, you can absolutely find a paint color that's going to fit your furniture and rug. But you cannot always find a rug that's going to suit your paint color. That's probably the closest thing to a hack in this episode is plan your meals last. Okay, so pick a time to plan. Choose what you're going to plan.

Okay? Gather your tools at the time that you're going to be planning. And now you're going to sit down and put what you're planning in order. Whatever order is best for you. Okay, step five is now to put the things in their place. start with your first category that you decided is the best way to start. You start with your first category that you're preparing for and you put whatever pieces in their places. You can make this as detailed as you like, but I do find that placeholders are way more valuable than we give them

credit for. So saying Tuesday is errand day is way more flexible than listing out, you know, seven errands that you could run that you plan to run. Aaron Day allows you to get the errands done that you have the space for, but you don't have to get all seven done. You can try, but if it doesn't work out, it doesn't work out. It's okay. And anything that doesn't get done, it can just be adjusted to another time. Meals are the same way, okay?

Rather than saying like, on Monday, we're going to have spaghetti bolognays. You could just say, like, we're going to have some kind of pasta. We're going to have pasta. Like, you don't have to lock it all in right now if you don't want to. A placeholder is often sufficient. Now, my favorite approach to putting things in their place is to have blocks for days of the week. And then I just write down what goes there. When I say blocks, I don't mean like time blocking.

I mean like literal like on a piece of paper. Like I have blocks. Monday, Tuesday, was a Thursday. Because those are the main days I do stuff. Friday's my day off. And then the weekends, it's like, we just see. Because the kids always have something going on. And so we just sort of, we do what we can, you know, have like a loose weekend to do list

occasionally. But it's really just the four blocks on a piece of paper. So it's like I quad the paper, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Wednesday, Wednesday, Thursday. Okay. Now, I just write down what I think is going to go where. However, there are times when that does not feel like what I need, that I cannot block it by the day.

This week is a great example. I don't have my to do list. grouped by days. It is grouped this week by the type of thing I have to do. I have a super long list of errands. I have a really long list of emails and texts to send, like basically different correspondence things, like following up on stuff. I have work tasks to do and the deadlines for them. And then I also have a list of decisions I need to make. I had a lot. I had a lot of my list this week. And because I had a lot on my list this week, trying to put things in place, like on just a random day, didn't feel right. It didn't feel right. Their place this week, the things on my list,

their places this week, it was not on a day. It was with their friends. They wanted to be with their friends. They wanted to be with tasks that are just like them so that I could be like, am I going to run errands? Yeah, I think I can. I've got all my errands already in a list together. Okay. That's not always how I do it, but that's what I needed this week and it's worked super, super well. The point here is that you will not prepare the same way every single week. You have different energy and different capacity. You have different things on your schedule. Each week of your life is likely quite different, even just energetically from the week before. So adjust how you prepare to accommodate that. You're going to need different things. Okay. So step five is to put the

things in their place, whatever that place is. Step six is to notice and adjust. Now that you have prepared this week, look at it. Look at your week. Look at your preparation. What feels like it needs an adjustment now that you have everything in a place? Move things around. That's all step six is because you're going to probably adjust things once you've got it all in place. okay it's like stepping back from a painting and going huh so it's working adjusted if it's not and then step seven is to keep noticing and adjusting as you live your life what you prepare on your sunday afternoon or whenever you do it it's not going to happen exactly are you kidding me you will need to utilize those other two components of planning every single day multiple times notice if what you planned for

dinner is going to work based on this thing that came up and adjust accordingly. Notice if when you planned to walk with a friend is going to be impacted by like a sudden change in the forecast and adjust your plan so that you can still see your friend. Notice your own energy and adjust how much you put on your plate today. Move whatever needs to be moved. Expect change. Expect adjustment. Expect that what you prepared is not always going to work or happen. Keeping your eyes on your preparation, it will help you remember what it is that you prepared, that even that is not going to make it a sure thing. The best way to create a flexible weekly plan is to be a flexible person. Be a person who expects change and upheaval and tiredness and whiny kids and change deadlines

and be kind to yourself and others when that happens. Notice what you need. Adjust your plan and keep on going. And then the next week, when you sit down to prepare your week again, you'll have a little bit of muscle memory on how this works for you. And you can notice and adjust how you prepare for that next week. And on and on it goes. Planning is not robotic. Planning is responsive. It's like gardening or baking bread or painting or anything else that is like mildly formulaic because gardening and baking bread and painting are kind of formulaic, but they also require kind, human awareness and responsiveness to make them happen. Your hands feel the dough. Your eyes see the weeds, you know? Like be a person as you prepare.

I get so feisty about this. So to summarize, name why it matters to you to have a weekly plan at all. recognize that you do not have to plan everything. Both of those things alone will automatically make you feel more flexible toward whatever it is you're preparing. And then follow these steps every single week or the weeks that you feel like some kind of preparation is needed. Pick a time. Decide what you want to plan.

Gather your tools. Put what you're planning in order. Put what you're planning in place. Notice and adjust that plan before calling. it done and then notice and adjust as you live your week. High levels of preparation are not the answer. A balance between preparation, noticing, and adjusting is. And that's how to create a flexible weekly plan. A couple of quick things before we go. This Wednesday, March the 5th, the latest lazy letter will be in your inbox. This is our monthly newsletter. It is one of the

most popular things we do around here. I share personal stories like a crowd favorite was the time my husband had to walk into a field to rescue a baby goat. That is a true story. I share things that I'm trying and learning, like how I'm approaching goals in a way that's refreshing and actually working. And I also share book reviews for whatever I read the previous month. I'm a big reader. So there are usually at least 10 reviews in each newsletter. And this month has some bangers, y'all, like some good books. So if you would like to try it out and see if you enjoy it as much as thousands of people in this community do, you can sign up at the lazy genius collective.com slash join. We send that out once a month. And then outside of like a handful of occasional

bulletin board type emails to let you know when a book is on sale or like when the next round of playbooks is in, you won't hear from us much. The latest lazy letter is the main thing. So I would love for you to give it a try. Okay. Now let's celebrate the lazy genius of the week. This week, it's Jess Knox. Jess writes, we've simplified decision making in our family for decisions between my husband and me, like where to eat or what's for dinner. He chooses on odd days and I choose on even days. When it's something trivial that the kids can decide, the kid president of the week gets to choose. Each week, one of our four children serves as president and with the oldest going first and the youngest in the fourth week. The president also gets one-on-one-time with a parent.

On rare five-week months, I get to be the president. Holy actual Molly. This is adorable. So there are several ideas in here that are interesting to consider. The first is the odd even day decision-making thing. For things that are necessary but aren't necessarily tied to something that's already been planned or to a decide once, it's nice to have a default decision-maker, right? That right there is gold. Then this president for the weak thing was beyond adorable. I love examples of when families give kids autonomy in their decisions, but also set it up in a way where you have to like

consider everyone else to a point or you have to be patient for when it's your time again, you know, we've got to learn that stuff. Really, really cute. Thank you for sharing Jess 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 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.

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