The Lazy Genius Podcast - #422 - Six Small Things I Do Every Day That Are Making a Big Difference

Episode Date: June 16, 2025

Naming the small things is so important and a practice I’ll continue long after this podcast is over, and today’s episode is in the same spirit. I want to share with you six small things I’m currently doing every day that are making a big difference. And all of these things are particular to this season I’m in and haven’t really been mentioned in other places, save one. I hope it’s a list that gives you some ideas for your own. Helpful Companion Links Order my new book The PLAN or ask your library to consider carrying a copy. Episode #254: Chores I Do Every Day Episode #415: How I Keep My Kitchen Mostly Clean Episode #374: What’s Saving My Life Summer Edition Caroline Girvan on YouTube Iron series Brooks Women’s Crossback 2.0 Sports Bra (affiliate link) The Summer Playbook Episode #417: My Favorite Planning Tool Ever 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

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 422. Six small things I do every day. that are making a big difference. I love taking note of small choices that have a big impact,

and I've done a couple of episodes along those lines. You can listen to episode 254, Chores I Do Every Day, Episode 415, How I Keep My Kitchen, Mostly Clean. Or you can go back to last summer and listen to episode 374, What's Saving My Life, Summer Edition. Naming the Small Things is so important, and a practice I will continue long after this podcast is over. And today's episode is in the same spirit.

I want to share with you six small things that I'm currently doing every day that are making a big difference. And all of these things are particular to this season that I'm in and also haven't really been mentioned in other places, save one. So I hope that it is a list that gives you some ideas for your own. Okay. So the first thing, the first small thing that I'm doing every day, this makes me. making a big difference is I am starting the day in a sports bra. We're going to start with bras

right out the gate. I am at the mercy of momentum. Like a lot of people assume I am self-motivated, but I am not. If things are going to get done, I need to be like a snowball rolling down a hill. That's the safest bet. Moving my body is one area that even the rolling snowball doesn't always catch. In my head, working out has so many steps. It's like akin to performing surgery. And I put it off all the time. If someone asked me to go for a walk, I'm in because it's a person. Like, I like to be with the person. But if I feel like I'm about to commit a felony because I have built up stress, I might feel the pressure to go for a walk on my own. But really, it's just out of necessity that I'm not like going to burn the house down. Or it's from connection. Those are the two things that tend

to move me, necessity or connection. But like regular, just daily stress relieving movement that's good for me, that's harder for me to implement. I mentioned a few weeks ago that I have been doing weight training videos every weekday, every single weekday. So I love Caroline Gervin, G-I-R-V-A-N. I love her on YouTube. I've been doing one of her like 15-minute armor-like workout videos pretty much every weekday for a number of months and I really like her. But now that we're in summer and routines have shifted a bit, it didn't take long for me to recognize how doing those videos it was getting pushed to the bottom of the list day after day. That is when I decided to start the day wearing a sports bra. It has been so wildly helpful. I just don't even understand it.

So I'm doing a video series of Carolines. It's called the Iron Series. It's like progressive weightlifting. And while I genuinely love it, like I really do. It's longer than the ones that I've been doing, but I'm like building my weights and my time. And I really enjoy it. But what I don't enjoy is having to like change clothes, let alone my bra to accommodate working out. So it's so simple and so small that now that I start the day in a sports bra, it doesn't matter when I do it. I can work out in the morning while the teenagers are still asleep. I can work out before lunch when everyone's like milling about the house. I can do it before we leave for the pool and just like change right into my swimsuit.

Starting the day in a sports bra, it is so tiny. but it has been so helpful. Okay, before we move on to number two, I am going to talk about sports bras and their four boobs for a quick second. Listen with your own particular caution. So finding a sports bra that works for me has been like a lifelong quest. I, oh my gosh. So I have a larger chest and I nursed three children for a cumulative total of five years.

