The Lazy Genius Podcast - #431 - 5 Things to Avoid When Planning a Busy Season

Episode Date: August 18, 2025

August is in full swing, and for many of you, that means your lives are, too. You might have some itchy planning energy or feel like you should have planned more by now. Either way, I’m going to share with you five things to avoid when planning a busy season. That way you can get the right things done, enjoy where you are, and not feel like you need a vacation before your busy season has even started. Helpful Companion Links Order my new book The PLAN or ask your library to consider carrying a copy. Learn about The Playbooks here Episode #362: A Simple Strategy for Your To-Do List 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

Hey there, you're listening to the Lazy Genius Podcast. I'm Kendra Adachi. This podcast isn't about hacking the system to find more time or hacking your energy to get more done. Hustling to be the best or to make the most out of every opportunity is exhausting and unsustainable. So here we do things differently. On this podcast, we value contentment, compassion, and living in our season. We favor small steps over big systems. Here, we are lazy geniuses. Being a geniuses, being a genius, about the things that matter and lazy about the things that don't. And I'm so glad you're here. Today is episode 431, five things to avoid when planning a busy season. August is in full swing. And for many of you, that means your lives are too. You might have some itchy planning energy or

feel like you should have planned more by now. Either way, I'm going to share with you five things to avoid when planning a busy season. That way, you can get the right things done. Enjoy. enjoy where you are and not feel like you need a vacation before your busy season has even started. Before we get into that, today's quick announcement is that you might have noticed that the episode has started out in a slightly different way today. We have a longer intro. I'm doing a quick announcement right now, which I don't usually do. I will be doing those more often. And there will be a few other things to look forward to as the episode continues. We have a new structure to all of our episodes that will still keep that week's topic front and center, but we'll also include a little

extra something at the end, as well as a mini pep talk. If you remember when I released the plan in October of 2024, we created pep talks for everyone who pre-ordered the book and they came to you every week from September through the end of that year. Four months of pep talks. You guys really loved them. And in fact, I get asked often if I can make more and that you'll even pay. for them. You're like, Kendra, sell them. Well, lucky for you, you don't even have to pay. You can get them right here at the end of every episode. So today, at the end of the episode, we'll have a little extra something having to do with kids and chores and a mini pep talk on being less mean, even when you're busy and you just want to spit nails. All right. Let's jump into episode

431, five things to avoid when planning a busy season. This price, probably comes as no surprise, but I enjoy talking about time management. And I think many of you, especially based on our recent survey results, you like hearing about it. Figuring out how to live well, how to do what needs to be done, how to enjoy our people and our time, how to tend to our bodies and our souls and then not drown in the chaos of all of that is of high value here. But a lot of the advice out there on how to do all those things does not align. with how we live as lazy geniuses. Remember, we value small steps. We value contentment and compassion. We do not do it all. And instead, we focus on what matters the most on this day in this season.

A lot of the other experts value big systems, big swings, and hacking our energy to meet the moment, especially if that moment is a busy season. They also really want you to be great at everything all the time. Well, it's easy to get swept up in the quick fixes and the shiny promises of productivity and a happier life. And I want to help us all avoid the pitfalls that can come from getting distracted by the wrong things. So let's jump into our list today. The first thing to avoid when planning a busy season is planning too far out. I have been known to sit down at the start of a busy season. I have a lot of energy around it, probably a lot of stress as well.

And I have so many intentions to plan all the meals, all the carpels, all the to-do list, the family moments and the memories and a million other things for the next three or four months, like all in one fell swoop. So the detail on all of us, you guys, it is startling. It is a startling amount of detail. And so is the energy required. And do you know what's not startling? Most of the things I plan too far out never even happen.

I made the lowest, low-key, like weekly activity framework for my kids this summer. And it was great, but we used it three out of the 10 weeks of the season. Like even when we're really chill about our planning, which this thing I made was, it was like super chill. So many things that we think will work for a really long time might not. life changes, energy changes, schedule changes if a kid makes a team when you didn't expect them to. Being super detailed too far out will likely be a waste of your time and energy. Plus you'll feel bad when it doesn't work the way that you hoped it would. I think another reason why we feel compelled to plan far out is because we're overwhelmed

by the busy season we are about to start. We think that by planning far into the future, maybe we won't be as over. overwhelmed by things as we feel right now. That is also rarely successful. It's okay to feel overwhelmed. It's okay to have more to do during the start of a busy season. It's okay to have longer lists and forget certain details and be more tired at the end of the day than you were at the end of the day a month ago. That is the nature of changing seasons. While there are things you can do to ease some of that difficulty, one of them is not planning super far ahead. That is usually an exercise in control. And as much as other time management advice might say that you are the master of your own life,

