The Lazy Genius Podcast - #416 - What’s Saving My Life

Episode Date: May 5, 2025

If you’re new here, this is a favorite episode we do once a quarter. Barbara Brown Taylor, a fantastic author, coined this phrase years ago: what’s saving my life, and I love the regular practice of taking note of what that is for me. I’m sharing ten things that are saving my life right now in this particular season of life, and they, as always, are quite the smattering of unrelated things. Helpful Companion Links Order my new book The PLAN or ask your library to consider carrying a copy. Jesus by Jon Guerra The BEMA Podcast RMS Coconut Cleansing Balm (affiliate link) Caroline Girvan YouTube channel Merlin Bird Identifier app Get a Summer Playbook Get the next Latest Lazy Letter that lands in inboxes on Wednesday, May 7 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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Plan started just $12 a month. Learn more at tellus.com slash online security. No one can prevent all cybercrime or identity theft. Conditions apply. 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's episode 416, What's Saving My Life? If you're new here, this is a favorite episode we do once a quarter.

Barbara Brown-Taylor, a fantastic author coined this phrase years ago, What's Saving My Life? And I love the regular practice of taking note of what that is for me. If you have read the plan, then you know that the letter N in plan stands for notice. If we don't notice our lives, we can easily get wrapped up in the preparation of our lives, which is the P in plan, or even in constantly adjusting things so that they work, adjust is the A in plan. Because we want things to work well, right? but without noticing, without noticing what is alive, what is working, what is making life beautiful

and meaningful and fun, we can skew into robot territory pretty fast. We need all three. We need preparation, adjustment, and noticing in order to live, which is the L of plan in a wholehearted way, right? So today's episode is one of my personal practices of noticing and kind of collectively one of our own. I'm going to share 10 things that are saving my life right now in this particular season of life. And they as always are like quite, quite a smattering of unrelated things. You can take that as encouragement that your list, which I highly encourage you to make one, doesn't have to be like all serious or all meaningful or all whatever you think it's supposed to be. Like I have a cleanser on this list. It's making my life magical and everywhere.

So don't sleep on the small stuff. It's going to be a mix. And that's important because so is life, right? Okay. So let's jump into the 10 things that are saving my life right now. The two, the first two of them are connected to my faith. And I'm going to put them at the top and put them together so that if you are not into that today, that is not your vibe today. You are absolutely welcome to skip ahead a couple of minutes to number three. But we're going to start as one does with number one. The first thing that's saving my life right now is John Gara's new album. It's called Jesus. Many of you regular listeners know how much I love music and how it's, I mean, it's just a massive part of my life, both in listening to it and also playing it. My, like, my only tattoo has to do with music. I make

playlists all the time. I'm a bit intense about not shuffling them. And music is also a way that I connect to people in my life. Like, not just even the music I listen to. Like my oldest kid, Sam, he's a musician and he is a composer of concert band music, which is not this album. But while that's like a different vibe all together, it's still so connective, right? And it's, music's just a huge part of our family culture. So anyway, this new album by John Gera, that's John with no H, and then Gera is G-U-E-R-A. It is genuinely special. I mean, all of his music is, it's so good. But this album has been massive for me and could be for, you too, especially if your faith has been through some things recently. I think it's really

hard to find, like, quote-unquote Christian music that speaks to the layers and intricacies and fears and joys of loving Jesus without feeling like trite or surfacy or just flat out wrong. And John's music is a treasure in how humble and honest and beautiful it is. He's an incredible musician. So, like, the songs themselves are really cool and beautiful and, like, sometimes a little weird, which I love. His voice is a stoner, but the lyrics are, like, straight to the soul in the best, most authentic way. I love every single song on this album. I've listened to it so many times.

But the song called I See the Birds is a major favorite. So if you just have time to listen to one song, maybe you could listen to that one. So if you're needing some Jesus music that makes you feel grounded, try this album, Jesus, by John Gera. I have listened to it straight through. I mean, no joke, probably 30 times since it released barely a month ago. It's being constant. April was a hard month, and this album met me at just the right time. So that is Jesus by John Gera.