That is not friendly to the girls. So I have tried every sports bra made for a large chest and they either felt like a straight jacket or a joke. Y'all, my search is over. It is over, for real. If you are on your own sports bra quest, I found my winner for life. It is from the brand Brooks,

and it's called the Brooks Women's Crossback 2.0 sports bra. We'll put a link in the show notes. Now listen, she ain't cheap. This puppy runs upwards of like 60 bucks. But if you just want to live weights, and occasionally run and not feel like you're being attacked by your own body, this thing is worth every penny. Plus, they don't hold a smell.

I know that's gross, but so is underboob sweat. This bra is made of some magical material woven by fairies and does not hold a smell. It dries fast, too. Like, I'm telling you, your sports bra searches over, my friends, it is over. It is over. Okay, let's move on. So the second small thing that I'm doing every day that is made. making a big difference is I'm not putting sugar in my morning coffee. I don't like that I'm in my

mid-40s and I suddenly feel like it. I don't like that certain choices are obviously helpful to mind and body and I need to make responsible ones, but here we are. But here's the thing. Last year I went in for my annual physical. I had blood work done as all middle-aged women should. And my cholesterol all was high. Not dangerously high, but close, close to dangerous. Some of that was potentially due to shifting hormones, but my doctor said that we should watch it since it tends to get higher as you get older, right? Much higher and I'd have to go on medication, which I would like to avoid. So I cut sugar for my coffee. I started with like one or two mornings a week. I wouldn't add any sugar. I tried to stay true to that. And then I just kind of kept adding days of

no sugar coffee. I didn't go on some huge sugar-free diet because that's too big. That would also make me too mean because I love sugar. I'm a baker for crying out loud. But I also knew that small steps mattered. And I could drink coffee without sugar sometimes. I actually really like black coffee or just oat milk and coffee. So fast forward to now, I don't put sugar in my coffee anymore at all. It's just the coffee and the oat milk and I love it. I'm used to it to the point that like sweetened coffee is no longer the preference. I didn't worry about it. I didn't really cut much else.

I just did that. And y'all, when I went into my annual physical a few weeks ago, and I got my blood results back, my LDL had dropped over 20 points. Listen. That is nuts. Small things, baby. They really do work.

So that's number two. I stopped putting sugar in my coffee. 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. The third small thing I do every day that's making a big difference is packing snacks in containers, even if we're not going anywhere. It's rare that I'm a food prep person with consistently cut up fruits and vegetables in the fridge. Just not my scene. We also have most of our snacks and, like, giant boxes and bags because we shop at Costco. Well, now that we have to go to the pool, now that my boys are, like, more independent and going to their own places, having easily accessible packed snacks has been wildly helpful. Now, when Annie wants to go to the pool, I don't have to figure out what snacks to take.

I just grab the small container of, you know, capped strawberries, this small container of carrot sticks, and the small container of white chair of popcorn. And I throw in the pool bag and we leave. And even if we don't go anywhere, the food is ready to grab and go. So during this summer season, I spend a little bit of time every day just packing snacks, even if we're not going anywhere. It has made life weirdly easier. The fourth small thing I do every day that's making a big difference is I look at my

playbook. I look at my playbook every day. Y'all have heard me talk about these little planner companion notebooks that we made. And I look at mine every single day. I don't even have a planner anymore. I just have my playbook for whatever season I'm in. Obviously right now that's summer. I have Google Calendar to keep track of like all the future things and the appointments

and I use that daily. I have my essential calendar. That's a company that we love. They have a wall calendar. It's so simple. It's broken up into seasons really well. You can see it all at once. We have that on the wall in the kitchen.