I think you have far less control than you think you do. So instead, plan on a smaller scale. If you're listening to this episode when it releases, instead of planning through like October, maybe just plan through Labor Day. You know, it's like a couple weeks. Think about what you need to decide, buy, or organize between now and then. You don't have to figure everything out between now and Halloween. Small scale planning will work just fine. Now, if you're concerned that there are bigger things coming and they're clogging up your brain,

just write them down to say for later. This is why I love our seasonal playbooks. They're these little notebooks that are the primary offering in our store that help you think through the things that matter to you right now in this season. And they can be the place where you brain dump all the things that will come down the road that you're currently afraid you're going to forget about. Those tasks and events and things you'll eventually have to think through two or three months from now, they have a place. And lazy geniuses put everything in its place. You can have the fall playbook, for example, be the place.

You keep the decisions that are clouding your brain for September, October, and November. You don't have to plan those things right now. They can just live there until it's time to. So as you enter a busy season, avoid planning too far out. Instead, plan on a smaller scale. The second thing to avoid when planning a busy season is systemizing everything immediately. My guess is that you're wanting to get things in order, whether you have the skills or the motivation to do it or not. You don't want messy calendars or closets or meal plans or minds.

You want things to be smooth and you're just trying to offload your to-do list as quickly as possible. If you try and plan everything at once, nothing will work. That is the same as trying to solve the big problem of a busy season, you know, rather than starting small. Because remember, for big problems, they require big systems and big solutions, right? And if you swing for the fences in all of life's categories, trying to create detailed plans and all these systems that you're going, you're not going to get very far. It's too much to remember anyway. For example, I am in the carpool season of life. I have three kids and three schools. None of them ride the bus. None of them drive themselves anywhere. And all of them have different school schedules every day because of

like before and after school activities. So trying to systemize our driving, making it regular and in a flow, it's a bit of a bear. So of course, we share the load. You know, last year I was in a couple of different carpools that helped ease that load. But all of those kids also had different schedules that would change based on if practice was rained out or if there was a dentist appointment or something. You know, parents could no longer drive on their scheduled day because of shift work or having to go out of town or they were sick. All of those things are normal and they are part of the the carpool creation process. But do you know what I tried to do at the start of the year? Plan out both carpools, middle school and high school for the entire fall semester? I'm serious. It took the biggest piece of paper

that I had and like seven different highlighters that I sure did try. And surprise twist, it did not work. Too many things changed. And here we sit in the middle of August trying to apply that level of planning and systems and getting it all set so we can just press the button and let it start rolling. We're trying to apply that to carpools and meal plans and clothing rotations because seasons are changing and work schedules and homework systems and chore charts and holiday plans because maybe plane tickets are cheap right now. Should we just like go ahead and plan which family we're going to go see during Christmas? Like it just becomes chaotic. It is a lot of things and I highly encourage you to avoid planning and systemizing all the things. Instead,

solve one small problem at a time. Pick a category of life that requires, you know, some sort of schedule or system or repetition, really, and make one small choice that helps make that problem easier, that one problem. That's one of the reasons we have a lazy genius of the week. Almost always, they're examples of super small problems, having a big impact, right, more than the person ever realized. Solve small problems. You don't have to plan every meal from here to December. Just like pick what you're eating the next couple days. You don't have to have some elaborate fall dinner system, some queue of like 30 perfectly appropriate meals to pull from in your planning. Just like whip up a quick list of your brainless crowd pleasers and add to them as slowly as you

need to. Figure out how your kids are going to get to and from school this week, not forever. Don't create a complicated morning routine of 10 things that you have to write down in order to remember to do them. Just do like one or two small things over the next few mornings that you think. think could benefit the ease of your life. We think that systemizing everything is going to make life easier, but really it's just more to keep up with. So instead of trying to systemize everything right now, solve one small problem at a time. All right, before we take an ad break, which makes this

episode free for you to listen to. So thank you sponsors. Here is your quick reminder that we send out a podcast recap email every other Friday. It's called latest lazy listens. because I cannot let alliteration go. And it summarizes the episodes. It shares The Lazy Genius of the Week as well as other segments that we will now have on the show. And it has a little extra note from me written in there to help encourage you through the weekend. It is undergoing a facelift as well. So pretty soon you'll find it easier to read on your phones.