The second thing that's saving my life, that is also Jesus related, it's the Bama a podcast. Bema is spelled B-E-M-A. It's a podcast that goes through the Bible through an eastern lens instead of a Western one and also a Jewish lens because the Bible was primarily written in many ways to the Jewish people. Okay, so there are many things that I thought I knew about the Bible growing up in church, but this podcast has really opened my eyes to some new ways of viewing scripture that I never had before, or at least I never had as comprehensively as this. So I started at the very beginning of the podcast, and that first episode released in like 2017 or something. And they're still making new ones. I'm assuming I will eventually catch up, but for now, I've just,

I've been really grateful for different perspectives on what the Bible says, especially as I'm reading through the Bible in a year with some friends, which I've mentioned before. this podcast has just been really grounding, really grounding for me. So if you haven't listened to it before, maybe you can do what I did and just start with the very first episode, see what you think. And if you're like, huh, this has me thinking about some things. Then you can listen to the next one and keep going if you want or stop. But for me, I have really enjoyed the Bama podcast. And in this season, it has really saved my life.

Okay. So those are the two faith-specific entries this week. And now we move on to the third thing that's saving my life in this season, which is a biggie. And it was doing my own color analysis. I am not an expert in color analysis by any means. So for those of you wanting me to do an entire episode on this, it probably will not happen. I do not want to lead you astray. But I mentioned before that I have been playing around with DIY color analysis.

I mentioned it in the last newsletter. I put some links to some videos that I watch that help me kind of think through it all. Side note, if you don't get the newsletter, you can sign up for that at the lazy genius collective.com slash join. It comes out like just once a month. That's it. It's the first Wednesday of the month. But I share like longer form things like how I'm figuring out DIY color analysis.

Actually, our next newsletter, it goes out this coming Wednesday. So if you're listening to this on the day the podcast episode releases on Monday the 5th, it comes out this Wednesday the 7th because that's the first Wednesday of the month. So if you're listening before then, you will get a newsletter so fast. That's so fun. And then what's cool is that in each newsletter is a link at the bottom to archived newsletters to all the old ones. So you could always go back to the latest lazy letter that went out on April 2nd and read there what I wrote about color and color analysis. Okay, so back to why this is saving my life. I performed my own color analysis because what I had done virtually, it did not feel right.

It just didn't feel right. I was told I was a summer. And because if you don't know, you're like, what does that mean? If you don't know, it's broken into the four seasons. And then each season is broken into like three subsets of that season. So anyway, I was told I was one of the subsets of summer. And if you look at me, you might think that's right. Like, I don't have a ton of contrast in my features.

If you see me in an orange or a yellow shirt, you will immediately know that my undertone is blue, that it is cool and it is not warm. Oh, my gosh. And because of those two things, because I have a blue undertone and because I don't have a lot of contrast in my natural features and my hair or my skin and whatever, then I'm a summer. I should be a summer. But when I watched like some of these color analysis videos, I realized, I learned that how you look on the outside, it cannot be the main factor in what season you are. You really do need to do the swatches to see.

Plus a friend of mine, the reason I was doing this at all is a friend of mine had a birthday coming up and she had always wanted to get her colors done. But was like, you know, it's pretty expensive actually, especially if you do it in person. and it's hard to find somebody, blah, blah, blah. So I committed myself. I was like, you know what? I wonder if I can learn how to do this. I wonder if I can watch enough videos and practice with actual color swatches. Like I got like quilting samples.

And I could do this myself. So I did. I learned and I learned and I learned. And then we did colors for my friends. And it kind of, it worked. It was pretty wild. But I did my own colors too. So when I did my own colors, I learned I am not a summer.

I am not a summer. I am a winter. You guys, I'm a winter. I don't have snow white hair and lips. I don't have porcelain skin, but it's really just skin that doesn't like the sun. But I don't have high contrast in my features like a winter does. But y'all, I'm a winter. But because I had had my colors done and was told I was a summer,

then I like, you know, I went through a couple of years of trying to make my closet summary, which meant cool colors still like a winter has, but soft and muted ones. I had a closet full of soft, muted clothes, except for the black ones that I refused to get rid of because my summer palette told me to not wear black. Absolutely not. Anyway, so I have spent months, months and months and months, feeling a little off, feeling like I was disappearing. And now that I am wearing stronger, deeper, brighter colors like you're supposed to when you're a winter, I just, I feel so much more myself.