So my kids can see what's coming out because they like to anticipate and know when mom's going to be out of town and know when we're going on a trip or whatever. And then I have like scrap paper for to-do lists if I need them. Like this playbook has eliminated my personal needs. for a planner. Now I'm not saying the same will happen for you, but this kind of planning is what my brain and my life need. It's just so great. So even though it is summer, a season without many plans,

as we learned on the podcast a couple weeks ago, I look at my playbook every day. I check the tasks that I moved to weeks one, two, three, and four, or, you know, whatever week I'm in. I flip to the page about what matters in this season. Give myself a little refresher on where I am. I do this every day. And it keeps what matters and what is the most essential to do top of mind without being overwhelming. I said this so many times at this point, but I will never live without these playbooks. They are my favorite planning tool ever. And I'm pretty sure that's going to stay that way forever. So if you want to listen to details about it, you can listen to episode 417. It's called My Favorite Planning until ever. And even though we're already at the end of June and the summer playbook covers

June, July, and August, you can still enjoy it for two months, you know. Don't worry about it not getting here in time for you to use the whole thing, right? You know, we don't do that here. Urgency is like not our idol. Starting over is not a thing. Just start when you need to start. And if that's in the middle, that's totally great. The fifth small thing I do every day that's making a big difference is keeping my summer books in the living room. This is less every day, I suppose, since I put them there one time, but I see them every day. And since I read every day, this choice has been so helpful. So I explained how I am approaching summer reading in the latest lazy letter. So if you would like to get those kinds of personal thoughts from me, you can sign up for the newsletter at the lazy

genius collective.com slash join. So when you do join and you get the next newsletter that come out once a month, there is a link at the bottom of every newsletter that takes you to the archive that has all the old newsletters. So you can always go back to ones that you missed. Anyway, in a nutshell, here's how I'm approaching summer reading. I own a lot of books, like a lot, a lot of books. I think I have unread. It's easily like 150, 200 physical books. And then for sure, close closer to 250,300 e-books. Like, I'm a walking library. And I love it. I love it. Reading is my favorite hobby. Plus, I'm a mood reader. So having, like, a little library to choose from is one of my greatest joys. Like, legit. It brings me genuine, genuine joy. I love my book so much.

But because my personal library is so big. And because there are so many new books coming out all the time, I have to set some limits. It's easy to get. overwhelmed with everything. And then also it's just too much to choose from, right? So having fewer choices helps. This is in tons of categories and situations in life. In the past, though, I think that I have limited my choices and limited myself too much. I have created summer reading cues, meaning like these are the eight books I'm going to read this summer. And I read I read 10 to 12 books a month. So eight over the summer is like very small. But, but, But because I'm a mood reader, what if I only have four books to choose from for my summer

reading and none of them fit the mood that I want? Then it's just easy to abandon the approach altogether because it didn't work in that moment. So the first thing, like this is a lesson in not doing that. Like just because something doesn't work exactly the way you intended it doesn't mean you scrap it and start over, right? It just means you adjust. That's all. So this year I have adjusted.

in a way that I'm massively enjoying. I gathered about 30 physical books from my shelf that all feel like they would fit in the summer. They encompass all different kinds of moods and vibes. You know, I've got some thrillers, some romances, some fantasy, some weird little books, books that take place in hot climates. They all feel like they belong in the summer to me. And then here's what I'm not doing. I'm not saying that these are the books I will read this summer.

No, I'm saying these are the books I'm choosing from this summer. I chose more than I will likely read. You know, like I said, I do read 10 to 12 books a month, but that's across all three formats, physical, digital, and audio. So it might be like maybe two to four physical books a month depending on how often I'm at the pool. So 30 is plenty, right? 30 is plenty. I will not come to the end. of the summer and feel annoyed or that the only book that's left for me to choose from doesn't match my mood. You know, like I'm just creating a smaller pool that I can choose my summer books from, but it's big enough that I don't feel the same restrictions. Now, specifically to the small daily thing, I moved those books to my living room bookshelf.