If you'd like to get that recap, you can head to the lazy genius collective.com slash listens. Welcome aboard via rail. Please sit and enjoy. Please sit and stretch, steep, flip, or that, and enjoy. Via Rail, love the way. 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. All right, we are avoiding planning too far out and systemizing too much at once. The third thing to avoid when planning a busy season is making efficiency and optimization matter the most. In other words, avoid moving so fast. We've been told that efficiency and optimization are the most critical things. And sometimes they feel like it. But doing the most in the least amount of time or like making every step count is too much pressure for most people.

Nor is that what a lot of you want to primarily value in your day-to-day lives. Efficiency and optimization are at odds with things like children, emergencies, both small and large that seem to fall on your shoulders. Hormones, children, phone calls from parents that could be that someone is injured or someone just read something funny and they wanted to share it with you. Children, traffic, children, and also children. If you plan with efficiency and optimization at the center, you're just going to lose the thread. Instead, I want you to plan based on your people. And that includes yourself. Humanity cannot be sacrificed. on the altar of productivity. And often during a busy season, we can get so fixated on planning our

days down to the minute, checking off boxes left and right, doing the most in as little time as possible, and still somehow not having enough time to do the things we want to do, that we get to the end of the day and we are exhausted from our highly efficient day. Efficient days rarely have rest built in. Productive days rarely have mediocre showings that we're okay with. Focusing on moving so fast, it distracts us from moving toward our people, including ourselves. Just last week, I had like a bonkers busy weekend. All five of us family members, we were ships passing in the night, going from thing to thing in like different combinations of people. Plus my husband and one of my kids both were not feeling well all weekend. So the combinations never included all five of

us at once. It wasn't until Sunday night when we all started like pulling out leftovers for dinner that I realized it was the first time that all five of us had been together on purpose in 48 hours. I was moving so quickly and operating so efficiently through that busy weekend. That was fun. It had a lot of great things in it that I forgot about the people. I mean, I had checklist to remember, you know, to bring that sweater for a friend to church and to pick up milk on the way home from the pool and like on and on and on. The days were actually planned really well. I zoomed through everything on schedule. I did a great job planning and executing my plan. But until I slowed down and sat at the table with my family, I looked around. And it was the first time I was like, whoa, we haven't,

we haven't done this in a while. I haven't seen you guys. I know that there are seasons of life when typical rhythms don't happen because life is busy. That's normal. But notice that the speed at which you're trying to optimize your life, it can interfere with your awareness of your life. The faster we go, the harder it is to see. So instead of trying to move so fast, slow down and see your people. The fourth thing to avoid when planning a busy season is ignoring your season of life. This is a common refrain around here, but it's also extra important to pay attention to during seasonal transitions like the one that we're in right now. We are transitioning from the summer to the school year, from the summer to the fall,

from everyone being like a little more relaxed to needing to, you know, pick up the pace, many other options now and also at all times of the year. This episode is true no matter what busy season you are in. So when you are transitioning from one season of the calendar to another, you must also pay attention to your season of life. If you ignore how that has changed, what adjustments you need to make because kids are at different schools or remote work hours become less flexible or it's August and hot, but you want soup so bad. You're going to make plans and even try and create systems that are not in line with your season of life. So instead of ignoring your season of life,

embrace it, examine it. What is going on? What do you need? What are the hardest things about this particular season? Where are you wishing things were different? There are lots of questions you could ask. And some of them are seasonal and specific in the playbooks, by the way, if you want help kind of thinking through those things. But the point here is just to pay attention. Notice. Remember, that's one of the words of our plan acronym. You have to prepare, adjust, adjust, and notice in equal measure in order to live a life that matters to you. Not just prepare, prepare, prepare. You have to notice where you are and make adjustments according to your season of life.

This is a really specific example, but my oldest has his learners permit and he's learning to drive. Understandably, he takes longer to get places than I do or his dad does. his stops at stop signs are as cautious as they come. So we are in a season of life where we need to adjust how soon we need to leave when we need to go somewhere. We need to build in like an extra 10, 10 minute buffer compared to other seasons of life so that my kid can adjust his mirrors and he can back out of the driveway and then do it again because he ran into a bush. And we need to get to wherever we're all going, then it takes us a little longer. If we ignore that season of life, I would not make the adjustment of time and I would just end up resenting my kid for taking so long.