I did not realize how frustrating it was to get dressed every day or to catch myself in the mirror, like a glimpse of myself in the mirror. Like the style of my clothes was right, the fit of my clothes felt right, but the colors were not. Now that I know, but I need no soft, no muted, no man, I need cool, I'm bright and deep. To look and feel the most like myself, I just feel so much lighter. Sometimes, sometimes you don't know that something is heavy until you remove it. And once I removed the soft muted colors for my outfits, I immediately felt better. So that's the third thing.

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Habaniero? More like habanier, yes. Save the everyday with Amazon. Welcome aboard via rail. Please sit and enjoy. Please sit and sip. Play. Post. Taste. view and enjoy via rail love the way the fourth thing that's saving my life right now is it's the cleanser it's a cleanser i mentioned at the top of the show okay so it's from rms that's the brand now y'all know how much i love this brand i think i've had something from rms on my last three what's saving my life episodes like i think now i'm not saying that rms products will work for everyone just like that's the case with any brand that you might love it's not going to work for everybody because

that's just not how things go. But RMS sure does work for me. I love their products so much. I have makeup and I have skincare, but there's a new product I tried because this has sort of been my process is when I run out of something I already have that does a certain job.

Then I explore a different brand that might be better, particularly RMS, because I just love their stuff so much. So I ran out recently of my green clean cleanser. That's the like the balmy cleanser from pharmacy, the brand pharmacy. And I've loved that for a long time. Like, it's really solid.

And I've used it for years. But I was like, it's time to try. It's trying to try the RMS one. It's called the coconut cleansing balm or coconut balm cleanser or something. Anyway, it's like in a light blue tub, like shallow tub. So here's the deal. This stuff is so good. So it goes on like a balm, you know, like an oil.

It's oil-based, right, to remove makeup and stuff. But then what you do, because usually when you do a cleansing balm is you put the balm on, and then that sounded like Seinfeld, and then you use like a rag and you take the balm off, and then you use a water-based cleanser and you wash your face again. That's like a two-step cleansing process, which is recommended, especially if you wear makeup. Because both water and oil, like neither one remove everything. You kind of need both. Okay.

Here's what's so great about this. cleanser. You put it on your face like a balm. You know, you rub it in. It's like an oil to remove the makeup. And then you don't wipe it off. You put water on your hands and you work the water into the balm on your face. And it creates a lather. It's a double cleanse in one product. So then I rinse my face and then I do like one final wipe with a washcloth and I and my face is my face is washed and this stuff smells amazing works like a dream it makes my skin feel so good like really clean but but you know not stripped not dry it's just very moisturized but not like overly so it's one product instead of two I'm so obsessed with it I'm so obsessed with it I've been using it every day for like a month

and it makes me happy every single time. So good. So officially the name is called, I looked it up, it's called Coconut Clean Cleansing Balm from RMS. Okay, so that is my whatever number, fourth thing saving my life. So good. Okay.

Number five, very different from a cleansing balm. Number five is noticing. Now this whole episode is a practice in noticing, but noticing my life and all the small things in it has been massively important the last couple of months. I've had busyness, like kind of a regular busyness. I mean, part of it is the time of year, right? A lot of us are having that. But there's also been grief in several areas, some ongoing unknowns, both personally and professionally, that are still happening, like right now. And then just the pace of like regular life,

you know, when life is irregularly busy, not just because, busy, but like it's a little more so, which now is the time of year it seems to be for a lot of folks. Plus there's personal difficulties and heartache. For me, my defaults with all of that is to go into robot mode. I just plow forward and I prepare and adjust and prepare and adjust and prepare and adjust so that life can keep going. And I move so fast in doing that that I don't stop to notice what's happening around me. What's going on in my body, what my body's trying to tell me to do, to slow down or whatever. And also what tiny little nuggets of good are here right now. That is why the phrase, good is here right now, which I've shared in many a podcast episode,

is such an important mantra for me. It has to be a mantra. It has to be because it's not natural. It is not what I think to do first. I do not practice noticing first. But the more I do, the more I practice, the more natural it becomes. And I'm genuinely grateful because in this season, I've needed to notice. And I've noticed small things more naturally than I ever have before. I've needed to. It's been a gift to notice my kids laughing with each other or notice the new gray that started visiting my theater or notice how much I love wearing these bright blue earring studs and I just like feel happy when I wear them or notice how familiar I am with Annie's hair because I braid it every single night and like what a tender sweet thing that is