They don't live with my main TBR shelf during this season. Otherwise, I think I'll be overwhelmed by choice again because I'll just walk in, even though those summer books are set aside, I can still see all the other ones at the same time. Plus, having those summer books in the area of the house that I am in the most, it helps me see what I might want to read next more easily. It gets me excited about what is in the queue. It's on my tiny little shelf. And it makes grabbing whatever I'm reading currently so much.

easier because it's right there in the room I'm always in. You know in the summer when you pull the sprinkler out of the garage and you just leave it plugged into the hose in front of the house, that way you're really just like one spin of the nozzle away from, you know, endless sprinkler fun. That's how I am with my books. It's like they're plugged in right where I am and I can partake any time. And I'm loving it. I'm loving it. And then finally, the sixth small thing I'm doing every day that's making a big difference is I am forcing group hugs with my family. Many days, the five of us are scattered to the four winds. Cause is working or I am working. Sam is off like rolling things down hills with his friends. Ben is in his room listening to Percy Jackson for the 17th time. Annie is babysitting

or she and I are at the pool. She's down on my mom's house playing with a dog. Like we're all often doing different things. Even when we're home, that's true. We've got some independent spirits in my house. So whether we have been apart physically or we're just doing our own thing in the house, I have started forcing family hugs. I will literally yell into the house, family hug! And I will wait for everyone to come find me.

Thankfully, my teenage boys are either like naturally affectionate or they don't yet think I'm annoying enough to ignore. and they come. They all come to the yelling mother with like reluctant smiles. It's a way for everyone to dislodge themselves from whatever they're doing on their own and also show affection together. Plus, hugging is a stress reliever. It helps you metabolize stress.

So standing in a big group and goofily saying how much we love each other, even though the teenage boys are like a little eye-roly about it, it's really good for the body and soul. The physics of our family group hug is unlike any other season of life, which is kind of an odd thing to notice, since both boys are taller than I am now, it's funny because Annie is like basically stuck in the middle of like a really tight ring around the Rosie with the rest of us

because we're all like kind of the same height except for her. So it's kind of funny watching her like do her bit of being choked by all of us standing in the middle of everybody because she's so much smaller than the rest of us. So if we've all been in separate places during the day, I force a family group hug to reconnect us just for a second. Even if we don't do anything else as a unit all day long, we have our hug. And it really does make a big difference. So to recap, I am starting the day wearing a sports bra. I'm not putting sugar in my morning coffee. I'm packing snacks and smaller containers, even if we're not going anywhere. I'm looking at my playbook every day.

I'm enjoying my summer reading selection in the living room, and I'm forcing group hugs with my family. And those are the six small things that I'm doing every day that are making a big difference. Don't forget if you want to check out the summer playbook or any season of the playbook. You can go to the lazy genius collective.com slash join. Nope, that's for the newsletter. You can go to the lazy genius collective.com slash playbooks to check out the playbook. You can also join the newsletter. I told the story last month about how I went to Chrissy Teigen's house.

So if you want to read about that, maybe you could join the newsletter and then you could read the archive one when the next month comes out. It'll be a good time. All right, before we go, let's celebrate the lazy genius of the week. This week, it's Tara Little. Tara writes, our family loves watching movies and shows to help unwind at the end of a busy day that we limit our time with TV. With all of the streaming services available, it's easy to forget from day to day what we were watching,

but more importantly, what streaming app it was on. So instead of going from app to app, which takes time, we have a small notebook on the coffee table. At the end of the evening, when we pause in the middle of an episode or a movie, we just note what and where so we can easily find it at the next opportunity. It's been a game changer in spending so much time looking for the dang program. Well, this is so fantastic. I know that there are some smart TVs that have like a home screen with all the streaming platforms and they have a continue watching menu from things that you've already started, which is so lovely to have. But listen, if you don't have that, holy moly, can you imagine trying to remember

what you were watching, especially if it's been a few days, aware it was? I do that for my lunch break sometimes. I'm like, wait, what have I been watching during? And it was yesterday. Like, it's too many things to remember. So I really love that this is marking something that matters. It's trying to save time on what doesn't, right? Which is looking for whatever it is that you were watching, whenever you are watching it. So this is definitely an excellent example of a small thing that can make a big difference. So thank you for sharing Tara 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.