I don't want to do that. I don't want him to feel the responsibility of like keeping us from being late or like constantly being on him to hurry out the door or to drive faster. I need to honor the season of life we're in and just build in some more time. So instead of ignoring your season of life, embrace it. And the fifth thing to avoid when planning a busy season is ignoring yourself. A lot of you listening to this podcast carry the lion's share of the responsibilities in your home and family, maybe even in your job. You've got a lot going on no matter who you are, what matters to you where you live or how many people you live with. This podcast attracts people who have a lot going on because you're looking for a way to make it all feel a little easier without losing your mind

or your humanity. But a lot of you still forget about your humanity. You forget about resting, having fun, taking a break, slowing down, breathing so you can stay calm, running or dancing so you can get the stress out. You struggle to plan going out with a friend or taking a walk after dinner or going to bed while there's still laundry in the laundry basket. So instead of ignoring yourself, listen to yourself. pay attention to how tired you are, how snappy you are being, what your body is craving,

how shallow your breathing is, what your thoughts are dwelling on, what you love doing, what makes you feel the most like yourself, listen to yourself, pay attention to what makes you feel joyful and at peace. Listen when you start laughing hard and enjoy it, be in that moment. Listen to how fast your heart starts beating when you look at all the things you're about to put on your calendar. Listen to the tone of your voice when you're talking to your partner about changes in division of labor. Listen to your yawn when it's time to go to bed early. Listen to your intuition when you really don't want to say yes to this work thing that's optional but doesn't really feel like it's optional. And it's just another example of your boss taking advantage of your

parent availability because you don't have kids. So of course you can totally do this extra thing. Listen. Listen. Listen to yourself. If you keep these five things in mind and you avoid them, you're going to be in a much kinder, more compassionate headspace, and you can make slower, wiser decisions that serve your life and the values you hold with the most esteem. I'm pretty sure I just said that last part that way because I've been reading Jane Eyre, but I'm fine with it. We can hold things in high esteem.

So I get that these five things are less practical than like specific ways to organize your to do list, which is coming up in a couple of weeks. But pull out your trusty copy of the plan. You can read the chapter on to do lists. You can go listen to episode 362, a simple strategy for your to do list if you just need like a quick leg up. Or you can go order yourself a fall playbook and you can let the compassionate, seasonal, open-handed planning unfold for you inside of its truly adorable. We started making these things last year. They are without question. My favorite planning tool ever. There's actually an entire podcast episode about them. But really that episode, it helps you think about seasonal planning in general, keeping it small and manageable and kind. So even if you don't

use a playbook, you can listen to episode 417. I think it'd be really helpful for you. There is a link in the show notes to learn more about the playbooks. Or you can go to the lazy genius collective.com slash playbooks to check them out. Now it was a great time to spend just 12 bucks cheaper than most planners to get a compassionate leg up on your upcoming season. That posture is so much more valuable than a steak burrito from Chipotle that you just have no idea, although I really do love a steak burrito from Chipotle. Plus, you're supporting two separate women-owned businesses with your playbook order. Me, of course, I'm one of the women who owns a small business. business. And then we partner with a fabulous company out of Asheville, North Carolina,

called Otter Pine, which is also a woman-owned business. And it's woman run. They do the final design for this. They do printing. They do fulfillment. Your small purchase will make your life easier, but it will also support small businesses, which is so cool. I'm so grateful for that. Okay. So to recap, as you enter into this busy season or any that come your way in the future, avoid planning too far out. Instead, plan on a smaller scale. Avoid systemizing everything and instead solve one small problem at a time. Avoid moving so fast and instead slow down and see your people. Avoid ignoring your season of life and instead embrace it and avoid ignoring yourself and listen to yourself instead. And those are the five things to avoid when planning a busy season.

All right, let's do something fun and new. After the main episode is over, I'm going to start sharing a little something just for fun. It might be lazy genius related. It might be from my own life. It might be what I ordered from Amazon or I got a Trader Joe's that I'm obsessed with. Just a little extra something. And that's actually what we're going to call this part of the episode, a little extra something. So today's little extra something is a kid chore hack.

that has brought me more success than I anticipated. And y'all, it is a snake draft. Most of you are familiar with snake drafts from the popcast with Knox and Jamie. So what I do is I make a list of chores divisible by three, because I have three children. And then the kids that either draw names or flip a coin or like play rock paper scissors to determine the order that they get to choose their chores from that list. And just in case you're unfamiliar with a snake draft, you follow the order drawn. So in my kids' case would be, you know, it's one, two, three, and then you reverse that order for the next round. So it would be three, two, one. So if my kids draw names where Sam gets first pick, Annie, get second pick, and Ben gets third, Sam picks, then Annie, then Ben, then Ben, then Ben, then