noticing will always save my life but it's been so high right now it's been so important that it actually makes the list this month so number five is noticing. The sixth thing that's been saving my life is deleting Instagram from my phone for long stretches of time. I've mentioned this a couple of times in various places. I'm not sure if I've brought it up on the podcast before. I can't remember. But basically since January, since the beginning of January, I have had Instagram deleted from my phone, not just hidden because hidden wasn't enough. I could still get to it, even if it was hidden. You can search, man. But I've had Instagram off my phone for like 98% of the time. I reload it. I reinstall it into my phone when I have like an idea for a

reel or I just want to check in on some favorite creators. But when I'm done, I delete it again. I check DMs on my computer, like on my laptop as part of my workday. But ultimately as a user, I just don't, I don't really use it as much, if at all. Now, I am not any different than a lot of you. Okay. I genuinely love Instagram. But there's some things that have changed about it. And the biggest one for me, personally, is that you can no longer reach the end of Instagram. Do you remember back in the day, in the early days of Instagram, when you only saw posts from the people that you followed, so you literally could get to the end of your feed and be done? Like, especially if you didn't follow, but a couple hundred people, not everybody was posting all the time.

Like, you could get to the end. That doesn't happen anymore. plus I think years of checking Instagram and refreshing Instagram has made the compulsion to do that more automatic than it's ever been. You know, like we feel differently. We probably respond to it. Well, not we. I'll say me.

I know I respond differently to Instagram now than I did, you know, several years ago. So I wouldn't say that I'm in like some sort of Instagram detox or anything. It's more I'm just recognizing its value in my life. life compared to what it used to be because things change and also what it is compared to everything else, you know? I sometimes miss it, but but not very much. Like I'm finding joy and fulfillment in other spaces on a personal level. And then on a professional level, I'm really lucky to be someone with a job on the internet where I don't have to depend on Instagram to share what I'm working on. I have this podcast and I have my email list, like those are the primary things.

And then I have books and bookstores and stuff like that. So people find me that way. A lot of creators don't have those things. So Instagram and TikTok and Facebook, that's where they go to work. That's where their job exists. That's valuable and important that since that's not my primary place of work, that's not where my job ultimately exists. I've been able to live like that's true and take Instagram off my phone.

And it's less about what has left, you know, the Instagram's gone and more about the space that it's freed up for other things. Like I'm adding more reading and more music and just more quiet. I'm really grateful to practice not feeling as connected to something that has an algorithm that refreshes. It's really hard. It was really hard in the beginning especially. And there are times where it's just like, oh, man, I really miss Instagram. Like I want to zone out right now. and I don't have the app on my phone to do it, you know.

It is hard. But I have ultimately enjoyed what's on the other side. And I think it's saved my life in many ways that I probably don't even see yet. Okay, number seven, the seventh thing that's saving my life right now is doing one strength training video every weekday. Okay. Me and exercise, man, it's complicated. So exercise rhythms for a lot of people can just be an absolute bear. especially if you are a person who doesn't enjoy working out, which is me, or you have a history

with diet culture or even perhaps like disordered eating or disordered movement. I have both, both of those things. So I don't like working out and I have a history of treating my body in a harmful way. So as I have recovered from that, I for a long time, I just scrapped exercising. All together, like just didn't really focus on moving. I kind of swung the other direction. We talk about that a lot with lazy and genius, that like when you realize the genius way is not going to work,

because it's not really genius anyway sometimes, you just kind of overcorrect and you swing the other way and you don't do anything at all and are all out lazy about it, which sometimes is necessary for the season you're in and seasons of healing and seasons where you just don't have the same access to the output and to healthy output that you might have, an exercise but in other ways. So it's a tendency we do. We kind of swing strongly from one side to the other and I definitely did that where I just I just stopped moving. So I get that. I think that's what

we need to do sometimes. But now I am, you know, I'm two decades removed from that most harmful time. I am 43 years old. I am in perimenopause officially. And I know that movement is a good way to tend to my body. Like I want to care for her. I want to care for her. And I have been more and more over the past few years. But anything that was consistent or rhythmic or repetitive, you know, it just wasn't happening for me, like for years. Other than doing the one down dog every day that I wrote about in the lazy genius way, and that was really important for me.