Sam. The order reverses, like the shape of a snake. It keeps going. Actually, you can forget about the snake if you want. It just makes the last pick just as valuable as the first pick, because the last person gets to pick back to back. Anyway, so we have done this a few times with chores around the house, and it has been so funny and so fun. I make the list. I help them choose their order, you know, moderate the choosing of the chores so no one gets like unintentionally hosed. And then I leave them to it because they're all doing stuff at the same time. They end up helping each other anyway, which is cute. And when they're all bored and it's like a screen free time in the house or they don't realize in their bones that doing something productive is actually pretty fulfilling.

Being helpful around the house actually feels kind of good. They have a surprisingly good time. Now, using a snake draft and one long list of chores, it might not work for everybody. And listen, it might not even work for us for very long. But it's working right now. And that's all I can ask for. Just find something that works for you right now. Forever is not required. And that was just a little extra something. Okay, before we go, let's celebrate the lazy genius of the week. This week it is Kendall Thomas. Y'all are not ready for how good this is. Kindle writes, when our oldest started school, I opened a family Gmail account using our last name. This email address is used for all communication related to our

children, school, doctor, sports teams, et cetera. This way, my personal and business email inboxes are not flooded with school mail and it doesn't get lost in the spam since we don't use the family email address for anything else. My husband and I both can have the family email on our phones so that we both can keep an eye on it. This has majorly helped with digital communication and organization. Kindle, this is spectacular. I don't know why I've never thought of this before. If people out there listening have younger kids do this immediately, this is brilliant. It is absolutely brilliant. The first time I read it, I thought I might be too far gone to have this work for me. Like my oldest is already about to go into 10th grade. But then I made it smaller.

Do you remember last week, Ashley, she was our lazy genius of the week and she replaced her fridge contents week by week rather than all at once when her power was out during a hurricane? I did this with emails. As child related emails entered my inbox, I would just click on the subscriber information button in that email and I would change the email address. I did it slowly, rather than all at once, and now anytime there's a new form to fill out or I need to update my contact info, I use the new email address. This is just brilliant and genuinely, genuinely works. Kendall, thank you for such a fantastic idea and congratulations on being the lazy genius of the week. One other thing I already mentioned that we will be adding to episodes is a little pep talk at the end.

because I think there's never a day where we don't need one. So today, I could use a pep talk for when I am so annoyed that I'm so busy. And I want everyone to just like stop complaining and get on board and stop forcing me to yell at them. That's what I'm feeling right now. Business makes us both hyper-focused and distracted at the same time. We can get so locked in on getting things done or continuing to move or checking off boxes or sticking to a plan or whatever, that we just stop seeing what's around us. And it's often the things that really matter the most, right? When we're busy and hyper-focused, we also forget that our circumstances are not what is making us annoyed and overwhelmed and maybe even a little bit mean. It's our posture towards our

circumstances. So as you feel, as we all feel, the busyness creeping in, be kind when the grip of keeping up and finishing what you set out to do and doing all of those things alone, take hold. Pay attention. Be kind to yourself and to other people. Remember that you don't have to keep up. Not as the main thing. Not anymore. You can choose to be integrated instead. To stay. steady within yourself, even when circumstances are crazy pants. You can choose to see the good that's here now, even though a lot of things are pulling you under. You can remember that small steps of breathing and kindness, even in this very moment, will do far more good than any big system or completed to-do list ever will. Who you are on the inside is more important than what you

accomplish on the outside. So when you feel the rage rise, it's because you're forgetting what matters. So start small and be kind. If this episode was helpful to you, or if you've been looking for a way to support the work that we do here, it would mean the world if you would share this episode with a friend or leave a kind review on Apple Podcasts. Both of those things seem small, and in some ways they are. But it's those small things. things that add up to get the show in front of more people. And the world needs more lazy geniuses for sure. So thank you so much for listening, sharing, and supporting this work. 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. If you'd like a podcast recap every other week, including the lazy genius of the week and a little extra something, be sure to sign up for the latest lazy listens email that goes out every other Friday. Head to the lazy geniuscollective.com slash listens. Thanks y'all for listening and for being lazy geniuses in the world. 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.

You ever felt like you were living just a B or B plus life? It's so dangerous to live that. 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.