I think that was like the starting point in me moving towards movement for the purpose of care and tending rather than control, you know. otherwise it just doesn't work. Consistency is like not a thing. I would go through spurts of something consistent, and then those spurts would drop off. And it's mostly because, I think I've identified why, I think it's mostly because I was trying to create a rhythm

that included consistent cardio and strength training and yoga, like on equally regular schedules. It was just trying to coordinate too many things. So even doing that in a small way, it just wasn't working. It just wasn't working. So after I saw my doctor this last time, like for my annual checkup or whatever, and she's so great, we like spent probably 45 minutes talking. Like she just spent so much time with her patients. It's my favorite.

She's so kind. Anyway, she said to me that strength training at my age and in my current state of health and all of that was more important than the other things at this point because of my age, you know. so when she gave me a priority, something just clicked in my head. If I give priority and regularity to strength training only, only, that's it. That's the only thing I'm like really plan for. The walking, because that's really what I do for cardio, the walking and the stretching, they can happen when they happen. And honestly, those are much easier to make happen.

Like sometimes I want to make them happen on a fairly regular basis. Like I'll want, my body wants to stretch. You know, I want to do a few yoga poses while I'm watching the NBA playoffs, right? I love going for a walk when the weather's nice or when somebody wants to walk with me. I have opportunities to do that. So it's not, you know, it doesn't have to be like so regular, but it does happen fairly regularly. So basically, I like to walk. I like to stretch.

I don't like strength training. that is not a choice I would automatically make, whereas walking and stretching sometimes are. So by automating that, by doing the thing I really don't like to do as much, but also happens to be, according to my doctor, the most impactful thing for me right now. And by doing a small thing every day, which remember we start small here, I can let those other more natural things fall into places they may. I don't need to create some three component movement rhythm. I can just make a strength training rhythm and let the other two things happen naturally. So I have been doing a 15-minute strength training video every weekday.

I alternate legs and arms. I really like Caroline Gervyn, G-I-R-V-A-N. She has a YouTube channel. I think she's Irish. She's a girl could, like, heard a man real bad. she has so many muscles but she has like easy to follow short videos that I don't mind so much I usually don't like exercise videos but I I don't mind I like her I like her pretty good and she doesn't talk during them which I think is part of the reason I just don't want people to talk to me

while I'm doing stuff and the way it goes it's like a movement is 40 seconds you know you do it for 40 seconds and then you have 20 seconds a breast and it's that kind of video where it shows you the next move in the top corner. So I don't even have to like listen to the video if I don't want to. I can listen to something else. I've been doing that for about two months now, doing one dumbbell, basically, one dumbbell video every weekday. And then the other stuff, the stretching and the walking, they just happen when they happen. And they happen enough. This is probably the most content I've been with an exercise approach in my entire adult life. And ah, that is definitely a life. Savesaver. Okay, the eighth thing saving my life is an oldie but a goodie and it's my Merlin app.

Merlin like the wizard, but it has nothing to do with wizards. It's my Merlin app and my bird feeders. Basically, I've been spending more time than usual, which is saying something. Using my Merlin app, what you do is you, it's like a recorder and you press the button. It's like a list, it listens to the birds that are around you and it tells you what they are. It's so great. It's so great. And then I, I, I also have been watching my birds a lot more. I think the reason is because this is no doubt. You cannot look out my windows or being, well, I was going to say be in my front yard,

but the birds probably wouldn't come as much if you were actually in the yard by the theaters. You cannot look out my window for 60 seconds without seeing a bird on one of my three theaters. I'm basically snow white at this point. Birds are always around. So I can watch them anytime. And I love it. I love it so much. It has been, watching birds is like a spiritual practice for me.

That's one thing. It is also very calming. And I kind of feel like the birds and I have become kind of friends, sort of, don't laugh. That's why, I mentioned this before, that's why it was so fun noticing the new gray catbird that started visiting. Like he's new. This is a new friend. We haven't had catbirds at the theater before. And because I watch them all the time, I know that.

I know that. So it just helps me feel connected to where I am, like literally, like physically, in a meaningful way. And I just love my birds. And they're saving my life right now. The ninth thing that's saving my life right now is that my boys, when you're not ready, they have gotten into watching Family Feud, you guys. This has been the most hilarious, magical thing. So a few months ago, Ben happened to catch the start of an episode of Family Feud, hosted by the incomparable Steve Harvey, and he was hooked, absolutely hooked. And then Sam joined in. He kind of wandered in and he saw it.

And now, like, that is what we do as a family of four after Annie has gone to bed from 10 to 11 at night, every single night. We watch two episodes of Family Feud. The boys always brush their teeth during the commercial break before the final fast money around. It has been the greatest source of joy. Just, I don't even have words for it. It's so fun.

it has also been, I will say, an interesting source of watching them kind of learn about the world and also like look at how they look at the world versus how the world looks at the world. There's a lot of innuendo in the show. Some of the questions occasionally are a bit much, but I've kind of loved how my boys have reacted to some of those. It's made that topic like a little more, not palatable, but just like, you know, easier to access, you know, because there are some, you know, there's some interesting questions occasionally. And so we, some of the boys have learned some words for things. They were like,

oh, I didn't know. I didn't know what that was. Okay, great. Cool, cool, cool. But also, it's sort of like just perspectives on how people see each other. So, for example, one recent question was something like, we asked 100 married men, name something of your wife's, you'd like to super glue together. And the number one answer was her lip. was her mouth. Now Ben goes, well, that's not very nice. I bet a lot of those wives have plenty of good things to say. It was so cute.

I was like, you're right, Ben. Or there will be like, there will be something in an answer about like how annoying a mother is. And one of the boys will laugh, but be like, they'll say something about how that's not me and how they think that I'm not that way. I don't know. It's just been a really interesting practice and then being entertained while also seeing that how a lot of people see the world is different from how we talk about the world of home. They also just die when people give bad answers.

They're like incredulous. There are nights where I'm not about to stay up past 11 o'clock and I've already gotten in bed. But I can hear the boys like beating the couch or yelling at the TV. And I know it's because someone gave a bad answer. It's just been so much fun. It's been so much fun. I never ever thought that Family Few would be something that's saving my life. But here we are.

Okay, the final thing that has been saving my life recently is my spring playbook. Now, okay, this is going to be a seamless transition into telling you that it's time to buy your own playbook if you want one. But this is not just a commercial. It actually was not intended to be this way. Playbooks where I make my what saving my life list over time, like over the three months until the next episode because I'm always trying to pay attention to that because it matters to me.

It's a good practice for me. And my playbook is like was on there immediately. I'm like, of course it's a playbook. Of course it is. Because I'm only two playbooks in to using them really. Holy actual moly. So this is a beautiful coincidence that we are about to spend a week or so promoting or reminding you about the new summer playbook.

It's time for the new summer playbook. And the spring playbook has legit been saving my life. Okay. Next week, we're going to do like kind of a whole episode on seasonal planning and also break down some thoughts about the playbooks themselves. almost like a, almost like a little bit of an FAQ so you can understand what they are and how you might use them, how I use them, but also just thinking about seasonal planning in general. So I'm not going to go into that a ton today. That'll be next week. However, here's the deal.

If you're like, Kendra, what are you talking about? Okay. I already mentioned my book, The Plan, right? Preparation. Live. Adjust. Notice. Not preparation. Not preparation. Prepare. Who cares. Same thing. It came out about seven months ago and it is all about compassionate time. management because we need some new takes on organizing our time and one of those takes involves seasonal planning not just planning a whole year most definitely not your whole life and also your day sometimes feels like it's a little haphazard because you're not you're not seeing sort of the 10,000 feet version of it right now for years people thought the answer was a lazy genius planner people would ask me to make one.

Make a lazy genius planner. Make a lazy genius planner. And I did actually try. I did. But planners were not the problem, you guys. You don't actually need a lazy genius planner. The thing that we're missing from, and this is from many planners, which is why we keep getting new ones, because the thing that they're pretty much all missing is a seasonal view

and kind of a small seasonal view. So the playbook, it is not a planner. It's not a planner, but it does make whatever planner you use or even just your Google calendar and like Post-it note to-do lists work better. So like in fact, after using a playbook since December, because that's what we released them in November and the winter playbook runs from December through February, the spring playbook from March through May, which is where we are now. Like I've used two of them now and I never want to live with that one.

Oh my gosh. This thing does exactly, exactly what I wanted to do. It helps me see where I am in my life. It gives me space to name what matters about the season where I am and not just like conceptually. I mean like literally what's going on right now. What's on the calendar? What has to happen?

There's space for me to brain dump all those things to organize what I have to do and what I hope to do. And it's tiny. So it can be like a little field guide. It's not the size of those field guides. It's bigger, but it's like, I wish I knew the measurements right now. But it's like a, it's a very compact little friend that helps you see your current season of life. I also love that now that I have playbooks for these seasons, I can look back on them in future seasons.

And I can see what worked and see what didn't, what I enjoyed, what happened in my life at that time. Like I cannot tell you how great these things are. So I created the initial vibes of them. And then Leah, Leah Jarvis, who's our director of content and strategy, she did like the design work on them. Then we found this woman owned company in Asheville, North Carolina, called Otterpine that does printing and fulfillment as well as like design consultations. And as a unit, as like Team LG and Team Otterpine, we have created a truly, like, such a

fantastic product. I'm so proud of this thing. And I use it every day. I look forward to opening my playbook because I know I'm not going to be overwhelmed. Like it's meant to keep what's here now, now, and then the rest can wait. It helps me see my life for what it is and I get the things done and I need to do. But some people, like they don't even use every element of the playbook. Like they just use parts of it.

So you can use however you want to. But I just know that I personally love using them and I feel a genuine sense of calm when I think about them. The playbooks absolutely save my life. So like I said, I will share more about them next week as well as just like ideas about seasonal planning, especially as we start moving into summer. So hopefully any questions that you have about them will be answered then. But if you know, you'd like to go ahead and get the summer playbook before June begins or even the whole seasonal bundle, which is undated by the way. So you can start with like whatever season you're in, even though you're buying all four. They are currently available to order.

Y'all bought up our first round of stock faster than we anticipated. which is a great problem to have. So we've been out of stock for like a couple of months. But now we have a warehouse full of them and ready to go. The summer playbook runs from June through August. So May is the best time to order yours in order to have it before June starts. So you can like start thinking about the season that you're in. So that is my 10th thing that is saving my life is my playbook.

So to recap, the 10 things that are saving my life right now are the album Jesus by John Guerra, the Bama podcast. Doing my own colors and wearing the right ones. The coconut cream cleanser from RMS. Noticing. Deleting Instagram for the majority of the time. Doing one strength training video every weekday. My Merlin app and my bird time.

Watching Family Feud with the Boys and my Playbook. And that is what's saving my life. All right. If you want to go ahead and check out the playbooks, you can click the link in the show notes or you can go to the lazy genius collective.com slash playbooks. You can get all four seasons as a bundle or you can get the summer one in preparation for this next Northern Hemisphere season.

The summer playbook is this delightful tomato red that is so happy and cheerful. I think you're going to love checking them out. Also a reminder that the next latest lazy letter goes out this Wednesday. So if you don't already get that, you can please sign up for that. It's, I think it's probably, this is kind of a weird thing to say, but it's like the most human thing that we do in this space. It's the most personal for sure. you know, I'm writing about my actual life in actual real time.

Like I write it the day before it goes out, always. And it's something I personally find valuable, and I'm always so encouraged by how valuable you all find it too. So if you would like to try it out, it's also where I share OMA book reviews and your girl reads a lot of books. You can sign up at the lazy genius collective.com slash join. Okay, before we go, let's celebrate the lazy genius of the week. This week it's Bethany Crum.

Bethany writes, I have a birthday bin. I keep in my kitchen cabinet that holds all birthday items, candles, balloons, decor, plates, napkins, etc. My kiddos's four birthdays are one a month from September through December, so I whip that baby out before the September birthday and take stock of everything I have and everything I need. Then I place a pickup order if I'm out of a certain candle, need a couple more birthday plates, et cetera. That way I'm not scrambling each month trying to figure out what I still need. I also decided once that our birthday decor is one, garland, one birthday banner, and huge balloon numbers for the birthday kid, as well as fun disposable birthday plates and napkins. I even keep the push pins above the window where I hang

the banner, so I don't have to replace them from birthday to birthday. Boom, done, birthday bin for the win. Bethany, this is so great. As a family that has a mess of birthdays across a couple of months, I personally love the brilliance of having everything in one place, deciding once what the decor is, and most importantly, noticing what you need, what is necessary before that need, because comes urgent. Such a great idea and one that I think will encourage a lot of listeners. So thank you for sharing Bethany and congratulations on being the lazy genius of the week. This podcast is part of the Odyssey family and the Office Ladies Network. This episode is hosted by me, Kendra Adachi, and executive produced by Kendra Adachi, Jenna Fisher and Angela Kinsey.

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 and 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.